The largest yacht built in the Flat Country
Built in steel to a design by Raymond Derkinderen by the Vandevoorde shipyards on behalf of the architect Hugo Van de Kuyck, it was named after a Norwegian village located a few miles from Bergen. Askoy II was the largest yacht built in Belgium when it was built in 1960.
A 20 m yawl
With a length of 20m for a master boat of 5 and a weight of 40 tons plus an upright piano, this tapecul cutter (or yawl in English), affiliated to the Royal Yacht Club of Belgium, was designed to be driven by a crew of at least 3 men.
A handy boat, but difficult to sail alone
The yawl, or tapecul cutter, has a cutter rig, with its two props and two headsails (jib and staysail) and a small tapecul mast, installed very close to the transom and whose boom projects from the stern of the boat.
This sail plan allows a good splitting of the sail surfaces. The tapecul with a fairly small surface area is used to balance the boat by increasing the lift on the stern, rudder seat.
However, the handling of the two jibs (endured) and the mainsail and tapecul requires a lot of energy for one man. In his song "La Cathédrale" Jacques Brel evokes the (too?) important dimensions of his beautiful boat.
An eventful history
Bought by Jacques Brel from its first owner in 1974, Askoy II led the Belgian singer to the Marquesas in the Pacific. When he arrived in the Polynesian islands, the singer settled there and sold it for a bite two years later to Americans who skippered him to Hawaii.
There, a new owner transforms it into a fishing vessel. Then between new and unscrupulous hands of "These people", he ended up arrested in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with 10 tons of marijuana on board!
Sold at auction afterwards, it left for New Zealand where it sank and remained 20 years to rot on a beach...
A miracle has happened!
In 2007, two Belgian brothers, Piet and Staff Wittevrongel, master sailmakers from father to son, bought the wreck, repatriated it to Zeebrugge and began to restore it.
The two brothers, who had cut and sewn the sails of the Askoy for Jacques Brel in 1974, decided to sail it again in 2019. The singer had kept in touch throughout his trip and sent them postcards.
Today 150,000 ? have been committed to its restoration, which will make it possible to put it back in the water without any date being brought forward yet for the end of the work.
