"Old Steel" and the tale of two surveys

[LadyG]

36 minutes ago, DShK said:

This is not advice that is easy to hear but definitely the kind of thing I need to hear. I think a 60ft boat would be fine - especially if a trad stern. Beyond that size it's mostly about accomodating a mid-engine. Perhaps I am better off compromising on the mid-engine, and in the future - when I have more experience - I can be more informed if I fancy handling a larger boat. I believe the guy who tried to sell me the boat in question for single-handed, and that was 70ft. As for marinas/cruising/shorepower. Perhaps the solution there is to always pay for a marina. Always have one lined up well in advance, always have a home mooring that I can plan around. Winter stoppages I can plan around - I imagine breaches etc I would be fine to moor up and just run a generator until I can move on?

Depends where you intend to base yourself, I am penned in on the L&L, a long term breach at one end { May} and a shorter term stoppage at the other, I can't actually go very far.

Yes you could charge with a generator, but please don't moor too near me if you have huge power requirement 😢

You'll still have to comply with Ts&Cs, which can be tricky, identifying new "places" and avoiding A to B, B to A.

I would think it would be unusual to be stranded and unable to move, though it has happened, in which case you apply to CRT for an overstay. 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by LadyG

[roland elsdon]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

I am single-handed on a 57ft narrow boat, no way would I buy a 65ft boat.

It's more difficult to find mooring spaces between moored boats, awkward in locks, more wind age in strong winds.

I often find it much better to moor near others, probably means the canal is deep enough, the area is fairly quiet, and not too far from civilisation. 

Marina hopping was one of my ideas to access shore power in winter, but its not worked out, not all marinas will have vacancies for transient boats, they may be fully booked in winter, or they may not have shore power, you may not be able to get to them : winter stoppages, unplanned breaches, all throw your carefully calculated plans out the window. 

Have you ever steered a  full length narrow boat . I mean a 72 foot ex working boat.

They are a joy. The canal was built for them, they fit locks they fit landing stages and they boat well. The only issue is mooring as moderns are generally 57 ft.

The only time we had wind issues was getting off the bank in a gale with the butty, and the motor bow up and clothed up. Our current motor has the bow down and will come off the bank with one hand while slab sided boats struggle.

Of course you can’t go everywhere but where you can go a full length boat is by far the easiest. The canals were designed around 72 ft or so.

[DShK]

39 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Have you ever steered a  full length narrow boat . I mean a 72 foot ex working boat.

They are a joy. The canal was built for them, they fit locks they fit landing stages and they boat well. The only issue is mooring as moderns are generally 57 ft.

The only time we had wind issues was getting off the bank in a gale with the butty, and the motor bow up and clothed up. Our current motor has the bow down and will come off the bank with one hand while slab sided boats struggle.

Of course you can’t go everywhere but where you can go a full length boat is by far the easiest. The canals were designed around 72 ft or so.

Is the key word here "We"? Would you feel comfortable handing a boat that size by yourself all the time?

[Slow and Steady]

Not much experience here, but I've steered a

70ft - easy-peasy, a joy tbh and it's owner was a single hander - really makes no difference how long your boat is except long 'uns are better in a straight line.

50ft with long swim - nice hull - again easy and very manoeuvrable but more attention needed to keep it straight.

60ft modern short swim, made as a floating house really - bloody awful manoeuvring but ok once you realise it's very, very slow to respond and "limited". Good in a straight line and MASSES of internal space (for a narrowboat) due to it's quirky design - it has a steel bay window instead of a cratch and almost vertical sides. Ugly but practical.

 

If as you say you intend to run a computer all day for work you will need some serious on-board power production and storage, or live in a marina. Marina is the easy dependable shore power happy answer, but then ask yourself exactly what it is about living on a boat that attracts you. Some on here find it hard to believe that living on a boat in a marina is any different than living in a mobile home, but IMO it is very different and very much nicer even if it's just the peace and quiet, ducks quacking and bobbing about a bit when it's windy.  We have 2x full on powerful computers on board and these pesky things at present are tying us to shore power. To feed these high consuming things we would need so much power that we'd be a bit stuffed in the winter even with a big lithium bank and covering the roof with solar.

 

I suggest you do a power audit because your mid-engine dream might be a nightmare if the damn thing is running all day to power your business. 

 

[Captain Pegg]

8 minutes ago, DShK said:

Is the key word here "We"? Would you feel comfortable handing a boat that size by yourself all the time?

