On saturday, L. and I walked up to the Sneeker Jachthaven, where my father knew old mr. Hospes well, and I knew mr. van Delden, and now F. runs it. It’s been owned by a cooperative Limited since 1910, and features heavily in Piet Bakker’s “Ruimte” as “the common man’s academy of sailing”. The Sneeker Jachthaven spawned the local regatta week (my father used to race there), and so it’s a living monument to fresh water sailing in the north. I taught at another such institution, the “Eerste Friesche Zeilschool”, when it was still located in its old buildings on Houkesloot. And one of my earliest conscious memories concerns sailing back a rental boat to Hospes, my father helming and sheltering from a sudden downpour in one of the boat houses.
. L. pointed out to me what he wanted to have photographed, as I told him about this place. We had tea with F., who very much feels he is continuing a tradition (and of course he has to answer to the collective of owners, who can be very vocal guardians of the Sneeker’s history). So much of the place is exactly like I remembered it: the immaculate lawn, the way the place demands personal discipline and care in using it, the boat houses. There have been additions to it, but these are in keeping with its history. As we walked back, I thought of photographing. Some of the struggle seems to be disappearing. I’m more at ease, less between sighted and non-sighted, more relaxed. I seem to be releasing my grasp.