Czech ports will transform part of their fleet into luxury houseboats

Prague - Just like Saturnin and his master from the famous book by Zdeněk Jirotka, the residents of the new luxury houseboats on the Vltava River in Prague can feel this way. The Czech ports have decided to transform 18 tugboats into residential boats, which should anchor in Holešovice, Libeň, Smíchov, and Radotín. This is part of a project to revitalize abandoned cargo ports.
    "By combining renovated tugboats and port areas, we will offer wealthier customers the opportunity to spend their leisure time and live directly on the water," said Jan Kafka, director of the commercial section of the Czech Ports company, to ČTK. The project will also include prepaid berths, parking spaces, and service centers that will provide services related to boat maintenance.
    According to Kafka, the idea of converting utility vessels into residential ones is particularly prevalent in England. The TL-type tugboat has a nearly square floor plan, and its advantage over classic houseboats is primarily its larger width of around 8.5 meters. After reconstruction, it will offer its residents a deck for a kitchen and living room, a lower deck with two bedrooms and a guest room. The total living area will be 106 square meters, and with the terrace and surrounding deck, it will reach 216 square meters. The author of the winning design is the studio Miro Pistek Design.
    The first prototype is expected to be completed in the autumn. "The worst thing would be to rush it," explains Kafka. According to him, each boat will be a certain original, and the construction can take into account the personal needs of the customers. So far, around 150 interested parties have shown interest in the boats. The actual price of the houseboats will supposedly be determined by the market, but it is certain that it will exceed ten million crowns.
    The first TL-type tugboats started navigating the waters of the Vltava and Elbe rivers in the 1970s. For their time, they were very advanced vessels, featuring, for example, a hydraulically retractable captain's bridge. The tugboats served as towboats, primarily for transporting coal and gravel. Since the early 1990s, they gradually began to be decommissioned along with the decline of cargo shipping. Therefore, Czech Ports began to look for new uses for them, which eventually emerged alongside the transformation of cargo ports into residential and recreational areas.