November 2010 - Seatrade

8
on The couch wiTh...
week! Dunes of water reduced the speed constantly; this part
took in total 28 days. After this North Korea, which was
cancelled as the cargo was rejected, then bunkers
in Japan and to New Zealand to load butter and
cheese for Durban and Beirut. The trip was not via
Suez and passing the Canary Islands, he
was relieved by Capt. De Bruin.
Captain Van Koldam also remembers
the ABC types: he sailed on the
Atlantic and the Celtic. The Baltic
he was on, however, was another
one: a twin-screw former Smits
vessel bought by Mr Pepping.
Besides the North Atlantic experience, also many Nigeria
trips are still recollected especially the long anchorage periods
of sometimes more than three months!
Towards the end of his career, Captain Van Koldam sailed on
the M-types and mentioned this period as the best experience:
he liked the vessels and first of all the cargo, fruit and especially
bananas were much more interesting than frozen dead fish, as
he calls it. Good memories of the Cameroun-Port Vendres
service and Jamaica Producers.
Retired since 1995, does he still have something with shipping?
In a way he does. It is divided in two parts or periods: from
May to September he and his wife lock the house and sign on
their yacht, the Oldambt, built in 1962. Still original? No, by
no means; Reint lengthened the vessel by one meter, installed
sleeping quarters in the stern, renewed all wood work and built
a completely new wheelhouse of solid meranti hardwood!
Built in a bow thruster, and a 120-HP Perkins diesel engine.
Simply Seatrade November 2010
Navigation is done using TOMTOM; this car navigator also has
a maritime variant covering all Dutch inland waterways.
The vessel is equipped with three solar
collectors providing the vessel with
electrical power; so, fully self
supporting he and his wife cruise
the Netherlands each year, with 700
litres freshwater and 650 litres of
diesel oil on board one can go a
long way...
From September to May
building scale models of
ships, made of wood or tin (vegetable tins) is
the favourite past time. Based on pictures and dimensions of
the original, a ship’s plan is drawn, and then building starts.
In the accompanying pictures various of the building projects
are shown, the largest three-mast Schooner (based on the Ida
4 of Westers) is 20 years old by now. The grey coaster is the
IJsselborg, his first vessel as a captain.
At the end of our afternoon together the nick name story pops
up again. Capt. Van Koldam was know as “Slinger zeiltje”:
translated it would be “anti roll sails”, not sure if this is correct
or can be translated at all, when you look at the picture of the
fishing cutter model you can see how he got that nickname…
Kor Wormeester
Seatrade Groningen - Triton