SAIL is an event organised in Amsterdam every five years. The event takes place on the lake north of the city of Amsterdam and encourages nautical activities for all ages and interest in ships and Dutch maritime history. Boats/ships from all over the world participated in the event, including a working Dutch submarine and two Dutch warships. The event lasts for five days, starting on a Wednesday with a parade of ships (SAIL-in) into Lake IJhaven in Amsterdam and ends four days later on Sunday afternoon with a celebration of ships leaving Amsterdam. SAIL has been hosted every five years since 1975, and SAIL 2015 took place from the 19th to the 23rd of August.
I visited the SAIL event in the evening of the 19th and watched some of the tall ships sail in, but many had already arrived. The weather was perfect for the next four days, and I spent the day on Friday in Amsterdam sight-seeing in the morning and headed off to Lake IJhaven in the afternoon. I took a 2-hour boat cruise around the harbour where we sailed around all of the ships. After doing this, I decided which ships I should try to access the following days as many of the ships could be boarded.
The lake was busy with all sorts of boats, including boats owned by the public. The nice weather over the long weekend brought out everyone, and there were crowds. The SAIL 2015 event also covered an extremely large area from the main train station in Amsterdam to Java-eiland, an island north-east from central Amsterdam.
The queues for boarding the boats were very long, and the boats were not open all the time. The first boat we accessed was Zr. Ms. Zeeland (P841), a Dutch offshore patrol vessel. There was also a larger warship present, the F804 destroyer class ship, but we unfortunately did not get to board it. The Zeeland was commissioned in 2013, so it's quite a new vessel. It is a working ship, of course, and they had the control screens on and a helicopter on board. Staff were also on board to talk about the different areas, but this happened in Dutch, so I was not able to understand.
Another ship that we got to board, although we had to wait over three hours to do so, was the Zr. Ms. Bruinvis, a Dutch working submarine. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed, so I could not get any photographs. Although the queue was not too long when we arrived thirty minutes before the submarine was open to the public, the groups were ten people at a time for a guided tour. Unfortunately, the tour was in Dutch, but the sailor translated it for me when I asked. We got to look inside the working submarine and also use the pericopes to get some amazing views over the lake. Other screens showed all ships in the harbour with their names and positions.
The third ship that we got to go on was the Götheborg, a Swedish tall ship. This ship was modelled after an 18th century wooden ship that sank in 1745. The construction of the replica started in 1995 and was finished by 2003, and it is the world's largest wooden ship. People from all over the world can learn how to become a crew member on this working ship, and it helps young people gain important skills in team-working.
We had excellent views from the top decks of the ship as it was located in a prime position in the SAIL 2015 event.
I also wanted to get on two German ships dating from the early 1920s and the 1930s and the Europa ship, which has toured all over the world. However, limited time and large crowds prevented this, so we were only able to visit three ships.
Another interesting fact that I discovered is that many of the ships have their own rubber stamps to collect, so I was able to stamp my postcards with them.
On the cruise around the harbour that I took on the first day, I saw the Dutch singer on the canal. This guy is well-known for sailing around the canals in his wooden boat and sings traditional Dutch songs. He was hanging around the lake during SAIL 2015, and I saw him a couple of times, but this was the best photograph that I was able to get.
One other popular tradition during the SAIL event is seeing (or hearing first) groups of people sing or play musical instruments on the boats.
On the Sunday morning, we got to Java-eiland early and watched punters in the lake. The lake was fairly empty at this time.
We saw an amazing sunset on Friday evening on our way across the bridge to Java-eiland where we were going to see the fireworks.
The fireworks were beautiful, but these would have been better with the silhouettes of tall ships in the foreground. Seating areas had been set up on the location on the island so that we could watch the fireworks. The fireworks take place on every evening of the SAIL event except on the Sunday.
Have you ever been to SAIL Amsterdam? Overall, it was a good weekend, but there was so much walking and so many crowds. We also struggled to find a decent place to eat and many places did not take credit cards during the event, so cash was required and cash machines were a little rare in the area.
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