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Narrowboat

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Image:Narrowboats-at-tardebigge.jpg
Image:Horse Drawing Barge on the Kennet and Avon Canal.JPG

A narrowboat or narrow boat is a boat of a distinctive design, made to fit the narrow canals in the British Isles.

[edit] Traditional and modern boats

In the context of British Inland Waterways, "narrow boat" refers to the original working boats built in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries for carrying goods on the narrow canals (where locks and bridge holes would have a maximum width of 7 feet) built in the English midlands during the industrial revolution. The term is extended to modern "narrowboats" used as homes and for recreation, whose design is an interpretation of the old boats for modern purposes and modern materials.

[edit] Terminology

It is customary to use the term with a space (narrow boat) when referring to an original boat or a replica, and to omit the space when referring to a modern boat used for leisure or as a residence.

Although some narrow boats were built to a design based on river barges, it is incorrect to refer to a narrowboat (or narrow boat) as a barge. In the context of the British inland waterways, a barge is usually a much wider, cargo-carrying boat or a modern boat modelled on one, certainly more than 7 feet wide (actually up to 14ft wide).

It is also incorrect (or at least incongruous) to refer to a narrowboat as a longboat, although this name was sometimes used in the midlands in working-boat days. It is common to ridicule the use of the term longboat by commenting that the speaker has suggested that Vikings have re-invaded Britain via the Trent and Mersey Canal! However, the vessels used by the Vikings to invade England were called long ships, not longboats (which were a type of ship's rowing/sail boat used until the 19th century).

Usage has not quite settled down as regards (a) boats based on narrowboat design, but too wide for narrow canals ; or (b) boats the same width as narrowboats but based on other types of boat. To many ears, "Wide-beam narrowboat" and "Dutch-Barge-style narrowboat" are both terms which jar.

[edit] Size

The key distinguishing feature of a narrowboat is its width: it must be less than 7 feet wide to navigate the British narrow canals. Some old boats are very close to this limit, and can have trouble using locks that are not quite as wide as they should be because of subsidence. Modern boats are usually 6ft 10in wide to guarantee easy passage everywhere.

Because of their slenderness, some narrowboats seem very long. The maximum length is 75 feet (22m, the length of the locks on the narrow canals). However, modern narrowboats tend to be shorter than this, so that they can cruise anywhere on the connected network of British canals - including on the "wide" canals (built for wider boats). The shortest lock on the main network is Salterhebble Middle Lock on the Calder and Hebble Navigation, at about 56ft long. However, the C&H is a wide canal, so the lock is about 14 ft wide. This makes the largest "go-anywhere-on-the-network" narrowboat slightly longer (about 60ft) than the straight length of the lock, because it can (with a certain amount of "shoehorning") lie diagonally. Some locks on isolated waterways are as short as 40ft (12m).

Hire fleets on British canals can contain narrowboats of many lengths from about 30 feet upwards, to allow parties of different sizes or different budgets to hire a boat.

[edit] Development - traditional working boats

The first working narrow boats played a key part in the economic changes accompanying the British Industrial Revolution. They were wooden boats drawn by a horse walking on the canal towpath led by a crew member, often a child. Narrowboats were chiefly designed for carrying cargo, though there were some packet boats, carrying passengers, letters, and parcels.

Boatmen's families originally lived ashore, but in the 1830s as canals started to feel competition from the new railways, the families took up home afloat - partly because they could no longer afford rents, partly to provide extra hands to work the boats harder, faster and further, and partly to keep families together.

The rear portion of the boat became the cosy "boatman's cabin", familiar from picture postcards and museums, famous for its space-saving ingenuity and for its interior made attractive by a warm stove, a steaming kettle, gleaming brass, fancy lace, painted houswares, and decorated plates. Although such descriptions rarely consider the actual comfort of a large family working an extremely hard and long day, and sleeping in the one tiny cabin, it is no doubt true that at the time there were many workers in harder, indoor, trades with less healthy conditions and worse accommodation where the family were separated for long hours rather than being together all day. Nonetheless it was impossible for such mobile families to send their children to school, and most boat people remained illiterate and ostracised by those living 'on the bank'.

