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Reversing for about a mile, likely to raise objections?


Thomas C King

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

The "we" is an important factor: a bod at the other end, armed with the boathook or the pole, is a useful aid to navigation.

I have hard of steerers suspending a bucket from the bow on a rope. I don't know if this was a working boat people's trick or whether it dates from more recent times.

Modern buckets aren't up to the job but a good sized tyre on 15ft of rope off the bow works perfectly well at keeping the boat in the channel.

Done several miles over time, frequently at Cropredy back to the services from  Pearson's field.

Once did Audlem locks in reverse, took a while.

  • Greenie 1
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I have sometimes used a barge pole  to control direction by using it to lever the boat round. Only at slow speeds, and care needed not to get it stuck in the mud!  Also some success in deploying the pole at the bows like an oar to increase drag on the appropriate side.  But only ever for short distances.

Edited by Ronaldo47
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2 hours ago, jenevers said:

I would think dragging a chain off the bow, would help keep the bow under control.

Our standard method for getting out of the marina. 200 m in reverse down a narrow channel with plastic boats on both sides. About 3 m of fairly heavy duty chain on a 5 m line.

 

Edited by Onewheeler
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1 hour ago, Bee said:

Seen it done but towing a bucket from the stern. The Riqueval Tunnel in France, An electric tug (overhead wires so don't thrash around with a hookshaft) hauls a train of boats through with engines off, we were tied behind a Belgian boat and behind us were other boats so the Belgian boat must have had 50 tons on its bollards . As soon as we entered the tunnel he flung the bucket off the back on a rope presumably to keep it going straight. Can't imagine it made a lot of difference somehow. As for dragging a chain along from the front I've never done it but I must try it sometime as Bee goes backwards like an omelette in a pan.

When we pulled around 100 T of convoy through Ricqueval (first in a line of nine) our boat bumped the side lightly once in the entrance portal and then carried on in a straight line. Didn't touch the wheel at all. It took VNF five months to invoice us for the trip though and they made it hard to pay.

 

 

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My friend once decided to reverse nearly a mile to save going to the winding hole.  He got nearly all the way there in a well controlled manner. 

 

The last few hundred feet didn't look quite as slick, as we were fending off moored boats and punting with the long shaft!

 

Three boat lengths before reaching the busy wharf - with the obligatory large crowd of spectators - he got one of those pop-up tents on the prop.  The type with many feet of thin spring steel in them ...

 

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I regularly reverse half a mile into my moorings which is mostly under 10 feet wide with boats moored both sides, and includes a sharp dog-leg.

I have my highly trained crewman on the bow with the long pole, and he is  totally in charge of the steering.

I maintain tickover on the back deck, holding the rudder straight, and occasionally fend off adjacent boats when its windy.

It is important to maintain a constant speed for him to judge the steering required.

I have no problem reversing much longer distances using this method, and its dead easy with a wider channel available.

No good if you're solo though!

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Crikey, some folk make hard work out of this, don't they?  Mind you, I live down a mile long single track lane with passing places and I've seen some unbelievably inept attempts at reversing vehicles there too!

 

One point I would make here though is this: those folk who are ridiculed for, or embarrassed about, having a bow thruster get their own back when the need to reverse for an appreciable distance arises! ;)

 

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3 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

This is one of those rare occasions when a bow stove is better than a centrally mounted stove. Just direct your Ecofan as necessary to control the bow. A bizzard arrangement may be required if you're solo.

Thats OK if you have crew to keep adjusting the fan

35 minutes ago, Rebotco said:

 

It is important to maintain a constant speed for him to judge the steering required.

 

I also find increase or decrease in revs buggers things up

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9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I also find increase or decrease in revs buggers things up

 

Alters it certainly.  You can use this to make things better (or worse!) as appropriate, by varying your revs to prevent or cause the boat to slew to one side or the other.

 

Another trick I sometimes use is to put the rudder hard over to one side to give a bit more sideways "push" on the tiller side of the boat by reducing the waterflow on the rudder side.

 

My boat is very tender, so I can sometimes get away with standing one side or the other to slightly heel the boat on one side, which helps swing it back into line - it's the technique you use when "edging" a kayak - but I appreciate not all boats can do this to the extent mine can.

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Boats steer to varying degrees in reverse, but in general you don't have much "steering power". If the boat starts to veer off then you can correct it if you catch it very quickly, but once the boat starts to turn its too late. Its quite hard to look where you are going and have a really good sense of the boats direction at the same time. A technique that can work well is to have two people, a "pilot" stands on the front looking backwards along the length of the boat and giving hand signals to the steerer who works the tiller as instructed but does not make any decisions.

