A heavy downpour ruins most people’s day, but Josse and Sammie see it as good news.
Their company, HoosJeBootje, raises boats that have filled with water and sunk.
After an extremely dry summer left them with little to do, the return of the rain means their phones are ringing again.
When a boat fills up and sinks to the bottom, the pair set out on their own hybrid boat, loaded with tools.
Most of their jobs are in the Amsterdam canals, but they also travel elsewhere in the Netherlands to raise sunken boats.
They have been doing this for 22 years, and when they are not on location they work from their workshop in Zaandam.
“We’re the biggest and best in Amsterdam, of course,” Josse told reporter Sjoerd Hilarius on the radio programme De Ontbijttafel.
Drought was bad for business
How busy the duo are depends heavily on the weather. Rain fills boats with water, and strong wind can make them sink faster.
That made last summer’s extreme drought bad news for the company.
So far this year they have helped about 150 boats, compared with roughly 400 a year a few years ago.
Now that it is raining more often, the number of jobs is going up again.
Cheaper than the city
When a boat sinks, the municipality is called in first. The owner then has fourteen days to get the boat raised.
According to Josse and Sammie, having the municipality do it usually costs more than 750 euros.
They charge 250 euros to bring a sunken boat back to the surface.
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