Narrow Boats E-Book

Michael Stimpson

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Narrow Boats: Ownership, Care and Maintenance is a practical manual for readers who are new to boating or wanting to buy a narrow boat. It provides a comprehensive guide to all aspects of owning a narrow boat and will enable readers to get the most out of their own narrow boat, whether used for occasional weekends only, or lived on all year round. This book includes a brief history of narrow boating, including types of boats and their purpose; what to look for when buying a boat; ongoing maintenance required, painting, electrics, plumbing and engines; how to be a responsible boater and finally, a useful glossary is included of boating and canal-related terms. Michael A Stimpson has been involved with waterways for over 40 years and has been S Eastern Regional Secretary for the IWA for 14 years. It is fully illustrated with 185 colour photographs.

Leseprobe

NARROW BOATS

Ownership, Care and Maintenance

MICHAEL STIMPSON

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2019 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2019

© Michael Stimpson 2019

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of thistext may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 552 7

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

1.Narrow Boat History

2.Types of Craft

3.Craft Uses

4.The Inland Waterways

5.Buying a Narrow Boat

6.Running Costs

7.Decoration

8.Waterworks

9.Equipment

10.Electrics

11.Engines

12.When Things Go Wrong

13.Responsible Boating

14.Going Further

Glossary

Index

PREFACE

Much of this work is based on my own forty years’ experience of owning a boat, but I have also drawn on surveys of other craft in my line of work. It is intended to be a ‘dipping in’ book; a prospective narrow boat owner may well want to read it from start to finish but some information is repeated where the subject fits the chapter.

Cruising the inland waterways is a tranquil way to spend your leisure time. There are thousands of miles of canal and river to explore and enjoy, and wayside inns to visit at the end of your boating day.

The average use of a narrow boat is two to three weeks and six to eight weekends a year, but there are many owners who cruise more extensively. Some couples share a boat and take it in turns to use her.

Some boat owners get up early and boat all day whilst others will boat for a few hours and tie up to undertake work on their boat, talk to other boat owners or explore the local area that they find themselves in.

Many canal-based events take place around the system throughout the year, from rallies to smaller events. Many of these are organized by the Inland Waterways Association, others by local boat clubs who want to introduce the joys of the waterways to local folk in their area.

I would like to thank my friends Trevor Whitling and Hugh Mcknight for reading early drafts of this book and offering constructive comments, which have been incorporated in the final work, and to Sue Cawson for reading the whole text before I submitted it to the publishers.

Most of the photos in this book are from my own collection, but about three dozen have kindly been donated by friends, some taken specifically for this book. My thanks go to them for their help.

I hope the reader enjoys it.

Michael Stimpson, Rickmansworth

January 2019

INTRODUCTION

Buying a boat is not an investment. It is unlikely to increase in value – over the years, it will either maintain or lose its value. This depends on the level of maintenance the craft has received during its life. ‘A boat is a hole in the water into which one throws money!’

One aspect of boating that has grown out of all proportion over the last fifty years is the bulk of craft being used on our massive inland waterways network. The design of these craft is based on the original narrow boats that were the mainstay of the goods-carrying fleets that used to move cargos round the country. While there are still a good number of ex-working narrow boats around, recent years have seen a vast expansion of modern craft to fill the need for leisure use and floating homes. Boatyards all over this country and abroad have been producing hulls and the numbers of these craft have grown at a steady rate.

A pair of narrow boats carrying coal on the Grand Union Canal. The rear boat (the butty) is travelling close up behind the motor boat and is connected with cross straps. Normal practice if the boats were loaded would be to have the butty on a long line.

If you want to buy a boat that can cruise the majority of the inland waterways network in the UK then it is likely to be a narrow boat. If you want to cover all the inland non-tidal system then the maximum size is 57ft 6in long by 6ft 10in beam (17.5m × 2m).

The network we have today is somewhat smaller than we had 100 years ago, as many canals built to feed the Industrial Revolution have been closed and, in many cases, man or nature has wiped the line of the canal from the map. Some of these are now being rebuilt to provide even more waterway routes for us all to enjoy and much of the UK is still connected by inland waterways; for example, you can take a narrow boat from London to Manchester or from Gloucester to York with ease.

