At the end of 2002 Vix and I were lucky enough to get a job on board a new Motor Yacht called Dream, which was being built at the Royal Van Lent, Feadship yard in Holland.

Royal Van Lent build some of the finest luxury yachts in the world, and it was a great experience to spend a few months at the yard and meet the craftsmen who built many of the most well known yachts in the industry.

Once Dream had left the shed she was moored outside of Van Lent for a few days before heading down river to Rotterdam. 

Royal Van Lent Shipyard is on the island of Kaag, about 30km south of Amsterdam. All of the Dutch people we met were very friendly and nearly all spoke excellent English.

The canal from the shipyard to the sea at Rotterdam is a narrow and winding one. Towed by tugs and passing through towns and villages it took most of the day to make the trip safely. This trip to the sea has limited the size of yacht that Feadship could build in the past, but they are looking into expanding to new premises so they can build larger and larger boats.

These photos were taken by a plane that was hired to record the voyage to the sea. In places workers from the yard had to come and line the bridges and narrowest points with fenders as there was less than 1m either side.

After sea trials to test all the systems on board we took the boat up to Amsterdam for the 'Launching' ceremony at the Maritime museum.