Jacques Brel’s sailboat soon saved thanks to the hard work of two enthusiasts

2023-08-01 08:05:01

In the port of Zeebrugge, on the Belgian coast, two brothers passionate about the famous singer Jacques Brel want to give a second life to his sailboat, the Askoy II, recovered in the state of wreckage fifteen years ago on a neo-beach. – Zealander.

According to Gustaaf and Piet Wittevrongel, this “unheard of” project has never been so close to its goal. Since June, Jacques Brel’s Askoy II boat – 20 meters long and weighing 40 tons – has been taken out of its shed for the final work in the cabin, the fitting out of a kitchen. The red and blue hull looks like new and its first relaunch, repeatedly delayed by the vagaries of a very expensive shipyard, is now scheduled for September, assure the two brothers. The mast is still horizontal. There are still a few interventions “techniques“, explains Gustaaf, the eldest. “And then the green light from the maritime inspection, without which you can’t have an insurance policy to go to sea“.

Gustaaf and Piet Wittevrongel, now aged 84 and 75, are intimately linked to the story of the Askoy II, and the crossing of two oceans – to the Marquesas Islands – that Brel undertook in 1974 with this yacht then considered one of the most beautiful in the world.

Jacques Brel will spend the end of his life in the Marquesas

Before weighing anchor in Antwerp, it was in the sail and rigging business run by Father Wittevrongel, in Blankenberge between Ostend and Zeebrugge, that the singer-adventurer (1929-1978) came to equip himself. Gustaaf then worked there as an apprentice. He says that he does not recognize Brel when the latter walks through the door of the family store, “unexpectedly, unannounced”. “I didn’t know who was talking to me. I told him that his purchase was going to amount to hundreds of thousands of Belgian francs… When he told me his name, I understood that he had the means to afford a game of sails”continues the octogenarian in a burst of laughter. “So we made the sails for him”.

On the Askoy II, which he bought second-hand from an Antwerp businessman, the author of Do not leave me takes his companion Maddly Bamy, with whom he will spend the end of his life in the Marquesas. The boat had a turbulent life after Jacques Brel (1929-1978), who had taken up aviation, decided to resell her in Polynesia.

According to the Wittevrongels, there were at least three other owners, “hippies, drug dealers, etc.”. Over time, the trace of the sailboat is lost in the Pacific, before reappearing in the early 2000s during a discussion at the Brel Foundation in Brussels, during a tribute to the “Grand Jacques”. The brothers learn that the sailboat was shipwrecked in New Zealand where it was later abandoned.

The Askoy II, soon to be in the water

Desilting the rust-ridden wreck seems out of reach. A Belgian yachting enthusiast toyed with the project for a while, which was put aside for lack of money. The Wittevrongel brothers were not discouraged and decided to take up the challenge with the help of New Zealand contractors who brought cranes and bulldozers.

Piet Wittevrongel on the Askoy II, the boat that once belonged to Jacques Brel. (SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP)

And that of a maritime carrier who agrees to bring the hull of the sailboat wedged between two containers free of charge from Tauranga (near Auckland) to Antwerp. In the hangar in Zeebrugge, an entire wall of photos testifies to the memorable moment that this construction site was on a beach in the Antipodes. “Before the return of the high tide which flooded it, we only had four hours to see the boat and dig, pull, pump”poursuit Gustavus. “We did this for three days and we released it”.

In April 2008, the Askoy II was back in Belgium. From now on, the two brothers dream of making it sail again on an ocean. The interior has been refitted with additional berths. “Brel did it with two, but you need at least six team members if we want to return to the Marquesas in the future”smile Piet Wittevrongel.