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Posted

Hi everyone! I'm just starting out and exploring options with the goal of getting on the water in the next couple of years. My biggest challenge is my height—I'm 6'10". Are there any narrowboats with 7ft headroom in the cabin? What are my options?

Posted
58 minutes ago, JustAddWater said:

Hi everyone! I'm just starting out and exploring options with the goal of getting on the water in the next couple of years. My biggest challenge is my height—I'm 6'10". Are there any narrowboats with 7ft headroom in the cabin? What are my options?

Very few have that much headroom, unless custom built for somebody similarly tall -- if you can't find a secondhand one, the only option is to get one built for you, for which you'll need extra-deep pockets...

Posted

It's possible, but what you have to consider is that the more you have above the water the more likely you are to have difficulty getting through bridges and tunnels, and the more you have below the water the more likely it is that you hit things as you are going along.

 

Roughly, just over 3' is about as deep as you can afford to be. Fuel boats travel most routes at about that draft so you can follow in their tracks. You then need to allow for internal fit-out space. This is the thickness of the floor, battens to attach it to, an air gap and some ballast. Games can be played with ballast but it is not standard, as most people just don't need the space. That means for example using metal ballast rather than paving slabs, moving it to the sides rather than the middle and hiding it in cupboards and under kitchen fittings, coming up above floor level, rather than all under the floor as normal. Another approach is to have a thick baseplate to reduce the amount of ballast needed. All of these things can be done, but they are not standard so you are looking at a limited number of boats or doing it/commissioning it yourself. You can then get the total height from the outside of the baseplate to the inside of the floor down to 3-4". Cabin top can be kept to 3" thickness with spray foam insulation so you then have an air draft of 4'6" which is fine.

 

This question has come up before so it's worth searching the forum.


Alec

 

 

Posted

Our Amber had 6'8" headroom along the midline and this was the highest I've heard of. No trouble getting under bridges (though one on the Kyme Eau was close). 

Posted

6'10 is quite tall. Also curiously the same length as the width of a 'standard' narrow.

 

I am 6ft2.214 and when I had narrows the internal head height was adequate but never particularly amazing. 

 

A deep draught Boat with a triangular cabin could work. 

 

There are probably lower leg surgery options available for excessively tall people but it might be quite expensive. Often deliberate strategic breaking of the legs can achieve a height reduction of several inches if clinically managed with effective strategies in place. 18-24 month recovery period so there could be some potential financial issues. 

 

I don't think it is ideal to carry out this procedure just so one can stand up in the Boat. 

 

Maybe think about doing something else or leaning over. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, IanD said:

the only option is to get one built for you, for which you'll need extra-deep pockets...

Being tall, his trousers can probably accommodate deep pockets!

 

You don't mention it, but I would have thought bed length might be a problem too.

Edited by David Mack
  • Greenie 1
Posted

Converted town class with a traditional 'sheeted up' style cabin is going to have good headroom down the centre. 

 

One imagines that people who are 6'10 tall have worked out that they need custom sized mattresses. 

Another thing with the GUCCCo Woolwich Boats is they were sometimes about 7'0.5 beam so one could do a cross bed with no insultation or lining and one could lie down. Just. 

Posted
3 hours ago, JustAddWater said:

 What are my options?

 

You could always buy an open boat? In theory the head height is infinite, but it might get a bit warm as you approached the sun (about 450 billion feet), although for all intents and purposes it would be difficult to breathe above about 25,000 feet, so would readily accommodate your 6'10"

Posted
14 hours ago, JustAddWater said:

Hi everyone! I'm just starting out and exploring options with the goal of getting on the water in the next couple of years. My biggest challenge is my height—I'm 6'10". Are there any narrowboats with 7ft headroom in the cabin? What are my options?

The only style of boat that might work, could be a "Dutch Barge" style narrowboat.

Where would you be thinking of going in this boat, some of the bigger waterways, can take boats bigger than standard narrow boats.

 

Bod

Posted

Look for boats with 15mm baseplate, these are often done to reduce ballasting,thus giving less floor height taken up with non usable space.

  • Greenie 2
Posted
2 hours ago, Bod said:

The only style of boat that might work, could be a "Dutch Barge" style narrowboat.

Where would you be thinking of going in this boat, some of the bigger waterways, can take boats bigger than standard narrow boats.

 

Bod

 

A conventional narrowboat built with a hull a few inches deeper than normal and a cabin a few inches taller would work fine, but would have to be custom built -- as pointed out above, a heavy baseplate means less space for ballast is needed (and smaller cross-braces) which would gain another couple of inches.

