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New Narrowboat shell in build. What do you think of this?


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Our original build slot was in February, from a reasonably well known builder in the East midlands... After being told we couldn't visit in person due to Covid, out of the blue we were invited along to see progress. This is a photo from Tuesday...

 

Thoughts? Comments?

Engine_Bearer_cropped.jpg

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At that stage, check the cooling tank is big enough for whichever engine you are having.  The engine manufacturer will state a required area. Many aren't built big enough to be efficient.  Check its right before they go further.

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9 minutes ago, Jackofalltrades said:

The engine is a water cooled electric motor.

 

No comments about the port-side electric motor bearer that's been compromised by the keel cooling tank, or the tank's outlet being at an acute angle to avoid where the motor will be?

Where are you fitting the diesel generater? or are you going to punt it?

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9 minutes ago, Jackofalltrades said:

The engine is a water cooled electric motor.

 

No comments about the port-side electric motor bearer that's been compromised by the keel cooling tank, or the tank's outlet being at an acute angle to avoid where the motor will be?

As we don't know your set up its hard for us to say. on a conventual set up that would be nowhere near the motor and the engine would be much further forward.

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17 minutes ago, Jackofalltrades said:

The engine is a water cooled electric motor.

 

No comments about the port-side electric motor bearer that's been compromised by the keel cooling tank, or the tank's outlet being at an acute angle to avoid where the motor will be?

Cutting the bearer like that is a bit crude. It would have been better to have shortened or moved the skin tank,or angled the end to miss the bearer. But in structural terms it is just insignificant.

The angled inlet (not outlet) is unusual, but I can't see any problem with it.

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52 minutes ago, Jackofalltrades said:

The engine is a water cooled electric motor.

 

No comments about the port-side electric motor bearer that's been compromised by the keel cooling tank, or the tank's outlet being at an acute angle to avoid where the motor will be?

It won't take much cooling, more than likely a calorifier would have done it?

My Lynch motor I have just fitted to replace the forklift motor was only at 40 degrees c after 1.5 hours when I tested it yesterday.

I have sold the broads cruiser it was in and as its more efficient than the series motor I fitted it into my big boat works very well and is very quiet. Good luck with your boat and enjoy the silent and cheap cruising 

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Thee is no real sense of scale, so I could be miles out, but the skin tank looks to be as thick as the engine/motor bearer is wide.  Unless the bearer is only about 50mm wide the skin tank is going to be a lot thicker than it should be for greatest effectiveness.

I would also want to see the bearers fully welded along the inner edge, but that may be due later.

The angled water pipe and the notched bearer are a bit lazy, but insignificant.

The vent on top of the skin tank is an important detail missed by many.

N

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1 hour ago, BEngo said:

Thee is no real sense of scale, so I could be miles out, but the skin tank looks to be as thick as the engine/motor bearer is wide.  Unless the bearer is only about 50mm wide the skin tank is going to be a lot thicker than it should be for greatest effectiveness.

I would also want to see the bearers fully welded along the inner edge, but that may be due later.

The angled water pipe and the notched bearer are a bit lazy, but insignificant.

The vent on top of the skin tank is an important detail missed by many.

N

 

It really is hard to judge the scale - from that photo the draft looks tiny.

Edited by StephenA
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I'm not sure what sort of response you're looking for, you didn't initially explain that it was an electric propulsion which would have clarified the keel cooler and the depth of the engine bearers.

So I'm assuming those aren't relevant to any issues you may have.  On that basis, I might be wondering why the bearer was cut a bit raggedly to go around the cooler, instead of allowing for it when positioning everything.  The keel cooler couldn't have been positioned back a few inches, allowing the bearer to retain its integrity?  And now they've done it that way, are they planning to leave it like that?

 

The bigger question to me is how much draught has this boat?  The swim seems to have a depth of about a foot.  So if the prop shaft is exiting half way down, and there's a couple of inches allowance between the tips of the blades and the uxter plate then what diameter prop are you planning putting on, 8-10"???  That's small as well as being just under the water level, you'll be picking up every crisp packet and piece of string floating past.

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As you are asking the forum, a rather vague question, and we have to assume you are not happy, would it not be advisable to compare the structure with the plans and specifications?

If you are not sure what they are doing, would it be a good idea to take along a surveyor with a lot of experience in this sort of build. I can see this might upset the builder, but it's your money, and in spite of peterboat's assurances, it seems to me, that 'in narrowboat terms', this sort of thing is 'cutting edge'.

I know when I asked my builder about a minor modification, I was pretty much dismissed. His family has been building boats for generations, and that was the end of the discussion. I just paid someone else to do the modification, my gut feeling being that it is more like 'proper engineering'.

Edited by LadyG
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4 hours ago, LadyG said:

As you are asking the forum, a rather vague question, and we have to assume you are not happy, would it not be advisable to compare the structure with the plans and specifications?

If you are not sure what they are doing, would it be a good idea to take along a surveyor with a lot of experience in this sort of build. I can see this might upset the builder, but it's your money, and in spite of peterboat's assurances, it seems to me, that 'in narrowboat terms', this sort of thing is 'cutting edge'.

