WATCH | The €149,500 Dutch Classic Wintered Indoors for 25 Years
We step aboard 'Timeless', a 1991 Klaassenvlet 13.60. Built in steel with a 1.25m draft, her 25 years of indoor winter storage and recent 2026 refit present remarkable value.
There is a particular kind of very special Dutch boat that I keep coming back to time and time again. It is the Vlet: low-profile, workmanlike, steel-hulled, and built by skilled craftsmen who needed a sturdy boat that could navigate seamlessly on Dutch inland waterways without grounding or clipping a bridge.
M/Y ‘Timeless’ is one of those boats and I have just featured her on my YouTube channel. She is a Klaassenvlet 13.60, built in 1991 by Klaassen in Voorschoten, and she is currently listed for sale in Drimmelen for €149,500. During filming, she was on the hard and was coming to the end of an extensive maintenance cycle.
I think it says a lot about an owner when, despite being on the market, they invest thousands of euros in their boat, even though they will soon no longer be the owner who will benefit from the upgrades.
At 13.60 metres long with a 4 metre beam, she carries a steel hull and steel construction throughout. She is finished with a teak deck and teak interior joinery. She has a draft of just 1.25 metres with an air draft of 2.85 metres.
Those two important numbers are really what is behind the whole design philosophy of a Vlet, and I will come back to them later in the article, as they matter a great deal more than they might look on the spec sheet.
For the last 25 years, she has had the same owner and has spent every winter of that ownership stored indoors rather than being left exposed to the elements. That is the sort of detail that tells you quite a bit about a boat’s condition but also about the levels of care that went into her whilst under the stewardship of her current owner.
Indoor winter storage for 25 years is not something an indifferent owner bothers arranging. This is a vessel that has been incredibly well looked after, and I do not doubt that her current owner will be sad to see her go.
As you would expect, the maintenance record backs it up. This year alone (2026) she has had her brightwork stripped and relacquered, her hull paint gone over and inspected, a new wiring loom fitted, a full service carried out on her MAN engine and a new service battery pack installed as well. Whilst not glamorous, this work is the sort of attention to detail that keeps a 35-year-old steel boat in fantastic condition.
Power comes from her single MAN diesel that produces 113 horsepower (83kW), driving through a Twin Disc transmission that gives her a speed of 8 knots. This speed with 113 HP on a 20,000 kg steel hull is a canal cruising set-up by design, matched to a hull form (roundspant, or round bilge in English) built for efficient and comfortable displacement cruising.
Fuel capacity comes in at 1,300 litres, with an impressive fresh water capacity of 1,200 litres. Below decks, she sleeps four people across two cabins.
Klaassen built her in Voorschoten, which is a small town between Leiden and the Hague that has been producing high-quality Dutch inland and coastal craft for generations. The Vlet is a traditional Dutch working-boat form, built shallow and low so that it could move people and goods through an intricate canal network that is defined by its low bridges and shallow water.
That shallow draft and low air draft are a big part of what makes this boat very interesting for buyers who want to explore inland waterways rather than heading off across the Atlantic. Having said that, there are plenty of inland cruising waterways outside of Europe that would make a perfect home for this boat.
And the cost of shipping her to both North America and Australia (chosen because anywhere in between Europe and Australia can be judged by shipping cost, as Australia has been accounted for) works out to be less than you might think.
This article continues below in the “The Wardroom” as it is thanks to my premium subscribers that I can fund the trips necessary to feature boats like this one on my YouTube channel. So, if you are a premium subscriber, or indeed you become one, then I would like to say a massive ‘thank you!’
In the premium section below, I cover:
What it could realistically cost to transport her to her new home: realistic budgeting ranges for shipping Timeless to North America and to Australia and how those figures compare with her current asking price.
Where a boat like this actually belongs outside of her native European cruising grounds: the specific shallow, low-bridge inland waterways in the US and Australia that could suit her draught and air draft and why it matters for resale.
What she costs to run once she is there: a full annual ownership budget built from Dutch inland-cruising benchmarks with a note on where American and Australian costs are likely to differ.
An honest assessment of the current asking price: what a single-owner, indoor-wintered steel Vlet with a 2026 refit is worth against that backdrop and where she sits in the current market.
Thinking of shipping her to North America or Australia? This is how much that would cost.
