"Peter Stockdale" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Has it not already been decreed in other correspondence that a barge >is one of the correct terms describing a narrow boat ? >Why do you therefore infer that a barge is a wider alternative to a >7ft wide vessel ?
A (freight carrying or former such) narrow boat is indeed a barge by definition. However, by usage it is not. It is always referred to as "a boat". BARRY HOLLAND <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Listen very carefully--I'll say this only once, Well, that's a relief. We wouldn't want repetition of at-best confusing information. > A narrow boat has a maximum width of 7 feet. > A barge has a minimum width of 14 feet. > *Anything* between those dimensions is a *wide* boat. The convention in UK is that any waterway limiited to craft narrower than (about) 2.1 m is narrow. One limited to craft wider than that but narrower than 4.3 m is broad. The rest are wide. (amazingly, some people have difficulty with that) Don't confuse the gauge of the waterway with the terms applied to the craft. A vessel with a beam (not much) narrower than 2.1 m (or e.g. 2.3 m for the H&G) is called a "narrow boat" (assuming it is isn't a narrow cruiser, of course). Unfortunately because confusingly, some vessels wider than that are called "wide boat", or (on the L&L) "short boat". The terminology developed locally, so is not consistent. "Christine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >How about boats on the Mon&Brec - aren't they 8' narrowboats? No. For several reasons. And despite WW, the term is "narrow boat", not "narrowboat" <ugh>. Adrian . Adrian Stott 07956-299966
