Ventana - before

In 2005, J and I travelled over to Amsterdam and searched the Netherlands for a boat to buy and moor in Chiswick. We had already secured the mooring and knew we could purchase a vessel up to 100 feet long.  We were looking for something with character, a project, something we could completely renovate. Our only criteria was that the hull should pass a survey and be fit to cross the channel to it’s new home.

We ended up buying Ventana, 100ft long and 14ft wide because of her fantastic wheel house which was to become our dining room, the spacious interior. My only regret is that we don’t have pictures of her when we saw her sitting neglected in Holland. Here she is in Chiswick in all her glory and a lick of paint

Before she came to the UK, she had a full survey and some steel work done to repair some railings. We also had the roof raised at the stern to gain a bathroom with enough hedadroom inside and had some extra portholes put in.

The channel crossing was made at night - better to see the lights of the passing cargo ships that would make mincemeat of our small home-to-be. Once she was in place on Chiswick Pier, we got to work on the interior.

The living area

Looking back towards the galley towards the cabins

The master bathroom

You can see we had our work cut out! We had to strip the hull back on the inside to the steel, put in a layer of plastic (to stop the condensation), the insulation, piping, electrics. Almost like building from scratch.

In my next post I’ll show you all the after shots.