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Are Narrowboats getting uglier?


PD1964

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1 hour ago, The Happy Nomad said:

I think the problem is the use of the word 'pretty'.

 

 

 

 

Yes. A boat's shape can be graceful.

I suppose that sympathetic painting and signwriting can make it look pretty too.

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Just now, PD1964 said:

Disagree, just a normal looking boat, maybe a photo without an ugly Cratch cover would support your claim more.

 

Are you truly incapable of imagining it without the cover??? How strange.

 

The thing about aesthetics is that they are subjective and a matter of personal opinion. Lots would say Doug made nice looking boats,

 

you don't.

 

Hey ho....

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13 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

Are you truly incapable of imagining it without the cover??? How strange.

 

The thing about aesthetics is that they are subjective and a matter of personal opinion. Lots would say Doug made nice looking boats,

 

you don't.

 

Hey ho....

No, that’s just a normal looking boat, nothing special with or without Cratch, also the windows do nothing for the looks. Have seen hundreds of better looking boats then that example, If your going to jump on the Doug Moore bandwagon post a better looking boat.

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2 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

No, that’s just a normal looking boat, nothing special with or without Cratch, also the windows do nothing for the looks. Have seen hundreds of better looking boats then that example, If your going to jump on the Doug Moore bandwagon post a better looking boat.

 

I don't jump to your demands. There are loads of nice Doug Moore boats to Google - do your own work.

 

I just happen to particularly like that one. You don't. I once saw it in the flesh at Gargrave (when I had to re tie it as the hirers hadn't tied it up properly and really liked it)

 

What point are you trying to make? That I am wrong and you are right? - I'm afraid you don't get to do that that when it comes to issues of subjectivity and personal opinion.

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4 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

I don't jump to your demands. There are loads of nice Doug Moore boats to Google - do your own work.

 

I just happen to particularly like that one. You don't. I once saw it in the flesh at Gargrave (when I had to re tie it as the hirers hadn't tied it up properly and really liked it)

 

What point are you trying to make? That I am wrong and you are right? - I'm afraid you don't get to do that that when it comes to issues of subjectivity and personal opinion.

I haven’t made any demands, you think that is a good looking boat, I say it just looks like a normal Narrowboat nothing special, no matter who built it.

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I am so so so sorry for mentioning Doug Moore.

 

It has obviously wound up the kindergarten on the forum.

 

Forget I ever posted please, get your rattles back in the pram.

 

Some days I don't know why I ever bother posting on here, the forum is going to the dogs.

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1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I am so so so sorry for mentioning Doug Moore.

 

It has obviously wound up the kindergarten on the forum.

 

Forget I ever posted please, get your rattles back in the pram.

 

Some days I don't know why I ever bother posting on here, the forum is going to the dogs.

There’s nothing wrong, just don’t think that example is anything special and not a nice looking boat with that Cratch, some disagree, that’s it.

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2 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

I haven’t made any demands, 

 

If your going to jump on the Doug Moore bandwagon post a better looking boat

 

Short term memory loss?

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10 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I am so so so sorry for mentioning Doug Moore.

 

It has obviously wound up the kindergarten on the forum.

 

Forget I ever posted please, get your rattles back in the pram.

 

Some days I don't know why I ever bother posting on here, the forum is going to the dogs.

 

Doug made some fine looking shells. And they are normally instantly recognisable, with a characteristic up sweep of the cabin that somehow looks 'different' to others. They often had an upswept counter like the boat pictured too which makes them stand out (though I am aware others did this too so it wasn't exclusive).

 

The interior of the boat pictured was lovely too, (when it was for hire there was pictures). Very cosy and 'homely'.

 

Though for clarity - not to everyone's taste.

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13 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I am so so so sorry for mentioning Doug Moore.

 

It has obviously wound up the kindergarten on the forum.

 

Forget I ever posted please, get your rattles back in the pram.

 

Some days I don't know why I ever bother posting on here, the forum is going to the dogs.


some people are as rude on here as they are on the canals. It’s often the same few 😕Please keep posting I for one value your contributions. 

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I like the earlier fibreglass Dawncraft boats, very elegant-  am I wrong. 😊

 

 

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1 minute ago, Stroudwater1 said:


some people are as rude on here as they are on the canals. It’s often the same few 😕Please keep posting I for one value your contributions. 

