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Mooring correctly


canalhippy

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On 31/05/2019 at 12:29, Captain Pegg said:

It would not move two feet forward and back if they were tighter and given a passing boat displaces the same volume of water irrespective of speed it will still move.

The issue isn't just displacement. The speed of the rotating prop drawing water from the canal ahead of the boat is also a factor, as is the cross section of that area of canal, the draft of the moving boat etc. etc. The effect can be observed with a simple experiment (which I usually end up having to repeat most times we moor up. It goes like this... You find a nice quiet spot to stop for the night, bring the boat alongside where you want to moor and crew member jumps onto tow path with centre line and holds boat while 'proper' mooring is done using fore and aft lines. Another boat approaches. Then, at this point one of two things can happen.

 

Scenario A. They see crew member holding boat on centre line and slow right down well before they get to us. Our boat moves back and forth a little bit (two feet or so), but not to the extent that holding it on a centre line is problematic.

Scenario B. They approach, and pass without slowing down… our boat is drawn towards them when they are 100 yards away, and as they get closer we now need both of us holding on to the centre line for dear life (boat can easily move 8 - 10 feet even with us trying to stop it). They pass obliviously and everything settles down after a few mins and we try to complete the mooring.

 

I know this is a bit off topic  ? but this all too often experience gives me empathy when I see others mooring and I slow right down in advance, knock it in to neutral when I get closer, and glide past imposing just displacement on the other boater... and they hardly move. 

 

Mile after mile of moored boats though? Yes, they should be moored properly because we should be able to go by at a courteous but not ultra slow speed!

 

Cheers

Chris

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6 hours ago, Chris_777 said:

The issue isn't just displacement. The speed of the rotating prop drawing water from the canal ahead of the boat is also a factor, as is the cross section of that area of canal, the draft of the moving boat etc. etc. The effect can be observed with a simple experiment (which I usually end up having to repeat most times we moor up. It goes like this... You find a nice quiet spot to stop for the night, bring the boat alongside where you want to moor and crew member jumps onto tow path with centre line and holds boat while 'proper' mooring is done using fore and aft lines. Another boat approaches. Then, at this point one of two things can happen.

 

Scenario A. They see crew member holding boat on centre line and slow right down well before they get to us. Our boat moves back and forth a little bit (two feet or so), but not to the extent that holding it on a centre line is problematic.

Scenario B. They approach, and pass without slowing down… our boat is drawn towards them when they are 100 yards away, and as they get closer we now need both of us holding on to the centre line for dear life (boat can easily move 8 - 10 feet even with us trying to stop it). They pass obliviously and everything settles down after a few mins and we try to complete the mooring.

 

I know this is a bit off topic  ? but this all too often experience gives me empathy when I see others mooring and I slow right down in advance, knock it in to neutral when I get closer, and glide past imposing just displacement on the other boater... and they hardly move. 

 

Mile after mile of moored boats though? Yes, they should be moored properly because we should be able to go by at a courteous but not ultra slow speed!

 

Cheers

Chris

 

Scenario C. I approach you and on seeing that you are mooring I slow down and drop into neutral as I coast past you.

 

Wish more people did the same, especially when I am  mooring.

Edited by cuthound
Spillung
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Scenario D. I'm on Tixall Wide, and see all the good mooring spots are taken. I navigate to the centre of the wide, push the tiller hard to port, increase revs, and do donuts!!! ? YAY!!!

 

Edited by Chris_777
need to open it up too!
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Doesn't it just depend on what the bank is like where you are moored? If I'm on rings or really good ground for the pins with a nice clean bank edge, I get moored so well (with tyres bank side) people can go speeding by and I won't even notice.

On the other hand, give me one of those picturesque but stupid bits of bank (why have crt widened so many banks by putting a lower bit in that goes overgrown with weeds and nettles??? It's like they don't want us to moor) and every few boats I'm back out re doing the pins as the boat gets dragged several feet or more.

Also changing water levels make it difficult to moor well. So I moor up nice and tight, a boat uses a lock and the boat is then grounded out at an uncomfortable angle. I move the boat out off the bank some, it levels up. Later the water is higher again and the boat is all over the place when anything goes past.

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On 25/07/2019 at 07:02, Chris_777 said:

Mile after mile of moored boats though? Yes, they should be moored properly because we should be able to go by at a courteous but not ultra slow speed!

 

Cheers

Chris

Good grief, man!  You can't come on here talking that much sense with a mere 8 posts to your name! ?

 

George

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4 hours ago, furnessvale said:

Good grief, man!  You can't come on here talking that much sense with a mere 8 posts to your name! ?

 

George

Leave him alone! he'll only have to read a few threads to realise he'll soon get nonsense like talking sense knocked out of him.

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