The Lelievlet is the most commonly used steel sailing and rowing boat of the
Sea Scout
Sea Scouts are a part of the Scout movement, with a particular emphasis on boating and other water-based activities on the sea, rivers or lakes (canoeing, rafting, scuba, sailboarding). Sea Scouts can provide a chance to sail, cruise on boats, ...
s of
Scouting Nederland
Scouting Nederland is the national Scout organisation of the Netherlands with approximately 110,000 members (53,324 male and 54,663 female, 87,000 youth members, as of 2010.
The official patron of Scouting Nederland is Queen Máxima, the wife o ...
, it is also used by many Sea Scouts in Flanders and the National Water Activities Centre (NWAC) of
Scouting Ireland
Scouting Ireland ( ga, Gasóga na hÉireann) is one of the largest youth movements on the island of Ireland, a voluntary educational movement for young people with over 45,000 members, including over 11,000 adult volunteers . Of the 750,000 peo ...
in Killaloe, Ireland. Its design is based upon the beenhakkervlet, a type of steel
dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...
often used with cargo riverboats, and its name is derived from the international Scout logo, the
Scout lily.
History
Until the 1950s the Dutch Sea Scouts employed many different boats. Often these were a discarded lifeboat from the navy or other types of boats. These boats were almost always made out of wood, making the maintenance expensive in terms of time and cost. It was also difficult to source parts to enable repairs. This situation prompted a project to define a standard vessel. The standard boat also made the running of regatta’s easier as all the boats were of equal class. The vessel requirements were set as:
* Seating space for 6 persons.
* They had to be able to be
sculled,
rowed or
sailed.
In 1955, the Dutch Sea Scouts looking for a boat to meet these requirements and they became interested in a steel rowing boat, designed by Teunis Beenhakker, Kinderdijk. He had created a design for a rowing and motorboating for inland waterway skippers. The groups saw something in that draft and Mr. A.L.J. Stockmann, skipper with Titus Brandsmagroep in Breda and Commissioner at the ''Katholieke Verkenners'' (Catholic Boy Scouts), adapted the design so it could be used as a sailboat. In 1956 Teunis Beenhakker built two hulls for trial. He made two almost equal hulls: one 4.60 m and the other 5.60 m. Both were built as sailing boats with 12.5 m2 sails. Ultimately, the 5.60 m boat was selected as most suitable.
The lelievlet was, as had been predicted, a great success. Until 2006 in the Netherlands there have been about 1600 lelievlet’s built. Lelievlet number '1' still exists and is still under the flag of the Titus Brandsma Group from Breda.
There are now also a large number of hulls by
vmbo Pre-vocational secondary education (, abbr. VMBO) is a school track in the Netherlands. It lasts four years, from the age of twelve to sixteen. It combines vocational training with theoretical education in languages, mathematics, history, arts
...
schools built under license, under the flag of the Botenbouwpoject ''Vletten op de Maas'' (Vlets on the Meuse).
Details and specifications
* Length: 5.60 m
National Scouting Sailing Competitions
/ref>
* Width: 1.80 m
* Height: 6.50 m
* Avg. Weight: 650 kg
* Sail: 12.15 m²
References
{{reflist
External links
Juniorvletten, Lelievletten en Lelieschouwen Scouting Nederland
(Dutch)
National Water Activities Centre
NWAC)
Dinghies
Sea Scouting