The conundrum of shiny boats

[station tug]

my issue with the shiney boater is they arnt to keen to move over much when you are passing,if like me youve a fairly deep drafted boat you have little choice but to stay in the channel

[Tuscan]

I love the mix of boats shiny or otherwise, talking in the pub earlier today whose little 30' cruiser was her pride and joy, all her money had gone into the inside. You will always get the hobby working boater dressed to kill who lives for the shows just like the classic car enthusiast. Room for everyone I say.

[churchward]

I love the mix of boats shiny or otherwise, talking in the pub earlier today whose little 30' cruiser was her pride and joy, all her money had gone into the inside. You will always get the hobby working boater dressed to kill who lives for the shows just like the classic car enthusiast. Room for everyone I say.

Quite so.

my issue with the shiney boater is they arnt to keen to move over much when you are passing,if like me youve a fairly deep drafted boat you have little choice but to stay in the channel

And of course you can tell the draft of every boat you come across coming the other way I suppose?

Edited January 18, 2014 by churchward

[FadeToScarlet]

my issue with the shiney boater is they arnt to keen to move over much when you are passing,if like me youve a fairly deep drafted boat you have little choice but to stay in the channel

You only need to move over by 3'6" to pass, and if you do it properly you can both pass in the channel.

[station tug]

Quite so.

And of course you tell tell the draft of every boat you come across coming the other way I suppose?

generally yes, if the approaching boat has an inapropreat van engine its safe to say there spinning an egg whisk and have a very very shallow draft..

[churchward]

generally yes, if the approaching boat has an inapropreat van engine its safe to say there spinning an egg whisk and have a very very shallow draft..

Good grief.

 

If the boat coming the other way is shiny and has an old heavy engine chugging away that must really confuse you to what attitude to take!

 

I can also think of several boats I know that do not have an older low RPM engine but also are deep drafted.

Edited January 18, 2014 by churchward

[FadeToScarlet]

Let's play "guess that draft!"

 

*dons sparkly jacket, plays gameshow music* nice to see you, to see you, nice!

 

OK, first up we have this sporty little number, seen here towing another boat.... For bonus points, can you Guess That Draft of both?

 

 

Followed closely behind by this example, but can you guess correctly as we play...... Guess That Draft!

 

 

The clock is ticking, will you guess correctly and win this week's Star Prize ("oooooh!" From the audience) of a set of Authentic Josher Style Rivets, as sold in B&Q and other outlets across the land?

[Dharl]

We will be having the inverse problem this year trying not to scrape the bottom after we have spent an arm and a leg each and a good dose of elbow grease each on scraping back to GRP, applying a few coats of gel shield and then some alarmingly expensive copper coat!

Copper coat does last about 5 years though....especially in fresh water! :-)

[churchward]

Let's play "guess that draft!"

 

The clock is ticking, will you guess correctly and win this week's Star Prize ("oooooh!" From the audience) of a set of Authentic Josher Style Rivets, as sold in B&Q and other outlets across the land?

Oh! Oh!...

 

I like riddles but...

 

I am not good under time pressure...

 

Ummmmm...

 

It's String or nothing!

 

Oh damn, can I have another go?

[Kwacker]

After 3 years of matt paint spotted with Vactan, I now have a shiny boat, but repainted in such a way that I can easily patch the bits I will no doubt continue to knock off.

So it will be business as usual. My only worry is ....... do I now have to polish my brown brass mushrooms?

[nbfiresprite]

To me a 'shiney boater' is one that refuses to share a double lock in case they get a scratch on the paintwork. Life to short to be spent .polishing brass-work, hence my mushrooms are painted. I do admit that it is time for a repaint paint this year (10 years since the last)

Edited January 19, 2014 by nbfiresprite

[Water Rat.]

I used to have a shiny boat................................

 

TBH a new paint job is very stressful - worse than new carpets - unless one gets to go boating with the boat painter. Stick with a scruffy boat I say!

 

I would put up a smiley face except I seem to have lost that function!!

[Smelly]

Shiney boaters have a habit of viewing other, less glimmering, boats from a perspective that begins with the end of their nose. No surprise they garner peoples' ire as they progress.

 

Sorry OP if you don't look down on people who haven't the means to wax, or even paint, their boats as often as they'd like but please do bear in mind that there are plenty who do. Inverse snobbery is rife but is, increasingly, justified as boating becomes a rich man's game.

[bassplayer]

I suppose you can spend your time and money looking good, or being good...[quickely gets coat and runs away...]

[mark99]

"Shiney boater" is a convenient adjective to tag your own pet predudice/hang up on. If your that way inclined of course.

[Angela C]

I know a lot of live aboards that keep there boats lovely and shiny and a lot of us that use our boats as much as we can and really look after them.

 

Well as for Naughty Cal you have no idea, you don't go any where near canals just the Foss Dyke not (Ditch) and on the Trent, as so many narrow boats do as well, we go much farther then you can because we have the boats that can, unlike you and yet you make out you have been every where !!!!!!!!!! Oh yes you can go to Notts and little farther.

[churchward]

I suppose you can spend your time and money looking good, or being good...[quickely gets coat and runs away...]

They are not mutually exclusive you could be both or indeed neither.

