Great Canal Journey

[andyg]

I have to admit I'm really enjoying this current series. I think Sheila and Giles are a good pairing. Like many here I've often thought of trying a narrow boat holiday but have sadly never got round to doing so. Is there a reason why the boats are built with steel and not GRP.  I assumed it had something to do with having to use so many locks. I especially liked this week's episode on the Leeds to Liverpool canal. Lots of history to see and visit. We live about a 40 minutes drive away from Hoddesdon where they started this series and I never knew you could hire boats from here. Something to look into over the coming winter nights. 

[floydraser]

I think grp may not be practical for a long, thin boats, probably requiring bulkheads which would restrict the choice of layout.

Besides, narrowboaters a quite snobby about the use of grp, calling such things Tupperware Tubs.

[oldgregg]

Yeah the problem with a narrowboat is that it needs to maximise interior space because of how limited the external dimensions are.

To get the torsional rigidity that can be achieved with steel, you would need a really thick fibreglass layup and lots of strengthening.... Or you just use steel which apart from the base plate is usually just 6 or 8mm thick and can take being hit against the side of a lock on a daily basis.

[rightsaidfred]

Or it could just be that historically narrow boats were built of steal long  before GRP was invented and that it was the most durable material for much of the cargos they carried.

Fred

[floydraser]

And of course before all that, timber. Would be interesting to see a modern narrowboat in wood.

[annv]

Hi Andy They use steel because it is cheaper and easier to build one off's, there are many different builders and designs, steel is also more durable for the rough and tumble of narrow boating, With grp you need a mould to lay up the grp this means you need to build many boats from this mould before you get your outlay back ie( a production line) this requires  one builder of the hull with perhaps many other builders just doing the fitting out, where as canal boat builders build the whole thing and it can be done on a small scale/premises with minimum tools/equipment and infrastructure. Jhn

[webntweb]

Originally working narrowboats were built from wood, which was then superseded by riveted iron. Welded wrought iron was tried in the 1930s but after the second world war commercial carrying began to decline rapidly and apart from two classes of boat (River Class and Admiral Class) which were built between 1957 and 1961 of welded steel construction, very few steel working narrowboats were built.

After the second world war some of the first canal pleasure boats were converted ships wooden lifeboats, but they were generally wider than 7ft so could only be used on wide canals.

In the 50s and 60s a few boat builders were building wooden narrow beam cruisers on the lines of Broads/Thames cruisers but were generally only about 30ft long.

A few builders used old full length wooden narrowboats cut in half to make two 35ft cruisers but they were not very good "swimmers".

Companies like Maidline did build some nice looking wooden narrow cruisers up to about 45ft in the 60s and 70s.

Quite a lot of small grp canal boats were built in the 60s but became less popular with the rapid increase of steel built narrowboats for pleasure use from the 70s onwards and the subsequent increase of risk of damage by collisions on narrow canals.

One builder Morgan Giles did build larger grp narrowboats up to about 43ft in the late 60s at their Teignmouth boatyard. They were very solidly built and a few are still around today.

Extract from Morgan Giles history website:

"As a canal cruiser is restricted to a 7ft beam to allow it to pass through the canal lock gates, it allowed a unique feature to be incorporated into the Morgan Giles canal cruiser hull mould. The parallel sides of the hull allowed the production of the boat lengths from 31ft to 41ft and 43ft 6ins from a single mould, having a movable transom section in the mould; these were made by the Morgan Giles shipwrights at the Teignmouth yard. The superstructure moulds were separately moulded.

Another unique feature to maximise cabin space was the Morgan Giles hydrostatic drive propulsion system. This allowed the engine to be placed right in the transom locker, the power to the propeller being transferred using hydraulic fluid via a Dowty pump to a Dowty control valve to facilitate ahead and astern functions via a Denison Derry reversible motor. The power was transferred to the propeller by a right angle drive. Steering was via a conventional wheel and rudder. The engines used were initially four cylinder Perkins Diesels, later BMC Diesels were fitted that ran much quieter and smoother than the Perkins.

The cabin interiors were made to the usual Morgan Giles high standards by the company joiners."

[oldgregg]

53 minutes ago, webntweb said:

One builder Morgan Giles did build larger grp narrowboats up to about 43ft in the late 60s at their Teignmouth boatyard. They were very solidly built and a few are still around today.

I had to look that up, and yeah there's one right there. Yes, she does look quite chunky in her construction.

https://www.morgangilesarchive.org.uk/index.php/the-vessels/motor/narrow-boat