Is a wide canal boat a wise choice?

[Iain_S]

From the top:

Caledonian

Crinan

Forth and Clyde

Union

Lancaster (without going "woo woo" at the Ribble link.)

Beverley Beck

Driffield Navigation

Dutch River (unless you're mad)

Chelmer and Blackwater

Essex Ship

 

I bet I've missed a lot, too!

 

And how many of those would you like to cruise to in a "fat narrowboat" widebeam then?

 

Richard

 

You could probably do them all with a short Sea Otter narrowboat and trailer

 

Been on the first 5. (Gamebird assisted by trailer )

Iain

[carlt]

And how many of those would you like to cruise to in a "fat narrowboat" widebeam then?

 

Richard

 

You could probably do them all with a short Sea Otter narrowboat and trailer

 

(Where's Dutch River?)

I wouldn't like to cruise anywhere in a "fat narrowboat", they're just not my thing (though I do like Blackrose's, I think it's the colour) but a Humber Keel or Thames Barge would do me nicely.

 

The point I was making was that you don't need a narrowboat to do "proper boating" you need a proper boat. Having a boat that can do a bit of coastal is far less restrictive, than having a narrowboat.

 

I have a trailable day boat, if I want to do narrow canals. I have a proper boat, for the rest (though the day boat is sea worthy, too).

 

The Dutch River is an artificial cut, built in the 1600s, that runs from Goole to Fishlake where it meets up with the canalised River Don (S&SYC).

 

It's a bit like riding a log flume, straight, fast and great fun, in a dinghy.

[RLWP]

The point I was making was that you don't need a narrowboat to do "proper boating" you need a proper boat. Having a boat that can do a bit of coastal is far less restrictive, than having a narrowboat.

 

snip, snip

 

The Dutch River is an artificial cut, built in the 1600s, that runs from Goole to Fishlake where it meets up with the canalised River Don (S&SYC).

 

It's a bit like riding a log flume, straight, fast and great fun, in a dinghy.

 

Thanks Carl, I'll go and Google maps that.

 

And yes, I got your point about proper boats for proper boating, and enjoyed the implied pedantry. Nevertheless I'm keeping my 70 footer for playing on the BCN.

 

Richard

 

Doesn't half impress rough water boaters when you let slip you have a 70 footer...

[mrsmelly]

Thanks Carl, I'll go and Google maps that.

 

And yes, I got your point about proper boats for proper boating, and enjoyed the implied pedantry. Nevertheless I'm keeping my 70 footer for playing on the BCN.

 

Richard

 

Doesn't half impress rough water boaters when you let slip you have a 70 footer...

 

Do you mean there are boats shorter than seventy foot ? surely not............

[RLWP]

Do you mean there are boats shorter than seventy foot ? surely not............

 

Well, not Proper boats...

 

Richard

[onthecut]

Personally I think the narrow canals have an intimacy that's sometimes missing from broader waterways and rivers and to rule out being able to cruise a huge swathe of the heart of England, I would find unthinkable.

 

Mike.

[little shane]

recntley me and the other half discussed selling our wide (10'6)beam and getting a narrow boat , but we just cant get the idea that we would feel cramped after 2 years of a wider boat life out of our heads, also we can travel as far as we need to .

but it is each to there own

[WJM]

As a sweeping generalisation;

 

If travelling around is your primary intention for the boat, then go narrow, more canals available and faster to use on broad waterways, because you can double up in locks, use tunnels when you like and they are more nimble. If living on board is your primary usage, then go broad, they are more like a house than a fuselage.

[MikeV]

Personally I think the narrow canals have an intimacy that's sometimes missing from broader waterways and rivers and to rule out being able to cruise a huge swathe of the heart of England, I would find unthinkable.

I agree. I love the Southern Oxford canal, and I am poised at the western end of the Huddersfield Narrow which from talking to Odana last night is very attractive, so really looking forward to it. I could pass on not going down the Ashton again however!