Before the decline of the network of canals in the 1960s the main use of the system was for the transport of goods. With the passing of this era the network started to fall into decline. The rivers of course were natural and thus kept flowing, but the canals started to fall into disuse and thus into disrepair. As explored later in this book, the system was revived by the hard work of volunteers, and the main use of the network today is leisure.

Why would such a collection of connected waterways become so popular? Perhaps each person using the system today would give a different answer but high on the list would be the peace and tranquillity out on the water.

There are three types of waterway:

Rivers, which are, of course, natural and were either used as they were or improved by man-made locks and weirs to aid navigation

Navigations, which are artificial waterways that divert and/or shorten the course of a river but which get their supply of water from the connected river

Canals, which are totally man-made and which, in the main, were built as a method of transporting goods during the Industrial Revolution.

Without the Industrial Revolution there would not have been the need for the large network of canals, yet without the canals the Industrial Revolution may not have happened – this may sound like a paradox and indeed it is. One wonders if the Industrial Revolution would have happened the way it did, or at all, if a method of getting raw materials to the new factories and finished goods away, cheaply and in quantity, had not been found. The cost of goods to the end user went down dramatically and, as it was seen how beneficial a network of waterways would be, more and more canals were built in a rush known as ‘Canal Mania’, and many canals, some of which did not see the light of day, were promoted. The same thing, of course, happened with the railways a century later.

Other benefits of transport by water as opposed to pack horse or cart were the amount of goods that could be transported in one load and the lower risk of damage to finished products.

Early canals were contour canals that hugged the lie of the land, but later canals took a more direct route from A to B, using tunnels, embankments and aqueducts to maintain the level. These were harder to build but cut down the journey time. There are a number of locations where a canal route winds round a point on the route for hours because the canal was built on a level and thus took the longer way round by keeping to the contour of the land.

Like the later railways, the canal system was built to a number of different sizes, but unlike the railways, which eventually were standardized on 4ft 8½in (1.4m), canals are still separated by the different sizes that were used to determine the size of the locks and thus the size and type of craft that could fit into them.

The canals of the south are mainly barge canals, which have locks that can take craft 72ft (22m) long and 14ft (4.3m) beam. The northern canals were built to the same beam but were shorter, at either 62ft (18.9m) or 57ft (17.4m). Most canals were built to the Midland narrow boat size of 71ft 6in (21.8m) by 7ft (2.1m) beam. If you have a full-length narrow boat then you are not able to navigate some of the northern canals, as the craft are too long for the locks. A short boat on the northern canals cannot get through the Midlands, as the locks here are not wide enough. Only the canals of the south can take both types of craft, with some of the locks being built to take barges, while others were widened to enable a pair of narrow boats to fit side by side.

A boat horse at rest. This is a shire but other breeds of heavy horse were sometimes used, particularly on canals where shires were too large.

All canals were built to move goods round the country and the craft used were open. On narrow boats, goods were protected from the elements only by sheets covering the hold, supported by a top plank sitting on masts in the centre of the craft. Barges had covers over the hold.

All craft were originally towed by a horse, although two donkeys or a team of men were also used in some cases. This use of a horse or a pair of donkeys resulted in a number of overnight stopping points springing up with stable facilities, adding to the enchanting buildings which can still be found around the waterway system.

In the mid-1800s, steam engines were built into narrow boats, although the steam plant boiler and fuel took up much-needed cargo space. Steam tugs were used to better effect to tow craft through tunnels and along long stretches of lock-free waterway. In the early 1900s, diesel engines were used to power craft, and as such units improved in reliability, more and more craft were retrofitted with them or new craft were built with them. This was one reason why so many working narrow boats were built in the 1930s, although there are still a number of boats built in the 1800s on the system today.

It was soon clear that a narrow boat with an engine had enough power to move itself complete with cargo and tow another loaded boat, so it became standard practice for a motor boat to be paired with a butty (friend or mate) boat. At first these were old horse-drawn boats, but they were gradually replaced by purpose-built butties. Horse boats had been used in pairs before the introduction of boat engines.

In the 1930s and 40s a motor boat and butty were often built in pairs for the same company (though not always at the same yard) and many spent their working life together. This practice carried on until the 1960s with the Admiral-class boats.

Working craft were built to take knocks and to have bulk cargo loaded into them. Most current owners of such craft take a pride in and look after them as historic items as well as to maintain their value. You do not buy an ex-working narrow boat – rather you pay a sum of money to become its curator for a number of years.

