"Centre cockpit" narrowboats

[magpie patrick]

Not as traditional as a wrap of duck tape.

 

It does help though if the wrap of duck tape is central. Juno's previous owner though 20 degrees left was a good place to put it, which confused me completely....

[bigcol]

Finding it a lot more challenging with a wheel on our boat,

I think it's the low low speeds, I also bought a helm indicator, which helps

 

Always having boats down the coast, then a tiller on the canal,thought that once having a wheel again would not be a problem.

 

Takes a bit of getting use to, Instead of standing on the back with my arse on the tiller having all the time in the world

I'm inside the wheel house with a spinning wheel

 

One thing I've got to get use to is being inside the wheel house, where you do feel cut of from what's happening outside

 

Col

[Naughty Cal]

It does help though if the wrap of duck tape is central. Juno's previous owner though 20 degrees left was a good place to put it, which confused me completely....

 

It took us the whole of half an hour after we picked up NC from the brokerage to realise that the steering wheel (more suited to a racing car than a boat ) had been installed at 90 degrees, so what we though was dead ahead was infact aiming straight for the starboard bank

 

Finding it a lot more challenging with a wheel on our boat,

I think it's the low low speeds, I also bought a helm indicator, which helps

 

Always having boats down the coast, then a tiller on the canal,thought that once having a wheel again would not be a problem.

 

Takes a bit of getting use to, Instead of standing on the back with my arse on the tiller having all the time in the world

I'm inside the wheel house with a spinning wheel

 

One thing I've got to get use to is being inside the wheel house, where you do feel cut of from what's happening outside

 

Col

 

Yes you are cut off from the rain, howling wind and freezing temperatures

 

It doesnt take that much getting used to navigating from a dry, warm, heated cockpit/wheel house.

[bigcol]

Lol Phylis

 

Yes your right,

 

Theirs me feeling down, thinking about the negatives

 

You come back with the positives.

 

I've just got to do it, get out their, got the weed hatch now, no excuses

 

Hat of to you, for making me smile

 

Col

[bizzard]

Lol Phylis

 

Yes your right,

 

Theirs me feeling down, thinking about the negatives

 

You come back with the positives.

 

I've just got to do it, get out their, got the weed hatch now, no excuses

 

Hat of to you, for making me smile

 

Col

Watch your stern Col.Just imagine that your driving a rear-steer dumper truck. bizzard.

[carlt]

Watch your stern Col.Just imagine that your driving a rear-steer dumper truck.

Is that advice on the best way to reply to Phylis' posts?

[bizzard]

Is that advice on the best way to reply to Phylis' posts?

No,Phylis won't take any advice from me,she thinks i'm a lunatic.Anyway she's more into racing cars than dumper trucks.

[Mac of Cygnet]

Nobody seems to have posted any negatives yet, but I wouldn't have centre steering. It may seem an obvious point, but a boat steers FROM THE BACK, and I like to be on the spot. The only times I've tried centre steering was hiring on the Broads (aeons ago) and in France, and I didn't like it one little bit, even though the former was the first time I'd steered a boat.

 

When you're at the back, you can see what the whole boat is doing, but centre (or front for that matter) leaves you ignorant of what half or more of the boat is doing, without craning your neck

[Dalesman]

Many years ago it was quite normal for hire boats to have a centre cokpit, we made it all the way to llangollen on one without any problems

[The Bagdad Boatman (waits)]

notch on the top then turn the wheel 3 revolutions ok yah! With rear steer on a tiller you have quicker response, with a rear wheel you can let the boat steer itself with the drag on the steering, with centre steer you are twitching a lot more. The fibreglass topped hire boats sometimes had both centre steering and front steering with a long Morse cable and lots of play.

[Dalesman]

Not many tiller steered narrowboats here..

Edited November 18, 2011 by Dalesman

[carlt]

notch on the top then turn the wheel 3 revolutions ok yah! With rear steer on a tiller you have quicker response, with a rear wheel you can let the boat steer itself with the drag on the steering, with centre steer you are twitching a lot more. The fibreglass topped hire boats sometimes had both centre steering and front steering with a long Morse cable and lots of play.

Ancient history.

 

Modern hydraulic steering systems are as responsive as a tiller and less hard work and, surely, keeping track of where you're heading and where the wheel should be isn't that hard.

[Dalesman]

You can have tiller steering with a hydraulic system rather than a wheel if you want, works well.

Edited November 18, 2011 by Dalesman

[Neil2]

This is all very interesting but I don't know if it explains why the centre cockpit narrowboat is such a rarity. As there are pros and cons to each design what is the killer factor that makes the overwhelming majority purchasers buy the tiller steered variant?