 

Typical heights/depths for a modern narrowboat are around 550mm baseplate to uxter, 550mm uxter to gunwale, 1100m tall cabin sides -- this gives a boat with about 600mm draft/1700mm air draft with internal height around 2m or a little bit above, fine for most people but not somebody who is 6'10" tall. All that's needed is a slightly deeper heavier hull that sits a bit lower in the water (e.g. 650mm/550mm/1150mm, 700mm draft/1750mm air draft) -- an extra 100mm of draft and 50mm of air draft isn't going to cause any real problems when cruising.

 

Combined with the heavier baseplate (floor 50mm lower) this would give an extra 200mm of internal headroom, which should be fine. But it would need a custom hull build, which means a new boat and finding a builder happy to build such a non-standard hull. Or finding a secondhand narrowboat already built deeper like this, but I suspect these are about as common as rocking-horse sh*t... 😉 

Posted

At that height, you must be used to ducking? You could wear a cycle helmet until you are used to it.

A few boats have a large pigeon box in the roof, in the saloon. You could stand below that for some relief.

It will not be just standing room that you need, however:

You will find that you cannot stretch out in bed

And taking a shower will be compromised, too.

Posted
22 minutes ago, rogher said:

At that height, you must be used to ducking? You could wear a cycle helmet until you are used to it.

A few boats have a large pigeon box in the roof, in the saloon. You could stand below that for some relief.

It will not be just standing room that you need, however:

You will find that you cannot stretch out in bed

And taking a shower will be compromised, too.

So you'll need a longer bed then, just like at home... 😉 

 

If the roof is high enough for the OP to stand up and walk along the boat, it'll be high enough for a shower -- just like in a normal boat for normal height people... 😉 

Posted
4 minutes ago, IanD said:

If the roof is high enough for the OP to stand up and walk along the boat, it'll be high enough for a shower -- just like in a normal boat for normal height people... 😉 

 

But with a curved roof the sides tend to be 3 or 4 inches lower than the centre and the shower is generally offset to one side so unlikely to be suitable unless the centre line is (say) 7' 4"

Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

But with a curved roof the sides tend to be 3 or 4 inches lower than the centre and the shower is generally offset to one side so unlikely to be suitable unless the centre line is (say) 7' 4"

If the roof is the same amount taller than a normal roof that the OP is taller than normal height people, then the shower situation is exactly the same...

 

The shower head is off to one side of where you stand in most boats anyway, not overhead because there isn't enough headroom for this -- like this...

 

 

shower.jpg

Edited by IanD
Posted (edited)
41 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I wonder how much it would cost to raise the roof of a second hand boat but 6 to 8"

The risk is that this raises the centre of gravity and makes it less stable -- especially if you then pile wood and/or bags of coal on the roof -- unless you also ballast it to sit deeper in the water. I'm sure @Alan de Enfield will point out why this might be a bad idea... 😉 

Edited by IanD
Posted (edited)

I know OP asked about narrowboats, but I've seen a number of new widebeams that look pretty blooming tall as I walked past them (not to my personal taste but that's not really relevant). That might be another thing for OP to consider, if their budget and cruising ambitions allow for it.

 

Edit: for example, 7ft 6in headroom on this one https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/collingwood-60-widebeam-for-sale/778964

Edited by Ewan123
  • Greenie 2
Posted

Air draft will affect where the OP will be able to take his boat, as might the water draft, but there are canals, rivers and other waterways where it wouldn't matter. The OP could accept that he couldn't traverse the whole network, but work out where he could go. This, though more limited, much like the range of a wide beam, might satisfy his desire to, "get on the waterways".

 

Accepting such limitations, might mean he could look at different kinds of boat, which weren't so hard to find, or requiring a custom build. Although, he might be lucky, and find a narrow boat which he could live with, be able to traverse the system, and live with any compromise.

 

Beaten to it by Ewan 123

 

Posted
55 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I wonder how much it would cost to raise the roof of a second hand boat but 6 to 8"

Not that straightforward since the cabin sides are canted in, so the roof would also need narrowing. Window heights might end up looking a bit odd too. But the killer costwise would be the amount of interior refitting needed - cabin side and roof insulation and lining, partitions and internal doorways extending upwards, lengthening wiring between the ceiling lights and wall mounted switches etc.

Posted

A mollycroft would be worth considering. There are some narrows with this arrangement including the converted Grand Union motor ERIDANUS. 

 

 

Posted

ERIDANUS 

 

IMG_20250120_141623.jpg.ec46841869e5b256c0ef8a48a505bca7.jpg

 

Also one thing I did on a narrow was to use wooden boards between the crossmembers so the floor consists of wooden parts and steel parts at the same height. This takes out the gap problem associated with putting in stringers and a plywood floor. 

 

As mentioned earlier a thick baseplate preferably 15mm is also good.

 

 

  • Greenie 1

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