Why don't people make their own canal boats?

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ridgy

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I was marvelling yesterday at the seemingly epic prices of canal boats. Seems to me they are a steel box with a small engine and a caravan fit out that has very few demands placed upon it.

Firstly I wondered why they could possibly cost so much, and then I wondered why people don't knock them up out of plywood?
 
ridgy said:
I was marvelling yesterday at the seemingly epic prices of canal boats. Seems to me they are a steel box with a small engine and a caravan fit out that has very few demands placed upon it.

Firstly I wondered why they could possibly cost so much, and then I wondered why people don't knock them up out of plywood?
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Dunno how well plywood bounces off of lock gates, dumped engine blocks, floating tree branches, winter ice, etc.
 
I believe it has been done in the past, I'm fairly sure there used to be one on the Kennet and Avon a few years back. I suspect that you wouldn't get passed by the safety inspection these days though!
 
You can buy the tin boxes already welded up and floating, and fill them up with all your goodies yourself. One area where DIY building is still live and well. It is however, questionable whether it is worth doing given the large numbers of perfectly adequate boats on the market. Just look in the classifieds in the canal boating mags.
 
They do, here's one guys account http://pegasus-widebeam.blogspot.co.uk/

There are plenty more around. I think its the welding that puts most people off. You've also got to know what your doing. Mistakes can be expensive, that and the fact that the proce of steel has gone up stupidly high.

Where I bought my boat there was a guy in the same yard who was rebuilding an old Dutch Tulip barge. A massive undertaking. so much so that he'd moved into a caravan on site and was treating it as a job.
 
My dad's built one from sheet steel upwards; tack welded it himself the got a local welder in to finish off. It's in the water now and he's fitting it out over the next few months! I thought he was barking at first but can now see the sense in it. Considerably cheaper than buying one apparently + it keeps him busy in retirement.
 
Twister_Ken said:
Dunno how well plywood bounces off of lock gates, dumped engine blocks, floating tree branches, winter ice, etc.
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Well we've bounced ours (6mm ply) off a semi-submerged log in the Avon on a spring tide, and it wasn't that bad. Glass /epoxy sheathing stands up to quite a bash, especially if built over a stiff framework. The worst thing is all the rough concrete in the locks, etc. against the brightwork, but with good fenders / sacrificial strakes (or no brightwork), that's not insurmountable.

I've been toying with the idea of a plywood narrowboat, would be glad to hear from anyone who's done it.

Cheap, DIY'able - even without welding skills, and light (& thus better fuel efficiency).
 
ridgy said:
I wondered why people don't knock them up out of plywood?
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I've heard the cracking as plywood boats are crushed between a solid object and an incompetent driver. A high proportion of traffic on the canals is hire boats, 15 tons of projectile manned by people with little or no experience. Many of the canal edges are unyielding and the combination is too much for any but the most massive of wooden structures.

Then think of the stresses on a narrow wooden boat with its bow lodged on a cill as the lock empties!
 
I would get a hull, either new or strip out a second hand one, and add the interior myself..... for reasons of taste, rather than cost. Most of the modern interiors in canal boat mags are, to my eye, simply awful. Perhaps a sign that I don't have much in common with the average canal boater and should stick to the sea.
 
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