Jump to content

Fibre glass cabins


JustinS

Featured Posts

Is this a steel hulled narrowboat type? Some of them (Cutlass???) have nice hulls but the tops are troublesome. Leaks, cracking, simple age and wear and tear really. If I had one I would think about removing the top and putting a wooden top on it (Not many would agree with that though.) Its the bit below the water that really matters and the corrosion. Having said that I have seen a couple in really good - probably restored - condition and they look very nice.

Edited by Bee
added a bit
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes it’s a steel hulled narrowboat from 1970. The hull has had some overplating  about 20 odd years ago and needs a bit of repair so I’m anticipating it will probably all need doing again although i can get the boat for £5000 so that’s not too worrying... I’m thinking of it as a bit of a restoration project although the top all looks very tidy and painted not too long ago. Has nice wooden grab rails along the top!! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The main weak point on these is the joint between the grp cabin and the steel hull. The cabin is bolted to a steel upstand welded along the inside edge on the gunwale. Any sealant used in the joint will long ago have perished, and the joint is always moving due to differential thermal expansion of steel and grp. So the joint tends to leak. Some boats are fine; on others the owners seem to be fighting a losing battle.

The other weakness is the wooden handrails which are screwed through the grp. Fine if everything is in good condition, but it is another potential source of leaks.

The longer boats of this type had the cabins made in two or more sections, with an aluminium strip over the joint. Another potential leakage point.

That said, well maintained examples are good looking boats.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it's steel with a grp cabin I had one many years ago and TBH I regret parting with it now.  Even today these boats are universally shunned by secondhand boat buyers but I would happily have another.  As David says the Achilles heel is the joint between the hull and the cabin but it is repairable, if awkward.  If you were renovating one of these boats I reckon you could now make sure the joint was good for a long time.   

 

Most of these boats will have had some overplating by now, that's to be expected, but one advantage is because the cabin section is lighter, there should be a lot of ballast (to remove) which is a good thing when overplating becomes necessary.

 

If it's from 1970 I would guess this is a wet bilge boat, ie surface water drains into the bilge and is pumped out at the stern, same with the shower waste water.  That means inspection of the bilge (for rust) is essential.  

 

I'll bet it has an air cooled Lister pushing it.  If it isn't the engine has probably been replaced which is a good thing, for your ears if nothing else.

 

I'm tempted to say that these days £5k for any narrowboat is a bargain, what ever its condition.

 

Any clues as to who built it?  Do you have a photo? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was built by harborough marine, has a lister s3 which was rebuilt late 90s. I have a couple of photos of the outside taken a few years ago. It’s been left for a couple of years. Yes it is a wet bilge, not sure if shower and sink go into it as well. This is a concern of mine... wouldn’t that cause damp problems? Tbh even if the whole hull needed doing I think it’s probably a reasonable price! Going to have a proper look at it tomorrow. I do like the idea of doing up an old boat. 

FFF8721F-057A-441A-B255-AD43EEDDF0F8.jpeg

C01A12BF-D272-4D98-B40B-3DCB39F47951.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, OK its a Harborough.  Many of these were hire boats. I think the lower edge of the f'glass cabin was bolted to a decent steel upstand so reasonably leakproof when newish but of course that was a few years ago, you might be able to see a line of bolt heads or dimples along that edge. I think the roof sits over the sides like a lid so again, that should be OK . If that is a wet bilge where rainwater runs all the way through then that is not great.   You do need to check for bad rust, lift all the boards over the engine and look at all the steel. There will be rust and probably under the floorboards  too  - in fact everywhere - but its how bad it is that matters. Its hard to tell without giving it a really good dig around with a screwdriver but not when its in the water! AFAIK a boat of that age is likely to be 1/4" bottom and 3/16" sides and well into overplating territory. If you can fix the wear and tear and keep it tidy it will be worth the effort. Good luck.

  • Happy 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

These are affectionately known as "banana boats" and unaffectionately as "window smashers"...

 

I love them, with the low pro roofs and increased tumblehome compared to modern boats, and those louvred windows are surprisingly practical especially if you have a solid fuel stove, you can/get keep the boat really dry inside.

 

You can tell it's wet bilge as the guy in the bow is standing in the deep bow deck which you obviously can't have with a self draining deck.  It's quite nice having a very small step from the cabin to the outside but the wet bilge does need a good look at.

 

In the modern day a lot of wet bilge boat have had a cratch cover fitted to stop the rain water entering at the bow.  Then you only have to worry about the shower drain which is usually right aft.  The old Harborough boats don't really suit a cratch though so you have to assume this boat has had a wet bilge its entire life.  

 

If they only want £5k that's leaves you an awful lot of headroom, but your main worry is that it's entirely possibly there is not much steel left below the water.  Everything is fixable in theory but if the hull is like a colander it could be a very expensive fix.

 

  

Edited by Neil2
  • Happy 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had one of those, see here, and we loved her. Yes the biggest weak point was the joint where the top met the sides; I never did seal all the leaks despite using tube after of sealant, so as soon as it started raining we knew where immediately to place saucepans to catch the drips. Also the screws through the roof and up into the handrails were a weak point (the rail once snapped off so I fell into the canal while still holding it in my hand) but that was easy to fix. Later models had a modified roof design with built in upstands so that the rail could be a straight pole.

