Seascouting in Holland
As most of you know, Holland is a waterland. In our small country we have a lot of inland lakes and an unbelievable amount of rivers and canals. As a matter of fact most of the Dutch cities are connected not only by road and rail but by canals as well. If I am talking about a canal I do not mean the canals like there are in England (we call those canals ditches). A canal is at least 25 meter wide and deep enough to carry larger ships.
If you keep this in mind an realise that Holland is a very flat country, then you might understand that sailing conditions are always very good in our country. You can sail from place to place with a steady wind mostly coming from the same direction.
Al this means that most of the Dutch youth is growing up near, on and even in the water. Giving them the love for the watersports and the respect the water deserves.
The Dutch Scoutorganisation has roughly 120,000 members in total. No less then 10% of them are seascouts. Those seascouts. are very well organised in a democratic way. Every seascouttroop is member of an Admiralty and the general assembly of all the seascoutleaders is called the Admiralty-Council. This Council is appointing (and sacking) the members of the executive board (including the chairman, "the Admiral"). Next to that the Counsel will instruct the board about the things they have to do, what they have to organise , what policy they have to work out and how they have to vote or what actions they have to take regarding the policy of the National Admiralty. In total there are 22 of those "Regional" Admiralties in Holland
This National Admiralty is chosen by the representatives of the Regional Admiralties and twice a year there is a meeting in which the long time policy is discussed and where the National Admiralty gets his feed back and orders from the Regional Admiralties.
Of course sometimes things goes wrong, but in general the system is working very well.
Most of the Dutch Seascouttroop are sailing in special for Scouting designed steel sailingboats, able to fit a whole patrol (6 or 7). Meaning that the patrolsystem is working perfectly. At the moment there are about 1500 of those boats (Lelievlet) in use. They are unsinkable and they can be sailed , sculled or rowed. Their havy weight (700 kg) and their small sails (only 12 sqm) make them safe even in galeforce winds (good sailable in Beaufort 7/8 and we know they have been sailed in B 10/11 without to much trouble)
On most of the inland lakes and canals it is not considered necessary to wear lifejackets, Mostly they are on board and are only used if the weather changes, if the water is very busy or when someone is wearing sailingwear or boots.
There is a Scouting trainingsystem what leads the kids to a certain standard of sailing capability and part of that training is to be responsible for the crew and the ship. Only if there is a crewmember with the Scouting Sailing certificate on board a ship may sail. If so the boat can go sailing on is own, meaning a safety covering is not necessary. So patrols can make a trip without leaders or safetyboats around. For some of you this might be a shock but I can assure you that seascouting is one of the safest forms of watersport in Holland.
A seascout program on a normal troopmeeting will have as well landbased activities as well wateractiveties. Those water activities are much more then just sailing or sailing instruction. There are a lot of games we play with our boats. For example there is foxhunting, follow my leader, waterbasketball, Moby Dick hunt, hide and seek, smugglersgame and a lot of other ball and wildgames.
Next to the "Lelievlet" most of the Seascouttroop have one or more motorboats. That can be simple rubber ducks with a small outboard or speedboats with high-powered engines or small tugging vessels up to big barges (we call them "motherships") which are in use as floating troopheadquarters and campingships. In total there are over 60 of those barges in use by the Dutch seascouts. If you want to have an impression of those ships take a look in our fleet
Inspite of the high number of seascouts., they form a close knit community. One of the reasons is that every 4 year there is an NAtionaal WAter KAmp (National Water Camp) or NaWaKa.
The last NaWaKa was in 2002 in Roermond (in the South of our country). More than 6,500 boy and girls were attending, including troops from 12 other nationalities. The weather was great and the boys and girls had a time they will never forget. A lot of new friendships were made and old ones refreshed. Over 1,000 boats were sailing on a small lake and the river Meuse and no serious accident occurred. When ever you have the opportunity to join a NaWaKa , do not hesitate but go, you won't regret it.