Old Freight Barges
With their beautiful hulls with elegant sheer lines, designed  to carry cargo under sail and later powered by early diesel and steam engines. Their construction methods with the round bilge originates from their wooden predecessors. From the 1890ies they were built from riveted steel. Nobody knows what their expected life span would have been but I am pretty they the builder and design would be very pleased to know that they are still around ...

Now - 100 years later
it is getting very hard to find barge hulls which have not been over-plated in many areas. Wear along the river banks and corrosion over the last decade has somehow weakened most hulls. They can be repaired! Either by cutting out the bad bits and letting in new steel sections - a very costly and tedious method. Or by over plating the old hull - quicker but not as sound a repair.

DIY Nightmares
Having finished their trading career’s most barges get a new lease of live as life aboard, charter barges or cruising homes. The quality of fit outs ranges from DIY nightmares to professional boat builders grade. So their is two issue to consider when buying a second hand barge. Firstly whether you like the style and layout of the conversion and secondly the quality and condition of the fit out. There is also the issue that the appliances and systems are all a little used and probably out dated.

So why not buy a completely new built barge ?
No problem with corrosion and old systems. Superior paint systems on brand new steel, optimized hull shapes for pleasure cruising without the need to of carry 100 tons of cargo. New engine, electrical systems, bow and stern trusters and the dimension to suit your cruising ground, crew size and budget.

From 15m to 24m
We can now offer round bilge and multi chine designs from 15m to 24m with a range of beams from 3.6 to 5m.~
Click here to find our range of models

OLD vs NEW
So there are a number of advantages to buying new. However there are also some drawbacks - budget being one of them. To summarize our feelings on the advantages and disadvantages between New and Old Barges click here

Motor & Sailing Barges
In principle any barge hull can be rigged and sailed. Most of the barges built before 1920 started of as sailing barges and were converted to motor barges when engines became available. If you look round this site you probably gather tat your particular interest is in sailing barges. As 99% of all sailing barges now also have an engine the sailing rig really is an add on what starts as a motor barge. To find out what what the difference between sailing and motor barging is click here.