 

On the plus side the GRP was a sandwich made of two thin sheets of GRP holding a layer of foam which provided extremely good thermal insulation, unlike most similar boats of the time which were just a single layer of GRP which on its own is very cold in winter.

 

The wet bilge was never a problem, and never caused a dampness issue in the living area. We also loved the way it allowed such a low floor in the cockpit area, so that there was good headroom even when the cratch covers were in place (it became our children's favourite space). In particular the air-cooled SR3 used to suck air right through the boat's bilge and thus ensured that the bilge remained mainly dry (especially once we had fitted a shower drain pump instead of having the soapy water drain into the bilge)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

We had one of those, see here, and we loved her. Yes the biggest weak point was the joint where the top met the sides; I never did seal all the leaks despite using tube after of sealant, so as soon as it started raining we knew where immediately to place saucepans to catch the drips. Also the screws through the roof and up into the handrails were a weak point (the rail once snapped off so I fell into the canal while still holding it in my hand) but that was easy to fix. Later models had a modified roof design with built in upstands so that the rail could be a straight pole.

 

On the plus side the GRP was a sandwich made of two thin sheets of GRP holding a layer of foam which provided extremely good thermal insulation, unlike most similar boats of the time which were just a single layer of GRP which on its own is very cold in winter.

 

The wet bilge was never a problem, and never caused a dampness issue in the living area. We also loved the way it allowed such a low floor in the cockpit area, so that there was good headroom even when the cratch covers were in place (it became our children's favourite space). In particular the air-cooled SR3 used to suck air right through the boat's bilge and thus ensured that the bilge remained mainly dry (especially once we had fitted a shower drain pump instead of having the soapy water drain into the bilge)

 

Was the Lister designed to do that or was it modified - it's a great idea anyway.

 

Do these Harborough boats have a completely flat bottom or is there a very slight "V" to them?   I have a memory of a hire boat many years ago that had a wet bilge, and the baseplate was designed this way so the water flowed straight down the centre line to the engine bilge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

 

Was the Lister designed to do that or was it modified - it's a great idea anyway.

 

Do these Harborough boats have a completely flat bottom or is there a very slight "V" to them?   I have a memory of a hire boat many years ago that had a wet bilge, and the baseplate was designed this way so the water flowed straight down the centre line to the engine bilge.

No, it wasn't modified, that's just what happened anyway.

 

The bottom was completely flat. In fact the chines (where the sides met the bottom) had worn away after years as a hire boat on the Llangollen and Shroppie, so strip of angle had been welded along them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As hire boats, a lot of these fibreglass cabinned  Harborough boats had curving steel tubes from the cabin front top corners to the foredeck, to protect the vulnerable cabin corners from contact with bridges, particularly the lift bridges on the Llangollen. The downside was that these bars made it more difficult to get on and off the front of the boat.

You don't see them now, probably because modern steel cabins are more robust (meaning it is the bridge that gets damaged instead), and also I think that the modern soulless lift bridges that have now almost completely replaced the timber originals on the Llangollen, open to a steeper angle than their predecessors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think the bars were fitted to protect the cabin tops, they were there to protect the passengers. They were hurriedly fitted (it may even have been made mandatory on hire boats for a while?) after somebody was killed when a hire boat drove into a swing bridge on the K&A while they were standing in the front cockpit area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/09/2021 at 17:39, Neil2 said:

These are affectionately known as "banana boats" and unaffectionately as "window smashers"...

 

I love them, with the low pro roofs and increased tumblehome compared to modern boats, and those louvred windows are surprisingly practical especially if you have a solid fuel stove, you can/get keep the boat really dry inside.

 

You can tell it's wet bilge as the guy in the bow is standing in the deep bow deck which you obviously can't have with a self draining deck.  It's quite nice having a very small step from the cabin to the outside but the wet bilge does need a good look at.

 

In the modern day a lot of wet bilge boat have had a cratch cover fitted to stop the rain water entering at the bow.  Then you only have to worry about the shower drain which is usually right aft.  The old Harborough boats don't really suit a cratch though so you have to assume this boat has had a wet bilge its entire life.  

 

If they only want £5k that's leaves you an awful lot of headroom, but your main worry is that it's entirely possibly there is not much steel left below the water.  Everything is fixable in theory but if the hull is like a colander it could be a very expensive fix.

 

 

Well I went to look at the boat yesterday.,it’s a complete wreck inside and out! The hull has had some overplating done about 15 to 20 years ago and the engine wouldn’t start! There’s been a hole near one of the gunnels which has been leaking and caused considerable rust on the inside. The top is still in good condition although needs painting. It would be a complete restoration project which sadly i don’t have the time for...would be lonely when finished...  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, JustinS said:

Well I went to look at the boat yesterday.,it’s a complete wreck inside and out! The hull has had some overplating done about 15 to 20 years ago and the engine wouldn’t start! There’s been a hole near one of the gunnels which has been leaking and caused considerable rust on the inside. The top is still in good condition although needs painting. It would be a complete restoration project which sadly i don’t have the time for...would be lonely when finished...  

 

Ah well, it's a shame but even if they gave you the boat - which by the sound of it I suspect they might - it probably doesn't make sense even if you had the time.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.