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Mooring up and narrowboat ropes


B2019

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My boat seems to move a lot when moored up especially when some boats go by too fast and it sometimes knocks against the side. I use two ropes at a 45 degree angle with mooring pins.  Any ideas on how to reduce movement? Is using springs good idea?

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5 minutes ago, B2019 said:

My boat seems to move a lot when moored up especially when some boats go by too fast and it sometimes knocks against the side. I use two ropes at a 45 degree angle with mooring pins.  Any ideas on how to reduce movement? Is using springs good idea?

If it knocks against the side, you are either not using fenders or they are not placed correctly. We use ropes (lines) at around 45 degrees and generally that is quite adequate provided they are tight. If you want to go the whole hog and minimise any boat movement then yes, use 2 lines at roughly 90 degrees and 2 further lines (springs) at a flat angle to the boat. Can be done with just 2 stakes if the springs come back towards the boat.

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10 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

If it knocks against the side, you are either not using fenders or they are not placed correctly. We use ropes (lines) at around 45 degrees and generally that is quite adequate provided they are tight. If you want to go the whole hog and minimise any boat movement then yes, use 2 lines at roughly 90 degrees and 2 further lines (springs) at a flat angle to the boat. Can be done with just 2 stakes if the springs come back towards the boat.

I see. Yeah I don't use any fenders. 

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Just now, B2019 said:

I see. Yeah I don't use any fenders. 

 

Nor me, usually, and some bumping occurs as no matter how tight your lines are, they loosen pretty quick. Mooring against rough bank rather than piling stops the bumping. One gets used to it boating on the K&A!

 

I often use two lines at 45 degrees on the tee stud to restrain the boat forward and aft, and the third line from a stern dolly at 90 deg just to keep the stern in to the bank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, nikvah said:

I thought everyone used fenders. Why wouldn't you put down fenders when you moor?

Most people do! The only reason not to, is if the canal is too shallow to allow the side of the boat to touch the bank, or if the bank is too irregular to allow the fenders to do their job

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2 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Most people do! The only reason not to, is if the canal is too shallow to allow the side of the boat to touch the bank, or if the bank is too irregular to allow the fenders to do their job

The heavy rubber fenders on a longer rope can sink between the boat and a shallow bank or ledge. If the bank is too irregular leave them up but why would you not carry them?

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8 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Most people do! The only reason not to, is if the canal is too shallow to allow the side of the boat to touch the bank, or if the bank is too irregular to allow the fenders to do their job

Two old inflated tyres on rims. May be cheap and dirty but they do the job to keep a boat a few feet from the bank.

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7 hours ago, B2019 said:

My boat seems to move a lot when moored up especially when some boats go by too fast and it sometimes knocks against the side. I use two ropes at a 45 degree angle with mooring pins.  Any ideas on how to reduce movement? Is using springs good idea?

If you havn't used fenders and where needed springs its not them that are going to fast.....

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On a hard edged bank (vm's etc) I always use a pair of tyres, which work so well that even when my well tied ropes work up a bit of slack, any movement of the boat is totally absorbed. If you are mooring on a hard edge with no fenders it'll be a nighmare!

Of course, that's when I can find a proper edge.

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If you don’t have any fenders then I would say with a hard bank you will get some clonking irrespective of what you do with ropes.  Before we had our boat we had a hire boat with no fenders and we got fed up with this so we improvised our own fenders with empty pop bottles filled with water and tied on with string.

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14 minutes ago, john6767 said:

If you don’t have any fenders then I would say with a hard bank you will get some clonking irrespective of what you do with ropes.  Before we had our boat we had a hire boat with no fenders and we got fed up with this so we improvised our own fenders with empty pop bottles filled with water and tied on with string.

 

I can imagine those working very well until the string breaks.

 

 

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41 minutes ago, B2019 said:

I got two old pairs of tyre's from the back of old kwitfit today and tied them to either end of the boat. Problem solved. Works brilliantly. Many thanks. 

Until you loose them and they sink to be picked up on someones prop

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