When she was last here in 2011, she existed only as a small-scale model.

Her designer and eventual owner, Herman Geerlings, had heard Bellingen catamaran builder Mark Stephens might be able to help make her real.

Herman is ex-Navy, an experienced yachtsman originally from the Netherlands, and he’d decided it was time to farewell the ocean wave and start exploring Australia’s network of river systems instead.

He wanted a trailer-sailer he could relocate with his VW van, so size and weight were important factors, and so was the use of the high-tech material polycore.

“Herman knocked on my door with a hand-made model boat 80 centimetres long, and he said ‘I want you to make me one of these’,” Mark said.

“I drew it up on the computer and redesigned it a bit, and I turned it into a kit and cut the panels. Then I sent them and a set of instructions on how to build it to Kay Cottee’s boat yard in Yamba.”

Sweet Pea was finished within three months, and seven years on, Herman and his partner Jan Herbert couldn’t be happier with their little green craft and the beautiful places it can take them.

“The amazing thing with the river systems in Australia is you basically have them to yourself,” Jan said. 

“Most people probably don’t even know what a pretty river they have here. As we came up the Bellinger yesterday we had the mountain range as the backdrop and there are places where the autumn colours are coming through and it’s just sensational.”

Sweet Pea has all the accoutrements of a cosy caravan, including a double bed to the fore, a gas-powered stove, and a fridge that runs off the battery-backed solar system.

“We’re green, like the boat, we’re very aware of our environment and we respect the environments we come into,” Jan said.

Being solar powered, the boat is quiet and non-polluting, and even when it’s cloudy, the batteries provide 40 hours of cruising at a speed of four knots.

“There’s no noise and no stink,” Herman said. “And there’s lots of good ventilation, which is rare on boats. You catch the breeze through the front window and the sides, so even in summer time it’s nice.”

“Because we don’t make a noise and we’re not going super fast, the birds don’t move, so you’ve got this incredible wildlife that you can watch as you’re going along the rivers,” Jan said.

They were told they couldn’t get to Bellingen from Mylestom as the river was too shallow – “but here we are!”

Admittedly, they did have to dispute right of way with a herd of cows, as shown in the video.

“We came around the corner and there were about 30 cows crossing the river, belly deep in water,” Herman said. “There were two that wouldn’t move, right where the boat had to go. That was a bit of a novelty.”

The other bit of excitement was when Jan had to get out and push.

“We were nearly to the bridge and there was 20 metres of shallow rapids,” Jan said. “Just having my weight off the boat was enough to lift it up. It wasn’t a worry, it just adds to the adventure of it.”

Herman and Jan live in Tabulam and keep Sweet Pea at Yamba.

Their usual stomping ground is the Clarence and all its tributaries, but they’re looking forward to checking out the Kalang next and later the Hawkesbury region.

They hadn’t been back to Bellingen for six years, but quite coincidentally when they glided to a halt yesterday, standing there on the bank was Mark Stephens, the man they had come to see.

“I didn’t want to phone him in case we didn’t get here,” Herman said. “And behold! There he was. It was fantastic, we went out for dinner with him and his wife and we had a wonderful evening.”