Diagrams of boats

[Orphiel]

In a related post to my ongoing 'I know nothing at all about boats and am desperately pretending and out of my depth' tale, I was wondering if anyone has any links to, or knows any books with, a really basic diagram of a boat. I have books that pretend to be beginner's books, but none of them actually points to bits of a narrowboat and says 'this bit is called this', so when people talk about the bilge, or the gunwhales*, or whatever, you do not have to nod enthusiastically and hope no one asks you a direct question.

 

I am not dim, honest, I just need some drawings. Everything I read seems to assume a bunch of knowledge I haven't got yet.

 

Thanks!

 

Meg

 

 

*This is possibly the only bit of a boat I actually know the location of.

Edited February 8, 2007 by Dhutch

[DHutch]

Hummm, cant find one of the top of my head...

...maybe we should have one on the forum, wouldnt be that hard to knock one up! (adds to list of things to do).

 

 

How about this to start:

- Bow = Front = Pointend, Stern = Back = Propellor end!

- Gunnel (or gunwale), the top of the boats side, where the walkways down the side are.

- Bildge(s), the bottom of the boat, under the floor, where the water collects...

 

Other good bits are:

- 'The Swim' , which is where the back of the boat comes to a point under water before the prop.

- 'The Skeg' , The bit that extends from the base plate under the propellor to hold the bottom of the rudder.

- The Uxterplate, which is the plate above the prop, forming the counter-stern. (anyone got a photo of there boat out of water...)

- Stern tube gland , The bit that makes the waterproof(?) seal between the hull and the propellor shaft.

 

 

 

Daniel

[NB Willawaw]

The RYA Inland Waterways Book should be great for answering

your terminology questions. Its a bit "Janet and John", but it has lots of pictures with arrows and names.

I think its only about £7.50.

 

If you visit a chandlery, you will probably find a range of narrowboat books that will help.

Cheaper still, it might be worth checking out the library.

Also try www.bookharbour.com for narrowboat books.

 

One I found very useful when starting my research with a view to getting a boat built was

the Narrowboat Builders Book. This explains a lot about the various systems on a boat and the

choices you have to make about layout etc.

Edited February 8, 2007 by NB Willawaw

[Orphiel]

Haha, thanks for the potted glossary, Daniel. Can visualise bits of that in my head. Glad you mentioned the boat out of water, I think that is why I have problems, as most of the bits you can't see...

 

I think I will pick up the Inland Waterways book, as sounds pretty basic, 'Janet and John' is probably what I need. I have got the Narrowboat Builders book, and it is generally good, but a bit frustrating because it doesn't have that pictures and arrows for the basic boat. Tried the library, they are rubbish for boating! We are right on the Thames as well, although I guess not so many people like to come up Woolwich way on boating holidays.

 

Meg

[andywatson]

The RYA Inland Waterways Book should be great for answering

your terminology questions. Its a bit "Janet and John", but it has lots of pictures with arrows and names.

I think its only about £7.50.

 

If you visit a chandlery, you will probably find a range of narrowboat books that will help.

Cheaper still, it might be worth checking out the library.

Also try www.bookharbour.com for narrowboat books.

 

One I found very useful when starting my research with a view to getting a boat built was

the Narrowboat Builders Book. This explains a lot about the various systems on a boat and the

choices you have to make about layout etc.

 

I agree, here's bit more info to trace it:

The Narrowboat Builders Book. by G Booth £14.99 ISBN 1-870002-71-7 published by WW

 

Probably the best one but now most likely out of print is:

The New Inland Boat Owners Book, edited by A Burnett. ISBN1-870002-85-7

This is a reprint of a series of articles in WWand very comprehensive.

You'll cry when you read the prices of 10-15 years ago but most of the info is just as relavent today.

Edited February 8, 2007 by Keeping Up
Dupicate posting removed

[Hobart]

- 'The Swim' , which is where the back of the boat comes to a point under water before the prop.

- 'The Skeg' , The bit that extends from the base plate under the propellor to hold the bottom of the rudder.

- The Uxterplate, which is the plate above the prop, forming the counter-stern. (anyone got a photo of there boat out of water...)

- Stern tube gland , The bit that makes the waterproof(?) seal between the hull and the propellor shaft.

Daniel

 

There's some pics of Hobart out of the water on our gallery - click Hobart on the left of this post for the profile and then click gallery. You can see the Skeg and Uxterplate. Thanks Daniel - I had no idea what they were called!

[DHutch]

Ok, heres a picture of hobarts stern then

(minus rudder..)

 

And a side on shot of alan fincher's boat.

