Steve Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>A week ago I followed a wide beam boat crawling south from Napton having >been collected new from Warwick and on their way to the Thames. They >were lifting fenders at bridges as the boat only just fit through most >of them even without the fenders. I did wonder if they were going to >make it all the way to their mooring. Picture at: ><http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1166001&l=ff604&id=508807470> This is almost certainly a new build from Delta at Warwick. The biggest ones are designed to make it down the GU *just* (but not necessarily without a scratch or two on that nice new paint. Ouch!). >I thought the limit was 12ft on the GU The actual maximum recommended beam is 3.8 m. As David said, this is almost certainly derived from the decision of the GU company, which didn't have the money to complete the widening to 4.3 m between Braunston and Brum (the locks were done; the bridges and channel weren't). Experience with the test broad boat Progress (and FMC's Pioneer of similar size) in the 1930s suggested that even craft of that beam would not be able to pass everywhere, so broad traffic was not implemented on the route. > but don't know where the pinch point that makes it less than 14ft is, or are > all the bridges 12ft? There's at least one on the Stockton flight that is narrow, either due to movement of the arch or to some twirp having piled through the bridgehole. The first bridge north of Shrewley tunnel is also a pinch point, as the towpath has been widened through the hole. >I'd assumed they (and the boat mentioned above) were 14ft but I've not tried >passing in one to test this ;-) If you have a craft that is not too tall near the gunwales, it is possible to get it from Warwick to London provided it has a beam just less than 4.3 m. BW now makes a distinction between the maximum possible beam, and the maximum recommended beam, on this and some other routes. Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
