A few days ago it took me up north to Germany´s one and only real inlet Fjord, which is called the Schlei. This is not only an extremely picturesque and beautiful place (in fact, the Schlei is one of Germany´s top vacation spots!) but it also has some very high significance for me personally. It was here that I discovered my very first own boat which practically started my sailing „career“. I arrived very early to meet Jan Bruegge, master boatbuilder. Before he arrived, I strolled around …
I mean, I found this beauty in one of the winter storage halls: Knud Reimers´ masterpiece, a Swede 55. For a conoisseur of classy Scandinavian yacht design she is one of the most extreme, beautiful and desirable yachts ever done. The „big sister“ to my Omega 42 by Peter Norlin, if you will. If a day starts like this, how much better could it possibly get? Well, much better, as I was about to find out soon …
Like a very exotic tropical fruit …
Jan had already prepared his latest boat: Still in „sleeping mode“ but moored at the little shipyard´s jetty a bright orange pointy sailboat was ready to go. This is WOY. A sailboat that had stirred up quite some interest in facebook & Co as some days prior to my visit she had been launched and taken to the water for her first time.
A flat, pointy, speedy looking sharp thing. Painted in rich, bright and somewhat „juicy“ orange, this boat almost appeared like an exotic tropical fruit. Very tasty, scrumptious. Jan texted me it would take a few minutes longer, which was okay. This way I´d have some time on my own to roam about, walk around that boat and take a long, thorough look at this beauty.
The lines, somewhat sharp and aggressive, are quickly getting „caught“ by nice rounded shapes. The boat has an almost organic appeal as hull and deck are seamlessly merging into each other. If it wasn´t for the deck flooring or the painted hull you wouldn´t be able to tell both apart. WOY is a daysailer, 26 feet. And she is the brainchild of Jan, partnering up with renowned designer Martin Menzner.
At her wide and flat transom, underneath her name, the home port is written: Koenigstein. This is one of the nice and breathtakingly beautiful villages along the Schlei inlet. Location of Jan Bruegge´s shipyard. Apparently, this boat is much more than just a little side project: She is a showcase of what could be. WOY stands for „Wooden Yachts“ – the vision and kind of a mission Jan Bruegge has embarked on years ago.
It´s in the details
We all know about the impact boatbuilding has ecologically. Glassfiber reinforced resin is a great material to work with. It truly revolutionized modern shipbuilding, made possible that mass produced boats for everyone is a common thing now. But we all also now the downsides: Non-recyclable, high energy consuming, crude oil-based and connected to loads and loads of waste. For Jan, going back to wooden boats is more than a viable way. It´s not even going “back”, not at all. For him, it´s a way to go into the future.
The mission of his shipyard – after all employing a total of 20 people – is to promote wooden boatbuilding. More than that, to come up with modern interpretations. I mean, look at this design: Would you have thought or even seen that this is a full wooden boat? It´s only when you come closer that you discover the wooden details, like the glossy-painted transom, which is a statement of course. Jan in this is not an all-out ascetip apostle of „going back“ to timber. Not at all!
WOY is teeming with details which stand for a different, modern approach: Jan does not reject modern materials or boatbuilding techniques. In fact, his wooden WOY bristles with loads of Carbon made details, like the custom made tiller in the cockpit, which is a beauty. Of course, also handcrafted by his staff, moulded and tapered in his shopyard.
A deciding detail and for me the most beautiful part, the most breathtaking and picture-worth perspective is the bowsprit. Matted in black. Extra elongated. Simple but so beautiful, flowing lines merging with the sharp, but also rounded, inverted bow. For the one picture as seen above in this article I shot around 25 others from this perspective because I couldn´t get enough of this view …
Modern wooden boatbuiling masterclass
Jan Bruegge has a vision. Lightweight, stiff and high performing boats made of wood. In this, he and his team has spent years in research. By deliberately abstaining from using tropical timber a first step was to try and find the perfect mix of local domestic timber to be used in the frame, hull and deck.
WOY is made with plywood, Pine and European Spruce. From afar, nothing of this can be seen, but if you zoom in you can clearly define the grain in the deck battens, setting these definitely visually apart from the classic Teak decking. Which is on purpose: Utilizing local timber is a good thing, works the same way, has the same properties and quality to it, as Jan and WOY want to show.
The execution and level of quality in this 100 per cent handcrafted boat is stunning. Just look at the clearance between each batten: The accuracy and attention to tiny details is just awesome. The deck battens have been bent and shaped to adapt exactly to the hull shape, not a single one of these steps out of line, which in itself would be perfectly fine and excusable due to the nature of a handcrafted product. Are these guys robots?
