Narrowboat stove flue, coming out of sidewall.

[19Granny66]

Hello, My narrow boat has the stove flue feed through the sidewall. It draws fine. Has anyone else heard or had this design? I've only seen them on wide beams. 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Welcome to the forum.

It sounds unusual. Can you post a picture? How does it cope with bridges, tunnels, lock walls, without getting damaged? Can you walk down the gunwale?

[MtB]

20 minutes ago, 19Granny66 said:

Hello, My narrow boat has the stove flue feed through the sidewall. It draws fine. Has anyone else heard or had this design? I've only seen them on wide beams. 

 

I've heard of it!

 

Hope that helps...

 

Was there anything else you wanted to know?

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

I saw a photo just this week with the chimney coming out of the cabin side on an electric Narrowboat, He says he will take it off for narrow locks 

[Tonka]

It could of course go through the front bulkhead and up. Which would not impede anything in narrow locks

[IanD]

12 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I saw a photo just this week with the chimney coming out of the cabin side on an electric Narrowboat, He says he will take it off for narrow locks 

That'll be fun when the stove is on and emitting smoke and the chimney is hot... 😉 

 

Especially if there's a p*sser in the lock wall which squirts water straight into the internal stovepipe through the resulting hole...

[19Granny66]

Thank you all, It was possibly my boat you have seen. We do intend to take it off when needed, to prevent any accidents. I got a number of boaters who seemed worried. Therefore, I need to ensure both we and others using the cut are all safe. We can walk the gunwale, however, we have a safe run from stern to bow inside. 

I'm just looking for honest opinions. Thank you again.

 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

12 minutes ago, 19Granny66 said:

I'm just looking for honest opinions.

OK then. It's a terrible idea for all the reasons already mentioned. Definitely worth moving to a more conventional roof exit and having the hole in the side welded up. The right angle bend on the outside and I'm assuming a corresponding one on the inside will encourage it to clag up more quickly with ash, tar and clinker and be a pain to clean.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted, but there it is.

[IanD]

1 minute ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

OK then. It's a terrible idea for all the reasons already mentioned. Definitely worth moving to a more conventional roof exit and having the hole in the side welded up. The right angle bend on the outside and I'm assuming a corresponding one on the inside will encourage it to clag up more quickly with ash, tar and clinker and be a pain to clean.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted, but there it is.

Is it even legal? I thought you weren't allowed to have anything hazardous (e.g. hot, like a chimney) outside the hull footprint of the boat, because of risk of injury (burns) to passersby?

[Tonka]

18 minutes ago, 19Granny66 said:

Thank you all, It was possibly my boat you have seen. We do intend to take it off when needed, to prevent any accidents. I got a number of boaters who seemed worried. Therefore, I need to ensure both we and others using the cut are all safe. We can walk the gunwale, however, we have a safe run from stern to bow inside. 

I'm just looking for honest opinions. Thank you again.

 

Which boatbuilder did that ?

[magpie patrick]

3 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

OK then. It's a terrible idea for all the reasons already mentioned. Definitely worth moving to a more conventional roof exit and having the hole in the side welded up. The right angle bend on the outside and I'm assuming a corresponding one on the inside will encourage it to clag up more quickly with ash, tar and clinker and be a pain to clean.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted, but there it is.

 

Seconded - that is going to get knocked off even moving to the water point or the diesel berth. You won't be able to take it off if the fire is lit, and moving with it on is a hazard to other boaters as well as locksides, bridges etc. 

Sorry, but it needs to go!

[David Mack]

Just now, IanD said:

Is it even legal? I thought you weren't allowed to have anything hazardous (e.g. hot, like a chimney) outside the hull footprint of the boat, because of risk of injury (burns) to passersby?

No doubt a certain forum member can quote screeds of industry guidance (good practice but not actually a legal requirement) to this effect, but I doubt that it is specifically banned, as it probably didn't occur to those who wrote the rules that anyone would do such a thing!

[19Granny66]

Jen in wellies, thank you for your answer, you have been very honest and therefore hopeful. 

