Looking for European houseboat in North America

Hi all,

I've been looking for information regarding my plans below. I spend some time searching the internet and your lovely forum popped up. I apologise if this is not the right place to ask.

Here goes. I currently live in Europe and will be moving in Canada sometime next year (if all the visa stuff goes well, *cross fingers*). Anyway, where I live, there are a lot of houseboats/liveaboards/.. like this: Woonboot Spits - www.boten.be - Andere boot Staal - Diesel

These are built from old steel barges 40 meters long (132 feet) and 5 meters wide (16 feet). You can generally buy and old barge in good condition for +- 80 000 $, and convert them for an additional 60 000 - 250 000 $, depending on how crazy you want to be. They offer a lot of space, and you can basically live in them like in a normal house, with the big advantage of not being stuck to one place. They are not meant to travel with regularly (although most of them have working engines).

I have been looking on Canadian and US websites/listings to find similar things. I looked for "barge" and "houseboats", but nothing similar turned up. Please note English is not my first language, and I am quite unfamiliar with the various terms regarding boats/ships/trawlers/barges etc. Which brings me to my first question: How would you describe a boat like this ?

Next, assume I find a boat like this. These are steel barges. I've read it's almost impossible to get steel boats insured. Is this correct ? These boats typically go in to the dock every 5 years to get corroded/rusted steel plates replaced if necessary.

If the above boats are non-existent in North America, are there alternatives for my wishes ? I am looking for:
- a boat with lots of room, comparable to a normal house
- I do not intend to use it as a boat often, only when I need to move for longer periods of time, eg for my job
- to keep the price low, I want to buy the basic boat, and then transform it into a housing boat myself or with the help of others. Are there any companies that have experience doing such things? There probably are, but I have no idea where to start looking or for what to search.

Thank you very much for any information you are willing or able to share !

Kind regards,
Digits

Man that is one cool looking house boat. Welcome to the forum. Most conversions here in the South are Fishboats being turned into Live abord trawlers. Same concept but I would think the old shrimp boats would be easier to handle than a barge. Good luck with your visa. Paul

You may want to investigate the laws where you plan to live in Canada. There may be restrictions on where you could moor a vessel such as this (outside of a marina). Also Canada has very strict laws regarding discharge of human waste on inland waters.

I have always liked the canal boats / barges of Europe and wondered why there weren't similar vessels on the inland waters of North America. Maybe something larger but along these lines.

Erie Canal Boats


Ted

Canada is a big country

What part of it will you live in?? Relatively temperate coasts or hard freezing Great lakes?

Bob

weebobby said:

What part of it will you live in?? Relatively temperate coasts or hard freezing Great lakes?

Bob

Click to expand...

Ah yes, good that you mention it. It will be in Manitoba, so the hard freezing areas. My goal is to live it all the time, so also in the winter, which means the boat itself will be heated.

I have no idea yet what else to do to make sure it survives the extreme temperatures/ice. I haven't done research in that area.

Unfortunately the North American equivalent of a European Canal Barge does not exist. The barges you can find are typically 120' by 40' flat deck or hopper barges. These would be more-or-less impossible to get to Manitoba. What are available though are steel sectional barges, intended to be trucked to the inland location and assembled.

See Barges

Welcome,

having lived in Europe, (the Netherlands, Germany and Italy) for years, there are a number of issues you may want to consider:
1. live-aboards that don't move very much, like houseboats, have not the best reputation in many cities. That is cities are tolerating the ones already there, but don't want any more.
2. If the boat is older than 25 years (steel or fiberglass), you may have problems with insurance. Wood is out of the question.
3. The Erie Canal boats mentioned are an option, but since we never really developed a narrow canal system, most of our barges were made for places like the great lakes and the Mississippi River.. Very different than the sedate canals of the UK, France or the Low Countries.
4. Manitoba winters are closer to Siberia than Belgium! Certainly closer Moscow than Brugges.

If you know for sure you may be in the plains of Canada, then investigate what boats are actually in the water (frozen in during the winter) year around.

Also, lastly, If in Manitoba, where can you do by water in any case?? They may have millions of lakes, but not much navigable rivers.

good Luck and keep us informed.

Richard

Wxx3 said:

Also, lastly, If in Manitoba, where can you do by water in any case?? They may have millions of lakes, but not much navigable rivers.

Click to expand...

Thank you Richard, a lot of good points. Especially the one above. I assumed all lakes were interconnected with each other. Apparantly I was wrong.

I am trying to find a map now of the navigable waterways in Manitoba and Canada.

Might be time to find a Plan B instead of a map.

Hi Digits,

Why not ship a Laser Cutted Steel Plate Kit to Canada and weld it there together?

Ships easy in a container and might be the cheapest solution i know dutch people who did the same to Suriname.

Link: Euro Ship Services, 15 meter Barge

Hi Reiziger,

it looks cool, but I am looking for a bigger one: 40 meters long (132 feet) and 5 meters wide (16 feet)

There are already similar boats as the one you mentioned located in Canada itself, so that would save me the hassle. However, since I am getting used to seeing these big houseboats here in Europe, I am first trying to find something similar in North America.

