Three months ago I bought a boat. Not the sailing boat, that is Sven’s domain, the boat that will circumnavigate the world from May 2027. I bought the other boat. The Pent’AUS. The former Antwerp ferry boat that has been on the Antwerp waterfront for decades, that served the city as the working vessel of the Scheldt crossing before the tunnel and the metro made the ferry crossing the nostalgia rather than the necessity, and that has been in various forms of the productive waterfront life since the ferry service ended, including the period as the floating office that the Antwerp business community has known the vessel for.
The decision to buy the Pent’AUS was not the difficult decision that the significant purchases sometimes are. It was the obvious decision the moment I understood what the Naora programme’s shore headquarters needed to be. The programme is the offshore sailing circumnavigation.
The community is the maritime community. The culture is the culture of the water and the passage and the boat. The headquarters that serves this programme and this community and this culture is not the glass-and-steel office building in the Antwerp business district. It is the former ferry boat on the Antwerp waterfront, tied to the same water that we will sail through on the way out of the Scheldt estuary when the circumnavigation begins.
What the Pent’AUS Provides That No Office Building Does
| Requirement | Standard office building | The Pent’AUS |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting rooms | Generic conference rooms | Meeting rooms with the Scheldt at the window |
| War room for full team | The largest meeting room available | The main saloon where the circumnavigation is planned |
| Workspace atmosphere | Open plan, neutral | The maritime atmosphere of the working vessel |
| Client meeting setting | Impressive building address | The boat on the water — the most maritime address in Antwerp |
| Deck and outdoor space | None or managed terrace | The full deck overlooking the Antwerp waterfront |
| What it communicates | The professional office | The maritime identity of the programme it houses |
| What the team feels | The office day | The offshore life in the shore context |
The Pent’AUS has been in our hands for three months. In those three months it has hosted the planning sessions for the May 2027 departure, the first Circle member conversations, the press briefings, the Aviation Factory partnership discussions, and the war room sessions where the five-year circumnavigation is being built leg by leg and permit by permit and partnership by partnership. All of this has happened on a boat. On the water. In Antwerp. Where the Scheldt runs to the sea and the sea runs to the oceans and the oceans are where we are going in May 2027.
If you want to see where Naora lives before it departs, come to the Pent’AUS. The team is here. The charts are on the wall. The coffee is good. The deck has the best view in Antwerp. The conversation starts here using the link and, if you are in the city, it can continue on the boat.
