times the resistance of manila, and, additionally, is impervious. With developments in the synthetic industry taking place at breakneck speed, the family decided to buy into synthetic fibre, which meant closing their own spinning mill. On 1 July 1984, Wim van der Lee’s daughter and son, Saskia and Gijsbert van der Lee, and their cousin Willem Hendrik Schreijgrond, the oldest son of Christina van der Lee, who is Wim van der Lee’s sister, were appointed as supervisory directors alongside Johan Joseph Breen. Bernhard de Wit was appointed as director. By importing raw materials the family could now specialise. This change in production led to a new factory being built in 1993. Van der Lee’s product range, which is made using modern scutchers and braiding machines, now largely varies to include all kinds of ropes, yet the old craft still lives on at the G. van der Lee Rope Factory; hawsers for fisheries, water sport and replicas of VOC ships and the ropes are still twisted on the 350-metre long ropewalk. 2013-present The G. Van der Lee Rope Factory became part of the Hendrik Veder Group in 2013. References External links company Website This article is a translation of the corresponding article in the Dutch Wikipedia. Ropes Companies based in Utrecht (province)