I'll put it on the plan B list

Groeten,
Digits

Reiziger said:

Hi Digits,

Why not ship a Laser Cutted Steel Plate Kit to Canada and weld it there together?

Ships easy in a container and might be the cheapest solution i know dutch people who did the same to Suriname.

Link: Euro Ship Services, 15 meter Barge

Click to expand...

digits said:

Hi Reiziger,

it looks cool, but I am looking for a bigger one: 40 meters long (132 feet) and 5 meters wide (16 feet)

There are already similar boats as the one you mentioned located in Canada itself, so that would save me the hassle. However, since I am getting used to seeing these big houseboats here in Europe, I am first trying to find something similar in North America.

I'll put it on the plan B list

Groeten,
Digits

Click to expand...

Look at their website they can design and Laser Cut all you want, next link is a 20 meter barge;

Link: Euro Ship Services 20 meter Barge

Manitoba "Praire schooner"

digits said:

I am trying to find a map now of the navigable waterways in Manitoba and Canada.

Click to expand...

Lake Winnipeg is 258 miles long and up to 60 miles wide, a fair sized body of water........

Lake Winnipeg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tad Roberts said:

Lake Winnipeg is 258 miles long and up to 60 miles wide, a fair sized body of water........

Lake Winnipeg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Click to expand...

Yes, quite big indeed. I am not looking for a detailed map, more something that would show which lakes are connected with each other by boat.

On Google maps I can see the Red river flowing through Manitoba, with pictures of boats on them.

The Canadian government publishes maps of navigable waterways. Might be a good place to start ...

RickB said:

The Canadian government publishes maps of navigable waterways. Might be a good place to start ...

Click to expand...

Indeed, but they are very detailed, and -as far as I can see- only published for the lakes themselves. Nothing in between.

This might mean that the lakes are not connected at all, or that there is simply not much demand for charts of those waterways.

//edit:
This is the link with their chart index:
http://www.fedpubs.com/mpchrt/charts/chartind.htm

Tad Roberts said:

Lake Winnipeg is 258 miles long and up to 60 miles wide, a fair sized body of water........

Lake Winnipeg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Click to expand...

It also freezes solid for several months of the year and temperatures of minus 45c are fairly normal.
Try living aboard in that!

Bob

also take a look at some Canadian boating magazines, pacific yachting is the first to come to mind, dont think I have haerd a request like yours before, to cold for 6+ monthsof the year.

Why not ship a Laser Cutted Steel Plate Kit to Canada and weld it there together?

Especially if the boat is large , getting a boat with a 16 ft beam delivered down most roads would be very costly.

So build it lakeside and keep it there.

FF said:

Why not ship a Laser Cutted Steel Plate Kit to Canada and weld it there together?

Especially if the boat is large , getting a boat with a 16 ft beam delivered down most roads would be very costly.

So build it lakeside and keep it there.

Click to expand...

Far cheaper to email cut-files to Winnipeg and have the steel cut there.

Dear Digits,

I'm afraid that I have entirely bad news for you.

First, the boat: Yes, Luxe barges are beautiful. No, they do not exist in North America. The canal era here was very short-lived, since most of the continent was settled after the invention of the railroad. And no, there are not any similar types of boats.

Second, living aboard: While it is possible to live aboard in certain places in Canada, primarily on the west coast, in general living aboard is legally and practically problematic.

Third, Manitoba: I spent several years living in Manitoba. I was back there 14 days ago. I stood on the shore of Lake Winnipeg and looked out at an unbroken expanse of ice. Yes, that's right, ice on May 11th. Ice that's 4 feet thick in the winter. When it's -30, without the wind chill. Ice that moves around with the wind, and just a few kilometers from where I was crushed entire houses:

Manitoba homes crushed as 9-metre high wall of ice slams into them | Canada | News | National Post

I assure you, there is no living on boats in the winter in Manitoba. Any by "winter" I mean "October 1st through June 1st".

Fourth, inter-lake navigation: While the main rivers (Red, Assinoboine) in Manitoba are navigable, almost every single lake is landlocked. There are some large lakes with geat boating (Lake Winnipeg, Lake Of The Woods) but boats have to be trailered between the lakes.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,

Scott Welch
Island Eagle

Hi Scott,

thank you for your clear message. Although not what I hoped for, certainly very helpful. I guess there's no need to sugercoat it.

I'm still hoping a golden alternative will appear

Thanks,
Digits

While its not as nice from the anchored out privacy of a vessel, a good motorhome or 5th wheel might serve.

Many 5th wheels with 4 slide outs are large inside anf are constructed for severe weather.

If course these cost more (like a blue water boat compared to a brown water boat) , but they sometimes can be fiunf used.

Even used is expensive these days as the oil/gas boom in N Dakota is a hot spot for winterized units..