Tam & Di

As many will know we owned the wooden wideboat Progress which is 74' x 12' 6", and took it to Camp Hill in the early '60s. I swung there and backed to the narrow lock so we appeared to have just left a lock we could not have gotten to from the other direction. I should have a photo somewhere, but there far too many for me to do a serious search.

I think you'll find them in the same place as where a fridge light goes when the door is closed. 🙂

It is worth knowing what handed prop you have as that is a major factor. For the benefit of those who do not know, if you view the propellor from behind the boat and it turns clockwise when you are in forward, that is a right-handed propellor - left-handed is the converse of this. It depends upon the water depth, the size/type of prop and the prop/engine relationship, but there is a common bias that a right-handed prop will slew the stern to port (left) in reverse. This same effect will often make it easier to go through 180* in one direction than in the other. This is sometimes referred to as the 'paddle-wheel effect'.

What size or type of boat is this? Where are you going to at Brentford? Are you certain you can't do this yourself or perhaps with a boaty friend to help?

plus you're wasting the heat in the pipework rather than putting it to use.

We had a very similar thing with some sailing craft on the Thames at Henley. I was motoring upstream with our 24m heavily ballasted Dutch motor barge and as we approached Henley I could see several small sailing boats. It was apparently a club outing, but there was no stoppage notice published and I had no alternative but to keep going straight down the middle. We got to the point where I had so little power on that I was barely moving in relation to the land, but I could see one of the yachts fairly determinedly aiming for my fore-end. I gave an "I am unable to manoeuvre' signal of 4 short blasts, but was totally ignored. Even assuming they did not understand the signal it should at least have indicated that I was there, but they ran straight into me. They were shouting and screaming that I shouldn't be there and I should have pulled into the bank but I did point out that it was them who had run into me, not the other way round. Happily a club steward saw it all and he gave them a reprimand, so at least someone there knew the rules of the road.

You obviousy have a pretty hefty craft to have an 8LXB - we've owned 30m freight vessels with 6LWs which were certainly not underpowered. But it does seem that you have serious problems with the quality of the overhaul - metal filings in the oil and loss of pressure are totally unacceptable. Hopefully there will be someone on here able to give sensible mechanical advice, but there is also a Gardner Owners' Club where you should get more specific information on Gardners in particular.

There's a half-tide lock and barrage at Richmond, and when the barrage there is lifted the river is tidal to Teddington lock. When the ebb tide is half way out they reclose the barrage to maintain that level of water and boats have to use the half-tide lock to go downstram of Richmond.

Trainees at Bisham have to turn the school's little instruction barge, and there is plenty of room. As long as you fetch up with a decent boat you should be able to turn 180*/360* pretty much in its own length, though you will as MtB notes be somewhat further downstream. I'm afraid that does introduce a further concept - some barges are absolute pigs to steer, and as a novice buyer you are probably more likely to think that when the boat sheers off all over the place that it is your own lack of experience. "It ain't necessarily so", as the song says. Almost anyone with a little welding skill can knock up something that more or less floats, and unfortunately a lot of them do. Sadly some of them are no better than a floating skip. It's really a matter of finding one built by a reputable builder. If you find a boat you like, try to talk to other owners with craft by the same builder.

Congratulations. After so many discouraging posts most newcomers will be throwing their toys out of the pram and having a tantrum. Ideally you will take a temporary mooring at the start as suggested by Gumpy and MtB and begin with short trips in perfect weather. The Thames is mostly wide enough to play around in, so practice manoeuvres to get the feel of the engine and your capabilities - try doing 3-point turns (10-point if necessary), see how quickly the boat will come to a standstill going with and against the flow. If you can find a mooring where you can do it go for a 10-15 minute cruise, swing and come back in again. Then do it in the opposite direction. Ideally have someone with you who can help out if necessary. You do seem to be approaching the idea with an open mind, so good luck to you and I hope it all works out as you hope.

Gardners deserve better than that. 😦

Most of the advice here assumes you are talking of a modern relatively light narrowboat - some things would not be so applicable to a cruiser type of craft. Jonny P replied as I was writing, but I too would often kick/push the stern out and reverse out of a mooring before then going back into head gear with the elum over to take the fore end out.. If there a lot of crud on the bottom you want to avoid being in gear alongside the bank as much as possible, so that is the best way. It also means you have not left the steering position and your access to the gear and throttle at any point. My experience is with heavier boats, but I have generally found prop wash noticeable and certainly something to be aware of and make use of as much as you can. For instance a right-handed blade will send the stern to port in reverse, so coming downhill into a wide lock it is preferable to come to the lock wall on your left, let the fore end touch the wall and give the engine a quick burst of reverse to stop and pull the whole boat in parallel with the wall. This makes coming in to a mooring on one side easier than the other too. In reverse it is extremely important to hold the tiller very firmly, as it can very easily swing hard over very abruptly. You should also not be stood where you would be knocked into the water should that happen. If you do a have a boat with prop bias in reverse it might help to consider that at that point you have effectively a 2' or whatever rudder blade being steered by 20' or whatever hull. If you do feel that wind or current is pulling the boat away see if there is a bollard, tree or something to take a turn around - fishermen's stools or other portable things don't work though. 😃

I disagree with that one. Yes, you do pass port to port, but simply move over just sufficient to do that when you're a few boat lengths away from the other vessel and then return to the middle. Trying to always drive on the right just makes it difficult for yourself as the channel (what there is of it) will generally be fairly central. The channel did used to be towards the outside of a bend, but shallow drafted boats with amateur steerers have largely chewed the channel up.

I assume that's an extremely old notice?

In fir tar is, in oak none is, as Julius Caesar might have said - well, as we used to say at school. 😀

If the Council and police are unable/uninterested, what else do you suggest they do? At least they got the issue publicised which is a start.

That is always a possibility. It does appear that some endowed with more human intelligence do nevertheless have wide boats built for canal use, but this is the first time I've heard of a "wide body boat"

As yet the OP as not given any answer to Tony's question about what sort of wide boat he wants, so a thing commonly referred to as as wide beam in the narrowboat idiom is only supposition.

Your engine will probably be working harder and longer than usual, so any reduction of the air flow is probably a bad idea.

????? 🙄 It does make life easier if you have a proper boat with a hand-start engine, and a decent long shaft and short shaft. I doubt that you can use 24" bolt croppers through the hatch either. None of our boats have ever had a weedhatch, and are probably deeper in the water than most modern pleasure boats. Keep nets have been the least of our problems, but adroit use of the long shaft has generally worked fine - sometimes in conjunction with someone putting the engine in gear and turning it over by hand once I'd got hold of the offending matter. A length of barbed wire did once require more serious attention. Fortunately we were travelling downhill, so we could simply lower the water level in a lock with the boat firmly held back on the cill, which allowed me to climb down to attend to the matter.

It can be an almost infinite variety of things, far too many to list, but I've probably itemised the major effects.

It depends largely upon what has caused the problem. If it's just weed or something light which is slowing down the revs then there's probably no serious damage. If it's something like barbed wire which stops the motor dead then it might damage/sever the prop shaft, nacker the gearbox or break the bolts holding the engine on its bearers. If it's a piece of timber which jams the prop and stops it rotating it might also damage the blades, and possibly also the rudder. So you've potentially got a lot to look forward to - take your pick 😃