When youthful bike entrepreneurs Martijn and Dirk started their venture it took off at such a pace that they were soon in a space to consider one hull as well as two wheels, and together with their partners bought pre-sailed Contest 57CS Ocean Pearl through Contest Brokerage. Martijn tells the story … and typically does so, as goes with the much-enjoyed yacht, from onboard just days before going transatlantic with the 2023 ARC.
First, back to the beginning. It might all have been very different for the then Delft University students Martijn, Dirk and a third friend Richard, originally all targeting a soft landing into the world of maritime technology.
“We were brainstorming together and just hit on a concept,” says Martijn. “We were wanting to do something with positive sustainability that could grow and grow. We’ve always liked biking a lot, believed it to be the future of mobility, and we wanted to make it accessible to everyone. So, to make it affordable we thought let’s put it into a subscription model.”
It was 2014 and investing all they had left of their cash from their student funds in some basic bikes, Martijn modestly reports, “The subscriptions just quickly built, and went way, way quicker than we ever could have imagined. So popular. It’s actually really simple, but that’s what it is.” And in ‘simple’ terms, the fast-rolling success of the venture laid the pathway to ownership in 2022 of Contest 57CS, Ocean Pearl, bought together in Turkey from a serial Contest owner, with a view first to Mediterranean adventuring before bigger trips ahead.
Making It Work
While Martijn and Dirk, both just 31 years old when acquiring Ocean Pearl, had each grown up with boats variously in the blood, the third partner Richard had not, and in practice did not take well to it. So, on this one Richard left the guys to it.
“We had thought, well, we don’t have kids right now, so this would be a good time to go sailing but it did take a bit to convince our girlfriends, Lisette and Jeanine,” chuckles Martijn. The fact that both partners were also experienced sailors, Lisette in family cruising and Jeanine competitively in Lasers, added to shared influence.
“More normally when you buy a boat it is just you,” says Martijn, “but here we really were four together and we needed to see if this would work. So, we rented some boats, and it went really well. But then we also needed to understand the true difference between types and styles. The difference between, let’s say, a Bavaria or Dufour, and Contest, Oyster or Hallberg-Rassy.”
So, they chartered again, testing ‘categories’ and also size as it looked like they were gradually heading north of 50ft (15m). Then straight after renting a big Dufour, they stepped immediately onto a friend’s Contest 50CS for two days’ sailing in Mallorca. Eureka! “It was like an insane contrast,” Martijn laughs, “now we really knew the difference between these boats!”
So, the level was set, and the hunt was on in the upperfifty-foot sector, with Hallberg-Rassy soon out for reasons of interiors and cockpits too enclosed, then Oyster out for looks, and interior space again. “It’s the way of the space,” Martijn says, “I’m 1.94m (6ft 5in) tall and in the Contest I can stand everywhere below. That gives a lot of space. If it’s, like, just 5cm lower, and you can’t stand full height, it then feels like half the space! And outside there was a big difference again in size because here we can all sit and eat with eight people easily. You can invite everyone! And over the others, well, Ocean Pearl looks extremely modern despite being, then, 11 years old!”
All this exploring of ideas and possibilities was happening right through the time of Covid and ongoing travel constraints, but the hopefuls took advantage of every opportunity as and when break-outs permitted. They were hit, though, by initial disappointment when the first-found perfect Contest 57CS was repealed from the market by her owner rediscovering just how much he loved her. “We were, like, ah no, it’s gone, because it was the real dream boat.”
Part Of The Family
But Martijn and the team popped back into Google and reviewed an earlier-spotted 57CS in Çesme, Turkey listed with Contest Brokerage. “It was then we saw this one again, but thought it’s not so easy in Turkey as Mallorca, as how are we ever going to do this? It’s so far away, you can’t just go over for the weekend. It needs more time.”
But they talked to their friend Lex with that first-tried 50CS, and he encouraged giving this a good shot. They went, and Ocean Pearl instantly appealed, lying there alongside the seller’s sparkling new Contest 67CS, and although unused for a while, still well-tended by her professional skipper. With surveys conducted, the rudder and prop shaft overhauled, and local cruising to test and familiarise, it was now time to go sailing for real.
“This whole process was really fun together with Sieger Postuma from Contest Brokerage. It felt like we were part of the family. We had a lot of contact throughout, even dinner with Arjen the CEO. It’s so different, it’s not like you’ve just bought a boat and are then left on your own, which is the normal way. The help keeps coming.
“For example, when shifting between Turkish harbours for some maintenance work, we had a problem with the hydraulics but knew we could call Sieger who will always pick up his phone. He did and said he’d call a colleague and soon be back. He was, with the advice it had overheated, let it stand 15 minutes and it’ll be fine. And it was, just like that. It was really nice to feel so super close. And this is although the boat is second-hand.”
It was also reassuring to have this support tested before setting off as the team did, straight into their 1300 nautical mile maiden voyage to Mallorca. With five non-stop days either side of a single layover in Malta, a big step.
Sailing As Intended
Back at the very beginning, first intentions had been to buy something cheap: something suited just to help learn to sail ‘bigger’ boats, to navigate, and how to live aboard together. Then once in the know, they would buy the ‘real’ yacht. Their friend Lex with the Contest 50CS who had sailed his own world trip with his then-young family helped turn that idea on its head.
“When first thinking this through we had gone to Lex’s and his wife’s home for dinner, and asked it straight: do we have enough experience? Sure, we know how to sail, but for this? And they told how before they set off on their own trip, they asked the same question of another world cruiser who had said simply: just exit the harbour, turn left, leave the Netherlands behind and land in Spain. Then you know how to sail!
