When I was a child I was obsessed with the Arthur Ransome’s
Swallows and Amazons stories. I hankered after the independence,
carefree existence and endless adventures messing about on the water;
I wanted to be one of the Walker children. Three decades on and I am just beginning to realise those dreams.
Given that these originated from a love of all things Ransome it
would have been fitting if my first dalliance with adventures afloat
had been in a traditional clinker built dinghy with tan sails.
However this is not the route my husband, Tim, and I decided to
follow when we set out to buy a boat and embark on a life changing
adventure. We needed something more challenging than a small sailing
boat and so after much thought plumped for a 60 foot Dutch sailing
barge which we intended to renovate The plan was for Tim to give up
his day job in web design and for us to convert the barge for use as
a holiday business. In true Swallows and Amazons style we thought “if
not duffers…..what could possibly go wrong?
Well as it turned out quite a lot! In June 2008 we took delivery
of a hundred year old Dutch Skutsje class sailing barge called Twee Gebroeders
and embarked on a full restoration and a very steep learning curve.
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| Sitting in the cockpit on the day be bought TG in Bristol |
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| Coming out of the water at Bristol Marina |
Neither of us had any experience of barges and so made our first
mistake almost immediately by buying without a survey. As it turned
out this was not too disastrous for us as we subsequently stripped
the boat back to a bare hull and in doing so found everything that a
survey would have revealed. She had large areas of rust in several
sections of her topsides and her hull needed to be completely over
plated. Her mast was also rotten inside and would need to be replaced
before we would be able to hoist her rather enormous sails.
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| Stripping out the interior |
In the summer of 2008 we set about renovating Twee Gebroeders (or
TG as she affectionately became known) from Melton Boatyard at the
head of the River Deben. Without any previous experience or any real
DIY acumen we tackled a host of jobs that we wouldn’t previously
have dreamed about in our quest to rebuild our 111 year old barge.
Over a two year period we cut off the roof and raised the head height
inside by 6 inches. We took off the swinging counter balance on the
mast and added a new cabin to the front of the barge. We cut holes
for new windows which we had made by Houdini Marine and then primed,
battened and had the interior spray foam insulated. We installed new
water tanks, plumbing, wiring and commissioned a completely new
cabinet made interior from solid iroko, fitted by Paul Andrews now of
Heritage Coast Cabinet Makers. We sanded, primed, painted and
varnished; changing the outside colour scheme several times before we
were happy.
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| Cutting the roof off to raise the height |
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| Adding a new cabin at the front which is now the master bedroom |
Along the way we learnt a huge amount about barge restoration and
marine systems as well as much about ourselves and our ability to
cope in high pressure situations. We had many moments of despair,
most memorably in the winter of 2008 when TG was a bare hull with no
roof attached; open to the elements and leaking water. Work was slow
due to freezing temperatures and snow and our asset was valued for
insurance at a fraction of her purchase price.
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| Foam insulation |
We were initially quite naïve and made some silly mistakes but we
soon found out what jobs we could safely tackle ourselves and what
was best left to the experts. We were warned at the outset to work
out a budget and then double it; advice which we took with a pinch of
salt but which turned out to be so true. We ran over time and over
budget by some considerable amount just at the height of the banking
crisis when money became harder to source. As a result we spent many
sleepless nights wondering how we were going to raise the capital to
finish our restoration.
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| Tim preparing the outside for painting |
Somehow we managed and in June 2010 we applied our last coat of
paint and took our first holiday booking and really felt like we had
achieved something. Since then we have welcomed hundreds of people
aboard and have had some amazing feedback from our guests. The most
notable of which came from a London family who thanked us for the
opportunity to experience a good old fashioned family adventure and
to rediscover something they felt they had lost from their own
childhood.
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| The newly fitted out saloon |
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| The new accommodation has made a cosy master bedroom |
Twee Gebroeders is now moored at Pin Mill on the River Orwell a
place notable for its Arthur Ransome connections. With Alma Cottage,
the Butt and Oyster and the Nancy Blackett moored just upstream at
Woolverstone I am feeling more involved in the Ransome experience by
the day. We regularly run TG up and down the Orwell and Stour but
currently have to motor everywhere as our mast still needs replacing.
This will be our next step; a new mast, new rigging and then the
sails can be put back.
Thirty years ago when I sat engrossed in the pages of Swallows and
Amazons I never dreamed that one day my life would be one of sailing
boats and outdoor adventure. For me it just goes to prove if you
take an opportunity when it’s presented, if not duffers…dreams
can come true!
