dutch barge hulll thickness

[londonron]

i am looking at a dutch barge and as its 35000 i am going to get a survey. However i have a copy of 1980s survey and another from 2005 and want your advice.

does anyone know how thick the hull should be before you stay away from it. As many uk boats are 6mm or 10mm on modern boats i have my opinion based only on this knowledge and a little understanding can be a dangerous thing. I love the boat and dont want pass it up because it had in 2005 2.9mm - 4.1mm on a survey.

it does seem very thin to me and of course in the last 6 years it will not of got any thicker .

[blackrose]

I looked at several Dutch barges several years ago and wouldn't settle for anything less than 5mm all over. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't find anything in my price range. I walked away from a boat with areas of 3.8mm.

 

2.9mm is rather thin - has any work been carried out on those plates since that survey?

 

Basically if you buy an old Dutch barge (relatively cheaply) you're more than likely to have to undertake some expensive hull repairs.

Edited January 12, 2012 by blackrose

[Biggles]

I looked at several Dutch barges several years ago and wouldn't settle for anything less than 5mm all over. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't find anything in my price range. I walked away from a boat with areas of 3.8mm.

 

2.9mm is rather thin - has any work been carried out on those plates since that survey?

 

Basically if you buy an old Dutch barge (relatively cheaply) you're more than likely to have to undertake some expensive hull repairs.

 

 

Agreed. It's like an old car, if you don't mind some ongoing restoration you could have a nice boat, or if it fails its MOT terminally a pile of junk.

 

Of course you then need to balance the ongoing cost of R&M against depreciation of a more expensive boat.

[Tam & Di]

Agreed. It's like an old car, if you don't mind some ongoing restoration you could have a nice boat, or if it fails its MOT terminally a pile of junk.

 

Of course you then need to balance the ongoing cost of R&M against depreciation of a more expensive boat.

 

 

Depends slightly on what you mean by "Dutch barge". If you actually mean one built in the Netherlands and converted when it came out of trade it is probably rivetted steel/iron. The Dutch use much smaller rivets than we commonly do (did) in the UK, so if the plating is that thin the rivet heads could be suspect too. Certainly I would not accept anything less than 4.0mm. If the 2.9mm is fairly local and can be replated at an acceptable cost it may still be a good buy. £30,000 is not a lot of money for a barge in good nick, so it is bound to need quite a bit of work. It's just that for most people it easier to manage on a d.i.y. basis if the work is internal, as you can leave that and do it in stages, whereas it is very risky to ignore a thin hull, as you stand to lose everything if it sinks.

 

If it is a rivetted hull do be sure your surveyor is familiar with that sort of construction. Ideally too be in attendance at the survey and get him to explain what he is looking at.

[Bob18]

What was the hull thickness on the 1980 survey - that will give you an indication of how fast the plates are thinning...

[ChrisPy]

typically authentic dutch barges can be 100 years old, and are made of iron, not steel.

they often show little sign of corrosion.

hull thickness was thin to start with.

there are several like this in Bristol marina, one is on the hard next to me, the overlapping hull plates appear to be about 5mm and it has recently been valued at £150K.

 

if it is a vintage dutch barge then I suggest you speak to a surveyor with specialist knowledge of rivetted iron construction. it is definitely not the same as welded steel.

[trackman]

Talk to a specialist if it's a genuine Dutch barge with a history as a working boat rather than a modern replica. Working boats were meant to carry the maximum payload, so extra metal in the hull was a disadvantage. Extra metal was extra weight, to be taken off the payload the boat could carry, so it wasn't desirable.

 

These boats therefore started with thinner plates than would be used in a modern leisure boat of similar size and construction. Add to this the differences between wrought iron and steel, and between rivetted and welded fabrication, and you have a very different beast to consider in comparison with modern boats. Speak to someone who knows this kind of boat.

 

trackman

 

 

[blackrose]

The Barge Association might be a good place to start.

 

http://www.barges.org/

[londonron]

the 1980s report was a great read. It was done with a hammer and found to be "sound",things were clearly much more easy before ultrasonics. it is a rivoted hull dates from 1910 and will double check if its iron or steel.

 

great advice guys,

[Tam & Di]

the 1980s report was a great read. It was done with a hammer and found to be "sound",things were clearly much more easy before ultrasonics. it is a rivoted hull dates from 1910 and will double check if its iron or steel.

 

great advice guys,

 

What type of barge is it? Any photos?

[bargemast]

Actual hull thickness also depends a lot of where the barge used to trade, if she always worked in deep water where the hull never touched the bottom, they can (but not always do) live forever.

 

I owned an old Dutch barge, of a type that was commenly called "Oostzee Tjalk" (Eastsea Tjalk) built of iron in 1897, that used to work in the Baltic trade in her younger years as a sailing barge.

 

When I bought her in 1973, there were no repair patches on her bottom, and she is still going strong now as hotel-barge trading near Venice Italy.

 

But as said already, be careful and get a good surveyor to look at her before you part with your money, as there are lots of badly

maintained barges around, and repairs are often expensive, due to the extra work to get the plates in the right shape, as apart from the bottom plates, not much is straight on barges like that.

 

Good luck,

 

Peter.