Meet the maker: Jan Bruegge
Jan arrives. We meet for the first time, have just had a little phone conversation two days ago for finding a date for the appointment. He smiles, greets me like an old friend. Apparently, he cultivates a warm, welcoming and heartful style of communication. Later this day, when I leave, I will have learned that this is not just his „style“, this is the way he is: A lovable character.
As his little son – fully dressed in sailing gear – immediately starts to unpack the boat and make WOY ready to go out, we chat a while standing next to her. The little spark of admiration for this boat that just started to glow a few minutes ago in myself – it is a raging fire of determination and passion for wooden boatbuilding in Jan. That I understand the moment we started to talk. When WOY is a showcase of what can be done with timber in boatbuilding, this is just a small-sized window into what is possible. Jan Bruegge can make boats rated CE Cat A of up to 50 feet. And he already did: 2022 built Thomas Tison designed ELIDA is a 48-feet offshore racer/cruiser, frequently seen attending races like the famous Fastnet.
As his son had already taken off the caps giving free sight into the interior of WOY, I take the chance to look at the construction. The boat had been cold-moulded by utilizing vacuum infusion techniques. The massive looking but lightweight plywood frames together with custom-made Carbon inserts complete the fine looks. I am astonished to see some nice indirect LED-lights and some huge cushions to form a nice V-berth in the bow. You can apparently sleep on this boat!
WOY comes with a custom made rigid Carbon keel fin to which a full lead 340 kilogram bomb is attached. The keel – true to Martin Menzner´s philosophy of having the full advantage of variable draft – is a drop keel, draft is therefore ranging between 1.10 to 1.90 meters. The smell is just awesome! It´s like a walk through a fresh forest or, better suiting the chilly, somewhat misty foggy day, like a sauna session in Finland … which really is a thing: No chemicals, no styrene fumes or biting Gelcoat odors.
A powerful rigging
Up on deck, Jan´s son has already taken off the mainsail tarp and prepares the running rigging. Sheets are to be connected to the Jib, the little shipmate hauls the large sailbag containing the precious sails on deck. In this, WOY may be just a 26-footer, but her rigging is staggering both in sheer numbers and also by the looks.
The mast and boom are made by Hungarian powerhouse Pauger. Impressive and beautiful. The clean neat lines with no frills attached match wonderfully to the spotless design of the boat itself. The guys take out the sails. Deep black high performance laminates by North Sails: 3Di „raw“, meaning no Taffeta-layer.
Hoisting the sails whilst still moored to the pontoon is no problem as – unfortunately or lucky for me? – there is apperently not even a low puff of wind on this misty morning. The deep black garment of the sails also wonderfully match the contrast of the hull´s orange and the Carbon bowsprit. A WOY can come in different colors, the website offers black, dark and light blue, a lush „forest“ green and this „Sunrise“-called orange. For me, the best color choice.
Sailing WOY
„Does it make sense to even go out?“, I ask Jan. His son staring at me in shock – no sailing today? He looks to the mast tops of the boats berthed around us. Anemometers spinning very, very slowly. Not a single curl on the deep black water. If there is wind, it is just a faint, weak breeze. He smiles: „Yepp. Let´s go!“ So I let them casting off, staying on the tip of the jetty at first to get some pictures from outside.
To my surprise, WOY slowly bears away from the pontoon and starts to sail out of the little shipyard´s dock. She even heels! Gently and very – veeeeery – slowly WOY bears away from the pontoon, takes up some speed and crawls past me. At the tiller the proud son of Jan is very concentrated not to make a mistake and have the bowsprit ending up piercing through the dinghy that was moored there.
The view she is presenting is just breathtaking. And she is beautiful from any angle you´ll lok at her. It´s not like the Enterprise D „Next Generation“ where certain angles of photography looked amazing whilst others were just oddly off – WOY is made just of chocolate sides, frontal view, stern view, plain view, you name it: She´s an eye catcher and true head turner.
They leave the small shipyard´s harbor and head out into the Schlei inlet. A slow current, no more than .5 knots, or even less, is heading out into the nearby Baltic Sea. Still, not the slightest breeze is makes the water curl, from afar, the boat and her mirroring reflection below seem to form a giant slim butterfly or strange alien being of some sort. As she gently sails by making three passes under standard sails, I have the chance to take pictures. And I take over 200 …
Easy, balanced and fun
It´s a strange weather that morning: It feels as if snow had been falling all night. There´s almost no sound in the air, justa s if the fresh white winter´s blanket is dampening the world, tuning down ist noises. But we have almost 14 degrees Celsius, the fat, moist foggy air fills my lungs with heavy Oxygen, I barely hear the two sailors. From the opposite side of the Fjord, the cackle of hundreds of geese, gathering for their big flight to Africa, is the only sound you hear. A stakkato, suffocating any human sounds.
