44 Feet of Grace... A Kadey-Krogen Story - Kadey-Krogen Yachts

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(top L-R) The crew of Le rêve led by Bill van Lenthe. The most difficult part of the crossing was enduring inclement weather. The crew faced up to 30-35-knotwinds and waves up to 18-feet at times. (bottom L-R) Drenthe is a province of northeast Netherlands and a welcome stop after making the grueling crossing.The picturesque town of Volendam, in North Holland, Netherlands has largely been unchanged since the 17th century.Canada. Van Lenthe knew thatalthough Le rêve was a sturdy boat,it was “a little small for doing thattype of trip.” After installing someadditional equipment he felt Le rêvewould be ready for their transatlanticvoyage.The two months preceding thetrip were the busiest and not withouta few near-misses. First on thelist of equipment to be installed wasa “get home” engine. Van Lenthedecided on a 2600 rpm, Nanni dieselengine, but became concerned whenthe delivery was four months late.The engine finally arrived and it wasinstalled in very short order. TheNanni was equipped with its own saildrive and folding prop, so it was trulyseparate from the main propulsionsystem and could be relied upon ifanything went wrong with the mainengine, drive shaft or propeller. Healso installed a larger alternator onthe main engine. The original alternator(a 150 amp) would be usedstrictly for charging the main enginestarting battery. The new alternator(a 270 amp) would be responsiblefor keeping the house bank batteriescharged.Modifications also had to bemade in order to hold the additionalfood they needed for such a longjourney. So, van Lenthe installed a64-quart freezer on the deck, aroundwhich he placed an aluminum boxthat was two and a half inches biggeron all sides than the freezer. Hefilled the space between the freezerand box with Styrofoam insulation,so that once the freezer waschilled to the correct temperature,the Styrofoam insulation made itpossible to use minimal power andstill keep everything cold.A Spectra water-maker wasinstalled in the engine room andextra storage boxes were installedon the bridge and in the cockpit,where they could double as seats.Keeping in mind they would be subjectto European electricity oncethey reached Holland, he installeda battery charger that would run onEuropean electricity. This batterycharger is hooked up to the housebattery bank and keeps these batteriescharged whenever electricityis available.SEA / APRIL 2009 63
StartAtlantic Highlands,New JerseyTotal days at sea 26Total hours at sea 612Total miles 3,885CrossingStatisticsThe crossing from AtlanticHighlands, New Jersey toIjmuiden, Holland was madein three legs.Note: 100 nm was added to the tripdue to inclement weather causingthem to move further south.Leg 1 Atlantic Highlands,New Jersey, U.S. to Horta on theIsland of Faial in the Azores.Leg 2 Horta to Plymouth,England.Leg 3 Plymouth to Ijmuiden,Holland.(L-R) The crew of Le rêve, Bill van Lenthe,Eugene Kohlmetz, Mike Lankes, BernNorfolk and Clyde Honeycutt paint theirinsignia on a dock in Horta keeping withlocal tradition.Leg 2Plymouth,EnglandLeg 1Faial, AzoresLeg 3Ijmuiden Locks,HollandFirst-leg StatisticsTotal distance2,150 nmTotal days 16Total hours at sea 391Total miles 2,250Average rpm 1,300Fuel681 gals.Average speed5.7 knotsAverage mpg 3.37Second-Leg Statistics(Horta to Plymouth)Total distance1,268 nmTotal days 7.5Total hours at sea 178Total miles1,268 nmAverage rpm 1,800Fuel524 gals.Average speed7.1 knotsAverage mpg 2.42Third-Leg Statistics(Plymouth to Ijmuiden)Total days 2.5Total hours at sea 53Total miles367 nmAverage rpm 1,750Fuel110 gals.Average speed6.9 knotsAverage mpg 3.3Van Lenthe obtained insurancethat covered them for an Atlanticcrossing. He also purchased flags ofevery country they would visit aswell as a quarantine flag. The quarantineflag would be raised beforeentering the waters of a foreign country,and once they cleared customsthe flag of that country would beraised.Finally, on June 6, 2008, workand provisioning was complete andvan Lenthe and crew, ClydeHoneycutt, Mike Lankes, BernNorfolk and Eugene Kohlmetz, setsail from Atlantic Highlands, NewJersey.The first leg of their adventurewas the longest: a 16-day cross-Atlantic dash to the Azores.The Azores is a group of nineislands under Portuguese rule; theport of Horta on the island of Faialis the most popular stop for boatersundertaking a transatlantic crossing.Horta is approximately 900 nm frommainland Europe, and it’s a goodplace to stop, refuel and provisionbefore continuing.From there they continued in anortheasterly direction, towardEngland. But before they left, in keepingwith Horta tradition, they madesure to paint their boat insignia onthe dock amid thousands of otherinsignias from seafaring travelers.The most difficult part of thecrossing was the inclement weather.“We only had about six decentdays of weather during the wholetrip. The rest was fairly blowy, rainyand foggy; up to 30-to35- knotwinds at times and waves up to 18feet,” van Lenthe recalled.But the continual storm didn’tseem to faze Le rêve. It glided gracefully,pushed on and stayed on thecourse that was plotted in the navigationalequipment. The crew andvan Lenthe were so impressed withthe boat’s ability to easily handleeverything that was thrown at it, thatthey compared it to a dancer.The Krogen was not the onlydancer among the waves, though.The crew often found themselves in64 SEA / APRIL 2009
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44 Feet of Grace... A Kadey-Krogen Story - Kadey-Krogen Yachts

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