t’Eiland Marina near Lathum, Netherlands
With some patches of summer arriving, I am using the time, not just to stay on the boat, but also to get it ready for a move. It is a Campi 320 made by the Polish shipbuilder Rivo. With 9,60 meters long and a displacement of 4,5 tons, it is rather handy. The 320 version is a bit special, because, compared with the 300er, as it allows for a 1.40 m x 2.00 m bed in a separate room. The boat has a living room with a spacious front terrace and a bathroom with a shower. A small back terrace can be reached through an extra door, and here is where also fuel, gas and electrical infrastructure is in closed compartments. The engine is mounted on the frame and it allows up to 25 PHP motorization. Given that I want to start moving it from town to town, probably starting next year, I currently test the Yamaha 9.9 High Thrust. It is a very efficient engine, and because of the flat propeller mounted, equivalent to about 15 BHP. Given the high wind drag of such a “houseboat” though, I am not sure how it will be able to cope with strong winds. It is a riverboat. But even in that category, it goes more for the canals than anything with strong currents.
The current location is in Geldersee (Netherlands") and faces a beautiful lake connected to the Ijssel, which is a distributary of the Rhine and, for the Netherlands, a rather fast waterway. To test the waters there a little bit last weekend, I took me and my dog on a Talmarex 3 m dinghy, powered by a small 4 BHP outboard, to the Rhine connection. On my GPS, I measured about 4 m/s currents at a low water level. So, it took me about 2 hours to travel upstream and 6 litres of petrol for the return trip, staying at 3500 RPM (measured by sound, not instrument).
The houseboat in the current motorization would probably cope with the Ijssel. But I consider it unwise, because of the waves caused by cargo ships. For some of these “guys” time is money, and being overtaken a few times at high speed, where the ship literally sucks 1/3 of the whole river’s water through its system, I don’t think the riverboat copes well with the waves. The maximum specs are at 2 feet. But, I would not like to try.
