From GRAZINA to BIERKAAI

When I purchased the Grazina in January 2016, it was laying in Santos, SP. 
Here the photos when I went to Santos to look at the boat and have a test sail.
As the Peterson 34 is a real pleasure to sail and it very well constructed it was not a difficult to make the final decision.





As part of the registration I decided to also change the name of the boat. It had already been changed at least twice, so if it would mean bad luck, something would have happened to it by now.
In Brazil, changing the name is actually easier said than done, as the Navy does not allow to have  vessels with the same name.
Therefore I ended up choosing a name which I knew for sure no vessel in Brazil would have, “Bierkaai”.

What does the name “Bierkaai” mean and what does it stand for.

It happens to be that my surname in Dutch means “brewer”, like the one making beer.
There is a Dutch proverb ” fighting against de bierkaai” which means you are setting yourself up for a hopeless cause or impossible to win.

The Bierkaai (beer quay ) was the quay in Amsterdam where the barrels of beer arrived and the porters who worked there  would then load and unload the heavy barrels of beer. The inhabitants of this part of Amsterdam were known as invincible fighters.

Apart from that there used to be a Dutch race yacht which was called “Bierkaai” and I always liked the design. 


By coincidence it is now for sail, check out on

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