Building the Orion-3 on the Dockyard in Nijmegen


Building the Orion-3


In 1999 we bought a wrecked ship without name and registration for 12,500 guilder (about 6000 euro's).


The ship was 30 meters in length, 5 meters wide and had 2 decks. It came with a 50 KVA generator which was previously used for a weed plantation aboard.


The owner told me he took the ship from the previous owner to settle a depth 20 years earlier. It had served as a coffee shop and dancing in Amsterdam and was originally build in the beginning of 1900 as a passsenger ship cruising Dutch waters.


My intention (young & foolish) was to rebuild the ship into an ocean going vessel to cruise the world and make my living by renting the ship to holiday guests or provide diving excursions in the Bahama's.


It took me many years, painful cuts and bruises, even blood and tears and loads of money before I had taken the ship apart and replaced 90% of the old ship with new steel plates. It took me another couple of years to make it into our home it is today. Is it finished? No it's not finished! Will it ever be finished? That depends...


In five years time we will cruise the oceans. Will the Orion-3 take us on this trip or shall we buy a smaller vessel? Check out the slide show below and let us know your ideas. As you can see we can surely use some advice.



Click on the play button below to watch the 'Building the Orion-3 slideshow'

Building the Orion-3 Slideshow Sealiberty Cruising



2014 - Building Boats Again


A couple of months ago we started another Boat Building Project on the Orion-3 which of course should have been finished weeks ago but in fact is only for 75% ready.


The ships belly (the hold) was one of the first parts of the Orion-3 to be completely destroyed when I first bought my monster and it took me a long time to remove all the concrete, replace all the rotten and damaged steel parts and replace it with new plating.


We build Stan & Dieye a pirate room as temporary living quarters but now they are both 13 (Dieye just had his birthday and Stan will have his next week so for about a month they are the same age) and a pirate room is definitely not cool any more.


Stan & Dieye on the Orion-3 Pirate Ship



After making a couple of sketches and reserving a budget, we ripped apart all the walls, bought 12 brand new portholes to shed some light on the disaster area, assigned a ship welder and a carpenter to the project and... left for a six week holiday :)


No chance that would result in a happy ending and the project wasn't half way done before we returned into the mess.


The carpenter had his heart broken and turned to the bottle to drink away his sorrows, showing up only a couple of hours and our welder had physical heart problems and was hospitalized ( he's fine now so don't worry, we didn't break him :) and that's why I am now finishing it myself...

Building the Orion-3 Again - 2014 Slideshow - Sealiberty Cruising




2015 - New Boat Building Project


After months of catastrophic renovation works on the Orion-3, which turned out double as expensive as we anticipated, we have finally finished the hold & so after eight years of sleeping in & sharing a moldy pirate dungeon, Stan & Dieye have their own private & spacious bedrooms now :)

Building the Orion-3 Hold 2014 Boat Project - Sealiberty Cruising



The extra bathroom with Jacuzzi was temporarily skipped to make room for our replacement master bedroom as we started of with a new boat project right away having forgotten all about the disaster our last adventure was, having enjoyed the result for a couple of days. ( I still have nightmares though)



Temporary Master Bedroom on the Orion-3 Sealiberty Cruising



I have already cleaned out the bow last weekend (which used to be our sleeping quarters and fitness center) to make way for a study & practice room. Made the first mistake by thinking the replacement bedroom would only be necessary for a couple of weeks and I would have the new boat project ready within two months :)


New Boat Building Project on the Orion-3 - the Bow - 2015- Sealiberty Cruising



We will of course keep you laughing by posting our pics now and then... Here we go again Bo Stakka!