Mike: > More silly questions from me - I need to purchase a top > cloth, and then have some strings to hold it down. I've had a > look at a tarp selling website, but not sure what type I > would need. The side cloths are green plastic type, but most > narrowboat cloths are more materially (is that a word?).
There was a long thread about this on the hNBOC mailing list a couple of years ago - as you are now a member you can have a look on their online archive. Most folk seem to get them made to measure. They ain't cheap! Plastic tarpaulins are cheap, but don't look right - the colours are too gaudy and plasticy. Although a section of translucent tarpaulin as a top cloth does at least give you some light inside. Black cotton canvas looks good, but doesn't last that long, and there doesn't seem to be any effective preservative treatment. There are various synthetic canvas substitutes which vary in price and appearance. After several years of persisting with cotton, we eventually went to synthetic on Fulbourne (can't remember what product offhand), and they don't look too bad. Some boaters choose a material with a plastic coating - but these really don't look the part IMO. Pictures of replacing Fulbourne's side cloths are at http://www.pbase.com/timlewis/cloth_replacement&page=all > Also, were would I get some top strings (and their little hooks). > Whats the ideal length? You make your own. Buy a drum of suitable rope, because you need a lot of it for a full set of strings. Top strings need to be long enough to go from gunwale, over the top plank, to gunwale two-and-a-bit times. The fixed end is eyespliced to a ring stabled to the gunwale, the free end should be backspliced (or whipped). There are various ways to tie the strings - it seems everyone has their own method. There is a diagram in Chris Deuchar's book "A Boater's Guide to Boating" (see hNBOC website) of one way of doing it. Over most of the length you have top strings on one side only, but typically on the cratch you have strings both sides, so you can tie them up in a symmetrical arrangement with the ends formed into catherine wheels and tucked under the strings. Suitable galvanized staples can be obtained from your local builders merchant or fencing supplier. Galvanised rings are made by Eliza Tinsley (e.g. page 48 of catalogue at http://www.elizatinsley.co.uk/catalogues/flexiblePart2.pdf), but I'm not sure where you'd find them retail. The size of the cloths, positions of eyelets, positions of rings/staples and lengths of strings are all interrelated. I recommend you go and look at a couple of properly clothed up boats to see how it all fits together before making any decisions. David Mack
