IanD

Not surprised you had problems getting the stern in then. What you need is a boat where you can easily get on and off at the bows... 😉 (perpetual reminder : different people have different requirements... 🙂

Why, when it sticks out less than a normal rudder and is more robust? You seem to worry unnecessarily about a lot of things... 😉 How much does Belfast draw? I never had any such problem at Bosley...

So drop off and pick up at the stern, right next to the steerer, who can also get on/off with a centre line at the same time. Yes there will be a few exceptional cases where this is not possible, so go carefully along the gunwale (or even roof) to the bow. The last few trips I haven't had to do this once, your experience may be different... 😉

Surely an experienced sailor like you on a narrowboat would have planned ahead, and already had the anchor/chain next to them at the stern with the line attached to the bow stud and run along the roof (if going upstream -- or attached to a stern dolly if going downstream) so it could be deployed without any delay?

Well I (and other people) have gone along the gunwales plenty of times -- including in the wet -- and managed to hold on to those non-handrails quite easily and securely. Maybe we all had hands adapted from geckoes feet or something similar... 😉

So if they don't have a valid CART license (and maybe not BSS either since the hire requirements are stricter) or valid insurance (because hiring is specifically excluded by most (all?) policies), who carries the can if something goes wrong? I guess all concerned (except the owner) will say "not my problem, guv"... 😞

I thought the only acceptable garb was corduroys, collarless shirt, a waistcoat, neckerchief, and a flat cap?

I've got a telescopic boathook and a telescopic pet ramp instead of a gangplank (much more stable!), both of which live just inside the stern doors, and the folding bike lives in the locker that's also the steerer's seat. Those solar panels are not the fragile flexible ones, they're semi-rigid (with a fibreglass/aluminium backing plate) which are vacuum-bonded onto the steel roof and are intended to be walked on (not in stiletto heels or hobnailed boots, obviously!), there's no significant flexure so they don't crack or suffer any damage as a result.

Running along the roof is easy on mine too, since it's not covered with obstructions like dog/pigeon boxes, chimneys, flower baskets, water cans/mops, gangplanks, boathooks, long shafts, coal, wood, wheelbarrow, bicycle, traffic cones... 😉

Ditto about getting to the bow -- especially if "things in the way" inside the boat include people and closed doors, possibly locked if there's someone having a shower in a walk-through bathroom. Along the gunwale is quick, of course you have to take care and always have at least one hand on the handrail, but at least you *know* you'll be there in a few seconds -- and can also jump off part-way along if the bank is close enough. Others may prefer going through the boat, and that's fine too, especially if an open-plan internal layout makes this easier... 🙂 Back to the OPs question, there's another advantage to having an enclosed bow with no well deck or doors -- it's waterproof. Which is *really* useful when you're going up a lock with water either cascading over the top gates or fountaining from a leak and where you can't get the bows clear of this. This has already proved useful on several occasions, when even the bow locker stayed dry though there was an absolute torrent of water landing on the bows. I expect this would also be useful if I even wanted to do something silly like crossing the Wash... 😉 With a well deck in the past in similar circumstances (the Salterhebble Fountain...) when the drain holes just couldn't cope with the water influx, as the well deck filled up I ended up with water inside the boat via the (closed) front doors.

Definitely a fact... 😉

Yes, because that's where they are, and it's easier dropping off right next to the steerer than 60' away -- and I'd usually step off with the centre line at the same time. There are disadvantages to any layout including mine, as has been repeatedly pointed out -- which is what gets annoying when the same things are trotted out time after time as if they're new and I'm an idiot for not having thought of them. You just have to choose what you think is best for you, which is what I did (and I'm sure you did), taking the pros and cons into account -- and these will be different for different people, depending on what their priorities are. My boat and @Jon57 are about as diametrically opposite as you could get in a narrowboat, but neither is "right" or "wrong" for everyone. Some people like you love well decks (and cratch covers, and pram hoods), I've found them mostly a useless waste of space (except for getting away from engine noise...) and think cratch covers (and pram hoods) look like a horrible bodge, and both opposing opinions are perfectly valid. If everyone had the same opinion the world would be a pretty boring place... 😉

Not when opinions are concerned as opposed to facts -- unlike some I *always* point out that different people have different needs and one size doesn't fit all... 😉

It's easier to have a well-shaped hull with decent swims at both ends in a longer boat, short boats tend to be "blunter" to try and maximise scarce internal space, and this often makes handling (and wake/wash) worse.

At least I usually try and give helpful replies instead of posting reams of legal or other types of irrelevant information which look impressive but don't help... 😉 Instead of the big chunk about Lloyds and then adding a link to a long CWDF thread about insurance -- where the useful information was hidden towards the end after lots of "I can't get insurance" posts, which many people wouldn't read past -- you could have done I what I did and posted the actually useful nugget of information about who *could* provide insurance, don't you think?

I wonder how many of those are properly equipped and licensed and insured for rental?

Can't someone sleep in the bath? 😉

No, you did your usual thing of posting a massive chunk of unhelpful information while not actually helping answer the question -- apart from the equivalent of "it's in a footnote on the bottom of P.57"... 😉

That'll be four berths plus two dogs then, will it? 😉

At the end of that thread the OP found that GJW were happy to provide cover to an Aussie 🙂

As you say, perfect for you, while being a complete no-no for some (including me) -- and I'm sure the reverse applies to my boat 🙂 It's why asking people for their opinions on things like boat layout is often unhelpful unless you happen to have exactly the same needs and preferences as them, you need to figure out what *you* want from a boat.