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March of the Widebeams


cuthound

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1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

Can you imagine, commissioning a new build and on being shown some drawings, saying "FANTASTIC, beautiful, that's EXACTLY the boat I want. Press on with the build please"! 

 

As I thought. You are unable to name the waterway. 

Umm let me think could it be the Sheffield and South Yorkshire?

Screenshot_20210912-134843_Gallery.jpg

Edited by peterboat
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9 minutes ago, Athy said:

Not things of beauty, no. Probably spacious inside, but then so are 'buses.

On which French waterway were you, and how did you manage to go there, what with travel restrictions and quarantine requirements?

Eurostar with Great Rail Journeys to Strasburg.

 vaccine cert, sworn affidavit to French authorities (never looked at) PCR test 2 days before coming home, Passenger Locator form (filled in 2 days before coming home) PCR test within 2 days of arriving in UK bought before departure from UK. 

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Eurostar with Great Rail Journeys to Strasburg.

 vaccine cert, sworn affidavit to French authorities (never looked at) PCR test 2 days before coming home, Passenger Locator form (filled in 2 days before coming home) PCR test within 2 days of arriving in UK bought before departure from UK. 

Hey, if you don't want to go into any detail you should simply say so.

😏

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1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

 

As I thought. You are unable to name the waterway. 

 

What exactly are you gabbling on about?

 

Everyone knows the waterways those boats work on.

 

But for anybody who actually genuinly doesnt boats of that size can be found on the Aire & Calder, the New Junction Canal and the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation.

Edited by The Happy Nomad
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2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Eurostar with Great Rail Journeys to Strasburg.

 vaccine cert, sworn affidavit to French authorities (never looked at) PCR test 2 days before coming home, Passenger Locator form (filled in 2 days before coming home) PCR test within 2 days of arriving in UK bought before departure from UK. 

Bluddy Ada. That's a lot of hoops to jump through, I hope the trip was worth all the trouble.

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1 hour ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

What exactly are you gabbling on about?

 

Everyone knows the waterways those boats work on.

 

But for anybody who actually genuinly doesnt boats of that size can be found on the Aire & Calder, the New Junction Canal and the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation.

 

As MtB was alluding, in another thread I was trying to explain the difference between the waterways on either side of the Pennines.  Like all Southerners, I think he assumes "up North" is one homogenous area. 

 

Of course aside from the Manchester Ship thingy there's only one genuinely wide canal in the North West and that is the Bridgewater Expressway, where the shouts of "SLOW DOWN" can be heard as far away as Llangollen. 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

 

As MtB was alluding, in another thread I was trying to explain the difference between the waterways on either side of the Pennines.  Like all Southerners, I think he assumes "up North" is one homogenous area. 

 

Of course aside from the Manchester Ship thingy there's only one genuinely wide canal in the North West and that is the Bridgewater Expressway, where the shouts of "SLOW DOWN" can be heard as far away as Llangollen. 

 

 

Nope the Lancaster canal was built for widebeams as well 

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7 minutes ago, peterboat said:

It was designed for widebeams and there are widebeams on there, we looked at buying a marina on there 

 

Screenshot_20210912-190657_Chrome.jpg

 

I know the Lancaster canal very well.

 

Yes there are widebeams on it, there are widebeams on the Grand Union as well, doesn't mean the canal is suitable.  

 

A lot of narrowboats have problems on the Lanky these days, it's extremely shallow in parts, first thing you pack is a long boarding plank.  

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1 minute ago, Neil2 said:

 

I know the Lancaster canal very well.

 

Yes there are widebeams on it, there are widebeams on the Grand Union as well, doesn't mean the canal is suitable.  

 

A lot of narrowboats have problems on the Lanky these days, it's extremely shallow in parts, first thing you pack is a long boarding plank.  

That unfortunately is the norm for lots of canals 😟

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6 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Which "northern waters" exactly, are suitable for these monster fatties, please?

 

In another thread, Neil2 (I think it was) suggested fatties are as obtrusive in many northern waters are as they are in the southern. 

 

North Sea? 🤔😂😅

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1 hour ago, peterboat said:

It was designed for widebeams and there are widebeams on there, we looked at buying a marina on there 

 

Screenshot_20210912-190657_Chrome.jpg

Part of the problem of unsuitable craft, just because it states 14' beam doesn't necessarily mean it is suitable for a boat 14' wide.

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37 minutes ago, Up-Side-Down said:

I think you will see her working again before too long

That's good news. I just had a look on the internet in an attempt to discover whether she was working at the moment, and anything about her history, but found only American references.

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On 12/09/2021 at 17:00, Neil2 said:

 

As MtB was alluding, in another thread I was trying to explain the difference between the waterways on either side of the Pennines.  Like all Southerners, I think he assumes "up North" is one homogenous area. 

 

Of course aside from the Manchester Ship thingy there's only one genuinely wide canal in the North West and that is the Bridgewater Expressway, where the shouts of "SLOW DOWN" can be heard as far away as Llangollen. 

 

 

What about the Leeds and Liverpool that is a wide canal in the North West last time I looked

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13 minutes ago, Dalesman said:

What about the Leeds and Liverpool that is a wide canal in the North West last time I looked

 

I don't think he's explained his thinking too well!

 

The Lancaster is wide, and in fact the fatties generally draw less than the skinnies, so you could argue they are actually better suited to it than narrow boats are.

 

The L&L is wide.  The Rochdale is wide. The Shroppie north of Barbridge is wide.  The T&M is wide-ish (the narrowed tunnels & Dutton stop lock limit it to about 9 feet) as far as Middlewich apart from the (replaced, narrow) Croxton Aqueduct - and that used to be wide.

 

I'll grant you the Ashton and the Huddersfield are narrow, but that's about it.

 

It does depend where you draw the boundary for the North West I suppose.

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I'll try again... I said genuinely wide canals ie canals that you could confidently take a modern wide beam boat on without fear of going aground or have trouble getting into the side.  The Rochdale and the Leeds Liverpool may very well be wide in theory, like the Lancaster, but lack of traffic and insufficient dredging make the practice a different thing altogether.

 

The comment has to be taken in context.  There's no point in advising a potential wide beam owner that yes there are wide canals in the north west so you'll be fine.  OTOH in the North East you have properly wide waterways, which is where you should be if fat boats are your thing.

 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

I'll try again... I said genuinely wide canals ie canals that you could confidently take a modern wide beam boat on without fear of going aground or have trouble getting into the side.  The Rochdale and the Leeds Liverpool may very well be wide in theory, like the Lancaster, but lack of traffic and insufficient dredging make the practice a different thing altogether.

 

The comment has to be taken in context.  There's no point in advising a potential wide beam owner that yes there are wide canals in the north west so you'll be fine.  OTOH in the North East you have properly wide waterways, which is where you should be if fat boats are your thing.

 

 

I understand the point you are trying to make, but I disagree - there are plenty of modern widebeams using the north-west canals every day.  Admittedly I do recommend 57'x12'6" as being a much more sensible size for ease of navigation than 60'x14' but that's mainly due to lock gates not fully opening.

 

As I said above, a lot of modern widebeams actually draw less than narrowboats which can make them more suitable for shallow or poorly dredged canals.  There's a lot of them can and do get into moorings my narrow boat can't get near.

 

Conversely, I helped @DRP bringing L&L Short Boat Ribble up Wigan flight last week, and she still fits (mostly!)  It's a lot easier when she's not carrying 30 tons though! :D

 

No dispute that there is more space on the big north-east waterways, but big boats up there are half as wide again as a widebeam, and three times as long!

 

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