GraemeE

Well, just returned from this year's annual trip (Anderton to Middlewich, to Barbridge to Tyrley and back again), and the advice provided at the start of this conversation was spot on thanks. There were many occasions where I needed to move away from the left hand bank after waiting for the "crew" to sort out the locks (which seemed to be always set against us), and the breeze wanted to pin me against the canal side, but this reversing to move the back of the boat out worked a treat. Thanks to everyone that responded.

Thanks everyone - some great tips here. I'll start to practice some early on our next trip and see what works best for us. If only I'd met boaters from this forum at that lock - I might have learned something on the spot! Cheers, GraemeE

Looking for a bit of advice on manoeuvering the boat (60ft) in tight spaces please. During a hire week last year, we were coming out of a lock, heading upstream (Llangollen Canal at Hurleston) and there was another boat heading downstream and wanting to enter the lock we had just vacated. It was a single width lock, and our left hand lock wall continued on and became the towpath side in a straight line (i.e. there was no water to the left, just bank side). The owner of the other boat came forward to enter the lock and left me maybe 15ft in front to play with, and seemed annoyed when I couldn't make an immediate right turn to move out of her way. Reason for this was I thought the boat pivoted about the middle point, so if my front end was to make a sharp right, the back end (and do please forgive the terminology at this early stage in my boating career) would need to make some sort of movement to the left - but was prevented from doing so by the presence of aforementioned canal bank. All other locks we encountered had water to the left on exit so the back could make the swing out. The lady was shouting something and I got a sense she was suggesting that if I put the tiller hard over to the left and gave it full revs, everything would work out and the boat would pivot on the backend. We're due to boat again at Easter and if this is the way to perform this move I would be grateful for confirmation from experienced boaters. Thanks.