After landing in the Netherlands, straight out of New York, USA, on Friday, 14 June 2024, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands had no time to go home. She continued her travel to the northeast of her own country for the christening of the Easymax motor vessels ‘Máxima’ and ‘Alexia’ at Royal Wagenborg in Delfzijl.
More photos by me can be seen at the website Noord in Beeld.
Photos taken from the air.
Here is a video of the opening.
About 2,000 employees of Royal Wagenborg guests from The Netherlands and abroad were invited for the event. Upon arrival the Queen was greeted by the ‘kamerheer’ (chamberlain) of King Willem-Alexander in the Province of Groningen, Jaap Wolters, the King’s commissioner in the province Groningen, René Paas, and the mayor of the municipality Eemsdelta, Ben Visser. 10-Year-old Emilia Botke handed over a bouquet of flowers, and of course also the managing board of Royal Wagenborg were present.
After having spoken with the builders of both ships, the Queen was led to the waterfront for the official program. Egbert Vuursteen, CEO of the company, held a speech and also a short corporate video was shown. Then it was time for the Queen to christen both ships. After a toast and a group photo, the program continued inside the tent. Together with the hosts, the Queen talked to various groups of people involved in the family company.
As it was the 7th DelfSail in Delfzijl, it was of course a good opportunity to introduce Máxima to the event. She went on board of a roundtrip boat to have a look at the newly christened Máxima and a group of tall ships, participating in DelfSail. On board of the boat, she talked with the captains of the tall ships and representants of the maritime sector. Lucky for her, she had brought a coat, as the change in temperature was quite big for her, just coming from summerly New York.
As the event partly took place outside, the organisation was very lucky, that the expected rain showers stayed away until the evening, after the Queen had already left.