As diesel and steam replaced the tow horse in the early twentieth century, it became possible to move more cargo with the same manpower by towing a "dumb" (unpowered) "butty" ("buttyboat" or "butty boat").<ref>"Butty" is not linked because this usage refers back to this page via a disambiguation page.</ref>There was now no horse to look after, but someone had to steer the butty, unless on a wide canal such as the Grand Union Canal where the two boats could be roped side-to-side or 'breasted up',and handled as one.

Cargo-carrying by narrow boat was almost extinguished as a way of life between 1945 and 1965. A few people are doing their best to keep the tradition alive, mostly by "one-off" deliveries rather than regular runs, or by selling goods such as coal to other boaters.

There are many enthusiasts dedicated to restoring the remaining old boats, and there are also many replicas ornately painted with the same traditional designs, usually of roses and castles. If the boat is not horse-drawn it may have a refurbished, massive, slow-revving, vintage diesel engines, and there are even some steam-driven narrowboats (eg nb President).

[edit] Modern narrowboats

Image:Modern Narrow Boats.jpg

The number of licensed boats on canals and rivers managed by British Waterways, a government-subsidised organisation, was estimated at about 27,000 in 2006. There are perhaps another 5,000 unlicensed boats kept in private moorings or on other waterways. <ref>http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/about_us/business_activities/boating.html</ref> Most of the boats on BW waterways are modern narrowboats, and there are probably more of them than the number of traditional boats that ever existed. This reflects the huge growth in the last thirty years in the use of canals for leisure.

Modern narrowboats are mostly used for annual vacations or for weekend breaks. Usually, they have steel bodies and modern (often Japanese) diesel engines, and are fitted out to a high standard. There will be at least 6 feet internal headroom, and the same domestic facilities as a small rental apartment: satellite television, internet-connection, central heating, flush toilets, shower or even bath, four-ring hobs, oven, grill, microwave, and refrigerator. Externally, their resemblance to traditional boats can vary from a faithful imitation (false "rivets", and copies of traditional paintwork) through "interpretation" (clean lines and simplified paintwork) through to a free-style approach which does not try to pretend in any way that this is a traditional boat.

They can be owned by individuals (or shared by a group of friends or by a more formally organised syndicate), rented out by holiday firms, or used as cruising hotels. A few boats are lived on permanently: either based in one place (though long-term moorings for residential narrowboats are currently very difficult to find) or continuously moving around the network (perhaps with a fixed location for the coldest months, when many stretches of canal are closed by repair works or "stoppages").

[edit] Length

Longer boats may be more difficult to get round corners quickly, but are more steady in a straight line; shorter boats are more maneuverable but have less accommodation.

[edit] Stern types

There are thee basic types of arrangement at the stern of the boat, to meet different needs in terms of a more traditional appearance , or freedom for everyone to enjoy summer weather or long evenings, or protection from bad weather. Each has its strong advocates, but the boundaries are not fixed, and some boats blur the categories as designers try out slightly different arragements and combinations.

Trad Stern Traditional boats had an open, unguarded "counter" or deck behind the rear doors from which the crew could step onto land, or steer (with little regard to the prop churning below less than one-misstep away). In bad weather, the boat could be steered in relative warmth, with the steerer forward of the rear doors, standing on the coal box inside the cabin, with their legs next to the stove and only their upper body emerging from the hatchway. Many modern canal boats retain this arrangement, although the coal box is now the "steering step". On trad boats, the bow "well-deck" forms the main outside viewing area.

Cruiser Stern Cruiser stern boats were designed to allow for maximum enjoyment by all on board for good-weather vacation cruising. The hatch and rear doors are further forward than on a trad boat, creating a large open deck between counter and rear doors, protected by a rail (perhaps with seats) around the back and sides. At the rear, a "cruiser" narrowboat looks very different from traditional boats, and the steerer is quite unprotected in wind and rain. The name derives from the large centre or rear cockpits common on glass-fibre (GRP) river cruisers.

Semi-Trad Stern This is a compromise to gain some of the "social" benefits of a cruiser stern, while retaining more traditional lines and some protection for the steerer in bad weather or in cooler seasons. As with the cruiser stern, the hatch and rear doors are moved forward, but side walls extend back from the cabin sides to give a more sheltered seating area.

[edit] National organisations

[edit] References

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[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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