wide beam navigation

[Craig Campbell]

If I bought a 60ft by 9ft wide beam in Cheshire could I navigate down to the Kennet and Avon/Thames junction, and where else on the waterways of the UK could I get to with a 9ft beam?  

[Lysander]

http://www.jim-shead.com/waterways/mwp.php?wpage=Inland-Waterways-of-England.htm

This map should show you.

[Craig Campbell]

thanks I'll check it out

 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

11 minutes ago, Craig Campbell said:

If I bought a 60ft by 9ft wide beam in Cheshire could I navigate down to the Kennet and Avon/Thames junction, and where else on the waterways of the UK could I get to with a 9ft beam?  

Short answer is no. You have either the northern waterways, or the southern for wide boats but the bit in between is 7' limit on width, so getting it to the K&A means a lorry. Sea going boats could go round the coast, but I am assuming that this is not.

Jen

[Craig Campbell]

Thanks

 someones just sent me a useful map of the navigable waterways. what about getting to the Birmingham end of the Grand Union via road and then lifting in? any boatyards that could do this?

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Craig Campbell said:

Thanks

 someones just sent me a useful map of the navigable waterways. what about getting to the Birmingham end of the Grand Union via road and then lifting in? any boatyards that could do this?

Yes - but the majority of the cost of road transport is craning on and craning off, the savings in cost of transport from Cheshire down to South of Birmingham will be very little when compared to Cheshire to the K&A.

Why not transport it all the way and spend the couple of weeks gained to practice cruising & working the K&A locks.

[Craig Campbell]

Thanks

I've had a rough quote from Southwest boat transport. from Cheshire to the Thames/K+A of £1250.00 plus VAT, and boat lift prices of around £500 per time, do you think this seems reasonable?

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, Craig Campbell said:

Thanks

I've had a rough quote from Southwest boat transport. from Cheshire to the Thames/K+A of £1250.00 plus VAT, and boat lift prices of around £500 per time, do you think this seems reasonable?

It sounds expensive to me, but I guess it depends on driving hours (tachograph - can they do it in one day, one or two drivers etc)

How far 'out of the way' are SouthWest Boat Transport going ? (are they for example coming from Cornwall ?) Try and find a transport company somewhere near the route.

Crane in / out quote could be expensive it depends on what they are using.

Our local marina has its own hoist and lift in / out is £160, however if your proposed marina is having to hire in a huge big crane (60x9 boat is pretty heavy at extended reach) then £500 is probably about right.

[Craig Campbell]

That's great advice, cheers. 

My wife and I are buying a broad beam boat (60 ft by 9ft-12ft) as a live aboard and are researching possible moorings In the south of the country. We are expecting to pay a healthy amount so any suggestions of locations or marinas with spaces, or any general advise would be gratefully received. Thanks again Craig

[Alan de Enfield]

24 minutes ago, Craig Campbell said:

That's great advice, cheers. 

My wife and I are buying a broad beam boat (60 ft by 9ft-12ft) as a live aboard and are researching possible moorings In the south of the country. We are expecting to pay a healthy amount so any suggestions of locations or marinas with spaces, or any general advise would be gratefully received. Thanks again Craig

Do you need / want to be in a specific area ?

Where is "the South of the Country" ?

South of Watford Gap ?

Kent ?

Cornwall ?

Oxford ?

Great Yarmouth ?

London ?

If looking in the 'London' area expect to pay around £1000 per month for a mooring - when auctioned they have gone as high as £15000pa.

[Craig Campbell]

We're looking at the Stort, Lee, Upper Thames, Grand Union, Basingstoke, K&A

[Cheese]

On the Basingstoke, no liveaboards permitted on the Hampshire stretch, but there are a few at the eastern end: link

[Craig Campbell]

That's very helpful, Cheers

 

[Matt&Jo]

Craig we looked at this over and over and it was so restrictive in 1 price and 2 availability that we chose not to go widebeam..... we lile you looked at the K&A and lower GU but so far a few between....not impossible but by no means simple unless ccing. Avergae price was way more than our mortgage......then what with the plans from the crt with regards to licences for wide beams becoming more expensive its a difficult one....we were going to sell the house and go 150k wide beam whole hog etc but its a scary prospect and we feel much more secure using savings and keepig the house rented out. 

Not your situation i know but oerhaps food for thought?

[Craig Campbell]

Thank you, definitely food for thought

 

[MtB]

7 hours ago, Craig Campbell said:

If I bought a 60ft by 9ft wide beam in Cheshire could I navigate down to the Kennet and Avon/Thames junction, and where else on the waterways of the UK could I get to with a 9ft beam?  

 

Hopefully not....

