Shortening narrowboat cabin?

[Liam]

33 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

50% longer than the OP's planned hold.

On that basis the OP could expect about 8 tons capacity giving an increased 12" draft.

That's what you get for not reading the full thread. Whoops!

 

Having a 15ft hold won't really carry any substantial weight unless you seriously want to nose dive. If I get too carried away loading Ariel up forward without putting any at the stern end, the propeller soon comes up to say hello!

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, Liam said:

That's what you get for not reading the full thread. Whoops!

 

Having a 15ft hold won't really carry any substantial weight unless you seriously want to nose dive. If I get too carried away loading Ariel up forward without putting any at the stern end, the propeller soon comes up to say hello!

 

 

He is planning on taking 20' to make a hold (so your 30' is 50% bigger) so the only weight for the 50%(ish) of the boat will be the engine and a 13' foot cabin.

I suggested earlier that he would have to be very careful on weight as the prop would end up out of the water.

 

His boat has a 16mm base plate and 12mm sides and has a 3' draft - I really don't think that adding 'tons' of coal to the bow is going to be conducive to easy 'canal travel'

[David Mack]

 

1 hour ago, Liam said:

Ariel is 50ft, but due to a smaller than average engine room it means the hold is exactly 30ft long.

 

I can put on about 12 ton which although doesn't get anywhere close to a full length boat, is fine with me as the added advantage of manoeuvrability and being able to turn around mid canal (Bridgewater) is a definite benefit.

Good to hear from you Liam. Does that mean Ariel is back in commission after the fire?

Edited February 1, 2021 by David Mack

[roland elsdon]

3 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

The idea sounds ok,but it would save a load of bother to simply tow a Butty.

Having spent from 1981 to 1996 with a butty there is nothing simple. Especially single handing, two funkin great boats in a wind.

[Liam]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

 

Good to hear from you Liam. Does that mean Ariel is back in commission after the fire?

Hi David,

Yes that's right. Ariel returned to service in August 2019 and has been working hard since

[Ray T]

Get your boat converted to  one of these, live in the front bit, carry in the back bit.

 

Edited February 1, 2021 by Ray T

[noddyboater]

I removed a section of cabin from the front of my boat (which I'd ironically had put on when I bought it) to give it back a decent length front deck. It was originally 24' and loose planked but I did it in steel for practical reasons. 

The cabin removal was done by myself and a mate at a quiet spot on the canal,  9" grinder and recipricating saw off the genny. The section of cabin was surprisingly heavy,  something to note was that the hull spread a couple of inches and needed pulling back to weld the bulkhead back in. You'll probably need at least one set of chains.

[lifeintheslowlanes]

Hi cheers for all advice, definitely some very good points raised that have made me question possibly wasting a lot of time and effort for not much gain. Haven't got very good signal at my current mooring so will respond to everything when I get somewhere with better reception.

 

 

[blackrose]

On 01/02/2021 at 10:21, lifeintheslowlanes said:

 

The boat is quite heavily ballested, originally this was to pull it lower into the water to make getting a chair on and off possible without a ramp. But in practice you need the ramp every time anyways.

 

Oroginally the person building the Hull was going to use it as an unpowered skip type barge, ran out of funds and the person who bought it added an  actual bow, the cabin etc etc before it ever saw water. 

 

So a lot of this ballast could be removed to raise it some in the water. It has around 3ft of draft due to its original intended purpose. So I have no doubts that the hull would be suitable for use, just removing the cabin that I need some advice on. 

. 

 

How would a boat with a 16mm baseplate and 12mm sides be heavily ballasted (with additional ballast)? I'd have thought a 45ft boat made of that much steel wouldn't need any ballast at all to get it low in the water. To be honest I'm surprised it even floats! I've heard stories about boats being overplated and found to be too heavy when they went back into the water. One (45ft springer?) sank on the Thames after being overplated. I'm sure those overplated boats still aren't as heavily built as yours. I guess it's a high freeboard vessel but it still doesn't make much sense to me without seeing a picture.

[ditchcrawler]

15 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

How would a boat with a 16mm baseplate and 12mm sides be heavily ballasted (with additional ballast)? I'd have thought a 45ft boat made of that much steel wouldn't need any ballast at all to get it low in the water. To be honest I'm surprised it even floats! I've heard stories about boats being overplated and found to be too heavy when they went back into the water. One (45ft springer?) sank on the Thames after being overplated. I'm sure those overplated boats still aren't as heavily built as yours. I guess it's a high freeboard vessel but it still doesn't make much sense to me without seeing a picture.

I have only ever heard of one sinking and that's the one you mentioned with low air vents for the engine and out on the Thames. It may even have sunk had it not been overplated, I also don't know, other might as to whether the boat had ballast in it or not.

 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

I have only ever heard of one sinking and that's the one you mentioned with low air vents for the engine and out on the Thames. It may even have sunk had it not been overplated, I also don't know, other might as to whether the boat had ballast in it or not.

 

 

One interesting thing (to me) that came out of the investigation was ..................

 

The buyer of the MINI MOO bought the boat on the strength of a survey report provided by the seller. The marine surveyor concerned had estimated the height of the engine air intake jalousie from water level marks on the hull although the vessel had been out of the water for a considerable time prior to his survey. He had estimated the intake to be 200 mm above the waterline but when it measured after the salvage it was only 65 mm. The marine surveyor had covered himself with the caveat that it was an estimate only. In that particular case, when the vessel sank, no life jackets were on board and at least one person on board could not swim. The survivors were very lucky that nearby boats managed to pluck them from the water immediately. The fact that a marine surveyor’s report perhaps covers him with words such as estimated does not provide much comfort if bodies have to be pulled from the water.

 

 

What value a survey ?