Team Premiumropes
Big Boat sailors know the true meaning of team work. Each has his own job to do but the boat will not move unless all crew work together. How fast your boat moves depends on how well the team works together.
The Afterguards
Consisting of owner/driver Jan-Willem Polman. Founder and inspirator of the team. Starting out from the kitchen table office, he literally wrote the book on what we do here every day. As we speak “Splicing Modern Ropes’ is translated into 7 languages and available world-wide.
Driving the boat without a crew is just too much work so Jan-Willem has a navigator and a tactician to help him steer the right course. Together with Jeroen Baggerman and Peter Kniep he is the afterguard section of the team.
They get the job done or they delegate. They are the thinkers and deciders. They have the helicopter view of the entire operation and determine the best moment to tack or gybe the boat. They leave how-and-when of the daily operations to the rest of the team. They are still happy to jump in at anytime though. They are as much part of the team as any and labelling the parcels at the end of the day or helping out with the splicing is definitely not beneath them.
The Trimmers
A wise man once said ‘the sails are the only thing moving the boat forward, the rest is resistance’. This is the highest truth at the desks of Sören, Onno and Renate. They are the trimmers of our team These guys know which way the wind is blowing at every turn in the course. If you have questions, this is the place to go. Combined they are a well- tuned branch in our operation. This is where the printer spews out the workorders, this is where the phones ring all day long. From the perfectly executed hoist at the beginning of the day to the perfect float drop at the end with the arrival of the Fedex guys they literally hold all the ropes.
The Pit
The true centre of operations. The chiefs of the piano and the controllers of all orders in process. They know exactly how to play the piano and literally have the operational grasp of which (premium) rope to pull in order for the right splicer to stand up. They are quick into action, are prepared for whatever commands the afterguard throws at them. Quickly able to transform these commands into a workable environment where everybody has a clear task. It’s a big job and that’s why we are looking to add to our pit team with a guy who is able to talk to the guys at the pointy end of the operation. The Floaters and the Men of the Bow.
The Floaters
The extra hands that are indispensable to our organisation. They pick up the slack, are ready to jump into every situation that is developing while we race our vessel on the wild waters that is the world of running rigging. They grind, trim and hike when and where they are needed.
They know the warehouse inside out and restock the shelves with product they assemble at the workbenches. They adapt easily to everything the pit guys and ‘men of the bow’ ask of them. There are many floaters in the team and they float in and out for a couple of hours every week.
The bowmen
This is truly a unique subculture within our team. The pretty boys and girls who do make the neat splices on all our ropes. These are the men that handle the 50mm 12 strand superyacht mooring ropes just as easily as the 1,2 mm kite lines and every rope in between.
With a dazzling speed and accuracy these rockstars splice double braid and single braid. The well trained and ridiculously fit boys in the company bodywarmers that are not scared of the piles of orders that the PIT GUYS prepare for them every morning. They finish the job every day with time to spare before we get to the buoy that is our transport company who comes to collect the parcels at the end of the day.
They use words like splicing, hot knife, spike, milking and winching. They are force full with the 400 meter spools of Dyneema rope and delicate with the 2 mm single braid Dyneema. They always deliver on command and have a solution for all your running rigging problems. They call the customer and come up with the solutions. They live their lives at the pointy end of our operation and do it well.