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Wide beams on the right canals


haggis

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I have noticed on the Bridgewater and Leeds and Liverpool that there are a lot of widebeams - the canals are really suitable for them - and that they actually move! Most of the ones we have seen look fairy new and don't even have a name yet - perhaps recently emerged from Collingwood?. We saw one in Sale today which wins the prize of the most unusual. It was cream with high bows with a large eye shaped window in dark glass on each side of the bows . A bit like a pair of eyes. The back end was also a bit unusual in that it had what looked like a smoked  glass sort of square structure covering the back deck and about 7 feet high. Definitely an eye catching boat!

 

Haggis

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3 hours ago, haggis said:

No, I wish I had. 

Please do next time. Bound to be better than yet another sewer tube. Dont remind me of how vastly better they handle and how humungously more comfortable they are than poxy narrowboats :(

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4 minutes ago, haggis said:

I have no intention of taking part in a discussion/argument about the merits of wide or narrow beams as they both have pros and cons and it is up to folk to decide what suits them best. A bit like different types of loos ?

Haggis no

Composting is best ?

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Its really quite simple.

 

Cruising range versus living space. Decide which is the most important to you.

 

Sorted.

 

(But remember some narrowboats have their cruising range constrained by length)

 

 

Edited by The Happy Nomad
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1 hour ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Its really quite simple.

 

Cruising range versus living space. Decide which is the most important to you.

 

Sorted.

 

(But remember some narrowboats have their cruising range constrained by length)

 

 

You could also decide if something that doesn't make you physically sick to look at is important. 

There's loads of wide beam boats that I'd be happy to own,  but not many that were built in the last 20 years. 

Who ever thought that doubling the width of an average narrowboat design was a good idea has a lot to answer for. 

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2 hours ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Its really quite simple.

 

Cruising range versus living space. Decide which is the most important to you.

 

Sorted.

 

(But remember some narrowboats have their cruising range constrained by length)

 

 

 

And remember most narrowboats don't often venture very far from their moorings either.

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41 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

You could also decide if something that doesn't make you physically sick to look at is important. 

There's loads of wide beam boats that I'd be happy to own,  but not many that were built in the last 20 years. 

Who ever thought that doubling the width of an average narrowboat design was a good idea has a lot to answer for. 

 

Horses for courses. Personally I don't much like the look of most narrowboats. They're the odd ones when it comes to boat aesthetics in my opinion. The proportions are just all wrong. 

 

My boat was built within the last 20 years, 15 years ago to be precise.... My apologies if it makes you feel physically sick. 

 

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Edited by blackrose
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5 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Horses for courses. Personally I don't much like the look of most narrowboats. They're the odd ones when it comes to boat aesthetics in my opinion. The proportions are just all wrong. 

 

My boat was built within the last 20 years, 15 years ago to be precise.... My apologies if it makes you feel physically sick. 

 

DSC_2948.jpg

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As MANY of us have said many times - you, your boat and the way you use it are the exception which puts wide beams in a good light 

 

Carry on cruising - my beef has only ever been with those types who think cruising a wide beam through Braunston (incl the tunnel) and up the Northern Oxford is acceptable because they are "entitled" to!

 

They are not boaters, never will be, and aren't part of any community I want to be part of - rant over. 

 

Great pictures BTW ?

 

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We had a trip last year including some time on the Trent and the Soar. I remember seeing widebeams moving up there, and they just looked right. That's their natural habitat. 

I am used to seeing them on the GU:

- Generally moored up in the most awkward locations imaginable.

- Waiting by the northern portal of Blisworth Tunnel for an illicit midnight transit.

- Or on the rare occasions they venture out in daylight, steering via the bow-thrusters.

Still, its horses for courses I guess........

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8 hours ago, noddyboater said:

Who ever thought that doubling the width of an average narrowboat design was a good idea has a lot to answer for. 

Corrected for you :

 

"Whoever thought that it was a good idea to half the width of a proper boat to produce a 7 foot wide boat has a lot to answer for."

 

Nowhere else in the world was that 'daft'.

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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Corrected for you :

 

"Whoever thought that it was a good idea to half the width of a proper boat to produce a 7 foot wide boat has a lot to answer for."

 

Nowhere else in the world was that 'daft'.

Correct. A bloody stoopid beam that we are left with and therefore to extend cruising range have to adhere to :(

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16 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Corrected for you :

 

"Whoever thought that it was a good idea to half the width of a proper boat to produce a 7 foot wide boat has a lot to answer for."

 

Nowhere else in the world was that 'daft'.

Not really my point though is it? There was never a wide boat shaped like a narrowboat that was cut down to 7' beam to fit narrow canals, sewer tubes as you call them were built for a reason. 

Doubling the width of a sewer tube just makes it a sewer tube big enough to accommodate bigger turds, not a beautiful boat. 

True, some are worse than others, the latest ones with negative tumblehome towards the bow (not sure who builds them) are particularly ugly,  but put any next to a real Dutch barge and I think most people will see what I'm getting at.

I haven't got a problem with wide boats at all, I'd love a Fairey Swordsman,  Triana Tantarela,  converted humber keel, Leeds Liverpool short boat or a small Dutch barge.

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41 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Corrected for you :

 

"Whoever thought that it was a good idea to half the width of a proper boat to produce a 7 foot wide boat has a lot to answer for."

 

Nowhere else in the world was that 'daft'.

Actually there is a narrow canal in Austria, a narrow navigation in Bavaria, at least three narrow (3 metre) canals in France, and there were about ten 9 feet wide canals in America. The 7 feet wide canal was the economical answer to canal building in the late 18th century where the canals were not linked directly to a port. The seven feet dimension was probably the result of the Duke of Bridgewater building his locks at Runcorn for boats 14.5 feet maximum width. The existing navigations around the Mersey had locks at least 16 feet wide, and I suspect the Duke made his narrower in order to restrict boats using his canal to his own, thus creating a monopoly on the Liverpool-Manchester traffic. The boats carrying coal from the basin at Worsley to Manchester - not the mine boats which were narrower - seem to have been 7 feet wide, so may have been the origin of the narrow boat, with two being able to fit alongside each other in one of the Runcorn locks.

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9 hours ago, noddyboater said:

You could also decide if something that doesn't make you physically sick to look at is important. 

There's loads of wide beam boats that I'd be happy to own,  but not many that were built in the last 20 years. 

Who ever thought that doubling the width of an average narrowboat design was a good idea has a lot to answer for. 

If your stomach really is that 'dicky' you really should get it checked over.

 

 

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To follow on from Pluto's point above about Worsley to Manchester coal traffic being carried in 7 foot beam boats, I have a question:

When the Trent and Mersey was being planned, did the pre-existence of narrow craft inform the decision to build it to 7 foot dimensions - even though it linked two broad navigations - or were the constructional difficulties of boring Harecastle Tunnel any wider the deciding factor? 

JCO

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