IanD

Indeed, but if they're coming past like they're towing a waterskier (see my post) you can tend to get pulled out too soon, it's useful to have some power on to counteract this rather than having no manoeuvrability. Of course if they pass so fast that you inevitably get pulled out into the channel and they collide with you it'll obviously be your fault, not theirs. DAMHIK... 😞 Not yet, it's in the final stages of fitting out. I don't think I'll ever be a dawdler, but neither will I block somebody who wants to go faster than me even if they seem to be going surfing... 😉

I stand corrected 🙂

RF = radio frequency i.e. the connection from the iPad to the phone. Don't know how the iPad displays this, but you should have some network diagnostics on it to see what's going on...

I find coming to a complete standstill (power off) can cause more problems than dropping to idle, you often get pulled out towards the other boat as it passes and having some steerage way helps counteract this. Especially if the boat coming up behind you has the hammer down and is making a wash like a speedboat, like one last year... 😞

Does it connect with the VPN off? When you say "doesn't connect" do you mean no RF connection at all, or no Internet? At home your mobile will be using Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet (via your landline), on the boat it will be using the mobile network -- is this the problem?

Close following like that is the equivalent of a driver on a road coming up behind a slower vehicle and being unwilling to overtake even when safe -- many drivers seem to think that overtaking is bad driving nowadays -- but driving so close behind them that anyone who does want to get past has to overtake both vehicles at once. IIRC the Highway Code says you should always leave a gap, but many drivers ignore this -- again, maybe taking the view that "If I can't/don't want to overtake, neither should anyone else". Which is exactly the dawdling boater attitude this thread is about... 😞

As did I -- but your dry pounds were not caused by needless dawdler-twat bloody-mindedness... 😉

I did, I got to where we needed to after dawdler-twit eventually stopped. By steering across the canal into a side arm and shuffling backwards and forwards across the canal for five minutes while I sat there, rather than letting me pass (where there was room and deep enough water) before he moored. Harsh words were exchanged... 😞 Of course I originally had more contingency, but it got eaten up by unexpected closures on the Soar and Trent due to unseasonal heavy rainfall. But I'm sure your crystal ball would have predicted that even though the Met Office didn't... 🙂

The original ones *and* the later ones, from what I heard... Mind you, anyone who thought that steering a narrowboat with a joystick was ever going to work needs their head examining... 😉

I said "when there's space to do it". I've been stuck behing a dawdler-twit who was pootling along at idle where there were no moored boats and space/depth to pass, but who refused to move over because "it's not a race". He didn't have to get the boat back close to the hire base (and for a booked meal) that evening, I did... 😞

Which is the point -- having one boat holding another up is stressful for both dawdler (having to look behind all the time) and follower (having to watch ahead/slow down/drop out of gear all the time). And completely unnecessary and pointless -- if a boat comes up behind you let them past when there's space to do it, it's not your job to be the "speed police" or tell other people how they should be boating. I suspect that people who don't move over are the same ones who sit in the overtaking lane of motorways at 70mph when the other lane is empty... 😉

From what I gathered from Ricky, they were happy with it because it came out just like they hoped for and was a perfect fit to their requirements, and is well suited to where it is moored and cruises (the Thames). Most people would be happy under those circumstances, except possibly @MtB... 😉 Mind you, he'd be even less happy for them if he found out what it *really* cost, which was a *lot* more than £250k... 🙂

Or they just crudely change the amount of fuel the injection pump delivers each time, much simpler than a governor...

In its place, which is on the Thames. I'm sure it has many canal traditionalists (bow thrusters are the work of the devil!) cringing in horror though -- but they're not the owners, who I gather are extremely happy with it... 😉

At least it was only a #1 -- think medieval castle... 😉

Indeed -- far too easy to fall off sideways, smack your head on the gunwale on the way into the water, and then end up in a fight with the propeller where there's only going to be one winner... 😞 Looking on the bright side, the remaining roof-sitter could then bring the boat to a halt and retrieve your mangled body...

Was this a narrowboat? If so I'm not sure I'd want to sit on the roof like that on the narrow section either side of a hatch without a firmly attached backrest, and probably not even then -- there are times when seats on the roof work (see below) but that doesn't sound like one of them... 😉