78 CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016See boats for sale at classicboat.co.uk/type/buy-a-boatDICK DURHAMTwo stunning 30ft (9.1m) gaff cutters arrived in Southwold, Suffolk, this
summer, having sailed in company across the North Sea from Holland.
Both sisterships were built by shipwright Peter Schouten who was
skippering his own Wantij 30, Wind & Tide, in company with his friend,
Thijs Viegers, who showed Dick Durham over his Wantij 30, Bever.
Peter once owned a Harrison Butler, but found her too deep for the
shoal-infested waters of the Low Countries and set about taking lines
from many craft. These included several Maurice Griffiths-designed
shoal-draught boats, the smacks of Colchester, the Leigh bawleys of
the Thames Estuary, and the indigenous craft of Holland.
The hybrid results are stunning. The Wantij 30 is bluff-bowed with
marked sheer, beamy and yet low enough to appear sleek, and she
sports a seaworthy transom stern. There is standing headroom beneath
her skylight. She she can dry out, too, drawing only 2ft 10in (85cm) with
the centreplate up, and 5ft 6in (1.7m) with it lowered; the 175kg (385lb)
steel plate slides down through a stainless steel 2.5-tonne ballast keel.
Her overall displacement is 7.5 tonnes.
Planked in 30mm (1^1 / 4 in) mahogany and sporting teak-laid decks
she is fitted with a Vetus 25hp diesel. The boats have up to five berths
and are fitted with solid fuel stoves. She has a long, Oregon pine
bowsprit offsetting any weather helm from her high-aspect gaff
mainsail. Bever was launched in 2013. The first Wantij 30, Wind &
Tide, owned by Peter, was launched at his yard in Kortenhoef, near
Amsterdam, in 2007.
From Southwold, Peter and Thijs cruised the East Coast via Aldeburgh,
on the Alde, the River Orwell and up the River Blackwater. Peter is now
set to restore a 1927-built classic, but will take orders for more Wantijs.Peter will take orders on new Wantijs via peter-schouten.nlNew Classics
WANTIJ 30
As comfy as a clog,
on or offshore
Hybrids for the Low Countries: the two Wantij 30s at Southwold