WhiteSpotPirates · video

What this video covers

Nika, who has lived aboard the 11-metre sailboat Carl for 13 years, announces she is searching for a Dutch barge or canal boat and documents the opening leg of a two-week road trip through the Netherlands and Belgium to inspect six candidates.▶ 0:20 Feeling underprepared, she researched by buying two books — How to Buy a Barge and How to Handle a Barge — and joining the DBA (Barge Association) forum before identifying boats across a wide price range to tour.▶ 1:02 Her strategy mirrors how she found Carl: view many very different boats to learn what matters before setting firm parameters.▶ 1:51 The first boat visited is a 26-metre Steilstiebe moored on a canal near Vierhausen, in the north of the Netherlands.▶ 11:10 It carries two immediate disqualifiers: no engine and no registration, meaning it cannot be moved.▶ 9:24 At over 25 metres it also exceeds her self-imposed length limit and would require a full riverboat licence.▶ 12:37 Despite those deal-breakers, the walk-through — three rooms, a large bow living area, a massive engine room, and an unexpected hot tub — gives her a feel for barge scale and sharpens the questions she will bring to the remaining five viewings.▶ 11:47

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