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Manchester house boat row.


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16 hours ago, dmr said:

I think part of the issue is that this could not go out onto the canal so will be a permanent feature of the marina, or structure within the marina. A tall box obviously maximises the living space available within a limited "footprint". If its just one boat then its maybe an interesting feature but because its a good use of space what if others copy this design? Maybe the owner is even actually hoping to make a lot more of these. The concept of going to the marina to look at the boats and see some water would be lost if the the whole place was full of end to end tall boxes.  Something like this could just as easily sit on a bit of land rather than taking up a precious bit of water.

 

Its the usual dilemma that the canals face again and again, its fine to have a couple of continuous moorers, or a few tall waterside apartments....but once you allow one its a lot harder to stop them multiplying.

 

..............Dave

 

 

There is always a lot of discussion about the rights of an individual to choose a lifestyle, and your comment about the difficulty of enforcement once a few have chosen to over-step a mark is well made.   It is also observable that as soon as one 'unique' craft arrives in an area another one will surely follow.  As soon as a 'blind eye' is turned then anti-social behaviour and exploitation is also easier to ignore; this 4 year old article is quite a change from the usual, 'lets buy a boat and enjoy an idyllic lifestyle in the city' and describes what a hundred years ago would have been regarding as slum-living.  

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/23/london-houseboat-slum-rents-barge

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Tanglewood said:

 

 

There is always a lot of discussion about the rights of an individual to choose a lifestyle, and your comment about the difficulty of enforcement once a few have chosen to over-step a mark is well made.   It is also observable that as soon as one 'unique' craft arrives in an area another one will surely follow.  As soon as a 'blind eye' is turned then anti-social behaviour and exploitation is also easier to ignore; this 4 year old article is quite a change from the usual, 'lets buy a boat and enjoy an idyllic lifestyle in the city' and describes what a hundred years ago would have been regarding as slum-living.  

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/23/london-houseboat-slum-rents-barge

 

 

Once you allow a ‘boat’ that is too big to even leave the mooring, it’s only a short step to having a big box that doesn’t even float and just sits on the bottom.  That is a house on legs but without foundations.

Edited by Chewbacka
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Many years back my friends Rob & Di Robinson sold their boat "Dorset & built a replica WB cabin on a 20ft pontoon aptly named "Shed" they lived on it at Norbury & Rob who had a thing about going "walkabout" took off the eventual trip was from Norbry,Llangollen & retn to Hurlston Chester ,Middlewich, SoT, Fradley ,S&W, & BCN,last heard at Lowensford & it was Bow hauled all the way  Think they had a family break up &went there separate way as the last I heard  Rob was creewing on the Replica "Golden Hind"& Di was living in Cornwall no idea of the fate of "Shed"

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4 minutes ago, Clodi said:

What stops this rolling-over, surely it will fail BSS?

It's tied to the jetty so it won't tip over. :D

 

Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

Why would a lack of stability affect the BSS ?

If it falls over on someone else it might hurt them. :D

 

All joking aside, if it is indeed a wooden shed on a steel pontoon it's probably more stable than many narrowboats.

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5 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Why would a lack of stability affect the BSS ?

I'm sure I read somewhere about some sort of directive regarding stability of vessels regarding a 'roll-test' , maybe it's regarding building 'shells'.. I know there is some concern after that accident on the Thames regarding a narrowboat that had been overplated.

I also assumed it was built on a NB hull

Edited by Clodi
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Just now, TheBiscuits said:

If it falls over on someone else it might hurt them. :D

 

All joking aside, if it is indeed a wooden shed on a steel pontoon it's probably more stable than many narrowboats.

 

In the photos it looks to have quite a bit of steel framing inside, but the wood cladding is likely lighter than 4mm steel sheet. It also does look wider than a narrowboat in the pictures, I walked past it a few weeks ago but did not pay much attention to its width.

 

..............Dave

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and I forgot to say, I was helping a friend down the Ashton recently and met a bloke who was Very interested in moving onto the canal and getting another one of these built as a home, so if this one gets approval its quite possible there will be lots more springing up on the Manchester canals. Could however make the argument that Manchesters canals are so grotty and have almost no boats so might as well use them for housing ????? ?

 

..............Dave

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12 minutes ago, Clodi said:

I'm sure I read somewhere about some sort of directive regarding stability of vessels regarding a 'roll-test' ,

As has been stated, the RCD covers (and requires) stability testing for all Recreational Boats, but as this is not a boat, but a 'floating structure' then the RCD requirements are probably not applicable.

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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

As has been stated, the RCD covers (and requires) stability testing for all Recreational Boats, but as this is not a boat, but a 'floating structure' then the RCD requirements are probably not applicable.

 

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

As has been stated, the RCD covers (and requires) stability testing for all Recreational Boats, but as this is not a boat, but a 'floating structure' then the RCD requirements are probably not applicable.

Ah, I knew there was something somewhere regarding stability. If this build is adding so much extra height presumably the interior headroom can be used to provide loft type sleeping accommodation etc so these 'floating structures' must have a huge amount of ballast unless they have huge water/waste tanks built in

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26 minutes ago, Clodi said:

 

Ah, I knew there was something somewhere regarding stability. If this build is adding so much extra height presumably the interior headroom can be used to provide loft type sleeping accommodation etc so these 'floating structures' must have a huge amount of ballast unless they have huge water/waste tanks built in

Surely, for a stability test any tanks would have to be in their least stable state, i.e. empty, so only the mass of the tanks themselves (plus pipework) would assist stability.

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I guess we're assuming he's going for the "home built, keep it for 5 years, doesn't need RCD" angle (excuse the pun) here - so the stability is irrelevant. Does it have BSS and insurance? Does it need it? Is the marina private land? Either way, he either needs the BSS/RCD or he needs to comply with whatever the requirements have been asked for by the marina.

 

As houseboats go, it actually looks quite nice, although clearly not a boat-shaped boat (but then are narrowboats???) Let's face it, it looks nicer than the average widebeam especially them weird contrived 'widebeam narrowboats' and they are allowed to remain on the waterways (for now) so the hurdles he needs to overcome aren't that massive. Unfortunately it looks like one of the hurdles will be finding another mooring, though.

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20 minutes ago, Paul C said:

Is the marina private land?

The owner is Manchester City Council and the Marina Operator is BWML, as renting a mooring is a 'commercial contract' they can impose pretty much whatever conditions they like. They are probably applying the old BW (and adopted by C&RT) conditions listed under the C&RT Moorings policy :

 

Precis of the relevant section :

 

………..boats at residential moorings shall possess the recognisable attributes of a boat typical to the Trust's networks and capable of navigation …………….."

 

It pretty much fails all of the tests :

 

1) It is not a recognisable boat typical to the canals

2) It has no engine so it unable to navigate

3) It is dimensionally unable to navigate the local waterways.

 

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