Jan is waving. I guess I hear the word „Gennaker“ and I give him a thumbs up. Of course it would be great to see WOY under the asy-spi! Seconds later the big white branded blister is hoisted. To my – and apparently Jan´s as well – surprise it instantly fills with wind and pushes the boat along. The increase in speed is not enormous, but the fact alone that this 1.100 kilograms featherweight can be sailed in these „no wind“-conditions alone is a unbelievable.
After two gybes under Gennaker they retrieve it and head towards the tip of the pontoon: Time to haul myself aboard and sail with the boys. Again, the son is at the helm. It´s wonderful to witness the amount of trust Jan has in his son, steering this precious, expensive boat. Sailing, I am reassured right now again, is the best parents could do with their kids!. Slowly, only a foot away from the pontoon, his son lays in hard rudder, safely, controlled and steady brings her drifting alongside. Just 15 centimeters away from the hard, rusty edge of the pontoon. I grab a shroud and make a step. I am aboard WOY now.
Aboard WOY
I sit down to windward at the stern and observe the two. We are slowly sailing away from the harbor again. I have more than enough time to look around, familiarize myself with the boat and ist properties. She is a daysailer, a small dinghy for sure. Nevertheless, even taller people will not have to fear the boom hitting their skulls. Coamings are wide enough to find a safe seating position yet thin enough for leaning out in strong wind to create body ballast to windward.
Except for the mainsheet, which is located in the middle of the cockpit running through a block with a cam-cleat, all the running rigging is diverted onto a central pedestal. That´s the halyards, the Jib sheet (self tacking) and Cunningham end up in cam-cleats on the pedestal. And just look at the marvelous mini-winch! It is not only arranged in a logical, very practical way – reachable with ease from both sides – it is also arranged so that it looks beautiful. Even with that sheet mumble in the cockpit, this concept brings a certain order.
The boat is controlled by two hands. WOY can be propelled by a small electric engine, the FMT „Momentum“ M140. It will slide out underneath the hull and is controlled by a lever in the cockpit. When retrieved, there is no turbulence whatsoever and no screw causing drag for the boat. It´s a real comfortable thing. Thinking back to the hustle of getting out and retrieving my Torqeedo engine aboard GEKKO this is luxury aboard WOY. Luckily, we don´t really need the engine, so after demonstration, Jan quickly puts it back asleep.
We are sailing through this strange, silent, dampened and misty landscape. Jan is exhilarated. He say, he has never been sailed in such strange conditions. Even his son smiles – a very special day, apparently. There is this saying that in strong winds any boat will sail. In fact, you could hoist the big ol´knickers of fatty grandma and any bathtub will sail. If a boat performs well can be seen when there´s light or close to no wind. If this is really the case, then WOY is a banger!
The Sailmon shows an SOG of 3 knots at the top, we never fall below 1 knot over ground. And honestly, I didn´t feel a whisper of wind at the tip of my nose! But I heard, low but better than nothing, a slight gurgle of a mini-wake at our stern. It feels as if a dolphin would pull us through the water. Amazing! Of course I would have wished for more winds. 10 to 15 knots may be just perfect for this racer, no waves, some nasty gusts: This is where the fun is! Well, maybe next time?
A showcase of what could be
To not eat up their father-son Saturday completely I ask the guys to turn around and sail back. Hard rudder, tack, easy. We sail back with the slow current. Jan has made a wonderful boat. He brought to reality the beautiful lines of Martin Menzer. Which himself has done quite a great job with WOY: She is not just nice to look at, she might be a beast and freaking hell lot of fun to sail in real wind. 34 square meters of upwind sails area plus a mighty 70 square meters Gennaker!
Speaking of Gennaker: Literally at the entrance to the small shipyard´s harbor – which itself is no longer that 50 meters at best – he smiles, suddenly jumps to the bow and says: „But we land under Gennaker, right?!“. A few seconds later the big white blister unfolds and WOY gloriously glides into the harbor. It´s even less than half a minute later that Jan rips down the blister and stuffs it into ist sail bag, just to let fly the halyard and having slide down the mainsail. WOY has enough momentum to make a full 180-turn, masterly helmed by the young Bruegge, and we are back at the pontoon.
I cannot thank the two more: A rich, colorful blip in this misty, foggy day. Lightening up a grey autumn Saturday. It was so interesting to see how colorful, organic, sexy and smooth a wooden sailboat can look like. How highly elaborate a handcrafted product can be pushed, utilizing high-tech material and combining it with wood. I will surely come back – because I want to see how Jan and his team are bringing life back to a Centuries old boatbuilding tradition, realising their vision of a wooden sailing yacht with a future spirit.
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