The boat can actually carry quite alot of bagage.

These boats have been continiously developped and improved over 50 years. It is the backbone of a favorite Dutch pasttime. Alot of us Ducth people. Go out sailing these boats for a long weekend or week. The boat becomes our home and transport that takes from town to town. The area you are sailing is an area with many small lakes and waterways, most of them are interconnected. The area is fully enclosed by land and so there is no tide, surf or even significant waves. You can continue sailing these craft comfortably till very high winds. The lakes themselfs are only between 1 meter and 2.5 meters deep. You can stand in most places. Picture it as a old reed marsh land that has been colonized and cultivated for centuries. Some of it became low laying pastures and some became the lakes and waterways. The two seperated by miles and miles of small dykes and raised towns. The water was the main artery between the different towns and pastures for centuries. Then in the 17th century the rich dutch merchants invented the sport of yachting. This English word was derived from the Dutch word "jacht" which means nothing more then a boat (yacht) that is not owned for commercial sailing but for pleasure sailing. Yachting (or jachten) is the activity linked to enjoying a jacht.

For centuries the commercial vessels (working boats) and a select number of jachts shared the waterways. Later the water transport was replaced by big motorized vessels and even transport by road(truck) and track (trains, streetcars). This coincided with the rise of disposable income of the common man. He then took to the sport of yachting and many bought these old working boats and converted them into pleasure craft. This became so succesful that a whole scene developped around this activity and more specialized yachts were designed. The English took over the sport of Yachting from the Dutch and pretty much introduced it world wide. But in modern times the more common man took to this activity as well and they still do. It is a major activity in the netherlands and several different forms were developped. Valk sailing is the more accissible form of it.

Valk sailing requires pretty much only basic sailing skills. It is done on well protected shallow waters (enclosed lakes etc). Of these area's the area of Friesland is by far the most pretty. The area was left behind by modern times and therefor is largely untouched by modern buildings like factories and such. The towns themselfs are maintain their old centres and buildings. Some town are still fully composed of renovated old quarters. The Second world war this area was left undamaged, that sort of helps.

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