 

That's not to say I don't enjoy wide canals and rivers as well!

[Chertsey]

Blindingly obviously, it all depends on where you want to go and what you want to do with it.

 

But as well as size, are there also issues around handling, maintenance, RCD compliance (if you're getting a new one; I know nothing about this but am recalling Gary Peacock's posts) and no doubt all sorts of other things too. And both aesthetically and to a degree practically, style may have more of an impact than size per se.

 

Personally I love the elegant sufficiency of a narrow boat - as big as it needs to be and no bigger.

 

Perhaps if you had a short fat boat on the L&L you could swap cruising weeks sometimes with someone who had a long thin one.

[blackrose]

As a sweeping generalisation;

 

If travelling around is your primary intention for the boat, then go narrow, more canals available and faster to use on broad waterways, because you can double up in locks, use tunnels when you like and they are more nimble. If living on board is your primary usage, then go broad, they are more like a house than a fuselage.

 

As a sweeping generalisation that pretty much sums it up, although I'm not really sure that 'nimble' is an adjective which accurately describes narrow boats.

 

This topic does make me wonder what proportion of narrowboats currently moored on broad beam canals have never actually been through a narrow lock? I'm sure there are lots moored near me that have never done it.

[ChrisPy]

Perhaps if you had a short fat boat on the L&L you could swap cruising weeks sometimes with someone who had a long thin one.

... but most fat boats are not longitudinally challenged - what they gain from the extra width is rarely lost by a corresponding reduction in the length.

57ft seems to be the average/norm. I wouldn't call mine short, especially when trying to get into my marina mooring

[Lady Muck]

As a sweeping generalisation that pretty much sums it up, although I'm not really sure that 'nimble' is an adjective which accurately describes narrow boats.

 

This topic does make me wonder what proportion of narrowboats currently moored on broad beam canals have never actually been through a narrow lock? I'm sure there are lots moored near me that have never done it.

 

I'm sure of that too - most of them won't have time to boat as far as Camp Hill - it took us long enough!

[Steamerpoint]

Looking at my waterways map (See below) it would appear that any boats wider than 7-foot only have one route from the South of England to the North of England (And visa versa) and that is up the River Nene, out into the salt water of the Wash and back into the Witham Canal up to Lincoln. See no entry signs and green arrows on the map.

 

This could of course be an old map and not a reality these days, but if true, a wide beam canal boat is very limited!

Edited July 5, 2009 by Steamerpoint

[PaddingtonBear]

That of course assumes that the starting point is the River Nene as if not you would not be able to get beyond Gayton as the Rothersthorpe flight are most definatly narrow. In any event, the GU from Berko is polluted with wide beams and even worse Tjalks, some of which are very wide, I very much doubt that you would get a broadbeam past the monster moored (very badly) just south of Jem Bates's dry dock at Marsworth. There is also the menace (green Liverpool broadbeam) covered with3' high conifers inc. the cruiser stern, which cruises this area, stealing locks and steering all over the place, much to the dismay of other boaters. Is there not some regulation forbidding broad beams from this area? - I am sure that someone will know

[FadeToScarlet]

Looking at my waterways map (See below) it would appear that any boats wider than 7-foot only have one route from the South of England to the North of England (And visa versa) and that is up the River Nene, out into the salt water of the Wash and back into the Witham Canal up to Lincoln. See no entry signs and green arrows on the map.

 

This could of course be an old map and not a reality these days, but if true, a wide beam canal boat is very limited!

 

As PB said, there's no way to get a broadbeam boat onto the Nene from the GU, as there's a flight of narrow locks in the way.

[Naughty Cal]

I asked the very same question this weekend to a good friend who has lived on boats all his life. He told me that wide beam boats are not appreciated by many people with narrowboats. The reason being that while you can get a wide beam boat in a lock, you can't then get another boat alongside it in many of the double width locks. This holds up the flow of traffic when it's busy and it is less efficient use of water when only one boat needs ten thousand gallons of water to progress through one lock!

