Erik Pevernagie

Ric’s Boats Team:
How did the idea of Ric's Boats arise?

Erik Pevernagie:
In fact, everything starts to grow in the spring of 1968. Another way of life is in the air. You can feel the need to dust off the structures of society. I take a degree of Germanic Philology (with three languages: English, German, Dutch.)at the University of Brussels. Excellent professors like Henry Plard and Jean Weisgerber are sources of inspiration. I become a lecturer at the Economic Higher Education Institute for Hotel Management, Public Relations and Tourism in Brussels.

Ric’s Boats Team:
This facilitates the creation of an International Center… 

Erik Pevernagie:
With my colleagues and students we open the Recreative

International Center, abbreviated RIC, at Vieux Marché aux grains –

Oude Graanmarkt, 1000 Brussels in March 1973.
Almost at the same time comes the idea of creating a meeting place

on boats. So Ric's Art Boat (first called RiverRic) and, some time

later, Ric's River Boat found their way to the Beco Dock, in the

neighbourhood of Tours and Taxis in the center of

Brussels.

Ric’s Boats Team:
What is the origin of Ric's Art Boat?

Erik Pevernagie:
Ric's Art Boat was built in 1936 at Baasrode, baptized “Selenium”. A length of 38 meters. A tonnage of 370 tons. It escaped the confiscation by the Nazis, who appropriated barges for the invasion of England. But in the long run, this idea was abandoned because the British had the good idea to spray the surface of the sea with fuel, when the barges, seized by the Germans, were nearing the English coast. Result: all barges burnt down. This kind of invasion plan was discarded.

Ric’s Boats Team:

You have also sailed with the boat?

Erik Pevernagie:
In the seventies and for several years, we organize excursions with concerts on board, every Sunday. Captain of the Port, Mr Metdepenningen, accompanies us in his car for the opening of bridges, because navigation activities are closed on Sundays.
Jacques Mercier, anchorman of RTB, hosted one of these trips in 1974. Karen Cheryl, singers of “The Cousins” (Killi Killi Watch), the “Two Man Sounds” etc join Ric's Art Boat.
Many journalists accompany the excursions ex La Dernière Heure

Ric’s Boats Team:
What is the history of Ric's River Boat?

Erik Pevernagie:
Ric's River Boat is not a barge, but a tug that pulled large vessels of the ocean in the Rhine. It is converted into a school ship for officers of the Dutch navy. At that time it is called "Hollands Glorie".