weecough
New Member
Not yet being a boat owner, but hoping to get one over the winter, I have a couple of daft questions. The first being suitability. What makes a boat inland, coastal or sea going?
Boat suitability
- Thread starter weecough
- Start date
Cliveshep
Well-Known Member
Well, try what doesn't!
A trawler is sea-going, needs about 3.0m plus of water to float in and has masts/derricks so won't go very far up Thames and cannot enter a canal (apart from the Caledonian perhaps). It has as much hull in the water as out, carries loads of weight in the bottom (keel) so if waves knock it over the sheer weight is like a pendulum forcing it back upright. Sailing yachts and displacement cruisers have the same principals. Coastal boats - mainly fair weather broadly speaking, will go up rivers, possibly up the R Thames for example, unlikely to get far on canals. Can be round bilge (displacement) type, speed dependant on waterline length/wavelength, or derivatives of vee or flat bottomed capable of speed with big enough engines. Most river craft are fairly flat bottomed or variations of that, reliant on engine(s) for motive power, given reasonable sea conditions they can go to sea, overlapping with coastal craft. They can be driven fast with enough power. Canal craft are generally flat bottomed, designed for sheltered waters, see narrow boats which are also designed to bounce off bridges and lock sides which most inland waterway.coastal boats most definitely are not.
You can go to sea in an inflatable if it is calm(ish) and anything upwards from that. Most boats will take far more weather than their skippers are capable of, it's often a question more of experience than anything else.
A trawler is sea-going, needs about 3.0m plus of water to float in and has masts/derricks so won't go very far up Thames and cannot enter a canal (apart from the Caledonian perhaps). It has as much hull in the water as out, carries loads of weight in the bottom (keel) so if waves knock it over the sheer weight is like a pendulum forcing it back upright. Sailing yachts and displacement cruisers have the same principals. Coastal boats - mainly fair weather broadly speaking, will go up rivers, possibly up the R Thames for example, unlikely to get far on canals. Can be round bilge (displacement) type, speed dependant on waterline length/wavelength, or derivatives of vee or flat bottomed capable of speed with big enough engines. Most river craft are fairly flat bottomed or variations of that, reliant on engine(s) for motive power, given reasonable sea conditions they can go to sea, overlapping with coastal craft. They can be driven fast with enough power. Canal craft are generally flat bottomed, designed for sheltered waters, see narrow boats which are also designed to bounce off bridges and lock sides which most inland waterway.coastal boats most definitely are not.
You can go to sea in an inflatable if it is calm(ish) and anything upwards from that. Most boats will take far more weather than their skippers are capable of, it's often a question more of experience than anything else.
hlb
RIP
Well done, I thought trying to answer the question, was like writing war and peace. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
photodog
Lord High Commander of Upper Broughton and Gunthor
The EU CE categories will help you to decide if the boat your looking at is suitable for your use....
Irish DOT website explaining CE categories....
Boats sold in the EU will have a CE mark with a category...
Irish DOT website explaining CE categories....
Boats sold in the EU will have a CE mark with a category...
Cliveshep
Well-Known Member
Yup, and if God agrees with the category you'll have weather to suit automatically!
weecough
New Member
Thanks chaps, I asked because pricing boats I noticed inland boats were cheaper. Some of these had twin engines and steel hulls and I wondered why they couldn't go to sea. I am not yet a boat owner and don't want to get the wrong thing. I will be taking courses and suchlike before taking whatever boat I get anywhere.
Cliveshep
Well-Known Member
The short answer is that you can, with care, take many if not most inland boats to sea. After all, all they have to do is stay afloat and as such they are limited by their ability to cope with the sea state and weather they are faced with. On a calm sea you could probably paddle around in a plastic bathtub, in fact I'm sure many nuts have done it. You could for example, in reasonable weather/sea conditions, by which I mean pretty calm/little wind to stir things up, have loads of fun in a 12ft launch, and many people do just that. I've seen on TV some character firstly took a narrow boat across the channel from the Thames, from somewhere on the canal system, and right down to Carcasanne in France. Later on he had it shipped to the US and took it out into the Gulf of Mexico. He made lots of preparation of course and I doubt many here would attempt it and that includes me! I answered you in your other post, saying figure out what you want to do, as that combined with your budget will pretty much define what you ought to try and buy. Ask yourself, where do I want to use it, what will I want to do, i.e. day trip only or cruising, do I want to pay for moorings or limit myself to trailed boats I can bring home. Do I want to rush about like a nut, or cruise slowly etc.
albineer
Well-Known Member
That narrow boat was modified to by adding polystyrene so that it was less prone to being swamped and was accompanied by one of the training boats from the Dover Sea School. It wasn't quite as crazy as it might sound.
