The yacht designer, Tom MacNaughton, has a beautiful design for a
British narrow boat that while not electric, could easily be adapted to
electric drive. He is a great designer and very easy to work with, and
give extremely good advice to his clients and potential clients.
Check them out at http://macnaughtongroup.com.
Idea Designs page: http://macnaughtongroup.com/idea.htm
I apologize for the off-topic digression, I just love his designs and
this thread brought them to mind.
/Jason
Here are the blurbs from Tom's website concerning the British Narrowboat
and Eventide canal cruiser, from his "Idea Designs" page.
*British Narrowboat* - These *canal cruisers* would be sized to cruise
the between 2,000 and 3,000 miles of the British canal system. However
this brings up the interesting point that you could use these boats in a
great many protected waterways. Most of the eastern half of the United
States could be circumnavigated by a narrowboat. Say you started from
New York. You could go up the Erie Canal across through the Great Lakes
and down the Mississippi. Then you'd go along the Gulf Coast and up the
East Coast. In all these areas there are thousands of miles of detours
up rivers into the heartland of America. You could then ship the boat to
Britain. Once you had done all the British canals you could do the
canals in Ireland and then go over to Europe. You can go all through
most of the nations of Europe, even including Switzerland, by canal.
There are many other huge river and canal systems in the world but just
those named could take a whole lifetime to explore and enjoy properly.
This could be a truly wonderful life for those who like their adventures
to be fairly benign. The critical dimensions of the true British
narrowboat are a beam of no more than 6'10" (2.083 meters). Draft must
be no more than 2' 0" (.61m). The "air draft" or height above the water
must be no more than 5'9" (1.753m). The beam looks small until you
realize that all of it can be used for accommodations as the sections on
these vessels can be very square. The length is the intriguing thing.
You basically buy these boats by the foot. You have a bow and stern
section and then just make the part in between as long as you want. We
were told that the upper limit was about the 70' of the shortest of the
British narrowboat canal locks. However a correspondent from Britain
has told us that there is a lock in the wider canals at Salterhebble
that is around 56', which might make 50' a better limit. This brings
up the intriguing possibility that one might build a relatively short
boat if you had very little money and then simply cut it in half and add
to it whenever you needed more space. Another advantage is that the
interiors can be built by any reasonably good cabinet maker who knows
about fidrails and lift before pull drawers. Thus many people will be
able to have a very long boat built with a completely open interior and
just finish off the interior with cabins as they can afford to.
Interior arrangements are so versatile that we will probably simply show
"sample" cabins and let clients pick and choose which ones they want to
string together and in what sequence. We have had a number of people
ask for these vessels so we look forward to the opportunity to design
one. We already have some nice sketches, which I hope to refine and put
on here shortly.
*Eventide* - This /Canal Cruiser/ is styled after the British
narrowboats and European powered barges with the exception that we have
allowed her to be wider than the true narrowboats and have the option of
having wheelhouses like the European barges. We discuss the
possibilities of the true narrow boats which are only 6'10" wide
(2.083m) elsewhere on this page. However there are only a small number
of miles of canals in the whole world where you need to really restrict
yourself to this beam and a height that prevents you from having a wheel
house. Once you free yourself from the constraints of the narrow boat
canals you find that you can visit an unbelievable number of protected
waterways all over the world. The entire eastern half of the United
States can be circumnavigated by *Eventide*. You would go up the Erie
Canal across through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi. If you
want to you could take years exploring the tributaries which flow into
the Mississippi and penetrate through much of the eastern /and/ western
halves of the country. You can get to an amazing number of the states
in America's heartland if you travel all these pastoral waterways. When
you do finally descend the rest of the way down to New Orleans, you can
travel along the Gulf Coast waterways until you eventually reach
Florida. Although there is no reason not to go around the southern tip
of Florida and up through the Keys, you might choose to right across
Florida through the Okeechobee Canal and then up through the protected
waters of Florida's East Coast. Before leaving Florida I would suggest
traveling up the St. John River. This beautiful serene river can be
explored an amazing distance through the Florida heartland. Continuing
on up the East Coast you are in a wonderful protected system of canals
and rivers behind the coastline. In this area there are an incredible
number of rivers and large creeks off to the side of the waterway. In
many cases a little exploration up them will bring you to a small town
under the live oaks which may not have seen a yacht for a dozen years.
