Living afloat

The story of the Luxe Motor MS Watergeus, the bakdekkruiser Escapade and how to convert a Dutch barge into a houseboat.
Also containing one of world's largest house boat gallery

Deck

• See also: Deck equipment on barges

Gangway

The gangway of a Luxe Motor is quite wide. After building the new den, you know perfectly how your deck is built. Is goes smaller to the front and is very flat in the new section, placed in 1961.

The new den made the gangway a bit smaller, but still wide enough for walking on it without hitting the hatches with your legs.

Structure

Technical drawing is in Dutch

Crane

At the start of the den, where the new entrance cabin ends, a crane has been placed. It is capable of lifting 250kgs on one cable or 500kgs on a double cable. The crane is completely electric with remote control.

Crane on the deck

Barlijnen - Stoeltjes

In April 2010 two 'stoeltjes' were mounted on the den. These items are hard to find and rarely used by some skippers. There once was a time that nearly every ship had one of these. I found mine on the spits barge Julie in Bruges. The owners wee so kind to donate them to me.

Front deck

See also: Photos of the anchor winch of the Watergeus

The front deck contains the anchor winch. The winch was completely cleaned and repainted in August 2007. A spare anchor had been moved from th back to the front in January 2007. This anchor has been lowered and attached to the winch.

On the bow, an original anchor davit was mounted in April 2010. This davit was once used to lower and raise the anchors.