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Buy a narrowboat or wide beam? Pros & cons of each please.


James Dunleavy

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On 13/10/2020 at 08:55, LadyG said:

 if I bought a new sail away, I would have to have it fitted professionally, and wait maybe six months, and I would still not have a perfect boat for all  circumstances. 

If you bought a new sailaway and had it fitted professionally it would probably end up costing more than had the shell builder had it fitted professionally in the first place. 

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On 13/10/2020 at 10:17, OldGoat said:

 

If you just want a country cottage that doesn't move much or at all GO WIDE

 

We've bee cruising and that means moving for  40 years now !Yikes! and have covered much of the canals and rivers. Our 60 ft nb was built to 'swim' nicely and effortlessly and to cope with fast flowing rivers. It's light to steer and enough power to punch the flow of the Thames when on Red Boards.

 

I've seen some "wide beam narrowboats" and most seem unwieldly - not only because the drivers are inexperienced but also because the hull shape isn't very efficient.

 

 

Also bear in mind that a lot of people commenting on widebeams have very little or absolutely no first hand experience of them. 

 

I've been living on a bog standard 57 x12ft Liverpool Boats NB-style widebeam for the past 15 years. I've also punched Thames on red board from Laleham to Reading in 2 days by myself. Been up and down the tidal Thames between teddington and limehouse a couple of times including going downstream & the difficult turn into limehouse. Been all the way from Reading to Bristol on the K&A without a problem, done parts of the river Severn. Crossed the Bristol channel from from Bristol via portishead to sharpness, the warks Avon, etc, etc. I've moved my widebeam more than most narrowboaters that I know.

 

My boat may seem unwieldy to the inexperienced but I can assure you it isn't. It steers and swims very well and that was also the opinion of one of the Gloucester pilots and also the opinion an active and respected forum member who's steered it on a couple of occasions. Unwieldy is all relative anyway. A 60ft narrowboat may seem unwieldy compared to a 20ft grp cruiser.

 

So bear in mind that some narrow boaters like to put down widebeams even though most don't really know what they're talking about.

Edited by blackrose
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33 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

So bear in mind that some narrow boaters like to put down widebeams even though most don't really know what they're talking about.

I've moved lots, of both, and on narrow, shallow canals, narrowboats move far easier than widebeams, even of a 10 foot width.

There is a couple now living happily on a narrowboat who had the worst 18 months of their lives on a 9ft Wincham (Collingwood shell) widebeam launched on the K&A and came to the GU.

Why when so many brokers cant get enough narrowboats are record numbers of widebeams on Apallingduck??

 

On wide rivers, there is no doubt that widebeams make sense for liveaboards that dont want to go too far afield and want luxury,  but to enjoy Englands waterways, narrow is the answer.

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1 minute ago, Victor Vectis said:

Yeahbut......

 

NB style fatarse, sorry, widebeams are just plain ugly.

Agreed, but then NBs are such strange dimensions anyway - make them fat and they can look like the old 'London Night Soil' barges with lids on.

 

You can tho, get 'proper' boat looking boats when you move up to conventional boat dimensions.

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9 hours ago, blackrose said:

My boat may seem unwieldy to the inexperienced but I can assure you it isn't. It steers and swims very well and that was also the opinion of one of the Gloucester pilots and also the opinion an active and respected forum member who's steered it on a couple of occasions. Unwieldy is all relative anyway. A 60ft narrowboat may seem unwieldy compared to a 20ft grp cruiser.

I think I may be that forum member - Steering Blackrose (the boat - not Mike!) is easier than steering Juno my 23 foot GRP cruiser 

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