In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Adrian Stott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>Dear Confused of Canals,
Dear Condescending of WW...
>
>"Mack, David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>wrote:
>
>>Adrian wrote:
>>
>>> > A boat is *broad* if its beam is between 2.1 m and 4.3 m (i.e. wider
>>> > than one narrow boat but not wider than two breasted). Only if the
>>> > beam is greater than 4.3 m is the vessel *wide*.
>>
>
>>> Does anyone else apart from Adrian actually think that using
>>> two synonymous words to mean two different widths of boat is
>>> a good idea?
>
>Before answering that, you may want to see Waterways World April 2006
>P49 where an article explains why it is.
For the benefit of those of us who don't read your column in WW,
could you please explain on this forum why you think using 'broad'
("Wide, large, free or open...." - Chambers dictionary) and "wide"
("Extending far, having a considerable distance between the
sides, broad..." - Chambers) to define two different widths of boat
is a good idea?
>
>
>"Broad" is between one and two narrow boats in beam. " Wide" is wider
>than that. Hard to see how can that be confusing.
If there really is a need for grouping two different ranges of widths
of waterway taking wider craft than narrow boats, it might be less
confusing if you used terms such as 'intermediate' and 'wide', or
even 'broad' and 'very broad'. Using two words with the same
basic meaning just seems silly to me. Especially when the term
'wide' has been specifically used in the past to mean narrow boat
style craft of a beam between 7ft and 14ft, and is sometimes used
today to mean modern pleasure craft built to similar dimensions.
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>>Incidentally, by the above definition the majority of surviving ex working
>narrow boats are actually broad...
>
>> Martin
>
>Only if they have a beam greater than that of a narrow boat. Tricky,
>that.
>
I was referring to your definition "A boat is *broad* if its beam is
between 2.1 m and 4.3 m" - most ex working nbs are over 2.1m.
Thinks: perhaps we could define all narrrow boats under 2.1m as
'narrow boats' and all those above as 'thin boats'... I can just see
AINA going for that....
--
Martin Ludgate