Original narrow boats were built of wood, with oak sides and elm bottoms. Later on, iron and steel replaced the oak sides but the elm bottoms were kept (in vessels known as composite craft) until finally all-iron or steel boats were the norm.

During World War II, a few concrete narrow boats (and other types of craft) were built to provide a quick way of supplying additional craft for transporting food, munitions and other goods throughout the country, but these were a short-term solution as concrete is not a good product for hull production. Today, only steel is used and the modern boat has a weed hatch built into the stern, which allows access to the propeller so any item caught round the propeller can be cleared. Older craft did not have this.

If a craft has a weed hatch then it is a good idea to have a watertight bulkhead forward of the engine room, as this will prevent the craft from sinking in the event of water coming in through the weed hatch, the stern tube or any outlets in the hull (for raw water intakes, engine cooling and so on). Sadly, a high percentage of craft are built without such protection and a high percentage of sinkings are caused by this omission.

The bulk of narrow boats and other types of craft nowadays are for private pleasure use, although the number of residential craft is on the rise and there are also a large number of craft still used for commercial activity in many different forms – hire craft, hotel boats, passenger trip boats, day hire craft, cargo carriers, maintenance craft and floating shops, both static and mobile. Commercial use of the waterways in its many forms is alive, well and thriving.

While the original use of the canal system is, in the main, no longer with us there are still boats carrying bulk cargo, as this can still be an economical way to transport goods. Where the goods are not perishable and the run is either short or there are not too many locks in the way, a conveyor belt-type system can be provided.

Most people first discover the enchanting world of the inland waterways on foot. I know I did in the mid-1960s. The urban waterside environment includes buildings and structures built over 200 years ago that provide a glimpse back into our past. Whilst in some cases, such as Gas Street in Birmingham, this world has now been opened up to the rest of the environment, there are still places where you can feel you are back in the past. The countryside takes you to a peaceful and tranquil world away from the rush of the modern world of A roads and motorways, where you plod along at a sedate 4mph, seeing the wildlife that has made the canal or the banks its home.

CHAPTER 1

NARROW BOAT HISTORY

First of all, is it a narrow boat or a narrowboat? While many believe one word is acceptable, the majority view is that the correct way to describe a boat that is narrow is two words. Another interesting idea is that a narrow boat was built prior to 1950 and was used to carry goods, while a narrowboat is a modern craft also known as a steel canal cruiser. I will not enter this debate but in this book I will stick to narrow boat.

Traditionally a narrow boat was about 71ft 6in long by 7ft beam (21.8m by 2.1m) and was designed to fit into the locks of the Midland canal system, which developed as part of the early Industrial Revolution. They were designed for the carriage of cargo and could take up to 30 tons of goods drawn along by either one horse or two donkeys or mules. While the hull was mostly designed to carry cargo, there were a number of long-distance craft that had a cabin for the crew at the stern.

In the early days, the main motive power on the canal system was horses, and thus the system is covered with buildings that started life as stables, like this one on the Shropshire Union Canal.

To cater for the horses and donkeys, there were a number of stables along the system, which have now either disappeared or been converted into other uses.

A pair of GU boats in GUCC livery breasted up showing the mop sticks (mops) resting on the Buckby cans (water containers) on the roof of the back cabin. Note the three brass rings and the horse brasses on the chimneys. The butty boat has the back doors traditionally painted but the motor boat doors are plain. The photo also shows the fenders, which are positioned to prevent the rudder being caught in the mitre of the lock gates. The butty tiller has been removed to allow easy access to the back cabin. It was normal to turn the tiller round to have it pointing upwards.

A pair of FMC (Fellows, Morton and Clayton) boats attending the Rickmansworth Waterways Festival. The top planks are down rather than running along the top of the masts, which could then act as a support. Note the forward cabin on the butty.

In the days of horse boats, the cabin was situated at the stern of the boat just forward of the steering position. When engines started being installed, the engine room was fitted forward of the back cabin. This resulted in a very long propeller (or prop) shaft but allowed the steerer access to the cramped living cabin at the back of the boat. As many horse boats were converted to motor boats, it was easier to instal the engine in the cargo hold forward of the back cabin, and this tradition was carried forward to new builds (boats built as motor narrow boats rather than being converted), so, despite the inconvenience of a long prop shaft running under the living area, the layout was not altered until modern leisure craft were introduced. The rear profile of the boat needed to be altered for water to flow through the propeller. The cruiser stern allowed the engine to be installed under the back decks, which enabled the rest of the hull to be used for accommodation.

