One-man band, afloat and electric!

Kevin Desmond with more news from the Polyboatglobal Challenge.
From the canals of Holland to the canals of Venice, to Arz Island in Brittany Goa in south-west India, Reinier Sijpkens delights crowds, young and old by playing music from his electric-outboard engined, brightly coloured Notendop (= Nutshell) which he also calls the Muziekboot. For his “orchestra, Reinier who likes to be know as “Homo ludens” (= “Playing man”), cranks a portable pianola-roll barrel organ with one hand, a trumpet in the other, then whistles birdsong and operatic arias through his two fingers. While he plays he steers with his elbow his little boat around in pirouette circles like the e-ballerinas of Venice.
We at polyboatglobal.com love his approach!
“Whenever I spin my boat, I am performing for those on both banks of the canal, but also on the bridges across it. I see a bridge as a balcony as in an opera house when people can come and look down. Water scenery for my Muziekboot.”
From his childhood, Reinier Sijpkens loved doing magic tricks and making music. As a disenchanted young law student, he built his first nutshell boat in his student lodgings. Deciding to give up Law, he put his law books onto the street until somebody picked them up and sold them. “Then I was free. I was already playing in a Big Band, in a pop group and in an all round music duo. So I quit studying and decided to be full-time performer with a special interest playing music in a boat! This was in 1985.”
He originally thought of using a piano on the water but choose a lighter, street mini-church organ “because it is small enough to carry with me and which I can play with one hand, while I play my trumpet with another. My special organ was built by Henk Smit, a builder of unique instruments to make musicians wishes come true. My round shaped trumpet and flugelhorn trumpets were made by Hub van Laar, one of the best trumpet builder ever lived. Henk Smit and Hub van Laar both died so the instruments will stay unique.
In 1991 Reinier registered his act as a one-man self-employed company, Muziekbboot. Before and since then, he has been involving with people on the bridges in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden, Delft, Gouda, Enkhuizen, Alkmaar, Oudewater, Bruges, Hoorn and many other cities. “I was invited in 1994 in Venice to play on their canals during the Carnaval! Big honor.” For special events and themes, Henk Smit built Reinier a dream boat involved a church organ and 20 bells Carillon. This instrument is also unique and I have used it for example to perform on the Dutch liberation day on the national Dutch television.
Reinier is very well known with his duets with the legednary carillon player Boudewijn Zwart of different churches. Reinier and Boudewijn cummunicate with each other with different repertoires of classical, Dutch, jazzy and world music pieces. They respond on eachother: tower bells and music boat.
Reinier has also accompanied Plastic Whale, the Dutch organisation which arranges for groups to take electric boats out onto the canals and to fish for plastic debris, otherwise known as “plishing”
In September 2024, Reinier married Ingeborg van Daal. For their honeymoon they decided to visit the Museum of Goa, a state on the southwestern coast of India. They were sponsored by the LaLa Foundation in Amsterdam and invited by the Chetna Charitable Trust, for children with disabilities. While “Homo Ludens” performed magic and music, his new bride danced with the applauding children
In terms of propulsion, Reinier started with an electric Yamaha outboard, initially with energy from 12 volt 60 ampere Samy traction battery and later Rebel-cell 12 volt 60 amp lithium units (much better and lighter). Until recently whenever he had to cruise a long way, he would start up a second petrol-engined Yamaha, which company sponsored him and let him paint his motors in psychedelic colours “because I wanted all of my boat to be beautiful.”
“All my life I have performed for magic and music for children everywhere in the world…. on my website www.muziekboot.nl you can see many examples.For those who would like to book his twenty-minute water concert, come rain or shine, daytime or evening, just visit the website.
With Amsterdam’s decision that all motorised boats must be 100% electric, Reinier is looking for a new, more powerful electric outboards, with reverse gear, enabling him to steer his boat round in circles.
“I hope Amsterdam will wait with all their regulations but if not I hope there will be a way…hopefully Yamaha will make a new 24 electric outboard and I can find a good battery costing not a fortune!” We hope so too and that somebody can help sponsor Reinier with a motor and battery.