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Historic Narrowboat Town Class Woolwich Dimensions


Nimdoorquoi

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Does anyone know what draught the Town Class Woolwichs were designed to have? Would having a steel top conversion change the original draught considerably? I have been told that the draught of my boat was 3ft6in however I built a large (quite inacurate) set square to try and gauge this and found it to be closer to 3ft.

 

Did Star Class boats or Royalty Class draw more or less?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by Nimdoorquoi
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Does anyone know what draught the Town Class Woolwichs were designed to have? Would having a steel top conversion change the original draught considerably? I have been told that the draught of my boat was 3ft6in however I built a large (quite inacurate) set square to try and gauge this and found it to be closer to 3ft.

 

Did Star Class boats or Royalty Class draw more or less?

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

The Small Woolwich has about an inch more depth under the counter, at the stern post, than a Large Woolwich. How much an individual boat draws is of course down to how much weight is in it and how that weight is distributed.

Royalty boats were much deeper under the counter, but the same applies.

 

Tim

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Does anyone know what draught the Town Class Woolwichs were designed to have? Would having a steel top conversion change the original draught considerably? I have been told that the draught of my boat was 3ft6in however I built a large (quite inacurate) set square to try and gauge this and found it to be closer to 3ft.

 

Did Star Class boats or Royalty Class draw more or less?

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Approximately, when the counter touches the water on a large Woolwich, you are drawing 2' 10". You can now add about 18 tons extra until you bring the fore end down to a matching 2' 10". After that, every extra ton will increase the overall draught by another one inch.

 

You can keep loading until you have a draught of 4' 3" leaving 6" freeboard but you won't be going anywhere!smile.png

HTH

 

George ex nb Alton retired

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Royalty boats were much deeper under the counter, but the same applies.

 

 

I'm struggling to see how that can be.

 

A Royalty only has about 2" or 3" extra of hull depth over a Town, surely, and thecounter of a Royalty uis probably deepere than that of a Town by a similar 2" to 3".

 

I have always thought that measured from the uxter downwards, they are all about the same.

 

As an aside.....

 

We have been having more draught issues with "Sickle" on the current trip out than I ever remember on the same canals before.

 

I think the issue mybe that I have added some extra ballast which is not an issue on canals like the GU, but isn't helping here, (Shroppie, S&W, T&M etc).

 

Even though the back of the counter is still just out of the water when static, I'm finding that underway the back end is pulling down to the point that the bottom two Northwich guards are under water. You don't need to be hammering it for this to happen.

 

To what extent it is a short boat effect I'm not sure, but I'd be surprised if the back isn't regularly 3' 6" in when underway - perhaps why we seem to be regulkarly bouncing over things mid channel.

 

If I wasn't feeling lazy, I think i would try moving some ballast forwards, as I think I've now overdone it at the back!

Edited by alan_fincher
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I'm struggling to see how that can be.

 

A Royalty only has about 2" or 3" extra of hull depth over a Town, surely, and thecounter of a Royalty uis probably deepere than that of a Town by a similar 2" to 3".

 

I have always thought that measured from the uxter downwards, they are all about the same.

 

As an aside.....

 

We have been having more draught issues with "Sickle" on the current trip out than I ever remember on the same canals before.

 

I think the issue mybe that I have added some extra ballast which is not an issue on canals like the GU, but isn't helping here, (Shroppie, S&W, T&M etc).

 

Even though the back of the counter is still just out of the water when static, I'm finding that underway the back end is pulling down to the point that the bottom two Northwich guards are under water. You don't need to be hammering it for this to happen.

 

To what extent it is a short boat effect I'm not sure, but I'd be surprised if the back isn't regularly 3' 6" in when underway - perhaps why we seem to be regulkarly bouncing over things mid channel.

 

If I wasn't feeling lazy, I think i would try moving some ballast forwards, as I think I've now overdone it at the back!

 

 

I have measured small & Large Woolwiches on the dock, and (for the examples I've measured) the Small boat is definitely slightly deeper under the counter at the stern post than is the Large.

The stern shape is different, of course, with the Small boats having a slight sweep to the counter while for the Large boats it is more or less flat.

 

As for the Royalty, I don't remember ever measuring one precisely, but I did fit a propeller tunnel to the William, Northwich-built Royalty, over 20 years ago, and the impression is that the depth at the stern post is several inches more than either Large or Small boats. I've got pictures somewhere but can't immediately lay my hands on one. I'm not sure that the counter itself is any deeper than on a Large boat.

 

Tim

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Does anyone know what draught the Town Class Woolwichs were designed to have? Would having a steel top conversion change the original draught considerably? I have been told that the draught of my boat was 3ft6in however I built a large (quite inacurate) set square to try and gauge this and found it to be closer to 3ft.

 

Did Star Class boats or Royalty Class draw more or less?

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

It would not necessarily have changed the draft at it's deepest point before conversion, but it would be lying flatter on, and certainly the fore end would be deeper in than an empty boat as built. In other words the bow will have greater draft, but the stern might be the same or just possibly even slightly less.

 

Tam

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OK, here's the William, under way, in 2000.

It doesn't show how much is in the water, of course, but the counter is still well out o the water even after pulling down two or three inches.

I hadn't really studied it before, but the top of the counter sweeps up, whereas the bottom doesn't, so yes the counter is quite a bit deeper right at the back than that on a Town class, but at the front there's probably not a lot in it.

 

LNHSYUx.jpg

 

(new steel cabin modelled from murky Yarwoods launch photos).

 

Tim

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Also, Are there any drawings i.e. blueprints from Harland and Wolff that still exist showing the original designs for the Woolwich boats? I am most interested in Town Class but would be interested to see any others.

 

Many thanks for your comments.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed

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