What is a barge?
You may well find more comprehensive answers to your question in our Barge Buyers Handbook, buy it here: BBH For our purposes, a barge is a vessel originally designed for freight-carrying primarily in inland or estuarial waters, or a replica of such a vessel. Compared to almost all other types of vessel, a converted barge can provide by far the best value-for-money and most usable accommodation (floor space) afloat. No vessel is cheap to own, but barges are comparatively less expensive to maintain and operate than most other craft of their size. As a result, they are very suitable for living in, and for cruising the vast networks of inland waterways in Europe (and elsewhere). However, most are not suitable for seagoing, except for short trips (e.g. crossing the English Channel) in benign weather (i.e. minimal swell, and winds no more than Force 4, beyond which most barge insurance becomes invalid). The barges we are interested in are mostly too small to be used economically for freight
A barge is a type of flat bottomed boat, typically with a very shallow draft, which is used to transport goods along rivers and canals. The basic design of a barge is very simple, and the boats have been in use for thousands of years. In addition to being used to transport cheap heavy goods, barges are also sometimes used as pleasure craft for parties and entertainment. Numerous shipping companies retain a fleet of barges to move materials once they have reached a port, in varying sizes to navigate different river and canal environments. A classic barge resembles a very large raft. Typically, a barge has no superstructure and a limited crew, primarily on board to supervise loading and unloading. In many cases, a barge is unpowered, and has to be moved with the assistance of a tugboat. In this situation, the captain and first mate are aboard the tugboat, not the barge, as the tugboat is providing the power and steering for the barge. On self powered barges, the crew includes a captain a
