Wind in the sails

This year was an anniversary edition: for the tenth time SAIL and at the same time the 750th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam. A celebration that was exuberantly celebrated, on the water and on the quays. Moreover, a unique opportunity to see all the historic ships up close. What is also special is that it is a five-day event and freely accessible to everyone.

The larger ships came from 25 different countries, including Colombia, Portugal, Chile, Poland, Sweden, Australia, Ecuador, India, Uruguay, not to mention Oman, the three-master in the main photo. This clipper sails around the world under the name Shabab Oman II and rarely visits Europe, only for maintenance. In fact, the 87-meter vessel was built by Damen Shipyards in Romania (Galati) and then towed to the Netherlands to be finished at Damen in Vlissingen. There, the masts were also installed on the ship. The ship entered service with the Royal Navy of Oman in 2014 and has been carrying the message of peace and friendship worldwide ever since. Fun fact: our showpiece the clipper Stad Amsterdam – also present at SAIL – is a sister ship of the Shabab Oman, also built in the Netherlands.

Sailwise

Basically, it means that this makes the entire area inaccessible to heavy trucks, cranes and other construction traffic. So a solution had to be found. The collaborating Van Schie Group has now created a temporary bridge-over-bridge construction, a so-called “beam bridge” of the JSK-JBB type, built over the existing bicycle bridge in the Carnissepad. HP Staal (part of the Van Schie Group) made the bridge piers, a structure consisting of steel hollow tubes with overlay beams. Janson Bridging, also part of the Van Schie Group, supplied the 27-meter-long steel bridge. In addition, Van Schie Kraanverhuur took care of the lifting and transport of the bridge sections. In short, a nice joint project with the aim of protecting the original bridge, so that construction traffic can now reach the building site without any problems and also to preserve the other bridges.

Van Schie pontoons

At almost all previous editions of SAIL, Van Schie was present with logistical solutions in the form of pontoon formations and pontoon bridges. This time, too, the Mijdrecht-based company provided floating jetties for police and defense forces and boarding points for guests who were invited by multinationals – such as Damen Shipyards and Feadship – to sail on the IJ. Perhaps the smallest pontoon Van Schie provided and sponsored was the one for SailWise, an organization that let children with disabilities sail on small sailboats during SAIL.