Moin all and greeting from Germany, a brief introduction from me. I have been reading along in the forum for the last 4-5 years or so. I had an 22 Explorer "Hard Top" in the east german lake district for a few years and I just bought a Commander 30 and transfered it from Hamburg closer to my home with a few friends last week. The boat had been sitting in the water for the last two years and the aft cockpit has some water damage on the wood as well as the tarp has some serious holes. Otherwise the interior is in near mint condition. All in all she is absolutely kitted out, new 430 DP engines in 1991, stainless steel tanks, petrol heating and warm water, shore power, deck wash pump, showerhead at the bath platform, hifi system with approximately 30 speakers spread out through the boat. Shore power is combined with a 230V inverter which unfortunately does not work anymore. A wing with a fiberglass and aluminium on wood frame construction that is missing the interior panels. somebody spent a whole fortune equipping her in the 90s but it appears that nothing much has since been done except some dodgy quick fixes etc. Fwd cabin windows have been replaced with wood frames and are leaking. The previous owner was keen to sell it and i just saw the mahagony and general sound foundation and just went with it. Infinite potential but also infinite amount of work... just needed to transfer her 300nm through inland waters (going the short way via north sea would have been a possibility but i disregarded that due to her condition, and the trip we had proved me right) Problems started early, everything went fine until the first lock (30 minutes or so) when suddenly the port engine died. We went to the next marina which was just straight out the lock and took of the floor plates, pure water, gunk and grime in the filter... so we spent the evening pulling the bottom layer of the tank with a small bellow pump into a bowl, separating the top layer which was perfect petrol into one canister and the bottom water and dirt into another one which we lateron marked with red tape in order to not mix it up. quick trial in the morning and off we went, the river elbe, due to timing we had a considerable ebb tide and wind from ahead and lost about 3kn of speed to the environment. After Oortkaten theres no speed limit so i slowly approached wot and she came into plane very controlled and gently (trim tabs not working) but we were doing only some 15kn at 3500 rpm and the wake looked a bit asymmetric, anyways, throttle back down to 1400 and with some 3-4 knots we were marching on up the river elbe into the mittelland kanal. one of our next stops was the gigantic ships elevator in Scharnbeck, i was so focused on making sure all was going smooth that i didnt really have eyes for this engineering marvel, partly also because the starboard engine died idling when we came into the lock and my approach was, well lets call it sub-optimal... out the lock and we hit the next berth, could not immediately figure it out what was going on, we tried swapping the earth cable as i had some strange currents between the two engine blocks and battery negative, thought maybe a cable was loose and or corroed. and aye, some starter spray and the starboard engine came to life, let it warm up again, back to idle, dead... i figured it must have to do with the carburetor but i could not immediatley find any useful information on the internet and i am not a petrol engine guy, all my previous cars and boats had diesel engines. Petrol and carburators are for lawnmowers in my humble opinion and i had my fair share of hard to start lawn mowers, its usualy the idle gas screw or the accelerator cable or the spark plugs, i tried to find out where the offending screws on the what appears to be rochester 2bbl carb are but nada, also the engine manual which i downloaded before the trip did not specify carb set up so... we started the stbd engine and left it on 1200-1400 which appeard to run smooth, next lock was a quite a distance and i would then be prepared to maneover with only my port engine. Weather was getting better and in the early evening we had sunshine and were covering some 80km on our first full day. we moored up in a parking area in the canal and fired up the Barbeque, what a day! next day we started early after attempting to fix the engine for an hour and had the next big lock in Uelzen. Asked my crew if anybody spotted the phone booth to contact the lock, nada. Tried to phone them but noone picked up. so we waited for a good two hours, i enjoyed the sun, tried googling for the bloody carb manual and went through the damn thing in my head. I had found the idle fuel screw and after observing the accelerator linkage i spotted the cam with a locked screw. Closed the idle fuel screw and opened it up i think 4 turns, idle air screw 2 turns more in, fired right up! boy was i happy! we made 140 km that day and although i was mostly just waiting for the next disaster to strike started to get a vibe for the boat and enjoyed the ride at least a little. No more dodgy maneuvers, twin engine is just the coolest on a boat of this size! we had some minor issues/ difficulties that i am not going to bore you with, boat is nearly home 500km in ~4,5 days, just two locks away from home which are currently closed until beg. of june when this piece of work will finally come home. I have already begun stripping crap out and tracing cables pipes and so on. This year she will get a new tarp, the wing will need some gelcoat and the overall hull will get a new polish. I have not seen her underside yet, but i presume port prop is either half missing or severely damaged, drive trim is not working and the trim tabs neither. My intention is to restore her to her former class and style but upgrade the equipment to modern stuff as we go ahead. Will take her out with my Mum and a few friends for coffee and cake on the canal tomorrow.

The 30 OF is a lovely boat. I owned one for 10 years and did a lot of upgrades. Now it is a gem owned by the president of this club.
Once we had a member from Hamburg that came to a boat meeting in Stockholm.
It was a 30 OF fitted with 2 v8 petrol engines.After that I understand why seeing a dentist is so expensive.
Did you take any photos on your trip ?
It would be a nice story for the club paper.