When painter Vincent van Gogh visited our province 140 years ago by steam train, he started his route in Hoogeveen and then took the boat to New Amsterdam. The Drentse Praam Foundation wants to organize so-called Van Gogh cruises this year along the same route and has therefore bought an old ship. This barge is not yet sailing and has therefore been transported to Meppel, where the boat is being prepared for the cruises.
It’s drizzling a bit around the industrial port in Hoogeveen, when volunteers from the Drentse Praam are preparing to move the ship. This eventually succeeds in two stages. On Thursday, the ship was first sailed from Hoogeveen to the viaduct at Alteveer and a day later continued to a heated warehouse in Meppel.
“A hybrid motor will be installed, because the previous one needed to be replaced. We will also adjust some things and repaint the boat,” says Albert Wolting of Stichting Drentse Praam.
The relocation operation was not arranged in an instant, because the barge is not yet able to sail independently. Wolting therefore used his own boat the Caland to transport the ship. “I have an electric hydraulic boom on the back of the ship. I moved it back lengthwise, stabilized it and then connected it to the boat. This way the barge cannot move backwards or forwards and it doesn’t collide with anything.”
This method of transport seems to be paying off, because the boat floats stably on the water while sailing. Still, Wolting finds it all exciting. His own boat is already quite long, but now some meters are added. “Fortunately it was very calm on the water and we did not encounter any other traffic. That made the trip a lot more relaxed,” explains Wolting.
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