Full details and specifications are also available on:
http://www.EveryOneWeb.com/sailinginfrance
for english readers.

Toutes les informations sont également à trouver sur:
http://www.EveryOneWeb.com/naviguerenfrance
pour les lecteurs français.

Alle informatie en specificaties zijn ook te vinden op:
http://www.EveryOneWeb.com/vareninfrankrijk
voor de nederlandse lezers.

The charmes of old dutch barges is wellknown. To find a “klipperaak” like ours is not easy at all. The “Janna Cornelia” originally was built in 1917 as a lightweight commercial sailing barge to transport peat from the north east to the west of Holland. The wharf however made a mistake. In stead of 100 ton capacity they only came out to 80 tons. The missing 20 tons you can see on the photos that show the curves of the ship and the decks. This is only one of the reasons of her beauty. The metamorphosis into a family canalboat was performed by a dutch wharf with great workmanship to the utmost excellence, starting using the unique lines of her original state. We sailed her for 16 years throughout Holland, Belgium and France, the country we love most of all. She has been our home, way of life and we enjoyed every minute we spent with her. Now for medical reasons we must reluctantly leave her to you maybe. Writing this down makes me sad.
During those 16 years we constantly improved her to what she is now, easy to handle on both large and small waters, accurate and adapted to the circumstances on the french canals and locks. She is almost as good as new, so maintenance is reduced to painting as the time passes. She has a spacious lounge/kitchen/dining , a cabin with double berth, a cabin with two berths, a cabin with a single berth, shower room, w.c., washmachine and drier area. The little workshop is in the fore-peak and she has a fantastic spacious outside sterndeck. Dim. 22,5mx4,95m. She is more than large enough to live on board all year, ready to sail for a cruising couple with occasional visiting guests, sleeping a total of 5 persons. We hardly ever moor in harbours as she is totally independent. We unload our Smart car in minutes to explore the surroundings.
It is maybe too arrogant to say things like this but the times we received compliments, and were photographed, even passed amidst loud applause are countless. People even asked us many many imes: ”Would you not want to consider selling her to us”?.

The Perkins main engine has led us through Holland, Belgium, and France during many trips and never complained about it. On canals we make 6 km/hour; the best speed to look around and explore the surroundings. On the large rivers we make 10 km at 1700 rpm (max 2500 rpm). At this speed the engine does not take much diesel. The engine is well maintained and will be your partner for many years to come.

Our barge was constructed in 1917 as a peat transporting barge. She is completely riveted. The hull is made of low carbon iron; one of the reasons that after so many years she still is in the best shape. The other reason of course is maintainance and the use of quality materials like epoxy paint etc. etc. . All the work transformed her to what she is now; my second love!

Let me guide you throught the Janna Cornelia home.

We start by going down from the stern deck to the dining. Next to the door you will see the fuse cabinet and communications VHF gear. Underneath (the blue box) is a Victron 24V to 12 V inverter for general 12 V use such as the VHF. As we live on board without having a house somewhere, all we have is on board. You will see so going through the photos.

The dining table and the chairs, so to speak are not there as you can see through them. We love that and we love them being so utterly french!! Not like in any house, there is hardly a distance between the kitchen unit and the table so clearing the table is a matter of seconds.
Like everywhere in the saloon the whole is bathed in light with outside views, so you are connected with the surroundings. We love that!!
The galley is well-equipped to prepare up to the gorgious french cooking.
The lounge is spacious and furnished like in any house. Look also in the ceiling at the skylight. It provides for extra light in the lounge. One of the two windows is always slightly open to create air circulation together with other windows in the lounge etc. We like fresh
air! Did you already see the wood-burning stove in the corner? This rascal easily heats the whole ship in the south of France. Wintering in the north of France or Belgium or Holland simply starting up the central heating some days is all you need to do during frost periods. All rooms incl. engine room have radiators! Once we wintered in the middle of 50 centimeters ice at minus 20 degrees Celcius in the north of Holland. We had no problems whatsoever. Our sun went to school skating and had lots of fun. Next to the galley I arranged my internet corner to keep in touch with the rest of the world.
The passage leeds to the cabins, bathroom and the launderette.
The owner’s cabin is cosy. It has sufficient wardrobes for all our clothes. Above the double berth there are two shelves for ……
The single cabin has two wardrobes and an extra for shoes.
The double cabin has two wardrobes.

The stern deck is splendid! Up to 15 people can have and already had parties like this photo shows. Directly from the galley you can serve everybody outside!

For many years we had our Honda to do the shopping and making tours in the surroundings. Since 2006 we drive a Smart. This enlarges our radius of action. We changed the fore-deck situation slightly and now in only minutes we drive our Smart on board either from starboard or port and wherever the bank is not higher than 1 meter, which is
practically everywhere.

You do want to see some ot the technical side of Janna Cornelia.

Upfront the Victron elctronics are regulating it all.

Outside we have our solar panels.

In the fore peak we have the little workshop and the generator. Its control panel is next to the fore cabins so we do not need to go outside in bad weather to start the generator.

A 900 Amp/hour seperate board battery is our electric "storage room"!

The professional Speck high pressure waterpump provides our drinking water.

Like in United Kingdom America and Australia and maybe other countries we found, that warm watersupply directly to the wash machine is a good idea. This makes it also possible to do the washing without starting the generator while you are sailing. That is why we arranged the same on our ship.

The central heater takes its diesel eather from up front or from the engine room. As the circulation pump is connected to the thermostat the pump consumes very little electricity. We like to economise on electricity because we nearly always stay out of ports, have our solar panels and avoid using the unnecessary.

On the after deck we have all the necessary at hand. It looks
like the leeboard winch is operated by hand, but we only need to push a button.

Directing the satellite dish on the Rhone. We can have the dish on eather port or starboard side. Besides that we have a tripod to be able to set the dish further away from the ship in order to have connection with the satellite.

All the necessary equipment you can think of is there, like hydraulic steering by wheel or remote control, VHF, GPS, compass, navigation lights, tunnel light, anchors, anchor winch, electric mast winch, sail winch, mooring bits, fenders, mooring pins, ground anchors, gang planks, many and extra ropes, boathooks, all naval charts of the three countries etc. etc.

The usual, like bilge pump, life jackets, fire extinguishers, railing etc.