“The best voyage rather than necessarily the most lucrative: that was always the principle.” We are interviewing Jan Wind, an enthusiastic maritime entrepreneur who sailed the seas as a skipper and owner, building up a healthy business in maritime and other cabling. Since stopping work as the director of Wind in 2022, he has been concentrating fully on another company, Amazon Shipping.
When he introduces himself, Jan Wind says that he earns his money from shipping. His forefathers were all called Jan, and each and every one was a skipper too, so he grew up near Alkmaar with a fiery desire to sail the world’s oceans. The inland waterways of Europe were too small for him, so he bought his first ship – the Lida – at the age of twenty-eight and embarked upon an adventure that still holds him entranced. And always with NNPC behind him, giving advice.
So you come from a genuine family of skippers?
“There’s a story in the family that one of my forebears was the first in the Netherlands to switch from wood to steel. His fellow villagers warned him –‘Surely a steel boat won’t stay afloat?’ So we’ve had that adventurous side for six generations now, at any rate. I followed my father’s footsteps, choosing maritime rather than inland navigation, and he later got as far up the tree as being one of the directors at Wagenborg. He actually wanted to have his own freighter, but he married young and that put paid to his chances. After my schooling and a while employed as a helmsman, I did manage it though. If you buy your own boat, you’ve got to fall in love with it. The Lida was an ageing vessel but properly seaworthy. After a while giving her a makeover, I went sailing all over the world. That freedom adds a certain romance to the work.”
How did you tackle being a maritime entrepreneur?
“In the early days, around 1990, I kept looking to see what cargoes I could find that needed to be taken to nice places. Because I invested in a satellite communication system early on, getting those shipments worked increasingly well. I was able to use the network I’d built up to get cargoes booked all the time and I sailed all over the world with them. The best voyage rather than necessarily the most lucrative: that was always the principle. Fortunately, the two often went hand in hand.”
Ultimately, your company Wind – which you managed until 2022 – specialised in transporting cables. How did you end up with that specialisation?
“I came across that simply because it was a cargo I was offered. Then I built some great bit reels in the ship that the cables could be rolled up onto. And there was demand for it. They were nice cargoes too: a long time loading and unloading, and then to wherever in the world those cables were going to be laid. The actual laying is done by large specialist ships whose time is much too valuable for going and fetching the materials themselves. So that’s where I came into the picture.”
Successfully too. You progressed from being a very small company to a global service provider for undersea cables, with offices in Alkmaar, the US and Taiwan. How did you manage that?
“The Lida built up a name in the maritime world as being a good ship for cables. So then I bought two more, sister ships, so that we could transport more. Old boats that we gave a makeover. I also bought a three thousand tonner, the Suzie Q – named after the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival. There came a point when arranging everything from on board was too much for me, so I was forced to work onshore, moving to an office in Alkmaar. I then got other people involved and it grew gradually from there.”
What role did NNPC play in all this?
“The Lida was insured with NNPC from the very start. I got to know the people there and it clicked. My first rule is to try to avoid damage, right? And the second is that I resolve any damage that does happen as quickly as possible, locally, with the people involved. Make a deal and shake on it – I had no trouble with that. But I still needed NNPC for advice sometimes. There was one time I had a dispute with a local freight agency, for instance, who were also with NNPC. With you as the intermediary, it was solved nicely. NNPC was a huge help to me too when we moved into cables. I started out with a small company, just a single ship. And you’d be staggered by how pricey those cables can be. So I made a brochure for our ship together with NNPC, containing details of how any damage to the cables would be reimbursed, doing all the calculations, with an accompanying letter… NNPC really helped me a lot there.”
The call for shipping to become greener is getting louder all the time. How are you tackling that?
“At the time, I took a serious look at whether we could add sails to the Lida, which originally had a diesel engine. Though I’ve got to be honest: it was partly because it was such a romantic idea. We initially had a design with just a single auxiliary sail, but that ended up expanding to no fewer than ten! Never happened, unfortunately. What we did do though, partly from a commercial point of view, was convert one of our ships for lifting old coaxial cables from the sea floor. So we tidied up the seabed quite a bit that way.”
Meanwhile, you’ve settled down onshore with your family for some time now. Does the skipper’s life still draw you?
“I’d like another voyage, yes, but I’ve accepted that I won’t have the skipper’s role any more. I’m really busy as a businessman too. But I do manage the odd voyage on a yacht, you know! There comes that romantic side again.”
Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to the readers?
“I’ve noticed that the wellspring of skipper-owners is drying up even more. People no longer dare to take that step. I suspect its because of the perception that working as a small business isn’t going to succeed nowadays and that only large companies can be profitable. That’s something I strongly disagree with. Just like when I started out thirty-four years ago, there’s still scope for a skipper-owner, as long as you put your heart and soul into it. Enthusiasm, professionalism, good service…You can work better and more efficiently on your own and that lets you make more profit. And it’s still got that romance, even though the regulations are tougher than they used to be. The freedom, the travelling, the possibilities… Taking the best cargoes to the best places. There’s still money to be made – don’t let them convince you there isn’t!”
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If you would like to embark upon the adventure of being a skipper-owner like Jan Wind, or if you’re just setting up a great new maritime venture, NNPC are ready and waiting to help you with words and actions! Contact us directly here.