The Double Bottom
May 24, 2011 by Mick · Leave a Comment
No this is not my ideal woman.
I’m talking about our boat… I won’t say buying it was “a cat in the bag” as we Dutchies tend to say when we get ourselves an unexpected bad deal. But it certainly reeks of a quick buck from our dear mister salesman www.grachtenboot.com. Or grachtenboot.kut as I’d like to call it 
Anyway great boat, nice lines, a real “Been(h)akker Vlet“, but in hindsight a boat with a rusty history.
Apparently it has had a midship engine, extruding propeller, 2 propeller shaft holders… but they have all been taken away.
The Beenakker vlet normally comes equipped with two air chambers, in the front and in the back to make sure the boat can’t sink if it happens to get turned over. Our aft chamber was removed and probably sacrificed for more sitting space and/or easier access for an outboard engine (since the original midship engine was gone).
Later during the removal of the tar on the bottom of the boat we discovered a huge slab of metal had been welded over the front part of the boat. This almost covered half of the boat. It’s safe to assume the original bottom was in a dire and rusty state. I do remember Martijn from grachtenboot.kut telling us the boat had been lying in the mud for a long time.
What he didn’t tell was they did not take out the original bottom and neither did he tell some jackass covered the inside of the boat with polyester (where the original air chamber had been)… I can only guess towards their reasoning. Cover up and make it better looking? Probably.
Water seeping between the metal and the polyester took its time and managed to rusty through 3 millimeters of steel on the sides of the aft.
Repairs
Hi, I'm Mick, living in and loving Amsterdam. Busy with selling Zand Amsterdam wrapskirts, engineering webshops/websites, massaging people and - in general - enjoying life to the fullest.