You could spend a life time exploring just the East Coast. However if
we assume that you do make this trip and want another adventure you
could ship *Eventide* to Europe where you can cruise through every
country in Europe except Spain and Italy, even including Switzerland.
There is no better way to see Europe. The countryside would be our
favorite but imagine running up into Paris and tying up right in the
middle of the city where you can go everywhere, see everything, and
still be at home every night. There are plenty of other larger river,
canal, and lake systems in the world. Enough for many lifetimes of
exploration. This is a great lifestyle for those who prefer to have
their adventures be calm ones. The draft on these vessels is about 2'
(.61m). Although it wouldn't be tough to adapt her to different widths
we have shown *Eventide* with 8' beam (2.44m) in the hull. Many people
would instantly think of wider beam but I'm not sure that makes much
sense in these boats. Even the true 6'10" beam (2.083m) narrowboats
have a lot more room than you'd think because the sides are vertical.
By the time you get to 8' beam it is beginning to be hard to see why
you'd really want more. In a very real sense these vessels are built by
the foot. We have shown standard bow and stern sections and then a
series of 6'6" and 3'3" modules. You can have as many of these modules
as you want between bow and stern up to a 65' limit. You could even
build a short version and cut her in two later and add more in the
middle as your funds allow. Another advantage is that you could have a
complete hull, deck and cabin unit welded up in steel for a very low
price. Then sand blast, epoxy coat, and paint her yourself to save a
very great deal of money. Finally interiors can be built by any
reasonably good cabinet maker who understands the need for fidrails and
lift before pull drawers. Thus many people will be able to afford to
have quite a vessel built with a completely open interior and just
finish it off with cabins as they can afford to. Interior arrangements
can be incredibly versatile. The Wheelhouse module above likely
contains a galley, chart table and steering station. It can be aft as
shown, which is the most traditional, or it could be in the middle of
the vessel, or forward. Since the section is constant in shape you can
have it where you want it. We have also shown a nice main cabin with a
couple of berths with side boards over the end, book shelves out board
and a table in between. We have also shown a 3'6" module with a w.c. on
one side and a sitzbath or shower on the other. The final module is a
nice spacious double stateroom with a double berth, a desk, hanging
lockers etc. Perhaps you'd like to add a library, or a work shop.
Perhaps a green house would be nice. Perhaps you'd like a sort of cargo
module with various fun small boats in it like double paddle canoes and
sailing dinghies for little exploratory expeditions. The possibilities
are endless. We have had a great many people ask about this type of
vessel and look forward to the opportunity to design one.
Peter Day wrote:
> Whist a lot of the responses here on this thread have been very helpful, it is worth bearing in mind the unique nature of the British canal system, and the boats that use it. Canals here were built in the 19th century for "narrow boats". These are between 25 and 72 foot long and mostly have a maximum beam of just 6feet 10 inches. The maximum theoretical beam of a narrowboat is 7 feet but due to age related subsidence of the locks 6'10" is the modern accepted maximum. Due to the displacement of the traditional narrowboat design most need quite a large ballast which of course could be replaced by the batteries. The other important factor is the speed limit of 4 kts on all non flowing and non tidal inland waterways in the UK, this makes them ideal for electric use, however the river sections and more importantly the tidal waters would need a good power reserve. I saw an all electric narrowboat some years ago whilst cruising the Grand Union it had banks of solar panels on the cabin roof and I remember the skipper telling me that he was able to cruise all summer without need to switch on his generator. With modern solar cells and the huge leaps forward in battery design I could imagine that narrowboats would be ideal for such a conversion. Some marinas have hookup to mains power but the way that the canals are it is not common practice for people to use marinas for overnight stops when cruising.Solar Navigator ( http://www.solarnavigator.net) make solar powered narrowboats and the owners of the British canal system (British Waterways) offer a 25% discount on annual fees for non polluting boats! The only down side with large banks of solar panels that I can see is the risk of vandalism to unattended boats. As long as the system leaves enough spare "wiggly amps" to power my "computamabob" and to keep my coffee pot on the go all day I'd be happy!
>
> When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.~ Cree Prophecy
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