I know when I asked my builder about a minor modification, I was pretty much dismissed. His family has been building boats for generations, and that was the end of the discussion. I just paid someone else to do the modification, my gut feeling being that it is more like 'proper engineering'.

I looked at the picture and thought it didn't represent scale, my point was that keel cooling for electric motors is very small, Finesse have a small stainless steel tank 2 foot square which works fine. If an electric motor runs hot something is wrong so my comment calorifier should be enough was made. Johnathan has been building boats since he was 14 so what mod did you want on your boat? Just curious 

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1 hour ago, peterboat said:

 Johnathan has been building boats since he was 14 so what mod did you want on your boat? Just curious 

I wanted a fully functional tiller bearing. 

I can't remember what the original design was, but it now has a conventional oval shaped thing, presumably that has ball beatings, there is a functioning grease nipple the previous affair was different, the grease nipple was broken, and there was evidence of the use of a large hammer (maul) to free some jammed rudder stock. 

I'm sure the man has been building boats since he was fourteen, but he showed little respect for my query, I was intending to take the boat to him so he could sort it, but he must have been too busy. 

Edited by LadyG
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2 hours ago, peterboat said:

If an electric motor runs hot something is wrong so my comment calorifier should be enough was made.

I'm also a bit surprised that the electric motor would need keel cooling. But if it does, I don't know that relying on a calorifier would work, surely once your hot water is up to temperature the calorifier will stop cooling the motor?

 

What is a more pertinent question to me is what is going to cool the diesel generator if it is in the bow? I assume that is air cooled? Surely the diesel generator will produce more heat than the electric motor - it feels like the cooling is the wrong way around - water cooling the diesel generator and supplying a calorifier, while the motor is air cooled or with that very small skin tank you mentioned, would feel like it made more sense?

 

That little notch out of the bearer doesn't really bother me. Doesn't look so neat but it can't be material, the motor will weigh much less and vibrate much less than an engine so I'm sure those bearers are probably serious overkill anyway.

 

I have no idea what I'm talking about though, this is just my gut feel.

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1 hour ago, LadyG said:

 I was intending to take the boat to him so he could sort it, but he must have been too busy. 

You probably had a lucky escape.  I've known people leave boats there for relatively minor jobs and 6 months later they haven't been touched. 

You get a free mooring with facilities while you wait though. 

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I would say they measured up where the motor mounts would be and then marked up on the swim where it ended to fit the skin tank, completely overlooking the fact that the thickness of the tank would foul that length of angle and of course by now the tank was in. I suppose they could always weld the top of the angle to the skin tank.

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2 hours ago, LadyG said:

I wanted a fully functional tiller bearing. 

I can't remember what the original design was, but it now has a conventional oval shaped thing, presumably that has ball beatings, there is a functioning grease nipple the previous affair was different, the grease nipple was broken, and there was evidence of the use of a large hammer (maul) to free some jammed rudder stock. 

I'm sure the man has been building boats since he was fourteen, but he showed little respect for my query, I was intending to take the boat to him so he could sort it, but he must have been too busy. 

Yes to busy building new boats! Repairs are normally a boatyard thing rather than a builder

 Having said that he stretched my boat and built the wheelhouse base, but I have known him for years and we are friends which always helps 

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1 hour ago, jetzi said:

I'm also a bit surprised that the electric motor would need keel cooling. But if it does, I don't know that relying on a calorifier would work, surely once your hot water is up to temperature the calorifier will stop cooling the motor?

 

What is a more pertinent question to me is what is going to cool the diesel generator if it is in the bow? I assume that is air cooled? Surely the diesel generator will produce more heat than the electric motor - it feels like the cooling is the wrong way around - water cooling the diesel generator and supplying a calorifier, while the motor is air cooled or with that very small skin tank you mentioned, would feel like it made more sense?

 

That little notch out of the bearer doesn't really bother me. Doesn't look so neat but it can't be material, the motor will weigh much less and vibrate much less than an engine so I'm sure those bearers are probably serious overkill anyway.

 

I have no idea what I'm talking about though, this is just my gut feel.

Lots of motors are liquid cooled these days. There is a series on TV Vintage Voltage where they convert older cars to electric

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With regard to the queries concerning scale - the photo was taken with a smartphone, which will have picked whatever lens it thought appropriate. In the workshop the proportions of the swim look normal to me, as do the other aft sections of the boat, and the draught, so please assume everything is OK in this area. The back of the workshop where the stern of the boat is was quite dimly lit and we didn't notice the V cut out on the port-side engine/motor bearer, etc until viewing the photos when we were back home. On the upside I'm impressed with the phone's camera in such low light!

 

To my mind, the keel cooling tank has been poorly located and/or poorly sized, necessitating an acutely angled inlet spigot and a deep V cut into the motor bearer. This is shouting poor design and/or workmanship to me. Not happy. An email was sent to the builder last night. We await the response.

Edited by Jackofalltrades
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