Jip – 15m Noorderlicht 50 Spiegelkotter (2005)

Full Description

Jip is a 2005-built Noorderlicht 50 Spiegelkotter, designed by the Dutch naval architect Willem Nieland. The name is worth unpacking. Spiegel is Dutch for mirror, referring to the flat transom that has defined Dutch coastal and inland kotters for centuries, and kotter is the Dutch word for the working boat type that fished and carried bulk cargo around the Dutch coast, the IJsselmeer and the Wadden Sea. The mirror stern itself traces back to the 18th-century spiegeljacht, a private pleasure yacht whose flat transom allowed a spacious pavilion and a full-beam owner's cabin at the stern. It is one of the oldest ideas in Dutch yacht design and it has never gone out of fashion. What matters with Jip is that despite those working lines she is not a conversion. She was purpose-built new in steel as a private yacht, drawn with traditional lines because that is what her commissioning owner wanted. Her hull was welded by KBS, a small casco specialist in Koudekerk aan den Rijn in South Holland, and she was then fitted out in-house by that owner. The result is a boat specified by someone who intended to use her properly: Corian worktops, Miele fridge and freezer, a full Raymarine navigation suite, and a 12V, 24V and 220V electrical installation throughout. The most useful number on her spec sheet is her draft. At 1.30 metres she draws considerably less than most steel yachts of her size, and with a minimum air draft of 3.20 metres achieved by lowering her mast electrically, the provincial Dutch canal network, the shallow IJsselmeer and, with careful tidal planning, the Frisian harbours of the Wadden Sea all open up to her. Below decks she sleeps six across two cabins, with an en-suite owner's cabin and a guest cabin carrying a double plus a stacked bunk. Fresh water capacity is nearly double her fuel capacity, which tells you she was built with six aboard in mind rather than nonstop range. She is a coastal explorer specified for comfortable weeks aboard.