Boat Show Before Buying

It is hard to commit to just that one boat. We had seen so many yachts. Most of the boats had pluses and minuses just as our dream boat in Drachten had. We found out about an annual boat in Sneek which is not far from Heeg (about 13 minutes by car according to Google Maps). We though the Show might help us feel better informed somehow.

Here is the lowdown on the Boat Show in English taken from www.motorbootsneek.nl

“Motor boot Sneek, is an unique boot show in Sneek which has grown into the largest motor yacht show in the north. The event takes place on location of the organizing companies that you can all visit during the event. In this way you can get to know all the different yachts at once and you are immediately get ‘a look behind the scenes’at each location you will be informed about the latest trends and novelties. In short: motorboat snake is the event for finding your dream boat!”

With advertising language like that, especially the last line, who can resist.

The above two photos show you inside one of the boat show rooms. There were boats outside in the marine to look at, also. You could go inside many of the boats. Some boat, or should I say yachts were new, some were used. Nearly all were amazing and super expensive. I forgot to say that we were keeping in mind the boat in Drachten when we looked around - what was good about it, what could we add to it or change slightly to improve it. We could, for example, add a microwave or a built-in cutting board above the sink. We could change the carpet to wooden flooring. We could change the captain’s chair. Anyway, here is what we saw that was important to us newbies to the yacht world. 

Good brand of microwave, wouldn’t you say? 

This microwave was totally built-in.
We thought we could do this with the boat in Drachten.

This is a galley in a very expensive yacht. It made us realize that price might not give you a more expansive galley, just maybe a built-in microwave. It appeared all brand new but was not much better than the Drachten boat. 

Below are two other inventive galley additions - wine bottle holder and the wooden cutting board meant to fit into the round sink. 

The flooring in the Drachten boat is carpet. Seems like an odd flooring choice for a boat. By the way, the Drachten boat is done up beautifully otherwise with stunning mahogany on walls, cupboards and doors. We saw potential flooring choices at the boat show. 

This bathroom floor is designed to accommodate water spillage.
Perhaps there is a shower. 

This is typical wooden flooring for a boat.
There are no cracks that water could penetrate. It could be teak flooring.

Then there was the captains seat, fit for a king. Who wouldn’t want it with the built in fridge underneath? 

The Motor Boot Sneek Show certainly gave us lots to think about. The biggest take away was that for us to go up a notch from the boat in Drachten we would have to spend at least twice as much. We saw   other boats with similar interiors but newer boats, all out of the price range we wanted to be in. This encouraged us to really see the potential and value in the boat in Drachten. 

Plus, more incentive. On top of the pluses we saw with the Drachten boat our friend Andrew gave us a serious talking to about the Drachten boat. He sang its praises and discussed its faults. He left us with the thought that his brother in Germany was very interested in the boat and would purchase it if we didn’t. We also did not like the thought of returning home without having purchased a boat. After all we had put months of looking, knowledge and time spent. We had to make in informed decision. 

Focus on Purchasing Our New Canal Boat - Home Base Delft

Our new home base was to be in the city of Delft. Ken had booked us into this huge, high rise building, Which was part student residence using Booking.com. He made these arrangements before leaving Big Ann. The price was right because the building was being renovated and there was construction in part of the building. Here is a picture taken after renovations were finished.

Photo from HOLLAND2STAY website

The place was truly a luxury apartment in a great setting - Delft. We moved ourselves in and it felt like our home away from home. It had a good sized kitchen so we were able to make meals and eat there.

Delft was a rather big city. We had a rental car so we could explore. After moving ourselves into her apartment we were able to explore the area. Our main objective for the whole trip was to purchase a Canal cruise or so we didn’t go to the tourist sites.

We stopped in downtown Delft to shop. Our rental car was parked in a parkade. Below is a picture in the stairway. The highlight being the Delft, blue pottery. This particular pottery was special as it was rather old. The sheep we saw while driving around that day to look at ship or boat yards. The shepherds had set up temporary fencing for the herd. It appeared that the sheep had a job to do which was to eat back the grass in the area they were assigned to. 

Visits were made to many boat yards. Each night Ken would look on-line to find boats that we should look at, either in our price range on ones that had the criteria we were looking for. At first it was really about price. We were looking at boats that were rather low in price for a canal cruiser but we were looking for a bargain, maybe a miracle. We soon learned that if we did not want to spend a great deal of time and/or money fixing up a boat we had to adjust our price range, maybe our criteria. We or should I say “I” was getting frustrated with looking at junky boats that had no appeal.