 

 

And some old ones of emilyannes launch too..

 

Few other things you can see on the photos.

- If you look at the rudders also, they're all rivoted about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way along. This area infront of the pivot is called the "ballence plate" and is to increase turning, and make the rudder 'lighter' to turn.

- Also just about see on the photos of emilyanne the 'sacrifical anodes' - these are magnesum blocks welded to the hull to prevent/reduce corrotion of the rest of the hull, particualary the propellor and propshaft and other diss-simular metals.

 

Also though it would add "skintank", which it a thin tank welded to the hull used inplace of the radiator too cool the engine by passing heat to the surrounding water. This is the same basic princapal as "keel cooling" (the terms are often used loosly) which can also be done by running lenghths of pipe outside the hull, usally on the sides of the swimplate, where they are fairly well protected by the overhanging counter.

 

Also, the last photo shows our bow-thruster. A 6" tube or 'bowtube' though the front of the boat, with a electric (or sometimes hydrolic) driven propellor to exert sideways force for manovering at slow speeds, can be used for turning, marinas etc and also usfull on narrow tunnels.

 

 

Daniel

Edited February 8, 2007 by Dhutch

[DHutch]

I edited the title to make it easy for future people to find the topic, hope you dont mine meg.

[Hobart]

(minus rudder..)

 

Yeah oops! I reversed into an unsuspecting canal bank opposite the marina. The bank was fine, but we had to send to rudder off to be straightened. Has anyone invented wing mirrors for narrowboats yet?

 

neil

[DHutch]

Yeah oops! I reversed into an unsuspecting canal bank opposite the marina. The bank was fine, but we had to send to rudder off to be straightened. Has anyone invented wing mirrors for narrowboats yet?

Your not the only one!

- We did about 3 years with curved profile in ours after some slightly over exubarent reversing of a silted up mooring.

- Just below tilson lock on the shroppy for anyone that cares, bywash silted it up in days, took us half an hour to get unstuck after winter!!

 

 

 

Daniel

[alan_fincher]

And a side on shot of alan fincher's boat.

Yep,

 

I thought I'd seen that one somewhere before

 

As an aside, and as there are separate threads running on surveys, this picture illustrates the type of thing that a novice buyer might not realise anything about until a boat is pulled out for a survey. (That's what was going on here - you can see his chalked plate thicknesses on there!...)

 

The prop-shaft was considerably longer than it should ideally be, meaning a large length of unsupported shaft behind the bearing, and also the prop surprisingly close to the rudder.

 

We have since had about 6 cms removed from it, and the same picture taken now would look a bit different.

 

Alan

[DHutch]

Also, another term...

- The 'chine' (pronouced 'shine') which is angle/join between the sides of the boat and the base plate.

- Infact, on the photos of emilyanne, you can see the that the sides of the boat have a fold in them, making the hull tapor very slightly at the bottom, so that although the base plate pertrudes from the sides where they join, it does not pertrude from the over all side of the hull, meaning it wont catch so readly on locks (ask alan about this...). This is called a 'double chine'.

 

Some widebeams have very pronounded double chines, which amust other things helps then get into shallow side more readly, it also saves on steel. See here-

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chine_(boating)

 

 

Daniel

[DHutch]

Infact, there quite a few others on wiki if you look, not all relevent to canals by any means, but worth a rummage:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nautical_terms

 

 

 

Glossary of nautical terms

Aft

Air draft (nautical)

Anchor

Astern

 

Beam (nautical)

Berth

Boat

Bow (ship)

Bulkhead (partition)

 

Cabin (ship)

Capstan (nautical)

Chafing

Chine (boating)

Cleat (nautical)

Coaming

 

Deck (ship)

Draft (nautical)

Dredging

 

Fathom

Fender (boating)

Freeboard

 

Galley (kitchen)

Gunwale

 

Helmsman

Hogging (Naval)

 

Keel (although not NB's so much)

Knot (speed)

 

Lee shore

 

Marina

 

Navigable river

Navigation light

 

Port (nautical)

 

Sheet (sailing)

Shorepower

Starboard

Stern suction

 

 

Etc

 

 

 

Daniel

[BlueStringPudding]

There's a useful glossary of everything Narroboaty here:

 

Glossary

Edited February 9, 2007 by BlueStringPudding

[gralyn]

In a related post to my ongoing 'I know nothing at all about boats and am desperately pretending and out of my depth' tale, I was wondering if anyone has any links to, or knows any books with, a really basic diagram of a boat. I have books that pretend to be beginner's books, but none of them actually points to bits of a narrowboat and says 'this bit is called this', so when people talk about the bilge, or the gunwhales*, or whatever, you do not have to nod enthusiastically and hope no one asks you a direct question.

