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Ribble crossing 10hp.


Tom766

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  • 2 weeks later...
5 hours ago, blackrose said:

There's a video someone posted on one of the subforums of a guy getting a tow across the Ribble. He was freaking out every time the boat went over a small wave. Funny to see a YouTube blogger sh*tting himself. 

 

Yes, just why his tow thought it a good idea to turn board side to the wash was beyond me and when it rolled a bit he spouted a load of nonsense about his boat turning over, that is unless he had 4mm baseplate, no ballast and a 12mm roof. It has been reported several times on here how pilots on the Severn were aggroably surprised at just how stable narrowboats feel when at sea. Hardly surprising with all that ballast on the baseplate. In fact, as long as the widows don't blow or the ballast shift significantly, I suspect a typical narowboat would act like a lifeboat and just right itself if it ever got laid on its side.

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13 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Yes, just why his tow thought it a good idea to turn board side to the wash was beyond me and when it rolled a bit he spouted a load of nonsense about his boat turning over, that is unless he had 4mm baseplate, no ballast and a 12mm roof. It has been reported several times on here how pilots on the Severn were aggroably surprised at just how stable narrowboats feel when at sea. Hardly surprising with all that ballast on the baseplate. In fact, as long as the widows don't blow or the ballast shift significantly, I suspect a typical narowboat would act like a lifeboat and just right itself if it ever got laid on its side.

 

I can't recall where I read it, but someone who had taken their boat to sea, possibly the Tuesday Night Club, remarked how a narrowboat behaves like a submarine, it doesn't roll with the waves it just ploughs through them.  That's ok up to a point but when the waves get too big then the water is coming over the top and without 100% watertight hatches the boat will sink.  That's how the guy who took his Springer out into the Irish Sea came to grief some years ago.   

 

The narrowboat that sailed across from Canada - forget it's name - had been modified to deal with the likelihood of waves breaking over the boat.  It did have a sort of keel, but even so I'm sure I read that it was heeled over 90 degrees a few times but righted itself.  However, IIRC the journey was pretty excruciating with most of the crew suffering from constant seasickness...     

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The Canadian boat (I Francis, I think) was not a modified narrow boat, but a boat designed by a naval architect for the crossing but to dimensions to allow it to traverse the UK narrow canals.

 

Most narrowboats don't lift on a wave like a boat with a flared bow would and do tend to go through the waves, but they do lift to a degree. On the Trent when a prat in a cruiser passed us at high speed against the tide and within about 20ft the bow did part the waves and threw most of them aside, but some did run down the gunnels, an insignificant amount got into the boat and a lot of that was spray that came right over the roof and into the cockpit. It rolled far less than I expected from such a narrow beam, even when the wake hit us on the front quarter and  then rolled down the hull side.

 

The point I was trying to make is that for estuary passages like the Ribble, Trent, Severn ad across the Wash unless the pilots or the boater are complete idiots or get very badly caught out by a sudden change in the conditions the chances of a narrowboat rolling over or being sunk on such trips are pretty slim.

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13 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

The Canadian boat (I Francis, I think) was not a modified narrow boat, but a boat designed by a naval architect for the crossing but to dimensions to allow it to traverse the UK narrow canals................

 

 

I Frances, that was it and yes as you say purpose built to sail from Canada to Moscow.

 

I wonder what happened to it, I remember it was in Manchester many years ago heading over the Pennines but then the trail goes cold.  I'm sure I saw it was up for sale some time later so I guess it never got to Moscow but it would be interesting to know who has it now.  

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54 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

 

 

I Frances, that was it and yes as you say purpose built to sail from Canada to Moscow.

 

I wonder what happened to it, I remember it was in Manchester many years ago heading over the Pennines but then the trail goes cold.  I'm sure I saw it was up for sale some time later so I guess it never got to Moscow but it would be interesting to know who has it now.  

I understood he suffered ill health and sold the boat we saw it in London a few years ago apparently being used as a live aboard, bit of a waste

https://irishwaterways.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/i-frances-bjg-01a-reduced-file-size_resize.jpg

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