Skoit 33 Trek: Nautical articulated yacht is almost the perfect family cruising boat

This is a really good design by Lunstroo." The 57-year-old Dutchman Peter Verhoeven has skilfully steered his well-manoeuvring Skoit 33 Trek "Mallemok" backwards onto a wooden jetty in Sneek. He now sits happily on board his nine-metre-long steel yacht in a centre cockpit that comfortably seats up to eight adults.

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Dutchman Henk Lunstroo Jr. (1936-2011) drew the traditional-looking gaff schooner with centreboard 40 years ago. Eduard Rijnja spoke to the designer for the Dutch magazine "Zeilsport" (11/1981), who "utilised the practical knowledge and experience that shipbuilders have gathered over the centuries".

Since the mid-1960s, many dozens of more or less classic designs had been created at the Lunstroo Custom Designs design office in Amsterdam. The large schooner yachts such as "Borkumriff II" and "Borkumriff III" became the most famous.

Idea: ideal ship for the Dutch sailor

According to Lunstroo, the Skoit (the West Frisian word for barge or boat, which in his opinion sounds good in all languages) came about as follows: "When I wanted to do something special for the stand at the Hiswa in 1980, I started thinking about what the ideal ship for the Dutch sailor would be". He automatically came up with "a number of fixed elements that should be integrated into the ideal ship: Space for at least four people, two adults and two children; easy handling of the rigging; retractable keel so that it can not only sail anywhere in Friesland and fall dry in the Wadden Sea, but also go out to sea without risk; the rigging not too high to fit easily under most high bridges, and the masts must also be easy to lay."

His "boaty yacht with character" was first presented to local sailors in an advert in YACHT 9/1981. The Skoit is advertised in somewhat unwieldy German: "A practical ship that sails upright and dry on the mudflats, with handy little sails, always easy to handle, even by wife and child. Deliberately simple design. Inexpensive, yet beautifully and reliably built."

The Jan van der Weide shipyard in Stroobos offered the hull for self-construction for DM 13,900, and the ready-to-sail ship cost DM 70,275. When the half-page article "Skoit - a schooner from Holland" appeared in YACHT 5/1982, the price for a finished Skoit ex shipyard had more than doubled to 142,380 DM.

Unfortunately, the wind forecast for the trial run was way off the mark at 3 Beaufort. With absolutely no wind, owner Verhoeven therefore only loaded up for a short round under engine and did not unpack the sails of his "Mallemok" (as the fulmar is called in Dutch). "They are made of heavy cloth and only hang down limply. It's not worth getting them wet for that." The rain that was also forecast actually starts shortly after we moor up again. Time to have a look around below deck.

Spacious feeling below deck

The "Mallemok" is the Skoit 33 Trek with the construction number 11. After ten examples, Jan van der Weide's shipyard, which produced the Lunstroo design, went bankrupt. Now married to a Hungarian woman, van der Weide decided in 1992 to have another Skoit built in his new home country.

Like the boats of the first generation, today's "Mallemok" was built entirely according to Lloyd's standards. In order to convince potential buyers of the quality of a yacht from Hungary, van der Weide built it at his own risk, first sailing the number 11 himself for a year to be able to show it off and then selling it to Germany.

"Germany is the most important market," revealed van der Weide in the Dutch magazine "Waterkampioen" (12/1995), which presented the second Skoit built in Hungary. At the time, this was offered ready to drive with a 27 hp three-cylinder diesel from Yanmar for around 185,000 Dutch guilders, plus transport costs.

Author Jan Briek was enthusiastic about the "ship with character and charisma" - and was surprised that so few examples were built after Henk Lunstroo presented it in 1980. The Skoit was quickly praised as the "ideal Wadden ship": an articulated yacht with a shallow draught that sails well and is easy to dry out on. Briek also saw the division of the spacious interior into a main cabin and an aft cabin as "still the most ideal layout for a family with children".

From the cockpit with lots of teak and a large locker under the port cockpit bench, there are three steps down to the saloon. The interior is made of clear varnished oak. Four windows in the superstructure and a skylight in the cabin roof made of iroko and teak provide light. The headroom of just over 1.90 metres creates a feeling of spaciousness. A paraffin stove on the bulkhead and a paraffin lamp above the table provide warmth and cosiness.

Centreboard box on Skoit well hidden

On the port side, a U-shaped sofa surrounds the saloon table, which can be lowered and converted into a double berth. To starboard, the navigation corner is located directly next to the companionway. If the table top is folded away, the dog bunk is accessible underneath. There is a passageway to the aft cabin at the foot end. In front of the navigation corner, the large longitudinal galley offers a refrigerator, sink, two-burner hob and plenty of work and storage space. A single berth, which seems most suitable for a child or as storage space, is installed in the starboard forward cabin past a hanging locker. Wet sailing clothes can be hung up in the toilet room on the port side.

How much of a nuisance is the centre console in the saloon? Hardly - thanks to Lunstroo's ingenious design. The centreboard's pivot point is located in the centreboard box (both galvanised) under the table. The unusual shape of the centreboard, which increases the draught from 90 centimetres to 1.70 metres, makes it less dominant. The highest part of the box is located directly on the bulkhead next to the companionway. An inspection hatch at the top allows access to the pulleys and wires.

