'the best' designs for europe

[fredfrog]

\'the best\' designs for europe

mornin all. I'm new to this. Have been boating on inland waterways for a while, but dream of living on a boat in europe when retirement looms. The plan is currently for a penichette type vessel... steel hull, 600 odd sq ft and enough power / economy to potter around france/belgium etc. Propbably be more nomadic than static and hope to see it all before we return to england.
This must have been asked a hundred times before, but has anyone and advice on what basic boat types suit this adventure best? (I've done five years research on this, considered displacement/semi displacement, glass/steel/wood etc etc dutch steel /barges / narrow boats / old broads cruisers etc and I still can't make up my mind)
Hope those with actual experience of doing it can offer sound basic advice.
ps. Probably need to be Cat c or B cos we MIGHT poke our noses into an estuary or two, but v seasick partner prevents offshore work.
Many thanks in advance. john <font color="blue"> </font>

 

[Robz]

Re: \'the best\' designs for europe

Hy,

perhaps it is an idea to look at people with experience in this at http://cruisenews.net/index.php.

If you look in the lists "Ships at Sea" and "Voyage logs" you can find some people that have travelled around Europe in various types of vessel (narrow boat, penichette and Dutch displacement boats). In both list their main travel area in indicated

 

[capsco]

Re: \'the best\' designs for europe

link does not seem to work

 

[Robz]

Re: \'the best\' designs for europe

Sorry, did not test

This one worked with meat http://cruisenews.net

 

[ashley]

Re: \'the best\' designs for europe

I don't think they make a boat that fits all those criteria!

If you want to do the rivers/canals with that much floor space then it would be a penichette or tjalk of no more than 24 metres long and 5.1m wide and most would be flat bottomed.
If you want to do estuaries and have cat b or c stability you can rule out the penichette and be looking at a displacement motor boat or yacht. Then you'll get nowhere near you desired floor space. Plus you will draw too much water for the more beautiful canals in southern france.

I think, as it is your first boat, you'll need to downsize either the boat the crusing area.
You could buy a penichette type and do the canals for a few years and trade to something a bit more suitable to salt water
Or buy a more multi purpose vessel and accept that the smaller vessel is more versatile and will have lower mooring fees and running costs.
That said, you could do most of these things with the right dutch tjalk with lee boards, but they do not have a great living area to length ratio.
I have seen the canal boat that crossed the channel and know several who have done it in peniches so anything is possible - if not entirely sane

A lot of people make a mistake with their first boat, me included, and expect too much of or buy too big and have too many things to fix they cannot actually spend as much time travelling as they wish.

You seem to have spent a long time armchair sailing so maybe it is time to try out various disiplines and see which you prefer and take a look at these sites

La Varre
Lady Jane
Review of french canals
Dutch Barge Association
A Couple of Aussies
Bill and Nancy!

 

[fredfrog]

Re: \'the best\' designs for europe

dear all
thank you very much. Have been away for some days but will check out all the links you suggest. Thank you Ashley for the general advice and you are right... the vessel isn't there within budget at present. (Wolstenholme has a design, but it's about twice what I can afford) I have done a few designs myself but suspect that getting a naval architect to convert my ramblings into reality would also prove expensive... meanwhile I'll keep looking.
Thanks again. John.