Planning a Metamorphosis

We had arrived back at our loft in Vancouver on 11 October from our latest whirlwind trip to the Netherlands. During our five weeks there we had completed the purchase of our skûtsje, Nieuwe Zorg and we had cruised her nearly 300 kilometres through Noord Holland, Flevoland and Friesland to Harlingen, where we had left her in the hands of Scheepsreparatie Friesland. During the autumn and winter Nieuwe Zorg (New Worry) will undergo a metamorphosis, having her sailing rig restored and her interior gutted and modernized. In the spring she will emerge from her cocoon as Zonder Zorg (Without Worry).

We continued refining ideas on the layout of the new interior of our skûtsje. I began by downloading a free version of Google SketchUp and teaching myself how to use the software to create three-dimensional drawings. But first, there were more important things...

We had timed our return to Vancouver to help our granddaughter, Annelies celebrate her second birthday. While Bram and Amy worked at preparing dinner, Annelies taught me how to build things with her giant Lego set.

By the time dinner had been eaten and the birthday cake arrived, Annelies was a tad bored and tired, but there was soon a sparkle in her eyes.

After the cake gobbling and gift opening, she quickly mastered her new tricycle from uncle Gregor and auntie Gen.

With family duties cared for, it was back to the drawing board. I played with ideas to see how much additional room we will gain by incorporating the hallway with the master cabin and by getting rid of the clothes closet.

With this layout, there is room for a full-size 200cm x 160cm European bed with room to walk around forward and beside it; whereas, in her current configuration there was room in the bedroom for a 130cm x 200cm bed and for only one person at a time to stand on the tiny patch of floor. Instead of having the closet take-up valuable floorspace, we will use the space under the starboard side deck for our clothes storage. The side-by-side washer and dryer will be installed behind doors and extend under the foredeck beside the mast step.

Although the planned heads space is smaller in area than in the existing configuration, by getting rid of awkward jogs and using an Ikea narrow-profile sink, we are able have a larger shower stall, better ergonomics and more useable floorspace.


In the galley we will install granite countertops and nearly triple the work space by adding two wings. The wing along the port side, partially under the side deck will house the dishwasher, while the new transverse wing will have the fridge/freezer and the sink. The fridge/freezer door will be in the end of the wing, with its hinges to the left for easy access and to reduce space conflict.


We are planning a shorter settee in the salon, 200cm instead of the current 260cm, which will easily convert to a full-size guest bed. This reduced length, combined with the space liberated from the engine room and the heads, allows the larger galley and master cabin.

The gracefully compound-curved jachtenroef provides the main accommodation space. It extends a total of 8 metres of the 16.38 metre length of the skûtsje.

Forward of the master cabin, under the foredeck, there is a space nearly 4 metres in length. The headroom here varies from 100cm to 120cm, and we will utilize the space mainly as storage and occasionally as overflow guest accommodation. Access is through a door in the forward part of the master cabin and through a hatch at the forepart of the foredeck. Our bicycles can be easily lowered into the space by removing the cover over the mast slot.

The windows, of course will be double-glazed. The ones I have drawn here may be optimistically large; however, we want them to be as large as possible consistent with proper engineering, offering a very bright and airy feeling to Zonder Zorg's new interior.

Meanwhile, we haven't forgotten our other boat, Sequitur, which is hauled-out in St Augustine for the hurricane season. Since Debbie passed directly overhead on 27 June as we were preparing to store her, we have watched as fourteen named storms have come and gone. Exactly four months later, we watched as Sandy did a close miss just four days before the official end of the hurricane season. We and our insurers breathed easier.

Scheepsreparatie Friesland (SRF) have started an online photo record of work on Zonder Zorg. From the home page click on Projects and from there on Lopende projecten and there at the bottom of the list you will see Zonder Zorg.