Why does Timothy Spall often seem nervous in his round-britain barge trip?

Greenheart

Greenheart

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I apologise for how little I know about boats without sails.

I enjoy the programmes showing Tim Spall and his wife gradually motoring round the UK...but considering the size and bulk of his vessel (quite newly built I believe, and a sea-going barge, not a narrowboat) I'm always surprised by his apparent grim forbodings about every open-sea leg of the journey.

Is he playing-up the danger that tides and a bit of breeze represent, for entertainment's sake? Or is there something intrinsically risky about taking a barge to sea?

If he was counting on getting there under sail I'd understand his doubts...but that steel motorboat makes the trip look about as dangerous as driving a golf-cart.
 
Thing looks basically unseaworthy to me. It's a river barge, not a seagoing vessel, whatever the builder told him. He's not going to come to any harm though because he only takes it out in calm conditions - hence the constant worrying. There have been a couple of episodes where a light breeze blew up, the thing started rolling like a pig (with all the unsecured furniture, drawers, and ornamental knick-knacks flying around down below) and he started looking even more worried - but it was just a pleasant sailing day for even a small yacht.

(Please don't interpret this as not liking either the man or the programme though - both are entertaining and he seems like a jolly nice chap.)

Pete
 
"There have been a couple of episodes where a light breeze blew up"

Light Breeze. F2. 4-6 knots..Small wavelets, crests glassy, no breaking.

You must have watching a diiferent programme to me.
Betting that a couple of times we had F5-6 against the tide.
Pretty daunting for mot of us and especially for a beginner.
 
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Wouldn't be too happy at sea in that thing myself - its a river boat. No wonder the bloke gets uptight - don't forget though that he is actually a brilliant actor and thats what he is doing most of the time.
I loved the episode where he encountered "seas of biblical proportions" which looked more like sunday school to me!
Great programme though.
 
blueglass said:
Wouldn't be too happy at sea in that thing myself - its a river boat. No wonder the bloke gets uptight - don't forget though that he is actually a brilliant actor and thats what he is doing most of the time.
I loved the episode where he encountered "seas of biblical proportions" which looked more like sunday school to me!
Great programme though.
Click to expand...
A programme & a book to sell
 
As I understand, the boat is a seagoing barge. Quite what that actually means I don't know but I suspect that it conforms with the stability requirements of one of the CE directive categories. However, it does seem to roll badly in a beam sea and I have to say that it definitely wouldn't be my choice of motorboat for circumnavigating the UK. As for Spall, I think he's genuinely scared of being at sea although he may ham it up a bit for the cameras and he certainly doesn't seem to possess much in the way of seamanship. So you've got to take your hat off to him for attempting the trip even though I guess he was accompanied by a safety/camera boat for much of the way
 
I certainly like the Spall shows - didn't mean anything very critical. But I'm often surprised by his indications of a seemingly exhausting day's progress on the map...he makes completion of a 15-mile daylight passage sound like Bligh's arrival in Timor.

Long may he continue though. :)
 
How do you get completely lost with a chart plotter screen in front of you, I think I lost count of how many times he seemed to do this!

Mike.
 
Some of us have trouble with pin numbers,call centres,TV remotes,Sat Navs,mobile phones,computors and cars with auto handbrakes/start stop technology if that gives you a clue! :)
 
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