What is praam (barge)sailing and what is a barge?

A barge is a flat-bottomed vessel mostly used by farmers.

Wikipedia says the following: a barge is a flat-bottomed vessel for shallow inland waters, intended for transporting agricultural products, livestock, etc.

The praam (with the barge) is among the oldest ship types known, occurring as early as Roman times. Sometimes the word ‘praam’ is used negatively to refer to any simple type of boat.

Round trip by barge.
We use original Frisian farmers' sailing barges that are more than 110 years old for our round trips. If you consider that ‘modern’ welding was invented around 1920, you will understand that our barges are not welded but ‘riveted’.

Use
The barges were mostly used by farmers to transport their hay or cattle. In addition, the barge was extremely suitable for transporting trade to the city because, due to their size, they could easily navigate the city canals.

The arrival of the truck

With the advent of the lorry, the use of the barge fell into decline and most of them were scrapped or lay derelict in some farm ditch. Some were rebuilt as pleasure craft or as the basis for a houseboat. We were able to save two of them, which we now use for our tours.

Barge sailing
Our riveted barges require a lot of maintenance, and in order to preserve and maintain this beautiful piece of history, we now do not transport cargo but .... tourists. We have stored the mast but the swords, stay, mast case and rudder still give a beautiful picture of the Frisian sailing barge.

To complete the history, we show old photos of the city on a screen in front of the barge. The so-called ‘Second Screen Canal Tour’. This gives you a unique view of the city's history.

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