With 5 people on the Northman 1200 Electric through the Netherlands Holiday 2025 | Travel report

In June 2025, Sabine, Maik, Leon, Heidrun and Marco talked about an electric boat that Heidrun and Marco had seen at the boat show in Düsseldorf in January 2025 and had immediately fallen in love with. They spontaneously decided that they would rent an electric boat together.

They looked for a suitable date and found the period. Once that was arranged, a boat for six people was easily booked. The booking was done quickly online and we started planning the route, cities, ports and restaurants.

Monday | Check-in on board the ‘Marlin’ at Natural Yachts in Vollenhove

Brief instruction and handover of the boat by Josien, during which small points were noted on the rental agreement. Afterwards, her father gave us further instruction on how to operate the boat.

The proportional bow- and stern thruster are a beautiful and practical feature of the boat. You can turn the joystick and the boat turns on the spot in the desired direction. Amazing! We also practised stopping from full speed, so you can see how long it takes for the 8 tonnes to come to a standstill. A small slalom course and a mooring manoeuvre were also part of the instruction. You can book additional refreshment hours to get more instruction. That's also very good.

Information about the boat

Northman 1200, 100% electric with a range of up to 140 km. Length: 12.26 metres, width: 3.50 metres, draft: 0.80 metres, height above waterline: 3.20 metres, weight: 8 tonnes. Three cabins with double beds, two bathrooms with toilet and shower. Induction hob with four cooking zones, oven, microwave, refrigerator, etc. Everything you need is provided. More information about the Northman 1200 Electric can be found here.

Blokzijl

We planned to spend the first night in Blokzijl and cruised there. That was our first challenge. The water level was very low, but everything went smoothly and we passed the first bridge without any problems. Leon had been boating excellently and we arrived safely in Blokzijl.

The harbour entrance to Blokzijl – wow! How idyllic! The entrance is barely wider than our boat, and then there is the semi-circular harbour area. It is surrounded by small old houses and restaurants. And then there is the lock. The other entrance to the harbour is from the north. It is a really charming place. Blokzijl is definitely worth a visit.

The harbour in Blokzijl is very well organised. The moorings were marked to indicate the length of boat they were suitable for. We looked for a suitable mooring where we could moor backwards.

Sluiszicht

After mooring, we connected the boat to the shore power and went for something to eat. Maik had chatted with our neighbour, who recommended the Sluiszicht restaurant. So we went there and had dinner. It was a nice, small, dark and quiet restaurant. The food was good too.

Tuesday | Blokzijl

Unfortunately, the next day started with lots of rain and wind. :-( That's why we decided to stay in the small, charming harbour Blokzijl and skip Ossenzijl from our route. We had also heard that Ossenzijl wasn't really worth visiting.

When the weather cleared up a bit, we explored the small village. Blokzijl has narrow streets, a church and some nice shops.

In the evening, we had dinner at the restaurant we had chosen in advance: Restaria Blokzijl. We were happy we had reserved a table in advance. The restaurant was crowded and the food was delicious.

Pictures of Blokzijl

Wednesday | Departure from Blokzijl with Steenwijk as our destination

Shortly after departure, Marco's first lock came into view: the Blokzijl lock. Marco had already checked how the locks worked there after breakfast that morning. Everything went very smoothly. The lock and bridge were operated by a lock keeper. We were the second boat to enter the lock and were able to moor on the port side. After the lock gate opened, the bridge also opened and we were able to cruise northwards along the small canal. What a beautiful landscape!

The weather was great and we navigated calmly onwards. We reached the next bridge shortly before 1 p.m. Double red. It was still break time. Most bridges and locks have a break from 12.30 to 1 p.m. So we had to wait and moored on the side for a while.

Because the weather was so nice and we were almost at Steenwijk, Marco suggested taking advantage of the beautiful weather and cruise further south to Giethoorn. Everyone agreed, so we did that and changed our plan and course. Later, we also decided to continue on our planned route and skip Steenwijk altogether.

On the way to our chosen harbour, Marco spotted the small gondolas on the left. The small gondolas that make Giethoorn the little Venice of the Netherlands. Everyone else had overlooked them. But he knew where they were and took us all there later. Shortly afterwards, we arrived at our chosen harbour. Wow, amazing!

The harbour was like a mooring on a Marrekite in the great outdoors! It was really wonderful! Super beautiful and peaceful. Fantastic! Here, too, we went to the wash house with the harbour card, just like in Blokzijl. Handy, because we still had credit on the card. The electricity was also paid for with the harbour card.

