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Sharp Corners!


Mike Jordan

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I've just read a test report on a nice new boat in one of the boating magazines, and now feel the need to ask, why so many sharp corners? The photos of the interior show a stylish and attractive fit out with oak finish but with a multitude of nasty sharp corners.

A well executed  table top edged with oak moulding mitred at 90 degrees and a partial bulkhead with a right angle corner at just about elbow height made me look more carefully at the rest of the photos. This boat featured potentially painful corners on the hearth surround, dinette, partial bulkhead, table, a wall cupboard, worktop, and even the pelmets over the windows. 

Properly rounded corners do take time to do and cost a little more than cutting the corners square but on a boat costing just short of six figures this shouldn't be a consideration, even the cheap and cheerful end of the market tend to crop the corners off at 45 degrees and edge round that to reduce the problem.

Sadly the report failed to make mention of these features, possibly the people concerned escaped without any bruises, another magazine I wont be picking up again.  

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Greenoes for Mike (good, er, point) and Zena.

Whilst hunting for our first boat, we rejected one (a 41-footer called Moon) largely because of its prominent and sharp hanging cupboard edges, at more or less my eye level.

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  • 1 month later...

I've just found an even better collection of potential pain and injury delivering features! This time on a boat with a £150,000 price tag, the glowing report on this boat is by Adam Porter in Octobers Canal Boat magazine. The shell, engine, and joinery quality look superb but why would any designer create an obstacle course of lethal sharp corners in a narrow boat? The builders are one of the most experienced makers of river and offshore boats with a reputation for quality. 

There is no mention that the tester has even noticed the hazards, the boat is described as being aimed at those who have not been canal boating before. If they are not very carefull the experience may leave a lasting impression in more ways than one. I don't believe that any experienced narrow boat user will be much impressed.

In this article even the proof reading is below optimum, the editors instruction to remove a picture and replace it with the correct one has been printed over the wrong photo and proudly published. 

Times are tough in the magazine industry at the moment with subscriptions falling and buyers being reluctant to make a casual purchase at nearly £4.00 a go. 

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2 minutes ago, Mike Jordan said:

I've just found an even better collection of potential pain and injury delivering features! This time on a boat with a £150,000 price tag, the glowing report on this boat is by Adam Porter in Octobers Canal Boat magazine. The shell, engine, and joinery quality look superb but why would any designer create an obstacle course of lethal sharp corners in a narrow boat? The builders are one of the most experienced makers of river and offshore boats with a reputation for quality. 

There is no mention that the tester has even noticed the hazards, the boat is described as being aimed at those who have not been canal boating before. If they are not very carefull the experience may leave a lasting impression in more ways than one. I don't believe that any experienced narrow boat user will be much impressed.

In this article even the proof reading is below optimum, the editors instruction to remove a picture and replace it with the correct one has been printed over the wrong photo and proudly published. 

Times are tough in the magazine industry at the moment with subscriptions falling and buyers being reluctant to make a casual purchase at nearly £4.00 a go. 

Not read the article but my wife pointed out the photos and to me it looks like a very well done amateur designed layout with all the straight edge and 90 deg corners excellently put together.

 

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30 minutes ago, Mike Jordan said:

I've just found an even better collection of potential pain and injury delivering features! This time on a boat with a £150,000 price tag, the glowing report on this boat is by Adam Porter in Octobers Canal Boat magazine.

Meanwhile Waterways World's boat review features "possibly the best Jonathan Wilson shell I have ever seen" which "cleaves the water exceptionally well". It also has a hydraulic bowthruster. But none of that seems to have prevented the owners - "experienced boaters" - from putting rather a lot of obvious scrapes on the bows in the few months they have owned the boat (and we'll ignore the fact that it also has two sets of fenders dangling from the sides while underway - one set attached to recessed eyes in the hull with other hanging from the cabin roof).

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14 minutes ago, Jess-- said:

could it be customers choice of layout and the builder has pretty much gone "right you are sir"

They don't have that excuse, this is a spec boat, would you believe, for £150k, the price you'd pay for a fully bespoke boat from an established builder I can think of. It's aimed at Broom's lumpy water punters who fancy trying out narrowboating (and who presumably have got more money than sense).

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