Through the Netherlands via the Standing Mast Routes
A guide for masted yachts and motor boats transiting the standing mast routes of the Netherlands (8th edition)
Published on 13. November 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
96 pages
978-1-291-99357-8 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Persons
Andy Mulholland, together with his wife Gwen, has cruised more than 12,000 kms in the Netherlands and has personally covered every area and route in this book other than a small section of Route GD3 in the Groningen region. He has gained a deep appreciation for the Dutch, their country and their culture. With more than 20,000kms covered since retiring, European cruising experience has also included forays into France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, including cruising on the Rhine.
Machiel Lambooij is a Dutch resident. After his retirement he has begun exploring, together with his partner, in their motorboat, initially most of the inland waterways of the Netherlands and then those of Germany, Belgium, France and even the Broads. He has also explored the coasts of the Netherlands, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. In between trips abroad, they fill their boating time with trips to their favorite Dutch destinations, including the Dutch Waddeneilanden (Frisian islands).
Gordon Knight spent 40 years cruising under sail, mostly in Northern European and Mediterranean waters. During that time, as an admin on the World Cruising Wiki, he largely created several Mediterranean sections. He now spends part of the year cruising the inland waterways of the Netherlands with his wife Soophy. Like the authors a long-standing member of the CA's European Inland Waterways Section (EIWS), he writes or edits all the Section's 25 publications.