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Too old for narrow boat life?


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6 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

The hole is very local to me and well known by the boater. Its extremely silted up on the offside and only just 60' at the widest point- I know as I dug it out with a spade to turn my own boat. It is however piled and quite deep on the towpath, so my technique is to charge at the V in the far bank, lift my stern fenders and pull it around from the bank, while praying the level is high enough. 

His boat is 58' so relatively easy but he'd missed the widest point already and as said ignored all advice and was becoming quite jammed. He stepped off the rear deck to attempt to pull it around by the tiller but pushed it the wrong way, resulting in the stern going back almost mid channel,  in gear with nobody aboard. 

Hope this makes things clear for you Alan.

Still a prat for getting off the boat and leaving it in gear, if the stern needs to be moved away from the bank a big boot usually sorts it.

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I just wonder why he was on the tow path in the 1st place.

Doesn't one normally stay on the boat to wind ?

I think that was one of the points Noddyboater was making in a very diplomatic way. 

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26 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

The hole is very local to me and well known by the boater. Its extremely silted up on the offside and only just 60' at the widest point- I know as I dug it out with a spade to turn my own boat. It is however piled and quite deep on the towpath, so my technique is to charge at the V in the far bank, lift my stern fenders and pull it around from the bank, while praying the level is high enough. 

His boat is 58' so relatively easy but he'd missed the widest point already and as said ignored all advice and was becoming quite jammed. He stepped off the rear deck to attempt to pull it around by the tiller but pushed it the wrong way, resulting in the stern going back almost mid channel,  in gear with nobody aboard. 

Hope this makes things clear for you Alan.

Thankyou.

 

A good reminder to always engage neutral before getting of the boat.

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82 next month, machinery (mine) getting a bit pernickety, so we made the decision three years ago to move moorings from Nantwich to a lock free stretch on the T&M. We can still do everything we used to do, but more slowly. We know we have to sell 'Kingsbridge' in the near future, but it'll be a heck of a wrench when it comes to it. We're still enjoying the boat, although the last year has been a bit of a trial after an operation for kidney cancer. We've only just been released from confinement by the Welsh five mile limit so we're hoping to get some cruising in before the end of the year. I'd suggest the OP goes for it. 

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6 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

 

Locks however,are a different matter.

Some of the paddles needed superhuman strength to operate,and I was quite knackered when I returned.I did sleep well that night.

 

Maybe splash out on a Gowindlass. Wouldn't be without mine for those hard to shift paddles.

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19 minutes ago, wandering snail said:

Maybe splash out on a Gowindlass. Wouldn't be without mine for those hard to shift paddles.

Not heard of a Gowindlass,I do have a long throw windlass aka the meataxe,it does help,but too long to carry around,so deploying it means a walk back to the boat.

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Just now, Mad Harold said:

Not heard of a Gowindlass,I do have a long throw windlass aka the meataxe,it does help,but too long to carry around,so deploying it means a walk back to the boat.

It's a ratchet type, about the same size as a normal windlass, just a tad heavier. There was a thread on here about them a little while ago. https://gowindlass.co.uk/  

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Seen allsorts over the years, still prefer a double head.

I know of one guy who tried a cordless impact wrench, damn near shook the gear off the beam. Doesn't work by the way.

Best windlass by far is an eager, nice, young fit boy..........................................

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1 hour ago, wandering snail said:

Maybe splash out on a Gowindlass. Wouldn't be without mine for those hard to shift paddles.

Thanks for the tip.

Just looked Gowindlass up and they look ok.

At £95 though they are not cheap!

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2 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Thanks for the tip.

Just looked Gowindlass up and they look ok.

At £95 though they are not cheap!

Worth it though if having one means you can enjoy boating a bit longer. Santa brought me one and I love it.

 

Haggis

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2 hours ago, wandering snail said:

It's a ratchet type, about the same size as a normal windlass, just a tad heavier. There was a thread on here about them a little while ago. https://gowindlass.co.uk/  

But only fit standard tapered spindles.

 

I had an early version of one of this type of windlass. Lasted half a day on the Calder & Hebble.

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10 hours ago, noddyboater said:

It's not always the physical side of things that get affected with passing years though is it?

