Wooden widebeam boat on Regents Canal. Dangerous?

[Kkk]

Hey everyone,

 

My friend and I are looking to purchase a narrowboat to live on as continuos cruisers In London. 

 

We are interested in this boat:

 

https://m.apolloduck.com/boat/classic-boats-motor-boat/578356

 

However, we were speeking to some other narrowboaters the other day they told us that a wooden boat would be likely to spring a leak at random times and that if there was a collision with another boat, which was not unlikely they said, a wooden boat would be ruined by a steel boat. 

 

What are your thoughts regarding the particulars of this boat and this issue of entirely wooden boats in general?

 

Thanks for any responses in advance.

J

Edited March 1, 2020 by JWirz

[Alan de Enfield]

It could happen as suggested but there are many wooden boats about.

 

The thing to consider is that wooden boats need specialist (make that expensive) care - particularly 85 year old ones.

You really need to be a wooden-boat enthusiast to own a wooden boat - it will pretty much require lifting out every year and having £1000's spent on maintenance.

 

If you are simply looking for cheap accommodation in London, then this is not the boat for you, but, if you have years of boating experience, have money to burn and are very good at carpentry, then it looks to be a good buy.

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by Alan de Enfield

[ditchcrawler]

I think you may struggle to continus cruise in London on that, you do know the requirements for CCing

[Bee]

That is a beautiful boat but I would leave it on the broads, it wouldn't be happy on the canals, too many hard things, locks, brick and stone things, it would not be a good idea, stick to steel boats of some sort.

[Richard T]

It would also need expensive transport to get it to the Thames. You would not be able to get by water from the broads to the Thames except by sea. The boat is also an unfinished project and it sounds like ti will need a someone with considerable boat building skills to finish it off.

[Mike on the Wey]

And to genuinely "continuously cruise" as defined by doing the minimum required to keep CRT happy, it won't just be the Regents Canal. Add the Grand Union either down to Brentford or up to Cowley Peachey, plus at the other end the River Lee to Tottenham. This boat will not provide cheap accommodation - it will be a money pit. And it doesn't currently have an engine.

[alan_fincher]

The current absence of any engine may make it very difficult to continuous cruise anywhere, not just in London!

If the bean is 13 feet, as quoted, whilst London locks are nominally 14 feet wide, that really is a very large width to try boating around with.

Looking at the profile from the front, I wouldn't want to try taking it through Islington tunnel, (even with an engine!).

 

The maximum quoted width of locks on the River Stort is 13 feet, I think, so there must be serious doubt on whether this boat would fit them.

If you can't access the Stort, then that is one of the places London CCers go to try to meet CRT mileage requirements, so being compliant becomes that little bit harder.

[Captain Fizz]

Yep,entirely unsuitable for the canals.

Pretty boat though but you would probably spend at least £15000 on an engine installation.

[OldGoat]

Quite apart from all the sage advice above - all of which, sadly, is correct, I would add that London - being full up - means that boats moor 2 or three abreast.

The result will be that steel and wood just don't mix and it will get damaged, not just cosmetically but could even spring a leak and mebe worse "over time".

 

Sorry...

[PaulJ]

Well to be fair it would probably fit in the canal alot better than where it is at the moment on the Great Ouse.

Lock either end has a max width of 4 metres so she may or may not fit. I dont know as I have never tried it in anything wider than 10ft.

(Though could go up the New Bedford and  back in at Denver)

[mark99]

 

 

Steer well clear. 15k wasted if you think you can cc London in that. 

Edited March 1, 2020 by mark99

[blackrose]

If you want a Broads cruiser then look for a grp one rather than wood. They can make good liveaboard boats if they've been properly insulated or if you can do that yourself, and you could probably pick up a decent one for about £15k, but you might need to install a stove.

[Athy]

5 hours ago, Richard T said:

It would also need expensive transport to get it to the Thames. You would not be able to get by water from the broads to the Thames except by sea. The boat is also an unfinished project and it sounds like ti will need a someone with considerable boat building skills to finish it off.

But it is not on the broads. However, its beam would be too wide for the Middle Level.

[PD1964]

Buy a steel boat as London is too congested and often boats are hit due to the mooring situation and the number of people with boats who have had the same idea that are complete novices.

 Also you may meet bump into Steve Haywood at some point so better to be safe then sorry.

[Slim]

6 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I think you may struggle to continus cruise in London on that, you do know the requirements for CCing

Especially as it doesn't have an engine ?

[MtB]

I used to own a boat like that.

 

There is so much more to be said but just the missing engine is a total deal killer in my opinion. Fitting an engine and transmission is essential to CC anywhere let alone London, and will set you back £10k in round figures, done on the cheap. 

 

Bringing the boat up to finished condition will set you back £20k in materials alone I predict, and the second killer is once its done the value will be no more than.... go on, have a guess.... you know the answer already don't you.....?????

 

This is why it is for sale. The current owners have finally sussed this out and are looking for someone to mug it off onto.

[MtB]

It's a terrible shame because boats like this ooze charm and romance, but the figures add up to a car crash of a financial disaster.  Don't do it!!

 

 

[mark99]

Any one who buys it should rename it "John Bunyan".

 

It does look a nice superstructure but the way it flares out at the bow will cause a lot of grief in some bridge holes.

 

The OP owes the chap he first met warning him away, a big drink.

Edited March 2, 2020 by mark99

[Bee]

Flared bows. They are so vulnerable on inland waterways, You don't see many on UK waterways, the Thames is an exception where all sorts of sea and inshore vessels use the river but we see quite a lot on European waterways and they all have great big fenders the size of beachballs on each side of the bow and they are still not totally effective. Its a lovely boat but it will get ruined on the canals.

[Horace42]

....and will you be able to get fully comp insurance on it.....?

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, Horace42 said:

....and will you be able to get fully comp insurance on it.....?

Should be OK if the hull is more than 4mm thick !!!!

 

?

 

?

[Kawayuppie]

Les offered this very boat to me last year. Was really tempted, however, no time and money sadly.

I guess he had no takers, and he already had a number of project boats. Hence put up for sale.

If I recall, Les was thinking of installing electric propulsion as he has done with some other boat.

[Peter X]

To get that boat to London, I reckon you're looking at either the expense of craning in and out and road transport, or all the worries of going by sea down around Norfolk/Suffolk/Essex. I don't do lumpy water, but you'd need to first get an engine into the boat and make sure it works, then find someone who knows what they're doing at sea, and when you have suitably nice weather come out into the Wash and edge down the coast from there to the Thames and into London, mixing it with all manner of big shipping and knowing how to get there without sinking. Then you have to deal with all the usual problems of CC'ing in the London area and of keeping a wooden boat floating (costly I gather, depending how much you learn and do yourself?). But good luck to you if you feel up to the challenge; it certainly looks nice and if you know what you're doing you could end up happy with it!?

If you want to be in London because of work or just occasional visits, you might do better to keep the boat on some suitable mooring on the Essex/Kent(/Sussex!?) coast and commute in? A lot of investigation would be needed for that. Or just rent a flat/house in the cheaper outskirts of London! Croydon has its advantages!

[Horace42]

3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Should be OK if the hull is more than 4mm thick !!!!

 

......for a wood hull ??

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

......for a wood hull ??

A bite every time !!!

You noticed the clown face smiley ……………………….

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by Alan de Enfield