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Post by harrytom on Feb 11, 2024 18:01:11 GMT 12
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Post by muzled on Feb 14, 2024 11:46:10 GMT 12
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Post by ComfortZone on Feb 20, 2024 15:57:33 GMT 12
we are currently cruising around Whangaroa and have seen this houseboat "The Barge" several times:  Whilst no work of art she looks very comfortable if you want a mother ship carrying multiple small craft to park in the secluded bays. Appears to be well equipped sea wise, inboard diesel(s), correct nav lights, radar and even the rear view mirror off a van to allow the skipper to see what is going on behind him. |
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Post by sabre on Feb 20, 2024 19:07:48 GMT 12
we currently cruising around Whangaroa and have seen this houseboat "The Barge" several times: View AttachmentWhilst no work of art she looks very comfortable if you want a mother ship carrying multiple small craft to park in the secluded bays. Appears to be well equipped sea wise, inboard diesel(s), correct nav lights, radar and even the rear view mirror off a van to allow the skipper to see what is going on behind him. I seen that too. (hard to miss) That thing is massive. It must have decent water tanks as it was parked at the water bouy for quite some time. Bloody cool batch in a very cool spot though. I could mooch around Whangaroa for an extended period if I were retired. I assumed it was local. I couldn't work out the cladding. It almost looked like plaster? Hopefully its not a leaky building as I did notice the roof line has a little kink in it about 2/3rds along the top deck. |
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Post by ComfortZone on Feb 21, 2024 7:50:40 GMT 12
we currently cruising around Whangaroa and have seen this houseboat "The Barge" several times: View AttachmentWhilst no work of art she looks very comfortable if you want a mother ship carrying multiple small craft to park in the secluded bays. Appears to be well equipped sea wise, inboard diesel(s), correct nav lights, radar and even the rear view mirror off a van to allow the skipper to see what is going on behind him. I seen that too. (hard to miss) That thing is massive. It must have decent water tanks as it was parked at the water bouy for quite some time. Bloody cool batch in a very cool spot though. I could mooch around Whangaroa for an extended period if I were retired. I assumed it was local. I couldn't work out the cladding. It almost looked like plaster? Hopefully its not a leaky building as I did notice the roof line has a little kink in it about 2/3rds along the top deck. The Barge is anchored alongside us so been examining her with the binoculars  . The cladding looks like either plywood or fibre cement. All the windows appear to be wood framed, the handrails around the decks look to be 3 x 2's. I think the roof line profile is deliberate for water catching. You would expect there would be a bunch of solar panels on the roof but cannot see any from our lower elevation. We can see 2 little mesh green houses on the foredeck and a washing machine in the foredeck shelter. Would hope they have some sort of treatment system or composting units for the toilets. Overall has more space than many inner city apartments. |
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Post by em on Feb 21, 2024 9:04:47 GMT 12
That’s bloody epic ! Is it flat bottom or cat ?
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Post by sabre on Feb 21, 2024 11:42:07 GMT 12
From memory I think it is a cat with fairly large hulls.
If it were mine I would definately go composting toilet and I would also want a really big anchor!
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Post by ComfortZone on Feb 21, 2024 16:41:27 GMT 12
OK, got all the details for The Barge from the owners Roland and Maureen who kindly gave us a tour and answered our 1000 questions She is a cat 20m x 6m x .75 draft x 5.4m above waterline. All construction ply, 25mm for hull and wing deck, with 250 x 50 cross beams for the wing deck. All the super structure is framed, insulated and clad with plywood 2 by Nissan 2.2 l diesels, the fuel tanks are 2 x 200l drums each side in the hulls. 6,000 litres of water in cubes in the hulls. The barge basically runs on solar, with enough grunt for an electric oven. Water heating by Rinnai califont. Flush toilets that go to a macerating tank, then pumped to a cube for storage for pump out/open sea disposal. Living/Kitchen area aft, bathroom and workshop forward on lower level, upper level has wheelhouse/bunkroom, master and guest bedrooms, with a shared bath room Roland is a retired builder, the plan was sketched up sitting on a beach with Maureen's direction that she wanted a floating bach. Boat was built in 1 year from start to barely finished just before first lockdown, built hull and lower deck in a shed at Ruakaka with upper deck built as pre fab flat pack. Trucked to Marsden Cove for assembly, Roland said the boat builders there were horrified to see him at work with the nail gun putting her together. Says she is much better underway than expected, not fast 6kts downwind, 4.5 kts upwind into 20kts, he is ok taking it out with 20kts blowing as long as not too much wave action. Alot of componentry fixtures and fittings came off Trademe, has even laminated a bench top and bath room sink from strips of plywood. All credit to them to build a boat that while not pretty suits their needs to a tee.     couple more pics to follow |
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Post by ComfortZone on Feb 21, 2024 16:43:45 GMT 12
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Post by sabre on Feb 22, 2024 10:14:24 GMT 12
What a fantastic way to spend retirement. Did you get a picture of the anchor??
Do they have a mooring up there or do they travel up and down the coast?
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Post by ComfortZone on Feb 22, 2024 14:11:01 GMT 12
What a fantastic way to spend retirement. Did you get a picture of the anchor?? Do they have a mooring up there or do they travel up and down the coast? Which anchor? The Barge looked like the rural agent for our CRA mate  . I counted about 6 anchors on deck as well as the one they were holding to. Regular anchors are 30kg plough and a Manson ROCNA copy. The one of interest was a huge 3 piece "Bugel" storm anchor, the fluke, hoop and shank were all bolt together, fluke looked near on the wing size of an F111! Has not got wet yet. No they do not have a mooring, just move around. |
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Post by ComfortZone on Feb 25, 2024 12:26:12 GMT 12
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Post by em on Feb 25, 2024 18:32:25 GMT 12
It “ positioned “ itself a mere 50 meters from us for lunch at deep water cove yesterday . Very eerie , no sign of life for two hours except for the odd backlit glimpse of a stewardess through the windows on the lower deck . Very very quiet for a boat of that size , couldn’t hear the generators and the thrusters were almost silent and did an exceptional job of holding it on staton head to wind . It was 500m astern of us at Moturua this morning and I picked up 5 different wifi networks from it when searching for my phone hotspot . Attachments:
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Post by Fogg on Feb 26, 2024 9:26:22 GMT 12
When you’ve got endless electrical energy available then makes sense to use the silent electric thrusters to hold you for a lunch stop rather than messing with a big noisy anchor that might snag and get you on the wrong side of the seaweed police.
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Post by Fogg on Feb 26, 2024 12:22:34 GMT 12
Yes I’m a bit bored.. 😊  |
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. I counted about 6 anchors on deck as well as the one they were holding to. Regular anchors are 30kg plough and a Manson ROCNA copy.
but interesting read from the techo perspective, 
