First Step Towards the Cut

[Paul C]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

There's a small locker for the bow thruster and hose/rope storage, then the next three feet under the potter's cabin is deep clothes drawers that pull out into the bedroom with a stainless water tank underneath them -- so the effective bulkhead is only about 4' from the bows even though the cabin is 7' back, almost all the space is used. The front couple of feet of the cabin is tipped in very slightly to match the curve of the hull. Couldn't push anything any further forwards...

 

Same thought as you about wasted space in the bows. Also no need for seats there to get away from the engine noise, hence the semi-trad stern... 🙂

 

That's an, errrrr, 'interesting' way to configure the front of a canal boat. I see where you're coming from - we hardly ever use the bow area to sit on etc - but do use it once in a blue moon for socialising; and use it quite a lot when locking, bridge lifting and mooring.

[IanD]

2 hours ago, Tonka said:

Get a boat with a punt style front. Less wasted space

Don't understand, difficult to see how to have less wasted space than almost none -- please explain...

2 hours ago, Paul C said:

 

That's an, errrrr, 'interesting' way to configure the front of a canal boat. I see where you're coming from - we hardly ever use the bow area to sit on etc - but do use it once in a blue moon for socialising; and use it quite a lot when locking, bridge lifting and mooring.

It's by no means unique outside, there are quite a few boats built like this -- or with a "tipped-in" cabin section behind the potter's cabin, which I think looks fake and gives less space inside.

[David Mack]

Why "potter's cabin"? It looks to be based on what on a carrying narrow boat was simply known as a 'fore cabin'.

[IanD]

Just now, David Mack said:

Why "potter's cabin"? It looks to be based on what on a carrying narrow boat was simply known as a 'fore cabin'.

Not my name for it, but seems to be what they're being called nowadays -- I'd never heard the term before, which is why I asked if anyone knew why it was called that...

[Paul C]

Any pics? (Of similar bows) I have in my mind, something like the Canaltime boat's front ends, but I think a bit more forwards still and no seating/deck at all.

[IanD]

15 minutes ago, Paul C said:

Any pics? (Of similar bows) I have in my mind, something like the Canaltime boat's front ends, but I think a bit more forwards still and no seating/deck at all.

I posted a photo of mine further back. Look on Tim Tyler's FB page to see some others, the header picture is an example (Flutterby) with the tipped-in cabin (short fake clothed section) which I don't like.

 

I think the Canaltime boats look weird (Tim has a rather stronger word), and they only really work if you have a bed right in the bows, which I don't. I also suspect they're rather prone to catching the front cabin corners on bridge arches, going by the battle scars I've seen on several of them...

Edited July 18, 2022 by IanD

[Captain Pegg]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

Why "potter's cabin"? It looks to be based on what on a carrying narrow boat was simply known as a 'fore cabin'.

 

Based being the key word. Forecabins on carrying boats were of course full width rather than sitting inside the gunwales and also utilised the depth of the hold inside which I think made them quite different both in appearance and usage. Many modern versions seem to be built on top of the deck as extra storage which may explain why they apparently have a different name; one that I must confess I'd never heard and was puzzled as to what it described.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Captain Pegg

[MtB]

I'd not heard the term "Potter's cabin" until a few years ago on here. A brief search turned up the thread, where FTS suggests they were fitted to boats from the potteries around Stoke which carried feldspar. Feldspar being very dense meant the holds could not be fully filled with cargo so the space at the bow was used as cabin space. Seems a plausible explanation.

 

https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/73771-potters-cabin-bike-locker/

 

 

 

[Captain Pegg]

35 minutes ago, MtB said:

I'd not heard the term "Potter's cabin" until a few years ago on here. A brief search turned up the thread, where FTS suggests they were fitted to boats from the potteries around Stoke which carried feldspar. Feldspar being very dense meant the holds could not be fully filled with cargo so the space at the bow was used as cabin space. Seems a plausible explanation.

 

https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/73771-potters-cabin-bike-locker/

 

 

 

 

I'd never twigged the difference and fear I may have talking ballcocks in my response to @David Mack

[IanD]

34 minutes ago, MtB said:

I'd not heard the term "Potter's cabin" until a few years ago on here. A brief search turned up the thread, where FTS suggests they were fitted to boats from the potteries around Stoke which carried feldspar. Feldspar being very dense meant the holds could not be fully filled with cargo so the space at the bow was used as cabin space. Seems a plausible explanation.