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I like the earlier fibreglass Dawncraft boats, very elegant-  am I wrong. 😊

 

 

 

If we are doing GRP then a Freeman 21/22 would be up there too for me.

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Cost cutting kills any attempt at a decent looking boat, folded gunwhales in particular. 

Nice boats have curves,  be it a yacht,  Dutch barge or classic sports cruiser. A gentle sheer from bow to stern,  banana shaped if you like. 

Take a piece of cardboard,  fold a bit over on one side along it's length,  now try to bend it into a curve. 

If you make the hull sides and gunwhales out of separate pieces of steel you can make the boat whatever graceful shape you like. But it costs more, so we end up with etch a sketch hulls to suit the market. 

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4 hours ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

What point are you trying to make? That I am wrong and you are right? - I'm afraid you don't get to do that that when it comes to issues of subjectivity and personal opinion.

 

I think that sums the whole thing up really. Personally I don't like the look of narrowboats. The proportions are all wrong for me in terms of both aesthetics and practical internal space. The only reason a narrowboat is that shape is because of lock dimensions. There's nothing aesthetically pleasing to me about those proportions.

 

Others say that widebeams are synonymous with ugliness but that's primarily because they've got used to the proportions of narrowboats and have somehow got it into their heads that that's a natural shape for a boat. In fact if you look at boats around the world, narrowboats are an outlier, an extreme I terms of boat proportions.

 

Anyway, at the end of the day there's no right or wrong and aesthetics is all down to personal taste

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3 hours ago, noddyboater said:

Cost cutting kills any attempt at a decent looking boat, folded gunwhales in particular. 

Nice boats have curves,  be it a yacht,  Dutch barge or classic sports cruiser. A gentle sheer from bow to stern,  banana shaped if you like. 

Take a piece of cardboard,  fold a bit over on one side along it's length,  now try to bend it into a curve. 

If you make the hull sides and gunwhales out of separate pieces of steel you can make the boat whatever graceful shape you like. But it costs more, so we end up with etch a sketch hulls to suit the market. 

 

That's not the only reason that modern steel boats tend to be "straighter" than older boats. Modern boats tend to be made of thicker steel which is more difficult to curve. That would be more expensive so it comes back to what you were saying about cost. However let's face it, canal boats were designed to carry goods not win beauty pageants and English canal boats are mostly made up of straight lines, even the "nice" ones. If it's curves one's after, better look elsewhere! 

Edited by blackrose
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1 minute ago, blackrose said:

 

That's not the only reason that modern steel boats tend to be "straighter" than older boats. Modern boats tend to be made of thicker steel which is more difficult to curve. That would be more expensive so it comes back to what you were saying about cost. However let's face it, canal boats were designed to carry goods not win beauty pageants. English canal boats are mostly made up of straight lines even the "nice" ones. If it's curves one's after, better look elsewhere! 

It's true that narrowboats were built to carry cargoes,  but look at the shape of an old working boat on the dock and it's actually very shapely - quite unlike the boxy stuff turned out by fabricators today. 

They probably had to be a fine a shape as possible, particularly underwater,  as power was limited back then. 

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The finely developed swims at both ends of old boats helped them to move efficiently through the water and, in the main, handle well. Few modern builders have the equipment to reproduce these lines today, though top end ones can do a damned good replica....at a price. To this jaded old traditionalist, a pleasing shell is paramount, it’s the one aspect of the boat that can’t be readily altered afterwards, unlike paint schemes or even fit outs. Many early builders of pleasure narrowboats based their designs along the lines of older craft and had an eye for this. As time has gone on, I think, more and more craft were built by fabricators rather than boatbuilders, perhaps to plans drawn up by those with less acquaintance of how things were. There are only a few builders today who produce shells of pleasing proportions, all of whom are at the top end still. 

Sadly, to my eyes, many today opt for exotic fittings on an average shell. I’ll leave it to others to compile that list.

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Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

Narrowboat builders when the skip business goes quiet - one of their narrowboats featured 'front page'

 

Most modern skips - especially the pictured DROPS hydraulic pickup skips - are built to a much higher standard than most modern narrow boat shells ...

 

I console myself that my boat was built by a firm that specialised in fuel tanks rather than dustbins. 

 

Looking at some of the welds I suspect they got the apprentices to practice on boats until they were good enough to try a diesel tank, but you can't have everything ...

 

 

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