Living afloat

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

April 2007

1st April 2007

Finally made a cover for my electro motor of my crane. It is common for skipper's to leave their electro motors outside without a cover, but their lifetime gets shorter. To prevent my electro motor from having a short live, I decided to put a small cover on it.

The Watergeus as she looks on 1st April 2007

Painted the mooring posts on land. Will start making use of them next week. Besides ropes, I'm going to use steel cables as well.

7th April 2007

I have the boat exactly one year. The biggest problem of house boat people with a partly converted boat is finishing it. They can only work in their free time and often then is the moment to visit friends, going on holiday, etc... So instead of working, I went to Ghent to take pictures of the barges and how they were converted. It was nearly a year since I last visited ghent by camera. It was sad, really sad to see how barges are being converted into floating lighters. Everybody has his own taste and comfort often is the primer concern above the look of a ship.

In the afternoon I visited Philippe, a man who lives on a converted spits. I wanted some advice and he was kindly enough to take time to explain how he built his interior. He certainly loved his vessel and that's the first rule for converting a boat!

The Spes Salutis, converted with love for the boat

And in the evening I went to a birthday party...

8th April 2007

A heavy night yesterday forced me not to work on my boat. I placed a table on deck and tighten the boat to the mooring posts that were placed last month.

The ropes aren't looking brilliant, but it is holding the boat tight to land

A few people came by and started talking with me. There used to be an old boat in bruges, a german built spits barge. it sank multiple times and believe what, it was on my mooring. We then did a measurement to know the depth under the boat. it is around 1,5 meters. I do remember some information on that german Spits. She was built as a war compensation in 1919. She was raised and scrapped in Antwerp. This must have been 7 years ago. I'll try find a picture of that boat.

My deck, starting to look comfortable (without having to create an ugly construction like so many barges do these days)

21st April 2007

Since I didn't work on my barge the last couple of weeks, I made an effort and worked from six in the morning till nine O'clock in the evening. The roof is finished and one side has already been closed with pe-sprays. Instead of the gangway, we made a nice entrance in wood. Further, the area for the bathroom was cleared and a trial model of the floor was created.

Bringing the wood to land

Putting the four big supports in place

Creating the walking side

Project finished

I repaired my extensions cables, since most of them had their best life behind. It's getting time to by some new ones. The waterpump was moved from the inside to the outside. Always handy to have it ready.

22nd April 2007

Completely broken, I didn't do that much. Cleaned some part of the cargo hold, where the floor will be created. The wood of the gangway was protected and I visited some friends.

As she looks on 22nd April 2007 with her wooden gangway

24th April 2007

My electrician came in the afternoon to provide the back accommodation with decent 220v power system and a new fuse box. He place the fuse box and prepared all the sockets.

The new fuse box in the back accommodation

26th April 2007

Today we continued working on the electricity. Since I wanted a lot of changes and additions, it might even take some more time.

Clean bilges and the wooden supports for the floor

While the electrician was working, I decided to continue to clean the cargo hold for making the floor.

28th April 2007

Last weekend we filled the holes between the hatches and the den with PE. Today we continued on the other side. From the outside we added polyester to make sure everything is nicely closed.

In the afternoon I cleaned some more of the cargo hold. In the evening I placed a chain and a door bell on the gangway.

In the evening I ran the engine for about 15 minutes. it's good to run your engine from time to time, unfortunately I had stop since wooden planks were drifting to the propeller.

Enjoying the nice weather on my deck!

29th April 2007

Cleaning the cargo hold is a boring job, but it needs to be done. In the afternoon the electrician came for finishing the electricity.