As the entire centreboard box on the "Mallemok" is covered, it blends in unobtrusively with the high-quality interior fittings. The centreboard, which is fixed in the shaft by nylon profiles, is operated in the cockpit via a manual winch on the base of the main mast.

A hatch in the cockpit floor provides easy access to the Yanmar diesel in the engine room. Behind the small steering wheel is the aft cabin, which offers enough space for two adults with its spacious berths and ample storage space. Family crews will usually use it as a children's room.

Around 3500 kilograms of ballast sitting deep in the hull

Anyone looking at the Skoit from the outside will recognise the characteristic signature of the designer Henk Lunstroos: the relatively straight stem, the bowsprit plus folding jib boom, the pretty positive deck step, the low superstructure, the wide, heart-shaped transom with attached rudder blade. The multi-buckling yacht initially looks like a round bilge yacht. Lunstroo described how he had "built the hull in such a way that the kinks are located where they are least visually disruptive". Namely just below the waterline, which measures eight metres.

It is a solidly built yacht with a displacement of 7.5 tonnes. The steel plates in the underwater area are up to 25 millimetres thick, and at least three on deck. The solid floor plate, lead ballast, centreboard box and centreboard add up to around 3500 kilograms of ballast sitting deep in the hull.

"If you then also lower the centreboard to 1.70 metres, you have an extremely stable and seaworthy yacht. I am convinced that the Skoit can sail around the world with a seaworthy crew. She is robust enough for that," said Henk Lunstroo about his design in 1981. The stability curve is truly remarkable for a yacht that can also be used to fall dry and sail in shallow waters. The boat heels quickly at first, but then stabilises at around 15 degrees. To sail the wide, open running decks wet, 30 degrees of heel are required. The safe deep cockpit remains dry even at 60 degrees heel. Tests have shown that even at a heeling angle of 130 degrees, a righting moment of more than 400 kilograms still acts on the top.

This clearly sets the Skoit apart from classic flat-bottomed boats such as the Aaken, Bols, Bottern or Schokkern. The underlying concept of combining the advantages of a sharply cut, seaworthy yacht with suitability for the Wadden Sea is still realised today in the Dutch Noordkaper, Wanderer or Puffin yachts. However, these yachts usually have a much bulkier appearance due to their deckhouse and only rarely come with gaff sails. They are now also frequently made of GRP.

Many different rigs built on Skoits

Peter Verhoeven's confidence in the ship is particularly high because it is made of steel. "It can take a lot of wind." Although the schooner rig is certainly unusual on a yacht that is only nine metres long, it is also very practical. The sail area on the two 7.47 and 7.86 metre long Oregon Pine masts is distributed between the jib, foresail, schooner and main. This allows many possible combinations. Each sail is easy to handle thanks to its small size.

"The Skoit's sail plan is really good," says Verhoeven. The yacht tacked readily when the manoeuvre was completed smoothly and easily reached its theoretical hull speed of 6.9 knots. Up to 4 Beaufort, he sails his "Mallemok" under full sail. If the wind picks up further, he likes to take the schooner sail away completely and only sails the main plus headsail. However, both gaff sails also have two rows of tacks, the jib has one and the jib has a furling system.

Some other Skoits were converted from a schooner to a sloop or cutter, one even to a junk with a tiller. On "Jonathan", the first skoit from 1981, on the other hand, both masts were fitted with stays to enable two topsails and a flyer as a third headsail.

Since Verhoeven took over his Skoit in 2018 as the fourth owner, he has made summer trips in the Wadden Sea and on the North Sea to the West and East Frisian Islands. He added useful equipment such as a chart plotter and a solar panel and had the yacht repainted by the Johann van der Meulen shipyard in Sneek in winter 2019/20. He would love to sail his "Mallemok" along the British west coast all the way up to Scotland

However, Verhoeven repeatedly realised that he sails his schooner too seldom and motors too often when travelling alone. However, an autopilot in combination with hydraulic steering would prevent the much-loved direct feedback from the rudder blade. This is why he, who works in the quality assurance department of a foundation, wants to part with "Mallemok", which bridges the clear gap between a traditional flat-bottomed boat and a seaworthy modern yacht. Peter Verhoeven is flirting with the idea of buying back his former single-handed 9.5 metre Visserman Schokker "Mokkebank".

Skoit: Variation of a theme

Jan van der Weide built ten Skoit hulls in his shipyard in Stroobos from 1981. The designer Henk Lunstroo also sold his plans to four potential self-builders. In 1993 and 1995, van der Weide had two Skoits built in Hungary, the second with higher masts and more sail area. In 1995, Lunstroo designed an alternative interior and three new rigs in addition to the labour-intensive schooner rig: a gaff cutter, a 7/8 rig with a Bermuda sail and a steep gaff rig. In 1997, a final skoit was built - without aft cabin and with Bermuda furling mainsail on the aluminium mast, but hardly recognisable as such

Technical data of the Skoit 33 Trek

• Designer: Henk Lunstroo jr., Amsterdam
• Shipyard: Jan van der Weide
• Year of construction: 1993
• Construction method: Steel folding frame
• Rigging: Gaff protector
• Total length: 12,50 m
• Torso length: 9,00 m
• Waterline length: 8,00 m
• Torso width: 3,17 m
• Depth: 0,90-1,70 m
• Sail area on the wind: 48,4 m2
• Displacement: 7,5 t

The article was first published in 2021 and has been revised for this online version.