Tomorrow I Am Heading to the Netherlands to Film Four Boats
A classic Dutch cruiser, a bridge-hopping vlet, and two more boats, all with the same broker, all worth knowing about.
Tomorrow morning I am heading to the Netherlands from London on day trip.
I have arranged access to film four boats in a single day, all sitting with the same broker, ranging from a bridge-hopping steel vlet you could genuinely live aboard on a modest budget, right up to a serious ocean-capable motor yacht I have been wanting to get aboard for months. It is a genuine mixed bag, and I think there is something in this lineup for almost everyone reading this.
Here are the first two, including full specs and asking prices.
Boat One: A Dutch Motor Yacht, EUR 565,000
Let us start with the boat I suspect a lot of you already know the shape of, even if you have never heard the builder’s name. This yard is one of those Dutch builders whose motor yachts you have probably seen a hundred times on a marina walk without clocking who actually built them. She was built in 2007, and at 16.10 metres with a 4.60 metre beam, she sits in that sweet spot of being genuinely capable without needing a professional crew to run her.
She is steel-hulled with teak decks, twin diesels producing 180hp each, and those engines have logged 2,200 hours, which is comfortable, well-used territory. Stabilisers are fitted, which matters more than people think on a boat this size when you are crossing open water rather than pottering the canals, and she has hydraulic bow and stern thrusters. That matters more than it sounds. Electric thrusters are fine for the odd nudge in and out of a marina berth, but they overheat and need to rest between uses. Hydraulic thrusters are cooled by the fluid running through them, so you can lean on them continuously in a genuinely difficult docking situation, a tight lock, or a strong crosswind, without worrying about them cutting out on you halfway through.
Two cabins sleep four, and the interior has had a full refresh, a restyled salon, new electrics, and high-end 2-volt gel batteries. At EUR 565,000, she sits at a genuinely accessible price point for a 16-metre steel motor yacht from a recognised Dutch builder. I am looking forward to seeing whether she runs as well as the spec sheet suggests.
Boat Two: A Traditional Dutch Vlet, EUR 149,500
This is the one I am most curious about, and probably the most interesting boat on the trip for anyone dreaming about getting onto the water without remortgaging the house.
Built in 1991, she is a traditional round-bilged steel vlet, 13.60 metres long with a 4.00 metre beam. The detail that actually matters here is her air draft of around 2.85 metres. That is low enough to get her under a huge number of Dutch and other European bridges without being worried if your radar arch is going to get damaged, which opens up a genuinely wide cruising area across the inland waterways, somewhere a taller boat simply cannot follow.
A single diesel at 113hp drives her, which is entirely typical for a vlet of this displacement, and she carries double glazing, central heating, and a washer-dryer, so she is genuinely set up for extended time aboard rather than just weekend trips. Two cabins sleep four, with a separate owner’s cabin forward. At EUR 149,500, this is about as accessible an entry point into serious Dutch steel cruising as you will find anywhere on the market right now.
The other two boats I am filming tomorrow are a different proposition entirely. One of them is asking EUR 569,000 and the other EUR 269,000, and both of them deserve a much longer conversation than I can have with you here in the free section. Exactly where I am going, who the broker is, and my full first impressions of both vessels are below, for paid subscribers only.
By the way, it is thanks to my premium subscribers here on my Substack that I can make trips like this one at all. Of course, brokers and builders sometimes offer to cover my travel (not on this occasion). But I think my readers and audience appreciate the totally independent perspective that comes from me paying my own way, filming what I actually find, and telling you the truth about it afterwards.
This article continues below, in “The Wardroom”
In the premium section, I cover:
- Exactly where I am going and who I am filming with: the broker, the location, and why this yard is worth knowing about
- *Boat Three, the single-owner steel kotter*: full specification and my honest first impressions of a serious 18-metre steel motor yacht from a single owner since new
- *Boat Four, the modern steel trawler*: full specification on this 2011-built steel trawler, and what her recent underwater hull treatment tells you about how she has been looked after
- My honest assessment of all four asking prices: how they compare against each other and against the wider Dutch brokerage market right now
The Wardroom is Yacht Buoy’s members area. For just GBP 75 a year (that works out at roughly GBP 6.25 a month if you would rather pay monthly, or around USD 8.34 / EUR 7.31 a month), you get the full ownership picture behind every boat I cover, not just the brochure version. If you are serious about this world, it earns its keep on the first article.
Where I Am Going, and Who I Am Filming With
