OUR BOAT

We finally found our dream ship in the north of the Netherlands, in a small village called Akkrum in the province of Friesland. We both fell immediately in love with this unique and special vessel because of its looks and the great fit for tours in the Amsterdam canals.

It's a bit of a mystery how to categorize our Giuliana precisely. Different specialists have looked at our boat and some say it's an executive vessel, some say it's a saloon boat, some even say it's partly a tugboat.

We know for sure she is around a hundred years old, because of the construction methods used, and she has been officially classified as sailing heritage of the Netherlands by Oude Glorie, an organization of engine-powered boats from before 1945.

After an adventurous crossing of the IJsselmeer, we took our beauty to the famous IJwerf at the NDSM site in Amsterdam. For ten months the boat was meticulously renovated: the original engine was replaced with a new electric motor and two large battery packs. We lowered the cabin and the floor so we can pass through all the low bridges of Amsterdam — and you can still stand up completely inside. A new wooden floor was inserted, and the other wooden elements and fittings were restored to their original beauty. We installed benches on the open deck for sunny days, and a brand-new roof was made with windows all around for the perfect view all year round.

After a full safety inspection and a welfare check by the commission of Waternet Amsterdam, we finally obtained our license for 12 passengers for Giuliana in July 2019.

All of this accumulated into what is, in our eyes, the perfect canal boat: 12 guests can be comfortably seated, with a toilet on board, a fridge and an audio system, plus both a covered inside and an open outside deck — perfectly adapted to sail through Amsterdam, even to those places where the bigger boats cannot go.