[Mac of Cygnet]

This just begs the question why on earth would anyone have done this?

[IanD]

9 minutes ago, David Mack said:

No doubt a certain forum member can quote screeds of industry guidance (good practice but not actually a legal requirement) to this effect, but I doubt that it is specifically banned, as it probably didn't occur to those who wrote the rules that anyone would do such a thing!

Could be wrong, but I thought it was part of the general BSS requirements -- IIRC it was intended to apply to dangerously hot exhaust pipes and the like.

 

Same reason you can't have rotating knives attached to your car wheels, or flamethrowers under the sills -- at least, in the UK... 😉 

Edited March 13 by IanD

[blackrose]

Whoever installed that needs to be strung up!

 

Edit: Not literally obviously. Naming & shaming should suffice.

Edited March 13 by blackrose

[MtB]

Its not unusual to see stove flues installed like that on houseboats, marina boats and other non-moving vessels. But on a cruising narrowboat, well it strikes me as just crackers. 

 

 

 

[IanD]

8 minutes ago, MtB said:

Its not unusual to see stove flues installed like that on houseboats, marina boats and other non-moving vessels. But on a cruising narrowboat, well it strikes me as just crackers. 

 

 

Completely bonkers -- but IIRC even for houseboats and the like there's a legal requirement that anything potentially dangerous like this mustn't extend past the edge of the hull, presumably on the principle that outside this is "public space" where people mustn't be hurt, but "inside" the boat is your private space where you can juggle chainsaws if you want to, and the dividing line between the two is -- quite sensibly -- taken as the edge of the hull.

It's perfectly possible that I'm wrong, but I seem to remember seeing this when I was looking at boat designs -- I'm sure our usual friendly law-poster can confirm one way or the other... 😉 

Edited March 13 by IanD

[blackrose]

To the OP: please don't be put off by all the negativity. Unfortunately we're just telling you the truth.

 

On the plus side it's not a complete disaster as it's not actually that difficult to rectify. The most involved bit will be getting the hole in the cabin side patched over & welded up. The hole on the inside shouldn't be too difficult to patch up if you line the area with a heat resistant board and tile it over, or use some other decorative heat resistant finish over the board like anodised aluminium sheet for example.

 

Cutting a hole in the roof and fitting a collar is standard stuff assuming your flue pipe is a standard sort of boaty diameter. If not you'll just have to reduce slightly to get through the collar (just keep any diameter reduction to the absolute minimum). You'll need a new flue anyway and it might need to be fabricated if it needs to "lean in" parallel with the cabin side. 

 

A job for summer...

Edited March 13 by blackrose

[magnetman]

20 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

This just begs the question why on earth would anyone have done this?

Entire cabin top covered in solar panels? Its terrible and reminiscent of the favelas. As said it is also dangerous to have a right angle like that without a cleaning out hatch. 

 

Its awful. 

[Arthur Marshall]

I'd like to see a picture of the whole boat so we can see how far it actually projects. At the moment, I just don't believe it exists. Nor do I fully believe the OP's grammar, though I'm very pleased to hear that Jen in Wellies is now hopeful.

 

[magnetman]

Another circumstance where I have seen similar was when the cabin top had a canopy over it and was used as a 'roof garden'. 

[blackrose]

1 minute ago, magnetman said:

Another circumstance where I have seen similar was when the cabin top had a canopy over it and was used as a 'roof garden'. 

 

Sounds like someone who's very confused about the priorities of living afloat.

[magnetman]

 

Of course if the fire had a horizontal flue outlet and they wanted the fire as close to the side as possible this could happen if the fire was tall and the flue outlet ended up above side deck height. 

 

 

[magnetman]

Just now, blackrose said:

 

Sounds like someone who's very confused about the priorities of living afloat.

Actually the person in question has been living on Boats since the early 80s. The latest craft doesn't move very often so it is quite a nice thing to have like a little summer house. 

 

That is a big Boat. It would be a bit odd on a narrow.