 

Many people do and in any case a full length ex-working boat is a different beast to a 70' leisure boat in other respects too. There are folks that single hand widebeams which are bigger and heavier still, although I will admit their slowness can be a pain when you're trying to head for London down the Grand Union.

 

The key point is that what will work for you is to a large degree unique to you and you should be careful not to put too much store on what any one person advises.

 

For instance I have just given notice on my long term mooring to become a continuous cruiser. Avoiding shuffling from A to B is about number 143 on a list of 143 things to consider in my respect.

 

What I can say for certain as the owner of a 35' boat that volunteers on 71' 6" ex-working boats and has steered many 60' to 70' hire boats is that the notion that a small boat is automatically going to be easier to handle than a large boat is not true. They are different and it works both ways. To a degree all boats are unique.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, DShK said:

Is the key word here "We"? Would you feel comfortable handing a boat that size by yourself all the time?

@junior did it for several years selling diesel and doing pumpouts at the same time

[manxmike]

I rather think my experiences with pitting and hull thickness are very similar to those of @KeepingUp. I put mine down to a combination of an ill advised trip through Chester to Ellesmere Port, a section of the canal redolent with MIC and mooring between two live-aboards permanently plugged into the mains which created an electrical induction field.

I'm sure the experts will be along to disagree, but the end result was over a period of about two years the hull went from (mostly) 8mm to under 3mm in places with significant pitting elsewhere.

[LadyG]

6 hours ago, DShK said:

This is not advice that is easy to hear but definitely the kind of thing I need to hear. I think a 60ft boat would be fine - especially if a trad stern. Beyond that size it's mostly about accomodating a mid-engine. Perhaps I am better off compromising on the mid-engine, and in the future - when I have more experience - I can be more informed if I fancy handling a larger boat. I believe the guy who tried to sell me the boat in question for single-handed, and that was 70ft. As for marinas/cruising/shorepower. Perhaps the solution there is to always pay for a marina. Always have one lined up well in advance, always have a home mooring that I can plan around. Winter stoppages I can plan around - I imagine breaches etc I would be fine to moor up and just run a generator until I can move on?

I came through Eston lock the day it closed, unplanned stoppage for about six months, my  intention was to turn round. head back What if I d planned well in advance and paid up front for a marina behind me? 

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I came through Eston lock the day it closed, unplanned stoppage for about six months, my  intention was to turn round. head back What if I d planned well in advance and paid up front for a marina behind me? 

 

 

You'd still have had 6 months tied up outside the toilet block (it could have been worse) you had you own water supply and toilets.

[TheBiscuits]

53 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I came through Eston lock the day it closed, unplanned stoppage for about six months, my  intention was to turn round. head back What if I d planned well in advance and paid up front for a marina behind me? 

 

If you needed to be Leeds side of Gargrave then hopefully you would have had enough sense not to go through the lock on the last passage day before it was deliberately closed for an unknown time because it was collapsing ...

 

When Eshton Road lock was collapsing, they stopped passage, surveyed the lock and then allowed a couple of days of supervised passages clearly stated as the last possible transits until it was fully rebuilt.

 

I think @DRP took the last boat through it, as he politely offered to go last due to being the most likely to get stuck in the lock.  Ribble does have form for getting wedged in L&L locks! 

 

 

[LadyG]

53 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

If you needed to be Leeds side of Gargrave then hopefully you would have had enough sense not to go through the lock on the last passage day before it was deliberately closed for an unknown time because it was collapsing ...

 

When Eshton Road lock was collapsing, they stopped passage, surveyed the lock and then allowed a couple of days of supervised passages clearly stated as the last possible transits until it was fully rebuilt.

 

I think @DRP took the last boat through it, as he politely offered to go last due to being the most likely to get stuck in the lock.  Ribble does have form for getting wedged in L&L locks! 

 

 

There was no one on duty the day I came through, it  certainly was in quite a state.

I can't remember if I could have turned, but anyway I didn't. 

I was responding to OP s comment that good forward planning would prevent problems. 

Thing I have found is that one has to expect unplanned stoppages, certainly been my experience this last year. 

Edited March 21, 2022 by LadyG

[roland elsdon]

16 hours ago, DShK said:

Is the key word here "We"? Would you feel comfortable handing a boat that size by yourself all the 

16 hours ago, DShK said:

Is the key word here "We"? Would you feel comfortable handing a boat that size by yourself all the time?

We have both boated solo on our 70 foot ex cargo boats, without incident.

Neither of us is particularly robust

and mrs S is less than 5 ft tall.

we have also solo’d short narrowboats. They are harder needing tying in locks and being pigs in the wind.