Beginners Guide To Narrowboats

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Although there are many different styles and sizes of narrowboat, they all usually fall into one of three types; and this is determined by the shape or features of the back deck.
If you are hiring a narrowboat then it is more than likely that it will be cruiser style; these have quite a large open back deck where several people can sit together. This type of narrowboat is ideal as a hire boat.
The down side of a cruiser style narrowboat is engine maintenance, the engine is situated under the deck, and to get to it there will be a hatch, on some narrowboats the hatch is quite small, and to check the oil and water or do any maintenance you have to get down the hatch, and work in a confined space; this is not too bad for younger people, but for those who are not as fit as they used to be it could cause difficulties.

A trad (short for traditional) narrowboat is the complete opposite to a cruiser style, the person steering the boat will be on their own on a very small back deck with no sitting space at all. For those who want a narrowboat that replicates the old working boats, then this is the nearest modern boat available.
Traditional style boats come in many different shapes and layouts, the differences that affect the layout of the boat are usually governed by the type of engine installed. If the boat has a rebuilt historic engine then it will be in it's own engine room, with plenty of room to move around the engine for servicing and cleaning, but taking a lot of space. The engine room will usually have a side hatch at either side, these engines are usually lovingly cared for by the owners, polished and gleaming, on show to passers by, who can't help but look through the side hatches and admire them. Between the deck and the engine room there will usually be a cabin, some made to look like the original boatman's cabin and some a more modern utility room.
The more modern trad style narrowboats that have a normal marinised engine will have it's own room, a much smaller room with steps leading down from the deck over the engine.
The third style of narrowboat is the semi-trad, a modern version of the trad style that offers the best of both worlds. Built in a similar way to the cruiser stern, but the cabin is extended further back; so it looks like a trad style boat, but instead of going straight down from the deck into the engine room, the deck is extended into the cabin area, and will usually have bench seats at either side. The engine will still be under the deck in this type of boat but will have access from the front and the top, making for easier maintenance than the cruiser style.
A big advantage of a trad or semi-trad design is that the steerer can stand inside the cabin doorway, this will offer some protection from inclement weather, and if cruising in colder months then some warmth will come from inside the cabin, on a cruiser style narrowboat the steerer is open to the weather from all directions.
On most narrowboats, cruiser, trad or semi-trad the controls will be the same, the tiller to steer with and the gear/speed control for moving forward and backwards.
Narrowboats are very easy to steer and control, and with a little bit of practice most people can get the hang of it after a couple of hours. Just remember, the boat steers from the back, push the tiller to the left to go right, and push the tiller to the right to turn left. The gear/speed control is just one lever that puts the boat in gear when pushed forwards or backwards, and pushing the lever further increases the speed of the boat.
Although these are the only controls on a narrowboat, there are usually gauges for oil pressure and battery condition etc. these are usually placed where the steerer can see them at all times. You will also have the starter switch, usually operated by a key; on newer boats turning the key off will stop the engine, but on older boats you will find there is a separate knob that has to be pulled out to stop the engine.
Boats don't have brakes, so if you want to slow down quickly, you put the boat in reverse.
Traditional boats with historic engines and boatman's cabin are a little more difficult to control, because of the extra distance from the engine to the controls, the normal cable controls cannot be used; instead there are two controls, a lever to put the boat in gear, and a speed-wheel for controlling the speed.
There are very few companies that have these traditional boats for hire, and those that do only hire them to experienced crews.

You will still find lots of old working boats on the canals, all built to a similar design except that you only have the back cabin and the engine room, all the space forward of this is for carrying the cargo.
Quite a few old working boats are owned by suppliers of coal and diesel, these travel up and down the canals supplying narrowboats and some delivering to canal side properties.
Some working boats are still used to carry goods, but these are now few and far between; but if you are cruising on the canals and see a loaded boat coming towards you then get out of his way, pull over and stop if need be; a loaded boat due to the depth of water in the canals needs to stay in the middle of the canal where the water is deepest.

Although these are the three main types of narrowboats, there are variations to the style of these boats, for example a tug deck, which has a very long front deck. There are also narrowboats based on the Dutch barge design, they have a wheel-house that can be dismantled for going under low bridges and through tunnels and are  steered by a large wheel instead of a tiller.

You may on your travels, see one narrowboat towing another; the boat being towed usually does not have an engine and is called a butty, the butty is the same design as other trad narrowboats except that the stern is more rounded and the rudder is much bigger to aid steering. You may see some working narrowboats towing a butty, but their main use on the canals today is as hotel boats. Again if you see these coming towards you on a canal then give them plenty of room, pulling over and stopping if need be, remember the combined length of the boat and butty will be over 140'.

Some narrowboats still exist that are towed by a horse as they were when the canals where first built, these are in fact exactly the same as the butty boat. These horse drawn boats are usually trip boats, there is one based at Llangollen and one on the Tiverton Canal.
There are others horse drawn boats operated by enthusiasts, but these need special permission when traveling as (believe it or not) horses are banned from the towpaths in most places.

As more and more people are tending to live on boats, some are looking for more space than a narrowboat can offer, and the obvious choice for some is a wide beam boat. Wide beam boats are usualy a similar shape to a narrowboat, but instead of being 6'10" wide they are built approx. 12' wide. The extra width makes it much easier to fit in double beds and lounge furniture, plus lot's of extra storage space. The down side of a wide beam boat is that you are restricted to which canals you can cruise on.

Narrowboats are approx. 6'10" wide so that they can fit into the locks on the narrow canals and can be any length upto 72', which is the approx. maximum length of the narrow locks. They can be any length under 72', some being just 10' long.
With a longer boat you will not be able to use some of the locks on the wide canals, as some of them are only 60' long. If you wish to cruise all of the canals in the UK then the maximum advised length is 58'and 6'10" wide, although a 60' long boat can use the locks with extra care putting the boat diagonaly in the lock.

Most narrowboats built now are constructed of steel, with steel thicknesses of at least 10-6-4, that is 10mm for the flat base plate, 6mm for the sides and 4mm for the cabin; you may get some variations on the thickness of steel used depending on the owners specifications when built.
Some older boats where built with thinner steel, and when purchasing a second hand narrowboat it is advisable to have a survey done, which amongst other things will tell you the thickness of the steel, which will have worn thinner with age.
You may also find some older narrowboats that have a steel base and sides, but a cabin made out of grp, these (in my opinion) are to be avoided, the grp expands or contracts at a different rate than the steel and this leads to bad joints and leaks; you will usually get leaks wherever there is a joint and these can be very difficult, if not impossible to fix.