Piper Boat Owners Club Forum

Welcome to the Piper Boat Owners club Forum. The Forum for owners of Piper built Narrowboats and Barges and anyone interested in Piper Boats. The owners club is completely separate from Piper Boats. Please feel free to post a message to club members and web site readers.

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Dutch Barge Queries

I have a question I’d like to ask Piper Dutch Style Barge owners but we’re not a member of the club yet because we don’t own a Piper Boat.

But we went to the Henley Boat show, we’ve test driven a Piper barge recently (big thanks to Phil and Alison who allowed us to join them on Alphi for the first few hours of their maiden voyage from Thames & Kennet to Penton Hook) and we’ve had long discussions with Simon about layouts & design.

My question is to do with layout & design because we want to make sure we get it right and with the benefit of hindsight, members might be able to tell us what they would have done differently.

For example:

- is a diesel heater really necessary or are the radiators enough? We might live on her full time in about five years but initially it will be week/weekend trips on the Thames followed by month long trips in France .
- opening or non opening porthole windows?
- dog house or sliding roof? We like the traditional look of the dog house but wonder if the wood will need constant care.

If it isn’t possible to ask the question online as we’re not members yet, do you know someone who owns a Dutch style Piper barge who might be able to share their tips with us?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Claire
Claire Richmond

Re: Dutch Barge Queries

Hi Claire

Good to hear from you and I'm pleased you met up with Phil and Alison - I met them down at Henley when they were three weeks of taking delivery of Alphi.

I'll get one or two of the owners to contact you, I'm sure they'll be pleased to help.

Dot

Re: Dutch Barge Queries

Hi Dot, thank you so much for posting my question on the forum. A few dutch barge owners have already been in touch and I'll be emailing/calling them next week. Claire x