The Staande Mast Routes (Dutch for Standing Mast Routes) enable yachts with their masts up to transit nearly 1,000 kms of inland waterways in the Netherlands leading from Vlissingen close to the Belgian border as far as Delfzijl near the border with Germany. Several hundred yachts (both sail and motor) use the Routes each year to cruise the considerable attractions of the Netherlands or as an alternative to braving the exposed west and north coasts, where ports of refuge are not plentiful. This guide to the Routes is produced and edited by the European Inland Waterways Section (EIWS) of the Cruising Association (CA) and includes newly created maps and detailed navigational information on 14 different routes by which masted yachts can cruise or transit the country. Updated annually, it relies on regular updates from EIWS members cruising the Routes each year. It also includes a 15 per cent discount offer on first year's CA membership to purchasers joining online during the year. Members get free access to the digital editions of this and 24 other inland waterways guides and also to the CA's proprietary CAptain's Mate app, enabling them to access the most up-to-date information on routes and mooring locations.
Mulholland, Andy: - Andy Mulholland was smitten during early holidays on the Norfolk Broads and the love of boats has since been a strong lifetime influence. Moonlighting as an engineer in his 20s on Thames hire boats led to building his first boat, using a cheaply-acquired GRP hull. Ever bigger boats ensued, till by the 90s a Broom cruiser and enthusiastic wife enabled widespread cruising of Channel coasts from his Solent base. A special Millennium trip from Le Havre to Paris planted an interest in inland cruising. Now equipped with a new Dutch-built cruiser designed and fitted out for extended inland cruising, he has over 12,000 kms under his belt in the Netherlands alone, plus 4,000 kms in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. James Littlewood sailed Fireballs, Finns and Lasers in the 70s, before purchasing an Achilles 24 sailing boat in 1979. Getting his Yachtmaster ticket in 1983, he progressed through a Feeling 720, Jeanneau Attalia 32, Southerly 115 and a Moody Eclipse 38. On retiring as senior partner in his business, he cruised as far as the Norwegian Arctic Circle, most of the Baltic and down the French coast to La Rochelle.that time he used the Staande Mast Route many times heading to and from Norway and the Baltic and clocked up over 60,000nm. In 2013 he switched to a 13m Dutch steel motor boat, exploring the Netherlands away from the Staande Mast route and most of Belgium and France and visiting Berlin and the Mecklenburg lakes. Gordon Knight spent 25 years in the public relations industry, latterly as joint founder and managing director of a top 10 UK PR company (floated in 1987, sold in 1991), then as an independent issues management consultant 'until it got in the way of sailing'. A Cruising Association (CA) member since 2013, he spent 40 years cruising under sail, mostly in his Oyster 435 ketch, Athene of Lymington. During that time, as an administrator on the World Cruising Wiki, he largely created several Mediterranean sections as well as contributing to CA cruising information. In 2015 he purchased a Nowee 38, Cheyenne of Lymington, and now spends part of the year cruising the inland waterways with his wife Soophy. He is a member of the CA's European Inland Waterways Section (EIWS) and writes or edits all the Section's publications. He is also author of 16 full-colour photo guides to the French waterways.
