Living afloat

The story of the Luxe Motor MS Watergeus and how to convert a Dutch barge into a houseboat

Barges & their rudders

Rudders are panels at the back or front of the boat which you can use to steer the boat and makes it move into a certain direction. Original rudders were in wood, later ones in metal. Modern ships have two or more rudders.

Rudders of motorised vessels are manoeuvred by chains or hydraulic.

• Rudders of Luxe Motors
• Rudders of spits barges
• Rudders of tjalken
• Rudders of Friese klippers
• Rudders of Hagenaars

Rudders of Luxe Motors

Freshly painted rudders of the Watergeus

Rudders of spits barges

A rudder of a 1927 built motor spits

Chain system of moving a rudder on a spits barge

Three nice examples of hydraulic systems on 'Strasbourg' spits barges

A closer view on the hydraulic system

A riveted rudder on a French spits barge

An original wooden rudder of a spits barge

Rudders of Friese klippers

A rudder of a Friese klipper

Rudders of Hagenaars

An example of an original wooden rudder, unfortunately no longer maintained

A nice wooden rudder with hand steering

Rudders of tjalken

A metal rudder with a wooden helmstok for directing the rudder

Rudders from tjalken are often decorated as can be seen in the following set of pictures: