“In 2004, mem­bers of the Pro­ject Com­mit­tee of Cai­ster Life­boat Ser­vi­ce in the UK began to explo­re the repla­ce­ment of its exis­ting life­boat. After tho­rough research and many per­so­nal dis­cus­si­ons, the team rea­ched a una­ni­mous deci­si­on to pur­cha­se a Valen­tijn 2000 built by Habbeké.

Throug­hout the con­tract nego­ti­a­ti­ons and the peri­od of con­struc­ti­on it beca­me obvious to all con­cerned within the Cai­ster team that Arie de Waart and his loy­al team of employ­ees were not only first class crafts­men who take an immen­se pri­de in their work but they are also peo­p­le whom you can trust impli­cit­ly. This ena­b­led car­rying out busi­ness with them a plea­su­re, and con­ti­nued with their after sales service.

We would have no reser­va­ti­on in recom­men­ding Hab­beké shi­py­ard of Volen­dam to any per­spec­ti­ve client.”

John CannellProject Co-Coordinator Caister Lifeboat

“During my thirty years ser­vi­ce with the KNRM, I have been asso­ci­a­ted with many dif­fe­rent life-boats; twen­ty of the­se years as skipper/coxswain. My lon­gest peri­od was with the Eier­land type of boat whe­re the work was hard, the boat was under-powe­red, and you were always cold, wet and tired. This chan­ged a lot in 1990 when we star­ted trai­ning for the new type of life-boat – the RIBs. I was honou­red to “lay the keel” of our new boat, the ADRIAAN HENDRIK, a VALENTIJN built by HABBEKÉ SHIPYARD.

I wor­ked on the Adri­aan Hen­drik for five years. A lot of this work was expe­ri­men­tal and can assu­re the rea­der that the VALENTIJN RIBS are an enor­mous impro­ve­ment in life-boat tech­no­lo­gy. I would like to com­pli­ment the team at Hab­beké for pro­du­cing such strong and trust­wort­hy ves­sels. One can rely upon them in all sorts of wea­ther, and sea con­di­ti­ons, a tri­bu­te to the visi­on and exper­ti­se at your wharf”.

 

1937 – 2014 †

Kees ZwartSkipper/coxswain ADRIAAN HENDRIK (VALENTIJN class) KNRM Egmond aan Zee

“Once you have sai­led in one of the­se ves­sels, you will never want to return to the pre­vious designs … They are espe­ci­al­ly sui­ted to manoeu­vring in brea­king water, ground seas and hea­vy surf are no lon­ger as drea­ded as they were!”.  “For instan­ce, if you have to get to a yacht that is aground amid brea­king seas, you go in as clo­se as you can, turn head-on to the surf, and then drop astern until you can get the tow across.  Then it is just a ques­ti­on of put­ting on the power and towing the ves­sel out into safer waters”.

In a tra­di­ti­o­nal life­boat, this was just not pos­si­ble – you would get tur­ned and twi­sted at eve­ry wave” Fur­ther­mo­re, the jets allow you get more and safer power: recent­ly we had to reach a wooden sai­ling ves­sel trap­ped among a brea­king ground sea.  But with care­ful hand­ling of the buc­kets, we rea­ched her at about 10 knots.  To do this we would appro­ach the brea­kers head on and take the high ones by pus­hing the bow into the brea­king water as it hit!  By alte­ring the thrust on the twin buc­kets one can keep the boat in balan­ce, and going for­ward – of cour­se in the dark it is a litt­le more dif­fi­cult and we have been knock­ed all over the pla­ce as well; but she always reco­vers and allows us to car­ry out our tasks.

But the­se ves­sels also allow you to run befo­re a fol­lo­wing sea – they are after all very fast and manoeu­vra­ble.  Their manoeu­vra­bi­li­ty also always allows one to get a tow across and the power of the boats then ena­bles one to tow big or small, vic­tims to safety”.

Gert-Jan KlontjeSkipper/coxswain KONING WILLEM 1 (ARIE VISSER class) KNRM Schiermonikoog