[Dr Bob]

6 hours ago, Matt&Jo said:

Craig we looked at this over and over and it was so restrictive in 1 price and 2 availability that we chose not to go widebeam..... we lile you looked at the K&A and lower GU but so far a few between....not impossible but by no means simple unless ccing. Avergae price was way more than our mortgage......then what with the plans from the crt with regards to licences for wide beams becoming more expensive its a difficult one....we were going to sell the house and go 150k wide beam whole hog etc but its a scary prospect and we feel much more secure using savings and keepig the house rented out. 

Not your situation i know but oerhaps food for thought?

To the OP. Wide beams are great if parked in one spot or for navigation on rivers, but they don't fit very well even on wide canals down south. They are a pain in the neck for many narrowboaters. The busy stretch of the GU that we stay near grinds to a halt when a fat boat comes along. Chaos on weekends. If you are going to navigate the canals then why not get a narrowboat?

[Horace42]

Why not buy a wide boat that is already in the area of interest.

[Naughty Cal]

13 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

To the OP. Wide beams are great if parked in one spot or for navigation on rivers, but they don't fit very well even on wide canals down south. They are a pain in the neck for many narrowboaters. The busy stretch of the GU that we stay near grinds to a halt when a fat boat comes along. Chaos on weekends. If you are going to navigate the canals then why not get a narrowboat?

Yes. The same can be said for narrowboaters in river navigations, If you are going to navigate the rivers then why not get a river boat?

[rusty69]

Have you taken your narrowboat on a river then Dr Bob? Norty norty!

[alan_fincher]

22 hours ago, Craig Campbell said:

My wife and I are buying a broad beam boat (60 ft by 9ft-12ft) as a live aboard ...................

Apologies if you are already well aware of this, but.......

There is a massive difference between a 9 foot wide-beam and a 12 foot wide-beam.

The former, (unusually narrow compared to most), will obviously give space advantage over a narrow boat, but you then take on the penalty of something with a far more restricted cruising range, but where you still have to open every gate at locks on typical broad canals like the one's you say you want to be based on.

On the other hand 60 feet by 12 feet is massive, and not really a practical cruising boat on many of these waterways.  Boats of these dimensions are now regularly trying to navigate canals never built for them, and causing a lot of issues as a result.

Fine if you intend to stick it in a marina, and never go anywhere, but far from ideal if you wish to boat in it to any degree. If you want a comfortable home, with the extra space implied by a wide-beam, from my observation you need to choose something more or less midway between these two widths.

Even so you will still struggle to find moorings for a 60' x 10'6" boat, both permanent ones and temporary "visitor" moorings if you wish to be out an about.

Virtually all permanent mooring sites on the Lee & Stort and around London are now fully subscribed, and the tow-paths increasingly overtaken by boats, often double moored, (which you would struggle to do with a wide wide-beam).

Edited April 3, 2018 by alan_fincher

[alan_fincher]

23 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Yes. The same can be said for narrowboaters in river navigations, If you are going to navigate the rivers then why not get a river boat?

You would struggle to make a case, I think that Narrow boats on suitable river navigations cause anything like the levels of problems as posed by wide-beam boats on canals never built to suitable dimensions to accommodate them.

The only real down-side we have found with narrow boats on rivers is that moorings are often in short supply, and I acknowledge that many narrow boats need a longer length to moor in that some massive "Tupperware".

 

[Naughty Cal]

8 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

You would struggle to make a case, I think that Narrow boats on suitable river navigations cause anything like the levels of problems as posed by wide-beam boats on canals never built to suitable dimensions to accommodate them.

The only real down-side we have found with narrow boats on rivers is that moorings are often in short supply, and I acknowledge that many narrow boats need a longer length to moor in that some massive "Tupperware".

This is of course one of the biggest problems with narrowboats in rivers. Convincing some narrowboats owners that they don't need all 60ft of their boat alongside the pontoon is a bit like head butting a brick wall sometimes. 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

The only real down-side we have found with narrow boats on rivers is that moorings are often in short supply, and I acknowledge that many narrow boats need a longer length to moor in that some massive "Tupperware".

The moorings on the Trent typically have a sign requesting NBs to breast-up - a couple of NBs can take up the space of 4 or 5 Tupperware.

NBs will typically also moor on the 'outside' of the pontoons and leave the usual 'canal spacing' between them, whilst the inside generally being shallower cannot accommodate keeled Tupperware, but a NB would easily fit.

[Naughty Cal]

Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

The moorings on the Trent typically have a sign requesting NBs to breast-up - a couple of NBs can take up the space of 4 or 5 Tupperware.

NBs will typically also moor on the 'outside' of the pontoons and leave the usual 'canal spacing' between them, whilst the inside generally being shallower cannot accommodate keeled Tupperware, but a NB would easily fit.

I spy a lovely Naughty-Cal sized gap there.