“And about our idea of buying a learner’s boat? The advice was the opposite: buy THE boat, because it is all about knowing the boat you’ll be using on your trip! The line was don’t worry, nothing will happen, because you have a lot of time to learn, and the most important thing is not actually the sailing, it is the knowing of the boat and how it reacts, because boat types are very different. Especially between the typical production yachts you might charter and thecostlier, heavier, better-built brands like this Contest; so much faster upwind, and ten times more comfortable in the waves. And we really see all this now, we have learned how things are, how they work, and how to fix things ourselves.
“You have to. You’re in the middle of the ocean, it’s a big boat with a lot of systems, electronics, hydraulics. So, yes, you do need to know your boat, the boat you intend for your trip, so it’s good we already had this one! It’s good we’ve also put into practice all that Sieger from Contest Brokerage taught us in a busy, head-filling two-day introduction, for which we’re so grateful he came out to Turkey to instruct us! It seemed so much to take in at the time but now it all makes sense!”
It’s also proving huge fun as Ocean Pearl is hardly ever alone in her mooring! And of the actual act of mooring, reflecting on the true hands-on size of a 57-footer, Martijn smiles at the memory, “When you see for the first time the slot in the harbour, you’re thinking how the hell am I going to get in there? But you do it ten times and then you go, hey, ok, now we know how it reacts! It’s just a boat, like all boats, just at first … bigger!”
Catching up with Martijn for this story now a year and more on from those first stern-to-manoeuvres, there’s so much experience in hand with two glorious seasons in the Mediterranean, and Ocean Pearl now only three days away from the original ‘bigger trip’ imagined … the start of the 2023 ARC, bound from Las Palmas in Gran Canaria for the Caribbean’s cherished St Lucia, 2700 nautical miles to the east across the Atlantic.
Between times, Martijn and Lisette have married and, with co-owners Dirk and Jeanine expecting their first baby halfway through the crossing, they are sailing instead with Martijn’s brother and a friend and will principally follow an overlapping 4×4 watchkeeping protocol, maintaining variety and a sensible easing of changeovers and sharing of watch-necessary information, with one person each time straddling the watches.
Getting to the start, with great sailing across to the Canaries, making mostly nine to ten knots in reaching winds of 15 to 25 knots, to join the 200-strong ARC fleet gave a friendly introduction to the Atlantic. But leaving the Mediterranean was not so straightforward.
“The weather those last days in Gibraltar was not great,” Martijn explains, “so it was super busy with a lot of boats stuck there, waiting for the wind to turn because it’s impossible to exit the straits with the wind and current against you. You must have the wind with you. But in the end, we were lucky, because the schedule was becoming tight, and one evening there was almost no wind, so the complete harbour left, including us! But then the next day, one of the boats in the same group, third next to us, was attacked by the orca [killer whales], so we were lucky with that.”
These increasing attacks on yachts are a concern to all, but Martijn says, “It’s a risk but I think in boats like a Contest, it’s ok because it is strongly built and we have a watertight bulkhead in the back so the boat will stay afloat.”
Ready Set Go
Martijn, Dirk and partners had a good shared view on risk management, seen clearly in all their preparation for this adventure, having above deck a full mast-out rig service, the replacement of all standing rigging and halyards – halyard chafing being one of the biggest worries sailing the same course for days on end – plus new sails as well.
Martijn says, “It was all in pretty good shape actually, the sails and the rig, but the boat is now 12 years old, and it was for insurance purposes mostly.”
Below deck, machinery was all serviced from engine and generator to pumps and motors, and all through-hull fittings checked and some changed. Energy generation was upgraded with additional solar panels, and batteries were changed to lithium for less call on the generator. And the service engineers Contest in Palma partner with – ensuring familiarity and smooth supply of parts straight from the shipyard in Medemblik – flatteringly simply said of the watermaker, “This is amazing. It’s huge!” Martin recalls with a laugh, “And it is. It’s huge, so fast, it is amazing!”
Beyond the rig it was mostly about basics, says Martijn, “The boat’s already in good shape, so it was the small things. A lot of our focus was on spare parts, as well, because, of course, you cannot get what you need everywhere you might sail. So, critical parts we’re just taking with us.”
Final provisioning in Las Palmas proved interesting. “It was way more stuff than we thought we’d need,” says Martijn. “And crossing with just the four of us, I have a lot of respect for those doing it with six, seven or more. We have a lot of space, of course, but where do they put it all?
“You just need a lot of everything. Lisette bakes bread which is nice. Normally, on a five-day crossing we cook in advance, put it in the freezer and you have only then to cook the pasta, rice, or whatever. After that now it’s cooking everything from start. It is difficult to say how many days we’ll take to cross but I think at the maximum there will be three weeks, and so everything is split per week in one bag.”
And what are the plans for the crossing itself and after?
“After, we’ll sail the Caribbean islands for half a year or so, possibly visiting the Bahamas also. During that time Dirk and Jeanine and the new baby will join us for a few weeks, for their honeymoon! They’re marrying in April, for which we’ll fly back.
“Then again on board, we plan at the end of May, or the beginning of June, to sail back via the Azores and probably Portugal into the Med again. We really want to make this run for a whole year.”
A full 12-monther? How does that work with the business? Without it! A good exit was made and that’s what makes all this possible – the full shift from those two wheels where this story began to just one hull.
“It has been a great journey,” says Martijn. “It doesn’t seem long ago we were in Palma in just a rented boat, and now here we are in our own beautiful yacht at the start of the ARC, in a full year away, sailing and exploring both sides of the Atlantic. Looking back it has been so fast, but that’s the way we like it. We make a decision, and then go for it!”