I will give a general, description of some of those less than desirable boats. We did not take pictures of boats that did not appeal to us. The junkier boats usually had not been used in a few years so were mossy or dirty or both - on the inside and/or outside. Some had tarps overtop of them because they likely leaked or their windows leaked. Often the layout was odd, for example, the “head” or bathroom was attached to the main bedroom. That would make it uncomfortable for company to use your bathroom, especially at night. Another example of odd layout would be in the main bedroom that has twin beds instead of a double bed or a bed that took up the entire room with no room to put clothes. Keep in mind we plan to live on the boat about four months of the year, we are not the weekend boaters that many of these boats were built for. The less than desirable boats also needed work on the interior such as woodwork that needed to be redone as the sun and dampness had cracked or peeled the varnish. Sometimes someone had painted over the woodwork and had done a poor job at that. Their were lacy curtains, poor kitchen layouts, along with stinky, faded and water stained upholstery. Probably more relevant was the outsides which often needed serious attention - painting or redoing decks, window replacement. I haven’t even touched on the engines and props, etc. Often they were not in as bad shape because they needed to be kept up in order to run the boat. Some motors were on their last legs, however. You get the picture and you can imagine why we did not take any pictures. Our price range adjustment was a hard decision but one that had to be made if we were to actually purchase a boat. 

We did take some time off looking at boats. After all we were in Europe and needed to check out The Netherlands. Even though Delft was in southern Netherlands we sometimes found ourselves up north in the province of Friesland. That is where Alix and Andrew wintered Big Ann, near Sneek. We though we might do the same once we actually had a boat. Netherlands has a small footprint compared to Canada so driving from one end to the other was not a big deal. We did drive to Sneek in our rental car picked below. Gold car does have reasonable car rental rates. 

Our First rental along with the Gold Car Rental office at Schiphol 

Our Second rental. 

Sneek is unique from other cities in northern Holland. It’s biggest distinctive feature is the bridge pictured below.  It has a long and interesting history. This information was gleaned from Wikipedia. The Bridge is called the Waterpoort  and is really a water gate. Sneek used to be a walled city and this Waterpoort is a gate that used to connect to the cities walls. Sneek was on an important trade route between Leeuwarden and Stavoren where North and South Holland could be reached. The city fathers had a harbour built to the southwest of the city of Sneek. This Water gate connected the city and the harbour. The other city walls were demolished in the early 18t century but Waterpoort was left standing. It is so spectacular, so glad they left it standing. 

We saw cats sunning themselves and had to take their pictures. One of the things we noticed in the Netherlands is that there are lots of well cared for cats. These two looked particularity happy and loved. 

Ken had his picture taken by another bridge over the harbour. Nice the bridges in Holland can take pictures. : )

Somedays we stopped and took pictures of a pretty little town on our way to look at a nearby boat. On this day we were off to Kampen. Such beautiful buildings! 

Another interesting, quaint town was Hattem. We definitely went there to look at a particular boat yard. Inside the office was a big, orange cat called Mouse. He was sitting on the counter obviously used to strange people making a fuss over him. Mouse’s “two legged“ said that people come to his boat yard every year to enjoy the company of Mouse. I know I was totally enchanted by this pudgy, orange and white cat. Hattem also had scenery. Windmills are always special to those who rarely get to see them. 

Mouse the cat!

Beautiful, Fall booming  Echinacea

Canal Cruisers in the Running

Netherlands has such an active water culture, different than anything in most of North America. Nearly every town in Holland had a shipyard or marina to either build, repair or store boats. Ken and I looked at dozens of canal cruisers together before purchasing. Ken looked at many boats for the month before I arrived in the Netherlands. Here is just a glimpse into some of the boats we saw that were even close to being a boat we might purchase. We are foggy on the details but these were in the running.

One of the boats we affectionately named Ma and Pa Cruiser. Keep in mind the true name was likely very Dutch so we had trouble pronouncing it let alone remembering it. We sat up an appointment with the sellers. We met at their home. That was impressive to me, being a guest in a Dutch home was a unique experience with tea and sweet treats. Their adult daughter met us at their home as she was more comfortable with English. We drove to a neighbouring town to see the boat which was housed in a locked up marina (some are not very secure). This boat was well cared for mechanically and as was the interior. It had nice upholstery, woodwork and flooring. I do remember that the bathroom was especially nice with a shower and more space than most. The bedroom, however, was disappointing. We looked at this boat twice. Next time the Yacht Broker met us at the boat.