The first self-propelled craft were fitted with steam engines, but the loss of cargo space to the engine itself, the boiler and the stock of coal resulted in a continued hunt for some method of propulsion which took up less space. A Swedish firm (Bolinder) produced a single-cylinder ‘heavy oil’ engine that met the requirement and a number of 9hp and 13hp units were fitted to craft, resulting in the motor boat of today. Other companies also built single-cylinder heavy oil engines. Later, 18hp engines were used and then twin-cylinder units were introduced.

At first, narrow boats were owned or operated by the ‘No 1s’ – these boats were single craft and operated by the owner (or lessor), in later years often with the help of his family, who lived in the back cabins of the motor and butty boats. Later, the boats were owned by major canal carrying companies such as the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company (who owned 340 boats), the Shropshire Union R & C Co. and Fellows, Morton and Clayton. There were also numerous small fleets, such as Cadbury and Ovaltine, and at least two railway companies (London Midland and Scottish and Great Western) owned a number of craft.

The canal companies would charge tolls on craft that used their waterways and this was achieved by ‘gauging’ the boat, usually in a lock. A register was kept of boats with records of the gauging depth of the craft – that is, how deep in the water the craft would be for each ton of cargo.

A motor boat had enough power to tow another fully loaded boat so horse boats were paired up with motor boats to provide a total carrying capacity of 55 tons – 25 on the motor and 30 on the horse boat. Later specific ‘butty’ (friend or mate) boats were constructed to work in tandem with the motor boats.

While a number of ex-working boats were built earlier and some later, the bulk of the traditional craft now on the canal system were built in the 1930s for FMC (Fellows, Morton and Clayton) and the GUCCC (Grand Union Canal Carrying Company) to supplement the earlier craft owned and operating in both fleets. Many are still in working condition and some are still in commercial carrying use. Others have been converted by adding a superstructure and are used for both private pleasure and residential use. Having said that, there are still a good number of boats on the system today built in the 1800s.

The cratch board or deck board of a narrow boat is shaped to follow the contour of the side cloths (tarpaulins). It helped to prevent water from entering the hold when working up a lock, and also provided a useful support for the tunnel lamp, although this was often set on a separate stand in front of the cratch board.

In the 1960s, the traffic on our canal network was declining and large numbers of the working boat fleet were laid up out of use, although the last series of boats, the Admiral class, were built for the British Waterways Board in the 60s. Many were sunk, having had engines removed, in basins or ‘flashes’ to extend their life in case they were required again. A few enthusiasts tried to continue carrying, and one or two traffic runs, such as the lime juice from Brentford to Boxmoor (Willow Wren and Three Fellows Carrying and later T & D Murrell), did manage to carry on but, in the main, companies who had used the canals for the conveyance of goods turned to road vehicles instead. Our railway system suffered the same fate, as loading a lorry to take goods from door to door seemed at the time to be much more efficient, and in some ways it was.

Many believe that it was the railways that caused the death of canal-borne transport and, indeed, an effect was felt, but what the railways really did was change the way the canals were used. As an example, in Birmingham the short-haul traffic from the rail/canal interchange to the factories on the canal network in and around Birmingham increased. It was long-haul traffic that suffered.

It is true that some waterways did suffer from competition from the railways but others benefitted, such as in the Birmingham area, although even here some routes were lost.

A large number of ex-working boats have been cut down from 71ft 6in (21.8m), many to 60ft (18.3m) or 57ft 6in (17.5m) to enable them to navigate the northern canals (see below). Many were cut down and turned into tugs or ice breakers. There are even examples of craft having been shortened and then lengthened again!

A number of craft were cut in half, with a new bow being fitted to the stern half and a new counter being added to the bow, producing two 40–45ft (12.2–13.7m) boats. In some cases both halves claimed to be the original boat!

Early boats were built of wood – normally with oak sides and elm bottoms. Iron sides with elm bottoms and iron hulls were tried but steel hulls became the norm from the 1930s onwards, although some builders still constructed narrow boats from wood – Walker Brothers of Rickmansworth, for example, built both motor and butty boats for a number of companies, including the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company.