 

I am not dim, honest, I just need some drawings. Everything I read seems to assume a bunch of knowledge I haven't got yet.

 

Thanks!

 

Meg

*This is possibly the only bit of a boat I actually know the location of.

 

Try http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/jim.shead/

[cyclic]

Also, the last photo shows our bow-thruster. A 6" tube or 'bowtube' though the front of the boat, with a electric (or sometimes hydrolic) driven propellor to exert sideways force for manovering at slow speeds, can be used for turning, marinas etc and also usfull on narrow tunnels.

 

Daniel,

Has your bow tube got an anode inside it? Mine did have, but it's been sacrificed, and there's some uncertainty in the Marina, whether it needs one.

 

What's inside the tube

 

An Anode that's reached the end of it's useful life

[DHutch]

Urrrm, not really.

- There is a pair of anodes on eatherside of the bow tube, as you can see on the photos, just behind the steelwork protecting them.

- I also then beleave there is (should be) an anode on the actaull prop leg itself (15yo 3kw vetus) however this has not being replace/renewed ever.

 

The unit actaully failed over last winter, but has worked faultlessly for the 14years before than with little or no attention.

- The rubber oil seals within the leg are also in need of replacing (it started loosing oil rather rapidly the year before).

- We're going into drydock at easter, and are going to pull it all out and sorted it. So ill tell you what it looks like then!

- But in the meantime i think the main reason its not working atm is because the batterys are totaly nackered (there 12years old, and seam to be accepting no charge and displaing around 6volts, rather than 24v)

 

 

Daniel

[Hairy-Neil]

Daniel,

Mine did have, but it's been sacrificed, and there's some uncertainty in the Marina, whether it needs one.

 

I'd say that if its been sacrificed its working as designed and therefore needs replacing.....

 

 

..... making the hull tapor very slightly at the bottom, so that although the base plate pertrudes from the sides where they join, it does not pertrude from the over all side of the hull, meaning it wont catch so readly on locks .....

 

There's another advantage to this in that a 6' 10" beam boat can be built on a 2 metre wide (standard plate size) base plate....

[Orphiel]

You guys are ace I will work my way through all of those and swot up good and proper!

[carlt]

You guys are ace I will work my way through all of those and swot up good and proper!

 

Of course then we have:

Elum

Anser pin

Tunnel Hook

Top plank

Side and top cloth

Cants

Luby pin

mast

Stands

Stretchers

Compass pieces

T stud

Cabin T (unique to Lucy I believe)

Cross straps

Snatcher

Snubber

and finally...Electric boat pole (Wassat Maffi???)

[DHutch]

Well, i know that a top plank is...

- also top/side cloths, mast (NB), t'stud, cross straps, and i could take a guess at what a cabin t is, but the rest is lost on me!

 

I found this on jims page while trying to remember what cants are as well, which might be usefull.

 

 

 

Daniel

[Liam]

Carl, would I be right in saying that the Cabin T is used when long lining?

[carlt]

Carl, would I be right in saying that the Cabin T is used when long lining?

 

It was a T-stud just in front of the sliding hatch used to control the line when top plank rollers were used. The Whitlocks were the last to use this system (enabling the butty steerer to control the tow), most of the other photos of this being used are usually steamers, I don't know if this is because the steamer crew has enough to do without worrying about the tow? The Whitlocks probably stuck with it because I don't think Rose trusted anyone to control her butty.

[magnetman]

A couple of T studs:

 

 

Could one of those be a cabin T? The one with the wider and flatter top?

 

 

And here's a 'tunnel hook':

 

 

 

What are those swivelling hooks on the back instead of the dolly called?

[carlt]

Well, i know that a top plank is...

- also top/side cloths, mast (NB), t'stud, cross straps, and i could take a guess at what a cabin t is, but the rest is lost on me!

 

I found this on jims page while trying to remember what cants are as well, which might be usefull.

Daniel

 

Elum: The butty's rudder

Anser pin: the shackle at the side of the butty backcabin on the top bend

Tunnel hook: the big cast hook on the opposite side to the anser pin

Luby pin: the bit of ironwork at the top of the mast to attach the tow line to.

Stands: the planks holding up the top plank

Compass pieces: big lumps of oak supporting the front deck

Cross straps: short tow lines for when running the butty empty

Snatcher: short thick rope used for controlling the butty

Snubber: Long rope used for controlling the boat around tight corners (such as sutton stop)

 

I'll get me anorak