Another boat was nick-named Tobacco Cruiser. The owner smoked on the boat - hence the name. Another negative was there were many ornaments glued down on flat, wooden surface areas. Definitely not to our taste. This boat had a new engine and the interior had been updated. That interior would need to be thoroughly cleaned because of the smoke and maybe the upholstery would have needed to be replaced. I loved the galley, more spacious than most. This boat’s entranceway was off the back deck which was unique. Most canal cruisers have an entranceway on each side with sliding doors. This Boat had lots of pluses and a fully tarped in area for the rear steering  station was one of them. We did not take the following pictures. They were off the Yacht Broker’s website.

The next boat in the running was the Van Der Werff Cruiser. It had been build in the Van Der Werff Shipyard which is still a working boatyard. This boat was built in 1966. The layout of this boat was unique and really grabbed my attention. It had two distinct sleeping areas that were enclosed, creating privacy for sleeping like a bedroom. One of the sleeping areas had a sink in it. The galley and salon were in-between the sleeping quarters. I liked how there was a safe railing around the outside of the outside deck - a plus for the crew (which would be me). The biggest drawback of this boat was the windows needed replacing. That would be approximately a ten thousand Europe job, ugh!

That special layout with the two bedrooms intrigued us until we found our boat.

Our New Home Base - Heeg, Netherlands

Back to our apartment in Delft we realized we had a lot to think about and a big decision to make.


In the mean time we wanted to enjoy our apartment for the short time we remained there. The complex was huge. We had to go to another floor and actually to another building (but didn’t go outside) to do our laundry. Here is another picture of our apartment. We had a good view out that window. Ken was happy to watch a prefabricated building get assembled.

We had to move from this modern, very convenient apartment in the city of Delft, South Holland to the small town of Heeg, Friesland which is in northern Netherlands. We moved up north because this was where the majority of boats that we had found were.They also seemed to have  the best prices.


Our new apartment was in a newly renovated, small and upstairs. The owners lived downstairs and were renovating that part of the house, too. Both owners were friendly and helpful. The house had been built on a canal. During the summer months the owners ran a fish and chips restaurant from their home. From our window we could see a sailboat docked for the winter. There was a huge cage with an inside area for the birds. At first the birds were outside for part of the day. As the weeks went on they were inside the building only because of the cold.

Picture taken from our outside deck. You can see the roof
of the building that housed the birds, rather huge bird house. 

The inside of the Heeg apartment was modern and new. It had been decorated in a nautical theme as you can see below.

Heeg was a town built on a canal. It had several small town grocery stores (including a Co-op), several eating establishments and stores. This town had early roots and had buildings hundreds of  years old and boosted old  style, brick, Dutch homes. 

Restaurant

Not sure about the ages of these homes. I am sure the duplex below is the oldest of the two.

The picture below is of Heeg’s main business street. Some shops had closed for the season. Keep in mind we were there end of October, beginning of November. Even though it was a warmish Fall for the area it was still chilly - sweaters, jackets, gloves and hats needed to be worn much of the day. 

The main type street of Heeg. As you can see it is completely brick-in. The buildings
very close together. 

This house was several centuries old. The year it was built was
written on the front. 

Ken and I would walk from our apartment, over the bridge and into town almost daily. We liked the small town, friendly atmosphere, the beautifully quaint buildings and gardens. The Co-op was a reliable source of fresh veggies, etc. If we waited until after our days adventures to purchase our food for dinner we could have exactly what we were craving at the time. 

Several times while we were there we did major walks out to the lake (Heegermeer). There was a new marina that was closed for the season. We decided we must come back once we are out and about with our new yacht. 

Many days we were in Heeg we would drive the scenic, back country lanes and highways to Drachten. According to Google Maps the drive took 39 minutes, was a 52 kilometre (32 miles) long trip. I say that we drove to Drachten often because we drove many times during our decision making process to check out the last boat we saw with Alix and Andrew. We had really fallen in love with that boat. Even when we looked at it strategically it seemed like the boat for us.