The design of the boats changed little, with the small living cabin at the stern then forward of the engine room on motor boats, which required a very long prop shaft running under the back cabin. The rest of the boat was given over to cargo. There were two stands and a mast in the hold to support the top plank, which ran from a block on the cabin roof at the back to the cratch board at the bow. The cratch (or deck) board was a triangular board at the bow that served to support the top plank and to prevent water entering the hold in such situations as a lock overflowing onto the bow.

Boat decoration will be dealt with in Chapter 7. Suffice to say here, the traditional style of narrow boat decoration still lives on today, with a high percentage of craft adhering to it.

While there are still many narrow boats constructed in the 1800s on the system today, the bulk of ex- working boats were built in the early 1900s, when canal carrying companies both replaced older craft and expanded the fleets of boats they owned. The best example is the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company, who in the early 1930s had three boatyards build the Star class and then the larger Town class fleets to augment the existing Royalty class, which came from Associated Canal Carriers when the GUCCC was formed.

CHAPTER 2

TYPES OF CRAFT

NARROW BOAT OWNERSHIP

Owning a narrow boat is a commitment, as it needs constant maintenance and care. Given this, it will live forever (there are still craft on the water today, in good condition, built in the early 1800s) and should retain its value. If the maintenance schedule is not carried out then the craft will deteriorate, lose value and could, in the worst-case scenario, sink.

It is essential to keep up regular maintenance, as will be discussed later.

SIMILAR CRAFT

The inland waterways are, of course, home to other types of craft than narrow boats. The rivers have all sorts of craft on them, some sea-going and some designed specifically for use on inland waters. The canals have a more restricted list of craft types although the odd unusual vessel can still be found.

Cruisers

Cruisers appeared on the canals as trading craft became less common, either rotting away or becoming the home of the crew who used to work them. They were used by those wishing to take short trips along what was left (at the time) of our canal system.

There are many different types of GRP (glass reinforced plastic) cruisers on the canal system and this is just one example. Most are powered by outboard petrol engines, although inboard petrol and diesel engines can also be found, as well as electric outboards.

Early cruisers were made of wood but GRP (glass reinforced plastic) soon took over. Some early pleasure craft were also made from obsolete narrow boats – these were cut in half and a new bow was put on the stern and a new stern on the bow. This gave two 40ft (12.2m) boats out of one 71ft 6in (21.8m) one. They, of course, had steel hulls but often had GRP ‘lids’ and many of them looked identical.

Cruisers are normally powered by a petrol outboard, although a few diesel and electric outboards exist, and some cruisers have inboard engines – either petrol and diesel.

While cruisers are mainly leisure craft, a small number are used for commercial or residential purposes, although the space limitations do cause a problem.

Most cruisers are not as stable as narrow boats or barges because they are lighter. GRP craft can develop a problem with the hull called osmosis, which results from grazing the gel coat on the lock side, for example, which allows water to get into the fibre.

The number of cruisers is in decline today but there are still a fair few around.

A modern wide-beam canal cruiser built in the same way as a modern steel narrow boat but to a wider beam (width), which can vary between 10ft and 14ft (3m–4.2m).

Short Boats

Short boats are a type of barge but deserve their own heading because they were built to navigate the northern canals. Built in the same way as narrow boats, they were either 57ft long by 14ft beam (17.4m by 4.3m) or 62ft long by 14ft 4in or 14ft 6in beam (18.9m by 14.35 or 14.4m). A few have found their way south (the normal way is by lorry, although some have made the trip down the east coast).

Farnworth started life as a cargo-carrying craft. It was then converted to a passenger trip boat and is now in use as a residence.

Such craft were built until the 1950s and there are still a few examples around, mainly in residential use or as passenger craft.

The railways of the UK were originally built to different gauges – 4ft 8.5in, 5ft 3in, 5ft 6in and 7ft 0.25in (1.4m, 1.6m, 1.7m, 2.1m), but over the years these settled down to two and then finally one gauge, 4ft 8.5in (1.4m), to enable traffic to be carried in one wagon across the country between railway companies.

The canal network had the same problem but this was never resolved, so today we have the narrow canals of the Midlands, the short canals of the north and the barge canals of the south.

Most short boats, which were used between Wigan and Leeds, are still in the north but a few in the south and have found a life in commercial use in one form or another. Some have been turned into floating homes.

There are fewer short boats about, but then more narrow boats than short boats were built as they could operate on both the Midlands network and the southern waterways.

Barges