to sail with a motorboat?

I've always driven motorboats and sailed sailboats. And rowed a rowboat, but I try to avoid that. That's in the US.  I've occasionally heard people talking about sailing a motorboat, but not usually from someone who actually spends time on boats. 

In English, *to sail* is often used to refer to the purposeful movement of a ship or boat regardless of its means of propulsion. So it would be reasonable for me to say that my father-in-law sailed all over the Pacific when he was in the navy, even though his ship was nuclear-powered. Or that the ferry has a sailing time of 10:30 am, even though the ferry isn't a sailing vessel. But you can also use some terms based on the means of propulsion: a steamship *steams*, a sailboat *sails*, a motorboat *motors*. This can be quite significant when a vessel has multiple means of propulsion, such as a sailing yacht that also has a motor.

Just be careful about using motorboat as a verb. It can mean, um, a different kind of activity.

There is no specific word for traveling to a place in a water vehicle which does not have sails. It's still sailing. A crew member on a ship (any ship) is still a sailor.

BrEng - there's not really a direct translation for 'varen', and if someone said "I'm sailing to Hoek van Holland from Harwich" then I'd assume that they were taking the ferry or another type of powered craft, not getting into a sailing boat! It's probably more common to say "I'm _taking_ the ferry" (equivalent to "ik ga met de veerboot") or "I'm going on a speedboat" as a phrase. We also use the phrase "to set sail" to mean 'to get a boat journey underway' (is there a similar phrase in Dutch?)

It is a bit odd to use sail without sails, but there aren’t that many options. You can use *cruise* for some meanings of varen/vaart (both verb and noun).

Well, there's a lot to unpack here. The voyage itself is always sailing. "The ship turned on its engines and sailed to its distant destination." How the ship moves will be referred to with the method: sailing, rowing, or motoring. "The small boat rowed across the pond." "The ferry motored its way across the harbor." "The sailboat sailed up and down the beach." Then there is the operation of said boat. That can vary wildly based on the size and type of ship. You aren't the "driver" of a giant cargo ship, you are a "helmsman." Things like that.

There used to be comparable words in English. Terms like “motoring”, “cruising”, and “steaming” all were used like you are describing. Today though, so few people are familiar with any kind of maritime activities, that yeah “sailing” is pretty much a catch-all term. Also, keep in mind that the Netherlands are culturally really really intense when it comes to boats.

Correct. But it’s fuzzy. For private pleasure boats we normally say we’re going out on Dave’s boat, or going boating, and if Dave’s boat is a sailboat then we’re going sailing with Dave. For small vessels that still might be sail powered, that distinction exists. But if you’re going out on a giant diesel powered cruise ship? Yeah we can still say we set sail on Thursday. Even though zero actual sails are set. The crew on a boat or ship are still called sailors. And diesel powered cargo ships sail across the ocean. We still say that, even though they haven’t been sail powered for well over a century. We say sailing for powered boats the same way we say filming for video recording, or taping for audio recording. There are new words but we keep using the old ones. So if you’re actually sailing with wind power you sometimes need to use extra words to explain that.

Boating. Not sailing - that's only if a ship has sails.

For a big sailboat that has a motor and sales and uses the motor only rarely I would say that it is "motoring" into its slip if it were going there without its sail power.

I have sailed a sailboat, paddled a kayak and a canoe, and driven a powerboat. Looking forward to being back on the water next week.

And be careful looking up boating terminology - most English speakers won't know technical terms, or even nautical basics like port vs. starboard (because why would they?)

Boating. You will sometimes use "sailing" for large motorized ships, though. The crew of a Navy vessel are sailors, even without sailing. But motorboats boat. Or just "go."

You would drive a motorboat, sail a sailboat, and sail a ship. At least in my region. 

"Motoring" is primarily used in the situation when a sailboat uses its motor. It isn't *incorrect* to say that a powerboat "motors" somewhere, but it is unnecessarily specific. You can even "drive" a boat, though this more specifically refers to the actions of the helms person than the boat itself. E.g. Jimmy can drive a boat, but the boat didn't drive to the next port

I would say 'boating'! Sailing is for ships with sails, boating is for ships with motors, rowing is for using oars. But if someone described a large cargo ship with engines as 'sailing' to another country, it wouldn't sound weird. I typically hear boating with small ships.

For a small motorboat, I would use either "drive the boat" or "take the boat." "Boating" to me implies a leisure activity. In terms of describing the skill, I would use drive. "Can you drive a boat?" "I'm teaching him to drive the boat." Day to day use, I think I would use "take." "I'm taking the boat to the island this afternoon." "I'll take you out on the boat to show you the best fishing spots."