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Fibreglass boats not allowed through Standedge tunnel - why?


Philip

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Simple question really; why do CRT not permit GRP boats to travel through Standedge tunnel? I've never been through so can't comment on what the passage is like but, with competent steering and taking it through gently, I wouldn't have thought the boat is likely to come out the other end a broken wreck?

 

My worry is, will cruisers be banned from going through Harecastle and Saltersford tunnels too before long, because of their restricted headroom?

Edited by Philip
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9 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Standedge Tunnel is like a jagged cave inside.  Nothing like other tunnels.  Many narrowboats come out with torn cratch covers, scraped paint and broken windows.  A GRP boat would stand a reasonable chance of being sunk.

This ^^^^^^

Long stretches of the tunnel are in unlined bare rock. Lots of sticky out bits of rock above and below the waterline where the explosives used to blast the tunnel formed them. Hence, steel and wooden hulls only. The canal company didn't have the money to line most of it, so left it all jagged. Nothing like Harecastle and Saltersford, so unlikely the ban would ever be applied to them.

 

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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2 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

This ^^^^^^

Long stretches of the tunnel are in unlined bare rock. Lots of sticky out bits of rock above and below the waterline where the explosives used to blast the tunnel formed them. Hence, steel and wooden hulls only.

 

Jen

Fibreglass is in many ways a wonderful material.Rotproof,wormproof,and rustproof,can make complex curves,and is easy to repair.

It lacks tensile strength though, and can be badly damaged by a sticky upy scaffold pole that someone with horse manure for brains chucked into the cut!

It also burns readily, so fibreglass (and petrol powered) are not allowed to use the Standedge Tunnel.

 

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18 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Fibreglass is in many ways a wonderful material.Rotproof,wormproof,and rustproof,can make complex curves,and is easy to repair.

It lacks tensile strength though, and can be badly damaged by a sticky upy scaffold pole that someone with horse manure for brains chucked into the cut!

It also burns readily, so fibreglass (and petrol powered) are not allowed to use the Standedge Tunnel.

 

So can a wooden boat but they are allowed passage.

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1 hour ago, Naughty Cal said:

So can a wooden boat but they are allowed passage.

Different reasons for the two bans I reckon.

Sticky out rocks = no fibreglass hulls.

Long tunnel with poor ventilation = no petrol power.

Petrol engines can produce lots of carbon monoxide. Diesel engines hardly any. That, combined with the increased fire and explosion risk with petrol power is responsible for the ban. The CaRT chaperones who accompany boats have oxygen percentage meters with them to assess the air quality as they go through. Not sure if they also have CO warnings too. The trains in the adjacent tunnel produce a lot of diesel fumes that cross over in to the canal tunnel and hang around in a visible cloud. Shows how poor the ventilation is. Standedge would have had all new 'EalthnSafety assessments made on its reopening this century, so a ban would be more likely, compared with Harecastle that never closed and had a history of petrol and/or GRP craft going through safely. Harecastle also has forced ventilation from the big fans and doors at the south portal.

 

Wooden hull boats have been used since the tunnel was built, but thick oak planks, so more resistant to sticky out rocks than GPR. I believe the last boat through before the restoration, Ailsa Craig in the 1940's, had a wood hull. No idea if the engine was petrol!

 

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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2 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

Standedge Tunnel is like a jagged cave inside.  Nothing like other tunnels.  Many narrowboats come out with torn cratch covers, scraped paint and broken windows.  A GRP boat would stand a reasonable chance of being sunk.

Having been involved with the group that looked into setting the rules for Standedge I remember discussing GRP 

boats and that it was decided that the potential damage risk was not considered worth taking.

 

Howard

 

 

 

 

  • Greenie 1
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8 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

Fibreglass is in many ways a wonderful material.Rotproof,

 

 It may well be the case with grp boats from the upper end of the market where the builders used epoxy resins. A the outer end of the market the builders used polyester based resins, The problem with these is that polyester decomposes in presence of water unlike epoxy which is stable in water. Polyester is made by reacting organic acid together with a organic base and eliminating water as a reaction by-product, or waste. Place the poyester back in the presence of water the process goes the other way, although it does that very slowly. This is the cause of Osmosis in grp boats built using polyester based resins. So why did they use polyester, One reason cost, epoxy resins cost three times as much as polyester based ones. As the resin accounts for a large amount of the cost in boat, You can see why the lower end builders used it. There you have it GRP boats can rot.

 

 

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10 hours ago, nbfiresprite said:

 It may well be the case with grp boats from the upper end of the market where the builders used epoxy resins. A the outer end of the market the builders used polyester based resins, The problem with these is that polyester decomposes in presence of water unlike epoxy which is stable in water. Polyester is made by reacting organic acid together with a organic base and eliminating water as a reaction by-product, or waste. Place the poyester back in the presence of water the process goes the other way, although it does that very slowly. This is the cause of Osmosis in grp boats built using polyester based resins. So why did they use polyester, One reason cost, epoxy resins cost three times as much as polyester based ones. As the resin accounts for a large amount of the cost in boat, You can see why the lower end builders used it. There you have it GRP boats can rot.

 

 

Do you have evidence of osmosis sinking a boat? 

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