history

On one of our first trips with La Bohème we went to the village of Oude Wetering. Thanks to the little bronze plaque right beside her wheel, we knew that she had been built at a boatyard there in 1931, so we went
looking for that.

Once we had arrived in Oude Wetering, the boatyard was easy enough to find. The company that N. T. Van der Meer established in 1911 – on what had once been a plantation on Braassemer Lake – still exists. It is
now run by his grandson Hans and Hans’ son Gertjan. Four generations of boat builders!

We rang the bell and explained that we’d recently bought and restored La Bohème. With great enthusiasm, Hans pulled out some old photos and began telling us stories. Some ten bridge-deck cruisers had been
built there at the boatyard. When it was first launched in 1931, La Bohème was called De Wulp [The Curlew]. Everything had been crafted by hand. Hans remembered how as a child he used to play with the big
steel ball that was fastened to the punch to lend extra force to that machine. “It was a rather dangerous toy,” he said, thinking back. All of the carpentry for the mahogany superstructures was done in the old
plantation shed, but the vessels themselves were all made in the open air in the boatyard.

Click here to download the full history as a pdf file.

"We very much enjoyed our trip on La Bohème yesterday. Everything was in apple-pie order. It was such fun that you allow the kids behind the rudder."

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