Joining the new TU sailing club Broach proved a great way for a French foreign student to meet new friends and experience the barren beauty of Friesland.
Lost in this new huge university like a rudderless skiff at sea, I met Chris Lawrence, a Canadian, at the ITS faculty on my first day at university. From then on we started hanging out and sightseeing. Having been to Delftse Hout lake and Scheveningen together, we discovered we were both fond of sailing. Sailing together would be fun and also a good way to meet new people, so we decided to join Broach, TU Delft’s new sailing club. In the competition we decided to join, teams consisted of three members, but this wasn’t a problem for us, because it’s easy to find singles looking for teammates. Although I registered as ‘skipper’, I’m not a very good ‘boat sailor’. I’ve competed in many windsurfing races, but boats, I discovered, do not behave the same way! Fortunately, Ties van Bruinisse, a Dutchman and first-year maritime engineering student joined our team; he’s sailed competitively for more than 10 years and is very experienced.
French, Dutch and Canadian, our team was certainly international, but because our sailing skills were all at different levels, sailing together was a challenge. Sailing’s more a feeling than anything else, and you usually don’t need words to explain. But sailing also has its own language for the things you encounter on the water but not in everyday life. We chose to communicate in English more or less out of necessity. However, we did adopt Dutch sailing terms, like backboord and loef. In fact, soon after we started sailing ‘Captain’ Ties just started speaking Dutch anyway; fortunately, we could usually figure out what he was saying!
The race was held in Friesland, and although the landscape was different, the sailing conditions were quite familiar. At home in France I also sail on lakes. The boats though were pretty unlike any I’d ever seen before: Valkens. And we also discovered the very ‘Dutch’ aspect of these boats: their masts can easily be bent, allowing you to sail under bridges. But this also helped our mast to fall down during the race! Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Taking part in this race also gave us an interesting journey through the Netherlands. Chris and I were the only ones really enthusiastic about renting a car and travelling 2 hours to some place where there are more cows than human beings! We got the chance to speak with lots of Dutch people during the after-race parties, to see lots of typical Friesland ‘old-looking boats’, to drive on the dike (Afsluitdijk) separating the North Sea and Ijselmeer, and to experience once again Dutch food (and to wonder once again: Why don’t the Dutch eat anything but sandwiches?)
Ultimately, the experience broadened our understanding of this country but also left us with two questions: One, why do most Dutch people live in the crowded Randstad, when Friesland is so empty and not so far away; and two, when are we going sailing again with Broach!?
For information about joining foreign-student-friendly Broach sailing club, email info@wedstrijdzeilen.tudelft.nl
Lost in this new huge university like a rudderless skiff at sea, I met Chris Lawrence, a Canadian, at the ITS faculty on my first day at university. From then on we started hanging out and sightseeing. Having been to Delftse Hout lake and Scheveningen together, we discovered we were both fond of sailing. Sailing together would be fun and also a good way to meet new people, so we decided to join Broach, TU Delft’s new sailing club. In the competition we decided to join, teams consisted of three members, but this wasn’t a problem for us, because it’s easy to find singles looking for teammates. Although I registered as ‘skipper’, I’m not a very good ‘boat sailor’. I’ve competed in many windsurfing races, but boats, I discovered, do not behave the same way! Fortunately, Ties van Bruinisse, a Dutchman and first-year maritime engineering student joined our team; he’s sailed competitively for more than 10 years and is very experienced.
French, Dutch and Canadian, our team was certainly international, but because our sailing skills were all at different levels, sailing together was a challenge. Sailing’s more a feeling than anything else, and you usually don’t need words to explain. But sailing also has its own language for the things you encounter on the water but not in everyday life. We chose to communicate in English more or less out of necessity. However, we did adopt Dutch sailing terms, like backboord and loef. In fact, soon after we started sailing ‘Captain’ Ties just started speaking Dutch anyway; fortunately, we could usually figure out what he was saying!
The race was held in Friesland, and although the landscape was different, the sailing conditions were quite familiar. At home in France I also sail on lakes. The boats though were pretty unlike any I’d ever seen before: Valkens. And we also discovered the very ‘Dutch’ aspect of these boats: their masts can easily be bent, allowing you to sail under bridges. But this also helped our mast to fall down during the race! Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Taking part in this race also gave us an interesting journey through the Netherlands. Chris and I were the only ones really enthusiastic about renting a car and travelling 2 hours to some place where there are more cows than human beings! We got the chance to speak with lots of Dutch people during the after-race parties, to see lots of typical Friesland ‘old-looking boats’, to drive on the dike (Afsluitdijk) separating the North Sea and Ijselmeer, and to experience once again Dutch food (and to wonder once again: Why don’t the Dutch eat anything but sandwiches?)
Ultimately, the experience broadened our understanding of this country but also left us with two questions: One, why do most Dutch people live in the crowded Randstad, when Friesland is so empty and not so far away; and two, when are we going sailing again with Broach!?
For information about joining foreign-student-friendly Broach sailing club, email info@wedstrijdzeilen.tudelft.nl
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