 

https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/73771-potters-cabin-bike-locker/

 

Thanks Mike, that makes sense. I'd never heard of the term either until I started designing my boat, then it came up all the time and seems to be the standard name nowadays for this kind of fore-cabin.

[ditchcrawler]

17 hours ago, IanD said:

Not my name for it, but seems to be what they're being called nowadays -- I'd never heard the term before, which is why I asked if anyone knew why it was called that...

Along with fitting swan hatches in the cabin side

15 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

Many modern versions seem to be built on top of the deck as extra storage  

And accomodate 13KG gas cylinders 

[ditchcrawler]

18 hours ago, IanD said:

Don't understand, difficult to see how to have less wasted space than almost none -- please explain...

 

In a 57 foot boat you have a triangular bit about 10 foot long at the front. If it was square and not triangular you would have twice the storage area in that 10 foot

[roland elsdon]

Swan hatch?

[Tonka]

9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

In a 57 foot boat you have a triangular bit about 10 foot long at the front. If it was square and not triangular you would have twice the storage area in that 10 foot

You also get the space which is outside of the curvature of the bow. 

[Tracy D'arth]

23 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Swan hatch?

Gobbledegook for side doors. Daft modern speak.

[IanD]

24 minutes ago, Tonka said:

You also get the space which is outside of the curvature of the bow. 

Ooh, a square bow as well as a square stern, both with nice sharp corners -- what could possibly go wrong?

 

Apart from knocking bits off bridges, locks, swing bridges, other boats... 😉

 

I kind of assumed the challenge was to find as much space as possible inside the shape of a conventional narrowboat and without the result looking too fugly, obviously I was wrong... 😞

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

33 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

In a 57 foot boat you have a triangular bit about 10 foot long at the front. If it was square and not triangular you would have twice the storage area in that 10 foot

Yes, I was pondering over that earlier today, how much more room there’d be by having a square front?

It’d be a significant gain.

And the guests could bring more clothes 👍, sorted

[IanD]

44 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Along with fitting swan hatches in the cabin side

And accomodate 13KG gas cylinders 

 

Side doors (glazed) are mainly there to provide a lot of light and ventilation in summer into the area they open into, in my case the dinette -- open them on both sides and it's almost like being outside, except more comfortable and without the sun beating down on your head 🙂

 

I haven't got any gas cylinders, 13kg or otherwise... 😉

4 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Yes, I was pondering over that earlier today, how much more room there’d be by having a square front?

It’d be a significant gain.

And the guests could bring more clothes 👍, sorted

 

Naah, guests are elsewhere in the boat 😉

[Tonka]

10 minutes ago, IanD said:

Ooh, a square bow as well as a square stern, both with nice sharp corners -- what could possibly go wrong?

 

Apart from knocking bits off bridges, locks, swing bridges, other boats... 😉

 

I kind of assumed the challenge was to find as much space as possible inside the shape of a conventional narrowboat and without the result looking too fugly, obviously I was wrong... 😞

But you said earlier it was for you and you did not care what others thought of it. Already changed your mind.

Which brokerage firm will you be using ?

[IanD]

Just now, Tonka said:

But you said earlier it was for you and you did not care what others thought of it. Already changed your mind.

Which brokerage firm will you be using ?

 

I want a boat that I like the layout of and don't think is fugly; if other people don't like it, well it's not their boat... 😉

 

But in fact several people who have expressed a genuine opinion instead of sniping on the forum have made comments like "Ooh, that's a nice boat" or "Hmm, that's a good idea"... 🙂

[ditchcrawler]

51 minutes ago, Tonka said:

You also get the space which is outside of the curvature of the bow. 

I was putting it simply 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

I want a boat that I like the layout of and don't think is fugly; if other people don't like it, well it's not their boat... 😉

 

But in fact several people who have expressed a genuine opinion instead of sniping on the forum have made comments like "Ooh, that's a nice boat" or "Hmm, that's a good idea"... 🙂

 

A genuine opinion as in one that agrees with yours? 

[IanD]

13 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I was putting it simply 

Good idea, some people obviously can't understand complicated... 😉

[dave moore]

Potter’s cabin, duck/ swan hatch….what about the coot flaps???😉

[Tonka]

1 hour ago, dave moore said:

Potter’s cabin, duck/ swan hatch….what about the coot flaps???😉

When we were out boating for a month there seemed to be a shortage of coots. Only saw 2. Lots of Kingfishers, moorhens and even some voles