© nmi
–
The sailing yacht Askoy II, which once belonged to Jacques Brel, is permanently protected as a sailing heritage. That reports Flemish Minister of Real Estate Matthias Diependaele.
–
jvhSource: BELGIAN
—
The Askoy II is one of the largest steel sailing yachts built in Belgium after the Second World War. The ship was launched in 1960. Singer Jacques Brel bought it in 1974. He learned to sail with it, took it to the Marquesses Archipelago in French Polynesia and sold the ship again in 1976. In 1994 it ran aground on a New Zealand beach during a storm. It lay there for more than ten years. The brothers Staf and Piet Wittevrongel from Blankenberge had the boat excavated at the end of 2007 and brought over to Belgium in 2008, where they started an ambitious restoration project.
The first owner of the yacht was Hugo Van Kuyck from Antwerp, best known as the architect of many progressive modernist buildings from the second half of the twentieth century. For example, he designed or collaborated on social housing at the Luchtbal, the Bell buildings in Antwerp and the State Administrative Center and the Generale Bank in Brussels.
“The life stories of both the ship’s first owner and the ship itself have great historical value,” says Diependaele. “The Askoy II was the ship on which Jacques Brel sailed to the Marquis Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. The ship also has an important industrial-archaeological value, as one of the largest steel sailing yachts ever built in Belgium.”
—