 

The Sea Otter 32 is an interesting case study. I don't know how many were sold and to what extent this boat contributed to the original company's demise, but they don't offer the design as an option in their current range so it can't have been a successful venture.

 

My guess is a lot of new narrowboats are purchased by people with little experience of boats so they tend to go for the conservative style that everyone else seems to have. Even if they decide at some future date that a centre cockpit boat might suit them better it's too late unless they can afford to start all over again. This process becomes a vicious circle as there are not enough secondhand CC boats entering the market.

 

Unless someone else has a better explanation?

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Unless someone else has a better explanation?

 

Why split your living accommodation in half???

[alan_fincher]

The Sea Otter 32 is an interesting case study. I don't know how many were sold and to what extent this boat contributed to the original company's demise, but they don't offer the design as an option in their current range so it can't have been a successful venture.

No doubt I'll take some more criticism for slagging off someone's pride and joy.

 

But apart from the fact that (in my view) a narrowboat steered from the centre with a wheel is going to be much harder to control accurately than one steered from the back with a tiller, surely the biggest thing that centre cockpit Sea Otter has going against it is that it is extremely ugly!

[Grace and Favour]

...and some of them are just gorgeous...

 

 

You can clearly see the wheel steering deployed in that pic

 

That's because it's one of them 'ambiguous' vehicles

[PhilR]

Why split your living accommodation in half???

 

Nobody has mentioned Frobisher class boats and there are still a few of those around. They were steel hulled with GRP tops, tiller steering at the stern and wheel steering forward of the centre below a sliding top. The downside was reduced headroom forward of the steering position, but the accommodation wasn't split.

Edited November 19, 2011 by PhilR

[carlt]

Why split your living accommodation in half???

Don't you have kids?

[PhilR]

Many years ago it was quite normal for hire boats to have a centre cokpit, we made it all the way to llangollen on one without any problems

 

<off topic alert!>

 

Great photo, Dalesman. Taken mid/late 1960's?

 

Most people don't believe me that those were the main moorings in Llangollen - it is now strictly no mooring there and I reckon the channel has been narrowed a few feet during bank repairs. It was a great view of the town from there .......... halcyon days!

[Rebotco]

...and some of them are just gorgeous...

 

Could do with them wheeled boats on the K & A now we've got no water!!!

brian

[Dalesman]

Could do with them wheeled boats on the K & A now we've got no water!!!

brian

This one is wheel steered

[Guest]

Don't you have kids?

 

Yes and fortunately they rarely come boating with us now they are in their twenties.

 

But when they do they still are able to stop in a separate cabin and don't have to negotiate s freezing wheelhouse to get to the loo in the night.

[Neil2]

No doubt I'll take some more criticism for slagging off someone's pride and joy.

 

But apart from the fact that (in my view) a narrowboat steered from the centre with a wheel is going to be much harder to control accurately than one steered from the back with a tiller, surely the biggest thing that centre cockpit Sea Otter has going against it is that it is extremely ugly!

 

Each to his own, but I don't think the Sea Otter takes a good photograph. She looks much better in the flesh, and the first time I saw one I thought how "right" that design looks. One passed our mooring a while back and I still think they are attractive but in the water, not on the page. I digress for a moment but car design (in my opinion) has suffered from the need to make them look good in 2D and has resulted in some of the ugliest pieces of engineering.

 

Someone mentioned Frobishers, there is also Charnwood, Ormelite, Dartline(?) Morgan Giles, all used to produce CC cruisers. Somewhere along the line opinion veered heavily towards tiller steered boats and I still don't know why. As regards splitting the accommodation, one of the advantages of the design as I see it is that enclosing the helm position is much more straightforward so it follows that a CC cruiser will almost certainly have an enclosed cockpit.

 

Here's another angle - my wife was quite taken with a couple of CC cruisers we saw last summer, along the lines of "why can't we have one of those..?" Is it a male/female thing?

[carlt]

But when they do they still are able to stop in a separate cabin and don't have to negotiate s freezing wheelhouse to get to the loo in the night.

My wheelhouse was used as a dining room, when moored, and had a rather nice taylors paraffin heater keeping it warm.

 

I've always treated the wheelhouse as an extra room.

 

I've still got the Taylors but the boat is long gone.

 

Here's another angle - my wife was quite taken with a couple of CC cruisers we saw last summer, along the lines of "why can't we have one of those..?" Is it a male/female thing?

Are you calling me a girl?

Edited November 19, 2011 by carlt