[peterboat]

Strange that we have a very large oil tanker pass us twice a week to Rotherham and I know NC is smaller than that!!

 

Peter

[bassplayer]

They are not mutually exclusive you could be both or indeed neither.

...being a bloke, I can only do one thing at a time....(or nothing)....does polishing someone else's boat fulfil both requirements?...

[churchward]

Being a former boatman myself, on boats that were owned by a company rather than me, I fully appreciate that the condition of the paintwork is outside of the boatmans control - except that the boatman can try to care for it and make up for it in other areas such as brass and ropework e.t.c.. This is part of what I was trying to say when I wrote "there is an awful lot more to it than just an expensive paint job".

 

When I Iater owned a large Woolwich pair I painted them myself, apart from the lettering which I had done professionally (the same philosophy as the company boats I had previously worked and painted). I honestly believe that my boats looked much closer to "outshopped condition" than many of the current crop of ex-working boats that are just too good. Even Frank Nurser's painting is not that accurate and straight lined when looked at very closely, let alone a large dock like Bulls Bridge which had a high turnover of work. The problem is that most period photographs were taken from several feet away and much of the lower quality detail is lost.

I see what you are saying. I agree they could be painted with more care and accuracy now than they would have been. However, I think I understand why. If you restore a boat (or anything) accurately it takes a keen eye for detail and a determination to get it right and so that can spill over to the paint finish and with the modern paints and ability to make a super finish then it may seem wrong not to do so.

...being a bloke, I can only do one thing at a time....(or nothing)....does polishing someone else's boat fulfil both requirements?...

I guess it would depend if the person wanted their boat polished or it was some act of Guerilla revenge polishing.

[Kwacker]

To me a 'shiney boater' is one that refuses to share a double lock in case they a get a cratch on the paintwork. Life to short to be spent .polishing brass-work, hence my mushrooms are painted. I do admit that it is time for a repaint paint this year (10 years since the last)

You'll never catch me with a cratch on my paintwork!

Edited January 18, 2014 by Kwacker

[boathunter]

Back to working boats being looked after and pehaps polished a bit, could that not be down to the fact they spent perhaps decades trotting up and down probably the same stretch of canal and were simply bored. No TV or internet.

[Ange]

Generalisations are horrible aren't they? I've been guilty of referring to the "shiny boat brigade". Our boat is 25 years old and I have no idea when she last had a decent coat of paint but it was a long time ago. We could find/borrow the money to have a paint job, but there's always been too many other more important things (to us) to spend a limited resource on. One of the reasons we chugged slowly last year was so Dave could turn our tired boat into a shiny boat - unfortunately it was too damn hot most days to think about painting (well that's what he's told me ) We now have a shiny front and a shiny back.

 

I suppose we've come across a certain amount of snobbery on the canal network which has either come from those on "working boats" or from those on sparkly clean shiny boats with a lovely array of gorgeous flowers on the roof. To give an example (and this has happened on quite a few occasions) I'll arrive at a double lock, windlass in hand, and chat to the lady waiting for the boat we're sharing the lock with. A convivial conversation ensues, their boat arrives gleaming and looking lovely, then our boat joins it - her hubby standing stony faced on the back as first the bike, then the car wheel, a few bags of wood, a clothes airer and various other stuff that we haven't found room for in the boat appear as our rather jaded but much loved boat hoves into view. Suddenly said lady turns very cool on me, and sometimes she won't speak to me again.

 

I know the OP and I know for certain that he wouldn't do that but it does wear you down after a while.

 

And of course I am envious

[Neil2]

I love the mix of boats shiny or otherwise, talking in the pub earlier today whose little 30' cruiser was her pride and joy, all her money had gone into the inside. You will always get the hobby working boater dressed to kill who lives for the shows just like the classic car enthusiast. Room for everyone I say.

Amen to that.

 

I can't remember who said it but I use it quite a lot - "Boats. like whisky, are all good".

[boathunter]

Generalisations are horrible aren't they? I've been guilty of referring to the "shiny boat brigade". Our boat is 25 years old and I have no idea when she last had a decent coat of paint but it was a long time ago. We could find/borrow the money to have a paint job, but there's always been too many other more important things (to us) to spend a limited resource on. One of the reasons we chugged slowly last year was so Dave could turn our tired boat into a shiny boat - unfortunately it was too damn hot most days to think about painting (well that's what he's told me ) We now have a shiny front and a shiny back.

 

I suppose we've come across a certain amount of snobbery on the canal network which has either come from those on "working boats" or from those on sparkly clean shiny boats with a lovely array of gorgeous flowers on the roof. To give an example (and this has happened on quite a few occasions) I'll arrive at a double lock, windlass in hand, and chat to the lady waiting for the boat we're sharing the lock with. A convivial conversation ensues, their boat arrives gleaming and looking lovely, then our boat joins it - her hubby standing stony faced on the back as first the bike, then the car wheel, a few bags of wood, a clothes airer and various other stuff that we haven't found room for in the boat appear as our rather jaded but much loved boat hoves into view. Suddenly said lady turns very cool on me, and sometimes she won't speak to me again.

 

I know the OP and I know for certain that he wouldn't do that but it does wear you down after a while.

 

And of course I am envious

Sounds like you have a good way of weeding out the people you wouldn't really like anyway.