 

We had this issue last week. Not wanting to offend people we shared a lock with a 57ft narrowboat. Now our boat is too broad to fit side by side with a narrowboat in the locks on the soar, so we nosed up just past their stern then swung our stern in so we were diagonal across the back of the lock (going uphill). As the paddles were opened the narrowboat came rested on Cals side, which in itself wouldnt have been a problem other than the owner didnt realise and then failed to notice when it came back further pinning Cal against the lock gates. No damage was done but we didnt share with any more narrowboats on this journey. Most narrowboats owners didnt want to share but some got a bit arsey about a short fat boat using the locks on its own. The answer was we all pay our way.

[deletedaccount]

I'm really struggling with this at the moment. I can't decide between wide and narrow. It's for a liveaboard, probably cont crusing on the K&A, with me and my son on board.

 

In the end I think I like the idea of a narrowboat more than a widebeam, but I'm not sure if I'd go crazy living on one.

[ChrisPy]

We had this issue last week. Not wanting to offend people we shared a lock with a 57ft narrowboat. Now our boat is too broad to fit side by side with a narrowboat in the locks on the soar, so we nosed up just past their stern then swung our stern in so we were diagonal across the back of the lock (going uphill). As the paddles were opened the narrowboat came rested on Cals side, which in itself wouldnt have been a problem other than the owner didnt realise and then failed to notice when it came back further pinning Cal against the lock gates. No damage was done but we didnt share with any more narrowboats on this journey. Most narrowboats owners didnt want to share but some got a bit arsey about a short fat boat using the locks on its own. The answer was we all pay our way.

it's not our fault that you insist on using tupperware ...........................

[Naughty Cal]

it's not our fault that you insist on using tupperware ...........................

 

Its not mine the locks are not wide enough..........

[Chris J W]

Looking at my waterways map (See below) it would appear that any boats wider than 7-foot only have one route from the South of England to the North of England (And visa versa) and that is up the River Nene, out into the salt water of the Wash and back into the Witham Canal up to Lincoln. See no entry signs and green arrows on the map.

 

This could of course be an old map and not a reality these days, but if true, a wide beam canal boat is very limited!

 

Very limited as the Northampton Flight is in the way ...

 

And when you get to the C&H you'll have a bit of a length restriction, too.

[aquapykes]

As we have the 'pleasure' of owning both types of boats, we use them in a different way. The wide beam which my O/H built himself 9 years ago(clever chappy) is 10'1/2 wide & 54' long. He has set it up with a steering wheel and hydraulics so its really easy to manoeuvre,even by me! I had a 50 foot narrow boat when we met and although we are doing her up we will keep her for any cruising where we can't take the wide beam. We tend to live more on the w/b with the 3 dogs,cat and tools! So we are spoilt I'm afraid.

Forgot to add we did receive a letter from BW to tell us off for causing trouble on the oxford canal with the W/B having been spotted 4 days later on the Lee & Stort! Luckily the local BW guy knew us and saw the funny side!

Edited July 8, 2009 by aquapykes

[ChrisPy]

Its not mine the locks are not wide enough..........

it's never your fault - ooops, sorry ................................

[Lady Muck]

I'm really struggling with this at the moment. I can't decide between wide and narrow. It's for a liveaboard, probably cont crusing on the K&A, with me and my son on board.

 

In the end I think I like the idea of a narrowboat more than a widebeam, but I'm not sure if I'd go crazy living on one.

 

For ccing I would go for narrow every time. The K and A is already overcrowded - by going wide you could be seriously limiting where you can moor. As BW crack down on overstaying this could start to become a problem.

[Naughty Cal]

it's never your fault - ooops, sorry ................................

 

You can hardly blame me for the construction of locks being too narrow