My first contact with the sailing I had in 1979, when students of that class 7a invited me, at its annual sailing trip to Loosdrecht (Dutch lake district), which they financed by collecting waste paper to participate. Some parents (with sailing experience) were also there and in each of the rented BM-dinghies was found at least one person who had sailing experience. Only in my BM-dinghy I was surrounded by students who knew as little about sailing as I did.

At relatively high winds we operated learning by doing, which resulted, among other things, that we, since we did not know the word to cross , some goals were headed up very close to the wind, which some stomachs got along not so good, so that our occupation after lunch break reduced greatly.

For lunch, all boats should take on an island, so docking maneuvers without moorings and to make matters worse, the shore was covered with trees and in such tree caught our main halyard. With the help of the other crews the damage could be repaired.

After the break with a reduced crew we began to understand something about sailing. We discovered the crosses as a technique to reach goals against the wind, got to know when we had to veer and ot get densely (of course without knowing the words ) and even drove a man-over-board-maneuver. However commanded us to a Dutch couple who wanted to be saved from us, otherwise we would not have succeeded in such a maneuver. The two were certainly glad that our curiosity had driven us near them, because capsizing dinghies are normal, so nobody cares. But here the sword was broken, so there was no chance to raise the boat again. The two of them were pretty cool and happy when we deposed in its harbor.

A father of this class was it that made me aware of Flatboats for school trips. 1983, after clearing some problems with the required approval, I made my first study trip on the IJsselmeer conducted some of my former LK Education and a LK geography, who joined us. The trip was a total success, ie,  the students had fun and soon sailing tours were implemented more or less firmly at our school at the end of middle school.

In the early 90s I bought a large inflatable boat with sail to use it on the Lac de Sainte-Croix on vacation. Five to six adults took the boat and and could be sailed well with its large side swords and approximately 5 m² sail area.

The mid-90s I made with some other colleagues the sailing license and later the Yachtmaster coastal. When I suspended football boots on the nail because of two difficult surgeries in my right knee, I finally made  sailing my hobby and bought a small cabin cruiser, a Leisure 17SL. Several years was my boat in Ophoven (Belgium) and was used regularly. Since our move to Wildenrath 2010 it stands on dry land, waiting for me to find time for this hobby. Well, one day I will retire.