History
Our story so far
At some point, the founder of this site wished to purchase a boat. He was member of the local sailing community and had passed a sailing course, but he didn't have much experience with different boat types. At that time, before the internet had become popular, most advertisements were published in magazines and newspapers. The information in these advertisements was sparse; mostly just a picture, a price, and very few facts about the boat. Not at all sufficient information for a decisive boat purchase. So, he started to collect basic facts about boat types such as length, width, draft, no. of berth, rig, motor, etc. This collection of information helped him a lot with deciding which kind of boat type to go for. A friend of his suggested to make the collected data available online, for others in the same situation to benefit, and the first online boat database was born the 17th February 1998. Since then the site has grown significantly with plenty of free services. ENJOY!
Naming a site is always a challenge. An inspiration came from the 'Convention on the International Regulation for Preventing Collisions at Sea' rule no 5: 'Every vessel must at all times maintain a proper look-out ...', ('look-out' in English translates to 'udkik' in Danish). A 'look-out' for something could be look-out for a new boat, look-out for boat specifications etc.
The spelling of 'Udkik': Orthographically, there are two correct ways to spell the word in Danish: 'udkig' and 'udkik' (the pronunciation is the same). Most Danes (70%) use 'udkig'. Etymologically, the word originates from the Dutch word 'uitkijk', which is spelled with a 'k' as the ultimate letter. Respecting the Netherlands' maritime craftsmanship as an important nation in the world's maritime history, the name Udkik spells with two 'k's.
The site is regularly updated and new functionality added. Therefore, the milestones highlighted below are only the most significant. Explorer the univers of Udkik and benefit from our free services.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Now 26.000 boat reviews. |
| 2022 | Boat reviews are significantly extended to include intense statistically comparison of boats. |
| 2020 | 9000 sail boat reviews published 22.000 boat specifications reached. |
| 2019 | 20.000 boat specifications reached. |
| 2018 | GDPR requirements implemented 18.000 boat specifications reached. |
| 2017 | Translated to Russian and Hungarian. 17.000 boat specifications reached. |
| 2016 | 16.000 boat specifications reached. |
| 2013 | An Android App becomes available. |
| 2012 | Translated to French. |
| 2010 | 1800 engine specifications reached. |
| 2008 | 750 engine specifications reached. Specially designed pages for advertisement of sails are added. |
| 2007 | Translated to Romanian. 12.500 boat specifications reached. |
| 2006 | 1 million page views each month. 8.500 boat specifications reached. |
| 2005 | Translated to Italien. |
| 2004 | 6.000 boat specifications reached. 600 engine specifications reached. |
| 2003 | Translated to Dutch and Norwegian. |
| 2002 | Translated to Polish. |
| 2001 | Translated to German and Swedish. |
| 2000 | The term 'YachtDatabase' is chosen as the international name. Naval architects are added. Owner's contact is added. |
| 1999 | First translation - into English and Finish. A day a mail from Finland appeared in the in-box asking when the site would be available in Finnish. He had found the Danish site and would like the site to be translated. The founder offered to translate the site to English, if he would translate the English version to Finnish. A short while later Udkik was available in 3 languages. Now we know that 'H-boat' is 'H-Vene' in Finnish. |
| 1998 | Free advertisement becomes available together with search options as regards crew, maritime engine database and a link collection. The 17th of February 1998, the first pages showing the database with 800 boat specifications are published. |
The site is currently published in 11 languages. Because the site is dynamic and regularly expanded, not all phrases are updated/translated into all languages.