A great uncle of mine back in Eastern Germany (DDR back then) purchased a decommissioned pleasure boat, but it was longer than 25m so he would have needed a cap

A great uncle of mine back in Eastern Germany (DDR back then) purchased a decommissioned pleasure boat, but it was longer than 25m so he would have needed a captain's license to operate it. Instead, he cut out a part (most of the aft deck), and welded it together so that it was just below the 25m limit. I joined him for a tour on it once, it was pretty awesome. The proportions looked a bit off, but it was much more spacious inside than typical hobby boats :-) He and his family spent many vacations on that boat, touring much of the big European rivers. Update: found some pictures of it: https://www.ddr-binnenschifffahrt.de/fotogalerie-gross/Passagier/P-064-lenz.JPG https://www.ddr-binnenschifffahrt.de/fotogalerie-gross/Passa... https://www.skipper-bootshandel.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Angelika_Groh22-1024x768.jpg https://www.skipper-bootshandel.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/1...