Tam & Di

I did once walk up to a boat taking an inordinate amount of time in a lock and tell them that overnight mooring was not allowed where they were 😃. Happily we were travelling in opposite directions as it didn't make them go particularly faster.

In that case stop writing posts complaining about what others do (sunshine).

It's not the time, per se, unless I need to be somewhere as soon as I can - it's the pointless effort. I can't even begin to imagine what that does that might stove in a gate.

From the duck weed at the stern it is also too shallow to get tight in, so the chine must be rubbing somewhere.

Polanski's name only came up as it was part of the press report I saw. The boat certainly seemed to be rather overvalued, hence my query.

I don't know if it is on a residential mooring - would that make it more expensive?

I see that Zack Polanski's boat (which he does not live on of course 😃) is for sale at £100,000. What makes it so much more valuable than most narrowboats?

Back in the 70s we ran L&L wideboat Farnworth as a trip boat at Uxbridge. At the end of each trip I had to reverse back to a wide where I could swing, and then reverse back again to our operating berth. Crew would be inside, getting the boat ready for the next trip, so I would put the tiller in strings that held it centered, put the engine in slow reverse and walk over the cabin top to the bow. I then used a long shaft to gently move the bow one way or the other to keep Farnworth on the 'straight and narrow'. As I got to the wide I just gave a push to start the bow swinging and went back quickly to complete the turn with the engine. As Farnworth was 60' and well ballasted it didn't tend to skitter about, and by working slowly and steadily I never had any difficulties doing this. A lot of boating is about going at the right speed - sometimes that might be fairly quick, and other times much slower.

Exactly this ^^. If you have e.g. a 45' boat with a 2' rudder, when you are going backwards you are effectively steering a 2' thingy with 45' of rudder. You need to make immediate 'rudder' corrections the moment the boat goes out of line or you'll never hold it.

I suspect they are used if it is necessary to reverse for some distance - perhaps if the canal is too narrow for them to swing after unloading and they need to go back to somewhere wider. A péniche is about 38m x 5.2m and a bow rudder would probably be effective on a craft of that length.

Some of the 38m péniches in France have a bow rudder. They are ordinarilly powered by a conventional engine, and the rudder is in a slot up out of the flow. They are wound down with a windlass and operated with a portable tiller arm when required, but I've never seen them in use or even asked a boatman how or why.

There are several factors including hull shape and length, prop size and direction of rotation, size of rudder, and steerer capability. A major issue too is the amount of counter balance on the rudder. If there is none at all it means that when the rudder is held over there is still at least 50% of the prop thrust acting directly forwards or backwards, according to what gear is engaged. The more counter balance the rudder has obviously affects how much of the thrust is being affected by the rudder.

A lot of boatmen didn't like them as they did roll rather more than the standard square chine boats, but Leonids was certainly our favourite butty, and for exactly the reason Alan gives of it swimming so well. (It did get written on the other side eventually 😄)

It certainly does appear to have a very unfinished stern, whatever it is trying to copy. The interior is obviously work-in-progress too, and the doors seem maybe to have come from somewhere else as the right one is very tatty at the bottom.