In the port of Zeebrugge, on the Belgian coast, two brothers passionate about the singer Jacques Brel want to give a second life to his sailboat, the Askoy II, recovered as a wreck fifteen years ago on a neo- zeelandic. According to Gustaaf and Piet Wittevrongel, this “unheard of” project has never been so close to its goal. Since June, the 20-meter boat weighing 40 tonnes has been taken out of its hangar 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 “technical” interventions, explains Gustaaf, the eldest. “And then the green light from the maritime inspection, without which you cannot have an insurance policy to go to sea”.
Gustaaf and Piet Wittevrongel, now aged 84 and 75, are closely 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. 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 he does not recognize Brel when the latter walks through the door of the family store, “unexpectedly, without announcing himself”. “I didn’t know who was talking to me. I tell him that his purchase will amount to hundreds of thousands of Belgian francs… When he tells me his name, I understand that he has the means to afford a set of sails”, continues the octogenarian in a laugh burst. “So we made the sails for him.”
On the Askoy II, which he bought second-hand from an Antwerp businessman, the author of Ne me quitte pas takes his companion Maddly Bamy, with whom he will spend the end of his life in the Marquesas Islands. 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 was 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.
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. 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”, continues Gustaaf. “We did that for three days and we took it out.”
In April 2008, the Askoy II was back in Belgium. Now 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 you want to return to the Marquesas in the future,” says Piet Wittevrongel.
