Alicatt
Well-Known Member
We packed up and loaded the boat for the 80km trip to Maasmechlen Village our first proper trip on her and a good test to see if my wife would like it.
We shared the driving of the boat with myself doing the lion's share of it, we left at 12:30 and arrived in Bocholt at roughly 16:20 for about 39km so we maintained a good speed over the first part of the journey Casper has a Volvo Penta MD7A 13hp diesel engine and a saildrive she is 7.5m by 2.5m and has a draught of about 0.8m and an air draught of about 2m, she has a small galley a double berth in the bow and the dining table can be lowered and with two infill cushions another double berth can be had, I'm 1.74m tall and while I didn't feel cramped in either of the berths I was glad I wasn't any taller
mind you the owner prior to the previous owner was almost 2m tall and he managed to sleep on board.
It was an extended holiday weekend in Belgium with the Pinkster religious thing happening on Thursday so the canals were quite quiet ... there were a lot of boats at Bree for a regatta so while that would have been the ideal stopping point it was full and no visitor berths available.
Bocholt was nice, a bit awkward to moor stern too on the port side with a boat that has a mind of it's own, took a few attempts to get her along side, no video I'm afraid as the camera kept overheating in the strong sun. We had a night out in the town sampling the local beir.
A quiet night and a 09:30 start of the rest of the cruise, we were at Maasmechelen by 12:30 and we even stopped off for lunch along the way... Why are the landing stages always on the other side of the canal from the pubs and a good walk to the nearest bridge?
Quite an uneventful journey and one that went quicker than we thought.
Part one of the journey, a quick video I threw together this evening.
We shared the driving of the boat with myself doing the lion's share of it, we left at 12:30 and arrived in Bocholt at roughly 16:20 for about 39km so we maintained a good speed over the first part of the journey Casper has a Volvo Penta MD7A 13hp diesel engine and a saildrive she is 7.5m by 2.5m and has a draught of about 0.8m and an air draught of about 2m, she has a small galley a double berth in the bow and the dining table can be lowered and with two infill cushions another double berth can be had, I'm 1.74m tall and while I didn't feel cramped in either of the berths I was glad I wasn't any taller
mind you the owner prior to the previous owner was almost 2m tall and he managed to sleep on board.It was an extended holiday weekend in Belgium with the Pinkster religious thing happening on Thursday so the canals were quite quiet ... there were a lot of boats at Bree for a regatta so while that would have been the ideal stopping point it was full and no visitor berths available.
Bocholt was nice, a bit awkward to moor stern too on the port side with a boat that has a mind of it's own, took a few attempts to get her along side, no video I'm afraid as the camera kept overheating in the strong sun. We had a night out in the town sampling the local beir.
A quiet night and a 09:30 start of the rest of the cruise, we were at Maasmechelen by 12:30 and we even stopped off for lunch along the way... Why are the landing stages always on the other side of the canal from the pubs and a good walk to the nearest bridge?
Quite an uneventful journey and one that went quicker than we thought.
Part one of the journey, a quick video I threw together this evening.