I recently witnessed a local boater in his advanced years trying to turn his boat which left me thinking it was probably time to hang up his windlass.

He'd managed to get his boat stuck in the winding hole, the stern was around 5 feet from the bank and it was running in forward gear. He was on the towpath and preparing to jump back onto the stern deck to recover control! 

I wouldn't attempt that as a relatively sprightly nearly 50 year old, the outcome if he hadn't had anyone around to stop him doesn't bear thinking about. 

But he had been boating for year and never had an accident, I am now the wrong side of 70 and still enjoy my boating, but I wouldn't want to be starting from scratch now, I have boated of some description since I was 13, you do normally learn a few things in that time, some people never learn.

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Common sense and boating experience is way more useful than physical strength on the canals.  It only requires physical strength when you make daft mistakes... moving in the wrong weather, accidentally leaving your boat in gear, not researching unfamiliar routes, not checking for stoppages, not communicating with other boaters etc.

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6 minutes ago, The Gravy Boater said:

Common sense and boating experience is way more useful than physical strength on the canals.  It only requires physical strength when you make daft mistakes... moving in the wrong weather, accidentally leaving your boat in gear, not researching unfamiliar routes, not checking for stoppages, not communicating with other boaters etc.

It needed more physical strength than I had in my late 60's . I couldn't lift the gas bottle out of the gas locker. Heaving a bag of coal around wasn't a job I wanted. Buckby locks were beyond me.

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2 minutes ago, sueb said:

I couldn't lift the gas bottle out of the gas locker. Heaving a bag of coal around wasn't a job I wanted.

 

That's why its good to use that 'gurt big tank' of diesel you are sat on.

Diesel fired cooker, diesel fired heating.

 

No lifting at all - its just 'squirted in' when you need a top-up.

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24 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

That's why its good to use that 'gurt big tank' of diesel you are sat on.

Diesel fired cooker, diesel fired heating.

 

No lifting at all - its just 'squirted in' when you need a top-up.

 

Or ask the fuel boat to swap your gas bottles - all of them will - and buy fuel in 10kg sacks not 25kg.

 

Getting them to do the locks might be a bit much to ask though!

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The fuel boat lifts my (4) bottles in and out, at 73 I can't do it without risk of injury.  I bought a crane to do the job but I've not needed it since Halsall does it for me.

 

Starting out at over 70, you need to get your boat "sorted" out as described above quickly. This means you will not be able to go for the cheapest option when a decision on equipment, fittings, etc comes up, you will have to go for the certain-to-work option, and you will need to get other people to do work for you that you might be able to do yourself but you would take too long.  I would recommend that you go for it if:

You have a fallback plan if your health takes a downturn suddenly.

You have a significant degree of spare funding available to cover all well most eventualities.

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10 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

The fuel boat lifts my (4) bottles in and out, at 73 I can't do it without risk of injury.  I bought a crane to do the job but I've not needed it since Halsall does it for me.

 

I suspect the gas bottle thing to an extent depends upon boat design so worth thinking about. At 75 I was still perfectly able to lift 19Kg  bottles in and out of the gas tank on the cruiser stern. However getting them up the jetty was getting difficult because we were the second boat out and I was in fear of my knee giving way.

 

Think about access and how you will deal with heavier items that need regular moving.  So much depends on the individuals fitness/state of health and that can change quickly as you get older.

Edited by Tony Brooks
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56 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

I suspect the gas bottle thing to an extent depends upon boat design so worth thinking about. At 75 I was still perfectly able to lift 19Kg  bottles in and out of the gas tank on the cruiser stern. However getting them up the jetty was getting difficult because we were the second boat out and I was in fear of my knee giving way.

 

Think about access and how you will deal with heavier items that need regular moving.  So much depends on the individuals fitness/state of health and that can change quickly as you get older.

Tie a rope on them and throw them in the water, they float.

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On 03/08/2020 at 08:02, mrsmelly said:

A wise move. We are thinking of another widebeam. They are just as easy to handle, in fact moreso than a sewer tube and the comfort  far exceed the wildest dreams of any narrowboat.

The one and only drawback that you will miss is cruising range.

And you'll have to give up the pig place?

  • Horror 1
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