Dutch steel boats!

Hiya Tom. Yep spent the most of the day with you today. Your boats great.

But my two penarth. it dont matter to much what the boat is made of. My boats 20 years old, some are 30 yrs old, and made out of plastic. It breaks some times, as others do, but is easily mended. More to the point. Nothing to do with what it's made of. What do you want out of it.

Now in my days, I wanted a boat that would take me from Y to Z reasonably quickly, but then at around 20p per litre, not hard to find.

But at 60p, or the coming maybe 120p, different story. Now, change my habits or change my Hobby, thats a different question. There are only a few times, ive found that being out at sea are good. Either it dead flat, mainly boring, but sat down and had a meal, whilst the boat plodded on past the Cascanets?.

Tuther side is, some seas are better done at 20 knots.

Thing is now, finding a boat that you want, that produces your needs. Whole new different ball game.

Mine. Well it just does whats said on the tin. Side ways, backwards, or just round in circles. no bow thruster involved. Maybe it should just evolve into being a tug.

But it's a bit thirsty.

Yours steady and slow, get most any place, not cost much to get there. Think it's your turn now.
 
yep, there's a ton of makers out there - quality ranges from marvellous to err not that great at all - prices likewise really.

Overall, I reckon they get much more civilised from mid-90's onwards in terms of insulation n not being dark-wooded and a bit cramped inside due to the ooh, lets squeeze as many cabins in as possible idea.

some brands are often sold as ' casco' or hull - or part finished from bare upwards - naturally fit-out varies widely in those; and some will need lotsa ripping out cabinetry to get access to less commonly needed things.

at least a couple of Pedro models are built in Poland ( or somewhere ) now, which makes the UK importers "Dutch Steel" advert seem a bit off, maybe.

Wife n I looked at dozens of s/h brands over 18 months before buying a s/h Gruno 38 ( they seem to call it a 35 now...)

for wonderful beefy yet luxurious stuff, Porsius looked ace, tho hugely expensive unless very old, for our budget anyway.

looked at a brokerage boat in the Vri-Jon yard, and the owner gave us a tour of his smallish factory, which I was hugely impressed by re tidiness/cleanliness/organisation etc & boy, was he ever proud of it - I'd certainly look closely at one if the style of boat suited me. think they've a uk importer now.
 
Nice boat the Gruno. Having looked at their site, I wonder what they did to get the 12 tonnes of the Classic down to the 9.5 tonnes of the Sport and Elite. Same dimensions etc and thats a hell of a lot of weight to lose, even with thinner plating.

We're in the process of negotiating on a Kokkruiser. Stunning boat, pity about the name. If we buy it we may have to do a Hyacinth Bucket (its bouquet!!) and refer to it as a Coe-kruiser to spare the blushes of our English friends!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
After a variety of boats over 20 years of boat ownership, including a couple of very nice Brooms, we shall be changing to steel for our next boat.
1. we intend boating in inland Europe.
2. quality is more important than speed.
I am not wholly convinced that steel is so much better in the above envirnment than GRP but the variety is stacked hugely in favour of Dutch steel.
But do your homework. I had a chat with Kim Hollamby (MBM editor) who had purchased a Pedro Solano at the time and he had done a lot of investigating. His advice, I seem to remember, was to look at the production techniques to check the quality of steel preparation. Properly done it will easily last the 20 years referred to elsewhere before requiring repainting. There are a great many small Dutch yards doing a few boats a year. Some are super and some less so.
Don't forget that Broom is one of few UK producers that do single engined extended keel versions of their 35 CL, 39 and 42 and when you compare like with like they are not that different in price. Although some Dutch boat's interior quality might match Broom, others are well short.
Why am I on the steel route? Superb insulation and resultant quietness. Tranquility.
 
After looking seriously for a 'plastic' semi displacement, we allmost at the end switched to steel displacemet.

Reason for the initial search after (Skandinavian) 'plastic' was the fact the we like their modern optical lines and especially their very efficiantly designed and light interior design.
The majority of the Dutch steel were to 'old fashioned' and 'dated' (at least according our taste).

This search changed rapidly when we saw the Bruijs Spiegelkotter at the HISWA IJmuiden in 2005. In our opinion, they succeeded in combining a 'modern' look with a classic Dutch displacement ship.

When we started talking about the interior, I showed him some brochures and just said: Can you build this atmosphere of in interior into your hull? And the answer was just: Of course we can.

The contract was signed within a month, and it was launched in may the next season.

For the british, the location of the builder, approx. 30 kms north of Antwerp may be of interest.
 
I shall see if I can find their website.
I have been getting brochures of Dutch Steel makes and although externally they are conventional several are moving to a more contemporary interior fit out in both style and layout.
 
Just coincidently this weekend is "open house" at Linsen boats in Maasbracht south Holland. I was there yesterday, very nice boats if you are fan of displacement boats, (also B cat).
maybe a little late, but they have a shuttle service to hotels and maastricht airport
 
I looked and considered them, but rejected because of 2 main reasons.

1. I have spent my working life on steel ships trying to stop them rusting. I do not want to spend my retirement doing the same on my own boat.

2. I have seen steel boats at sea. While GRP boat rise into waves, heavy steel hulls dive into them. In heavy weather they are frightening to watch
 
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