Wanderer Vagabond

To demonstrate it is probably necessary to actually show it but (trying my best) you get hold of the rope and about a foot from the end (depending how big a 'noose' you want) put a loop in it. From the long end (not the end you are trying to make the loop) you then feed a second loop through the first loop. You then get hold of the end of the rope and feed it through the second loop. You now have the 'noose' and holding onto the longer end just pull it all tight, the second loop pops back through the first loop and makes a perfect bowline. I don't know if that description helps, perhaps you needed to be there

Not very likely to happen as the loops are passed under the rope under tension. I suppose there is a remote possibility of it happening going down in a lock. 's fuuny I was shown how to tie a bowline a number of years ago by an expert, up until that time I'd been using the 'rabbit and hole' method and occasionally getting it wrong. The method he showed me, and I have used ever since, you never get it wrong and I can confidently say that I can tie a bowline, behind my back, blindfolded and in the dark if necessary and still never get it wrong

You kind of illustrate my point for me, although I didn't say that it was such low risk that an anchor isn't required. What I said was that if you deploy your anchor and, whilst the boat spins around it, your stern catches on the bank you could be in a whole lot more trouble being held at the bow by the anchor, at the stern by the bank and across the current. I should also say that on Turnpost Corner on the Trent I had a similar situation whereby the boat ran through the trees on the Port side as I went around the corner, sinking was never an option although it could have cleared the roof boxes off the boat. My own view on safety would be that walking along the roof of a narrowboat, that is presumably now not under control, whilst carrying an anchor, doesn't sound remotely 'safe' to me

To be honest, as one who has gone from Selby up to Naburn (and other tidal rivers besides) I'm not sure that deploying an anchor on that stretch is that advisable. Bearing in mind you are either going up on the flooding tide or coming down on the ebbing tide, if you throw the anchor over the side the first thing that the boat then has to do is spin around the anchor to face into the current. Get the stern caught on the bank and you are in all sorts of trouble. Deploying the anchor from the stern would involve rapidly changing the point at which the anchor is secured to the boat and now you have the stern secured (assuming the anchor bit) with the current now running at the back of the boat, which on my boat is a whole lot lower than the front. I see anchors as a possible assistance under the right conditions, but not as a life saver. When we have anchored whilst offshore sailing it has never been under emergency conditions, (which are exactly the conditions when everything is likely to go wrong). We choose our anchorage carefully and pay out the line, equally carefully; lobbing it over the side and hoping for the best has never been a 'procedure'.