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Why don't GRP cruisers have centre lines ? ! ?


Justin Smith

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On 16/11/2021 at 13:09, John Brightley said:

I'd second this. There is a lot of talk these days about centrelines on narrowboats, but they were rare before about 1990. And we didn't have any problems without them !


Definitely. Used my school-mate’s boat regularly (well it was his dad’s of course) - purpose built steel leisure narrowboat mid-70s. Never heard of a centre line!
Bit of a shock when they got a new boat in the 90s and it had a newfangled centreline thingy!

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My new Hancock and Lane shell built for me back in the mid 80s, arrived with the forerunner of the centre line idea. 

 

I didn't order them but H&L welded a small bollard onto each side deck approx midships, i.e. half way along the length of boat. A line attached to each of these was very handy in exactly the way a centre line is nowadays.

First class trip hazard they were, though.

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In defence of cente lines: 

 

Unless you are handy and do like Matty does it may help if you are singlehanded.

 

Other threads on mooring up relate lots of tales of even experienced boaters struggling at times to moor up straight. 

 

Moor up and hop of the stern with the stern line and the bow could be heading out when you go to tie up. 

 

Mate hops of the front with the bow line and stern could be heading out.

 

With a centre line just pull it in (I'm talking about canals not rivers).

 

Better boat control and use of the engine could prevent some of these issues but we are not all great all of the time, so hopping off and hauling level with the centre line seems like a basic idiot proof plan. If a little ungainly when observed at times. 

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In defence of cente lines: 

 

Unless you are handy and do like Matty does it may help if you are singlehanded.

 

Other threads on mooring up relate lots of tales of even experienced boaters struggling at times to moor up straight. 

 

Moor up and hop of the stern with the stern line and the bow could be heading out when you go to tie up. 

 

Mate hops of the front with the bow line and stern could be heading out.

 

With a centre line just pull it in (I'm talking about canals not rivers).

 

Better boat control and use of the engine could prevent some of these issues but we are not all great all of the time, so hopping off and hauling level with the centre line seems like a basic idiot proof plan. If a little ungainly when observed at times. 

 

By the way, I'm not an expert, still learning, very slowly. Just sharing my experience of how I see it currently working for me. I have a 30ft narrowboat and most places when one end isn't tied up it usually starts drifting into the middle of the canal very quickly, without any persuasion. 

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On 15/11/2021 at 23:01, David Mack said:

Because most grp cruisers are short enough that one person can hold both a bow and stern line?

 

The centre line, attached to a ring on the roof, is a relatively recent concept. Working boat motors had the 'back end line' attached to a rail across the front of the engineroom bulkhead, but that is too far back to be easily used as a centre line. And as canals transitioned from working days to leisure use the back end line was not carried across to leisure boats. It only evolved more recently, presumably in response to the particular needs of leisure narrow boats, and that evolutionary pressure has not been there in other boating contexts.

 

On 16/11/2021 at 13:09, John Brightley said:

I'd second this. There is a lot of talk these days about centrelines on narrowboats, but they were rare before about 1990. And we didn't have any problems without them !

 

Indeed, my first few leisure boat hires (the first two were ex-working "camping" boats) didn't have centre lines.

 

I improvised by using the boat hook on the bankside hand rail. However most hire boats were much shorter and lighter than the ones today.

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