March of the Widebeams

[Loddon 871]

15 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Eventually resuming , it appears navigation is achieved by forward motion corrected with constant use of said bowthruster. The canal looked like mulligatawney soup......obviously the fault of CRT due to lack of dredging. 

Or a clueless newbie who doesn't know how the throttle works. It can be done but you need experience, less throttle  more motion.

Glad he wont be passing me.

[matty40s 2968]

4 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Or a clueless newbie who doesn't know how the throttle works. It can be done but you need experience, less throttle  more motion.

Glad he wont be passing me.

But he will probably get the whole Grand Union dredged if he has his navigation impeded so stick with my version....

[ditchcrawler 1276]

1 hour ago, matty40s said:

But he will probably get the whole Grand Union dredged if he has his navigation impeded so stick with my version....

Well that cant be a bad thing

[Cheese 32]

On 10/07/2019 at 16:47, F DRAYKE said:

... asked him how wide the boat was, his reply 12'6" at waterline 14' at gunwales. 

So if the water level is a bit down, it could still get stuck in a 12'8" bridge hole?

[frangar 773]

29 minutes ago, Cheese said:

So if the water level is a bit down, it could still get stuck in a 12'8" bridge hole?

So basically it can’t fit through a 12’ 6” width gap then can it!! So unsuitable for the upper GU!! 

[mrsmelly 6256]

17 hours ago, frangar said:

So basically it can’t fit through a 12’ 6” width gap then can it!! So unsuitable for the upper GU!! 

I love widebeams, they are fab boats, much comfier than my present sewer tube. However history aside I would personaly rate this boat as totaly unsuitable for the entire GU!! Never mind the North Oxford!

[canalboat 40]

Please help my confusion. Is the widebeam reported to be now at Braunston, the same as they widened the bridge for at Warwickshire Fly? and did it have no trouble getting through Blue Lias bridge?  I missed that bit in the story - and if it is the same, it obviously had little trouble getting to Braunston.

[RLWP 1546]

21 minutes ago, canalboat said:

Please help my confusion. Is the widebeam reported to be now at Braunston, the same as they widened the bridge for at Warwickshire Fly? and did it have no trouble getting through Blue Lias bridge?  I missed that bit in the story - and if it is the same, it obviously had little trouble getting to Braunston.

Kind of, only it isn't at Braunston any more. It has passed Stowe Hill

 

Richard

[Lily Rose 173]

I spotted a widebeam moored at Braunston yesterday evening but it looked well lived in, not brand new. Not the same boat.

[Clodi 58]

According to the blurb This electric beauty 'has a draft of just 3.9 ft (1.2 m), meaning it can access just about any waterway in the world'

I had a row with a woman on the K&A who didn't understand the tradition of giving way to the boat travelling downstream and stuck her widebeam sideways under a bridge. She shouted at me that the boatyard told her they could navigate the entire system . I actually felt sorry I had been quite harsh , it was their first boat & no experience at all of the waterways. They didn't even know how swingbridges worked !

[matty40s 2968]

1 hour ago, canalboat said:

Please help my confusion. Is the widebeam reported to be now at Braunston, the same as they widened the bridge for at Warwickshire Fly? and did it have no trouble getting through Blue Lias bridge?  I missed that bit in the story - and if it is the same, it obviously had little trouble getting to Braunston.

There are at least 3 boat owners I know of who are putting complaints in after being hit by this vessel over the weekend.

[Naughty Cal 1596]

1 hour ago, matty40s said:

There are at least 3 boat owners I know of who are putting complaints in after being hit by this vessel over the weekend.

I take it the same 3 boat owners would have complained if they had been hot by narrowboats as well?

[doratheexplorer 819]

On 09/07/2019 at 13:46, WotEver said:

Then you or somebody else with good knowledge should edit it. That’s the whole idea of Wikipedia. 

Except it's not as easy as you might think.  Someone I know is sort of a bit famous, enough to have a wikipedia page.  The page has a number of minor mistakes and one huge whopper of a lie (nothing illegal or libellous, just utterly ridiculous).  When they tried to get it changed, wikipedia asked for comprehensive proof of who they were before allowing it.  Eventually they relented and the mistakes were rectified.  A week later, the original errors were added back in.

[Iain_S 422]

That's been my experience of Wikpedia as well.

I amended the description of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Canal from "a contour canal", which it certainly isn't. A month later, it was back in, although apparently it's now a contour canal by virtue of extensive cuttings, embankments and major aqueducts!

[mrsmelly 6256]

2 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

I take it the same 3 boat owners would have complained if they had been hot by narrowboats as well?

