We never know what’s going to turn up here at Fox’s and, over nearly 90 years, the yard has certainly seen its fair share of unusual and historic craft.
This week we were privileged to be asked to launch the beautiful old Dutch barge Adelaar, which was built in 1906 at a large boatyard in Holland called Industrie Boot, in Alphen aan de Rijn. The boatyard was founded in 1851 and was famous for developing its own marine engines in the early 1900’s and for being one of the first yards in Europe to start fitting engines into boats.
Adelaar was built as a sailing tjalk with a riveted iron hull, and was originally fitted with leeboards and the traditional short-gaff sailing rig. She is 14m long with a completely flat bottom, drawing only 0.6m. Her main trade was delivering potatoes to the islands and coastal towns around the IJsselmeer. She was converted to a houseboat in the early 1970s and fitted with a DAF engine by the owner of a small boatyard in Wessem, south east Holland, from where her new owner had her transported by road and ferry for launching at Fox’s.
