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.