The dream begins: in search of a spits

In May 2023, Christa and Robert found themselves aboard a magnificent vessel. It was a 30-meter motorized spits (a type of inland cargo barge) moored somewhere in the north of the Netherlands. They walked through the corridors, felt the steel, and saw how someone had transformed a cargo ship into a home. Christa and Robert didn’t need to look at each other to know what the other was thinking.

They wanted this, too. But bigger. And truly their own.

Less than a week later, a flyer went out. Sent to shipyards, brokers, and anyone who might know where a historic spits was for sale. Their requirements were specific: a ship built in 1960, 39 meters long, 5 meters wide, with an air draft of 3.5 meters. These were the exact dimensions dictated by the bridges and locks in France and Belgium. The plan was to convert it into a live-aboard vessel. Fully capable of navigating the canals and completely self-sufficient.

One sentence in that a flyer was made it immediately clear just how far the dream had progressed and how little had actually been arranged: “We do not yet have a mooring. Do you happen to know a solution?”
That was the first step. The ship didn’t exist yet. The mooring didn’t exist yet. But the flyer had been sent. And with that, there was no turning back.

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