Problems with Kattendijk lock hijacking pleasure craft: “Give us access to the other locks again” (Antwerp)
Due to a breakdown at the Kattendijk lock, sailing yachts can no longer open the Scheldt and they cannot enter or leave the marina at Willemdok on the Eilandje. It is not the first time that the lock has failed. This causes headaches for the management of the marina. “Give sailing ships access to the sea locks again,” asks manager Patrick Van den Bulck.
Elien Van Wynsberghe
“Since the existence of the Kattendijk lock, there have always been problems,” says Van den Bulck, manager of the marina at Willemdok and the marina on Linkeroever. “That lock was built completely wrong and not at all geared to water sports. We have a state lock that serves pleasure craft. The Kattendijk lock is much too big.”
The lock will be out of operation until the end of May. “And that just in the season when pleasure boating gets going again. There are boats here that have to go to the Left Bank to show the underwater ship. Sailing vessels cannot get away because their masts cannot pass under the bridges. At the moment I have customers waiting to leave, up the Scheldt, to the Netherlands from the Belgian coast, but they are just being held hostage here. What name do we get in this way in the Netherlands? Men laugh at us.”
Until recently, the Royers lock offered an alternative. “But that lock is out of service. It is being renovated and those works will take about five years,” says Van den Bulck. What then can offer a solution? “There are other locks, sea locks, through which you can reach the Scheldt. But the Port of Antwerp decided some time ago to no longer allow pleasure craft access to, among others, the Van Cauwelaertsluis and Boudewijnsluis.”
major financial consequences
Van den Bulck is now asking the Port of Antwerp, Stadshaven Antwerp and the Flemish Waterway that serves the Kattendijk lock to sit together and come to a solution. “Open the other locks again for pleasure craft, the solution to this problem is that simple,” he says.
This also has a major impact financially. “I have to pay a heavy payment to AG Vespa (the real estate arm of the city of Antwerp, ed.)† But that agreement does state that Antwerp must pay the guarantee. That is not the case today. As long as I am not given the opportunity to receive customers, as long as the lock is not working, I will not pay for that delivery.”
Next week, the different parties will meet to discuss the issue. “I am in joyful expectation.” The Port of Antwerp is currently unavailable for comment.