After we had prepared the boat in the harbour, we walked towards the gondolas. How cool is that? In Giethoorn, there are really small waterways with bridges for the small gondolas. It is beautifully constructed and lovely to see. Giethoorn is also worth a visit!

In the evening, we had dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was delicious again. We slept wonderfully. I think it was the quietest night of the week.

Thursday | Departure from Giethoorn towards Genemuiden

Shortly before reaching our destination, we encountered another “double red”. The lock was closed. There was no information on our digital nautical chart, nor any indication at the lock. Unfortunately, it was not possible to navigate around it.

We moored in a nearby harbour overlooking the lock and Leon called the lock keeper. He was told that the lock was defective and that a mechanic had been working on finding the fault for half an hour. However, he could not say when the fault would be repaired. So we decided to wait for the time being. The other alternative would have been to continue our journey north and change our route again.

After about an hour and a half, the lock or closure was cleared. We were able to continue boating and reach our harbour in Genemuiden.

After mooring, we went to find the harbour master. She was still a little excited and told us that we had only missed Queen Maxima of the Netherlands by half an hour.

There we were. At the spot where Queen Máxima had walked by that afternoon. Was that why the lock was closed? No idea. The fact was that the harbour master was so enthusiastic that she gave us the wrong location for the wash house :-D

It was the city harbour in Genemuiden. Noisy, but centrally located. We were still able to do some shopping and go out for dinner. This time we went to a Chinese restaurant. It was very pleasant again. The food and service were great!

Friday

The next day, we explored Genemuiden, where the Queen of the Netherlands had visited and where the newly opened Carpet Museum was located. We also took a stroll through the town, but did not depart too late and continued in the direction of Zwolle.

We moored backwards right next to a connecting bridge between the city of Zwolle and the old town centre. Everyone was using the bridge and it was the weekend, but we still managed to sleep, although with a few interruptions.

Saturday | Departure from Zwolle with Kampen as our destination

The departure went smoothly, but soon we were faced with a closed bridge. There was a signal box at the bridge that could be operated at the push of a button.

As the weather forecast for Kampen predicted a short but heavy rain shower, we slowed down and postponed our arrival until the rain had passed.

The Seveningen marina (ZC37) is located opposite Zwolle and was one of the friendliest we encountered. The harbour master assigned us a berth. A permanent berth holder helped us moor (forward to a cross berth and aft only to a pole). The harbour master told us that they were celebrating the end of the season and that we were very welcome.

He also gave us the door code for the bicycles, which Sabine, Maik and Leon also used. The washroom was very clean and well maintained and, like the shore power, was included in the price.

In the evening, Sabine and Maik cycled to a snackbar to get food. Everyone had a frikandel special with chips. We ate on board and enjoyed the peace and quiet and nature.

Sunday

After breakfast, we decided to get ready and take a quick look around Kampen. We wanted to enjoy the beautiful weather and leave at 3 p.m.

Leon and Marco took turns steering during the entire trip to Vollenhove. Leon navigated very well again and moored the boat perfectly. He has really got the feeling for the small joystick that controls the bow and stern thruster. We also decided to let Leon and Marco do everything themselves, without help from the others. That worked out very well again. So well, in fact, that Marco said Leon could have moored the boat on his own.

Afterwards, we drove to Vollenhove to have dinner.

We were in a restaurant that I couldn't quite place: Turkish, Lebanese, Arabic. They only served non-alcoholic drinks. But we stayed and the food was delicious!

Monday

The last breakfast on board. We were all a little sad that the wonderful week was already over. :-( But we were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise during breakfast.

After breakfast, we packed our things and returned the boat to Josien.

The yachts of Natural Yachts are really beautiful, comfortable boats. Next time, we want to charter the Northman 1050 Trawler Electric to see if this boat is really something for us.

It was a really nice week and you could completely relax and forget everything around you.

Distance travelled: approx. 105 kilometres (approx. 55 nautical miles)

Cities visited (moorings/ports):

• Blokzijl (Jachthaven en passantenhaven Blokzijl)

• Giethoorn (Passantenhaven De Zuiderkluft Giethoorn)

• Genemuiden (Gemeentelijke Jachthaven Genemuiden)

• Zwolle (Passantenhaven Binnenstad)

• Kampen (Jachthaven Zeilclub '37)

• Vollenhove (Private harbour of Natural Yachts)

  
  

We would also like to thank team Natural Yachts in Marknesse / Vollenhove. We felt very comfortable and found the briefing, service and everything else to be very good. Thank you very much!