holland vacation - canels - cruising Holland

holland vacation - canels - cruising Holland - netherlands

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What's new!

Instructional Cruise in September, 2010 - Roger Van Dyken will conduct a one week instructional cruise aboard the 21 meter Klipper Aak Vertrouwen from Thursday afternoon, September 23 to Thursday morning, September 30. This will be a 3 couple-max hands-on cruise on the famed Canal du Midi in southern France. You will experience a variety of cruising grounds, from cities to villages, rivers to canals, and, of course, locks. Email or call us for more information!

2010 and 2011 Cruises in the south of France- We may still have a couple of summer weeks available on the Canal du Midi. Please call or email. We may well be in the region in 2011 and are accepting no-obligation tentative reservations...so call or email if you would like to be on the list.

French Stay Limitations - We've heard from several cruising friends asking our advice about recently imposed limitations on how long one may remain in France. While we don't have any definitive answers on how it may affect you and your barge on an extended cruise in France, this perspective may help. First, France removed its traditional visa requirement about a decade ago. However, following a series of terrorist attacks and a massive migration into France from North Africa (the site of many former French colonies whose citizens ostensibly hold French passports), France imposed a limitation on length of stay to deal with the flood of poor immigrants who put a significant strain on its social welfare system. There is another factor somewhat unique to France: the highly respected French bureaucracy ("bureaucrat" after all, has French origins) is provided all the tools necessary to accomplish their job...just in case they may someday feel a need to use them. Just because Parliament passes a law does not mean it is intended to be implemented, but rather as something the gendarme can pick off the shelf to use should it become necessary. So you revenue producing, economy stimulating bargers are not the object of the French stay limitation law, and we would be surprised were any such person evicted unless they made a decided pest of themselves.

New Paint Job

As part of Vertrouwen's 100th birthday celebration, we removed years of paint (above left), applied a two-part epoxy primer (above right) and, after 3 coats of two-part epoxy finish, we have the gleaming hull below. Our conclusions:

It's labor intensive
We discovered several rusted through spots where deck integrity was only decades of paint with no metal underneath
After two cruising seasons with the new paint, we find it washes clean more easily and it still looks brand new. Presumably, it will not fade or haze.
We solved an initial wet/slippery problem on the side decks by adding some non-skid crystals to a final coat; still smooth enough to clean easily, but sufficiently non-skid to minimize danger.
Scratches and dings are more serious. We need several days of sunshine for curing time between coats of 2 part epoxy primer and several finish coats. The paint, after being mixed, has a relatively short shelf life, and fumes require that you wear a ventilator for safety.

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Send mail to roger@bargingineurope.com with questions about Barging In Europe.