Rachel you are so right. I am sorry to say that many of our forum friends here seem to think narrowboats are the b all and end all of boats when the reality is that narrowboats are far from the norm and a bloody ridiculous beam that we have been left with due to historical events. No one in their right mind would choose one over anything of a greater beam by choice. Facts are though that to do extensive inland cruising there is no option other that stupid beamed boats ? thats why we again have one. If we move back to the commercial waterways we will again have a comfy,  stable wonderful wider beam but for now.......................But of course tiny canals like the OXford, GU, K and A etc are hopeless for wider boats.

Edited July 15, 2019 by mrsmelly

[matty40s 2968]

2 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

I take it the same 3 boat owners would have complained if they had been hot by narrowboats as well?

You would have to ask them, however, tiller steered narrowboats on the GU tend to go in a straight line, not bounce from bank with bow thrusting joy.

[mrsmelly 6256]

Just now, matty40s said:

You would have to ask them, however, tiller steered narrowboats on the GU tend to go in a straight line, not bounce from bank with bow thrusting joy.

Yes, its a totaly unsuitable boat for the location. Cart are as much to blame for allowing it. What if it meets similar coming tuther way??

[Alan de Enfield 5098]

1 minute ago, matty40s said:

You would have to ask them, however, tiller steered narrowboats on the GU tend to go in a straight line, not bounce from bank with bow thrusting joy.

Is it the boats ability to go straight, or, the steerers ability to go straight ?

 

Put an experienced NB  'helm' on a WB and I bet it would go pretty straight.

[Mike the Boilerman 6174]

2 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

I take it the same 3 boat owners would have complained if they had been hot by narrowboats as well?

 

Its a moot point as a narrow boat weighs typically 15 to 20 tonnes whereas this behemoth is probably closer to 70 tonnes. So while a bump from this horror of a boat is likely to cause significant damage, a bump from a narrow boat one third of the weight will probably leave barely a mark. 

 

 

In addition, a narrowboat-to-narrowboat bump is usually hull-to-hull, whereas this monster bumping a narrowboat will be monster gunwale against narrowboat cabin side. 

 

 

 

[mykaskin 135]

10 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Its a moot point as a narrow boat weighs typically 15 to 20 tonnes whereas this behemoth is probably closer to 70 tonnes. So while a bump from this horror of a boat is likely to cause significant damage, a bump from a narrow boat one third of the weight will probably leave barely a mark. 

 

 

In addition, a narrowboat-to-narrowboat bump is usually hull-to-hull, whereas this monster bumping a narrowboat will be monster gunwale against narrowboat cabin side. 

 

 

 

Surely it's unlikely to weigh any more than two narrowboats? Just because it looks big, doesn't mean it displaces more water. Most of the interia of a widebeam is open air!

 

[TheBiscuits 2161]

14 minutes ago, mykaskin said:

Surely it's unlikely to weigh any more than two narrowboats? Just because it looks big, doesn't mean it displaces more water. Most of the interia of a widebeam is open air!

 

Good point.  A 14ft widebeam also has two less hull sides and cabin sides than a pair of narrowboats, and usually only one engine.

[Athy 901]

2 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

Except it's not as easy as you might think.  Someone I know is sort of a bit famous, enough to have a wikipedia page.  The page has a number of minor mistakes and one huge whopper of a lie (nothing illegal or libellous, just utterly ridiculous).  When they tried to get it changed, wikipedia asked for comprehensive proof of who they were before allowing it.  Eventually they relented and the mistakes were rectified.  A week later, the original errors were added back in.

How peculiar. I have edited two Wiki pages on the last few days - indeed, one of them just ten minutes ago - and encountered no such problems.

[doratheexplorer 819]

1 minute ago, Athy said:

How peculiar. I have edited two Wiki pages on the last few days - indeed, one of them just ten minutes ago - and encountered no such problems.

Horses for courses.  Doesn't mean it won't have been edited back if you check again in a week though.

 

[Athy 901]

18 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Horses for courses.  Doesn't mean it won't have been edited back if you check again in a week though.

 

You are quite correct; as I often forget which ones I have corrected or expanded, I rarely do check!

[WotEver 2602]

2 hours ago, Iain_S said:

That's been my experience of Wikpedia as well.

I amended the description of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Canal from "a contour canal", which it certainly isn't. A month later, it was back in, although apparently it's now a contour canal by virtue of extensive cuttings, embankments and major aqueducts!

Yep, if you edit a page you need to regularly check it because the eejit who originally wrote the ‘wrong’ stuff may well return and put it back.