 

...........Dave

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On 21/10/2009 at 17:00, PeterScott said:

... we were reversing TO the end of the Hythe Bridge Arm (Oxford) and met, coming from the opposite direction, obviously, a boat reversing FROM the end. An interesting discussion on what 'two hoots' might mean (is starboard a fixed concept or does it depend on the way the boat is moving?) which drifted into an erudite conversation about the colregs, then to what the Woolwich Ferry means by ... hoots. On reflection I might have imagined the last bit.

  And by happenstance, this was on this day in 2005. We had finished our hooting by the photo,

L1141_20050917_0013a.jpg.c25f0ad39c34b5e2adc5722ad0b796aa.jpg

On 22/10/2009 at 13:38, Tam & Di said:

... both boats were in reverse in the post you picked up on, so overtaking does not come into it. The CEVNI rules are not applicable in the UK as UK has (foolishly) not signed up to the agreement. They do state that when two boats are meeting and there may be risk of collision each vessel shall veer to starboard. It does not specify whether the meeting is to be bow to bow or stern to stern. The regs do allow for meeting starboard to starboard in certain circumstances and if the appropriate signals are given. I don't have my copy of COLREGS to hand, ... but I'm virtually certain that they have nothing significant to say on the matter either. However as neither CEVNI nor COLREGS are applicable on canals, and BW byelaws have nothing to say on the subject, it's just a matter of he who hesitates is sometimes saved, or Devil take the hindmost or something similar. Actually what all the rules do say is that the rules should be ignored if this is necessary in order to avoid collision.

Another contributor on another board suggested it might be easier just to swap boats.

 

 

 

 

 

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31 minutes ago, dmr said:

Its quite hard to look where you are going and have a really good sense of the boats direction at the same time.

The way I like to do it, as many others will, is to watch primarily  what the pointy end is doing, as that's the bit that moves laterally the most and will quickly show when you're starting to turn. That's the "sense of the boats direction" as you put it.  Keep looking round to checking the back end is still headed where you want it to, obviously.

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28 minutes ago, PeterScott said:
On 21/10/2009 at 17:00, PeterScott said:

... we were reversing TO the end of the Hythe Bridge Arm (Oxford) and met, coming from the opposite direction, obviously, a boat reversing FROM the end. An interesting discussion on what 'two hoots' might mean (is starboard a fixed concept or does it depend on the way the boat is moving?) which drifted into an erudite conversation about the colregs, then to what the Woolwich Ferry means by ... hoots. On reflection I might have imagined the last bit.

 

 

Had the same thing on the BCN Marathon a good few years back. The Engine Arm Aqueduct was one of the officical starting points. We set off backwards down the arm, so we could come out forwards again, and half way down we met another boat who had taken the opposite approach coming back from the far end. As it happened the question as to which side you should pass was academic - it just depended on whose stern was where as met!

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37 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

The way I like to do it, as many others will, is to watch primarily  what the pointy end is doing, as that's the bit that moves laterally the most and will quickly show when you're starting to turn. That's the "sense of the boats direction" as you put it.  Keep looking round to checking the back end is still headed where you want it to, obviously.

Yes, I can usually manage it by myself (sometimes) but we have done some pretty long reverses, including getting round bends, and the two person method is useful. Everytime you have to go into forward to correct a loss of direction you loose all the boat speed. We had to tackle a bit reverse a couple of weeks ago, including going through two locks and a bridge 'ole, but luckily another boat was facing the right way so we just roped them together, that really confused a couple of gongoozelers ?

 

.............Dave

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L09825s.jpg.b5e458824518e5558078349290bbbb70.jpgWe were heading along the Tame Valley (BCN) from Rushall to Ocker Hill in 1993 and came upon the works for the Birmingham Relief Road, which at the time weren't explained on Canalphone (for those that remember that BW service). That was a three-mile reverse, and the crew were kept happy with ropes on each corner (here at the M5 aqueduct), which allowed proper cruising speed in reverse. Not a popular mooring, so no boats to pass. Our next trip on the Tame Valley started from the Ocker Hill end at Xmas 1997, and we talked to the BW people in the office that was then populated at Ocker Hill. They were amused by the tale, but failed to mention that our other-direction trip would be disrupted by an overrunning pre-Xmas stoppage on an aqueduct near Rushall Junction. So that was another three-mile reverse. Still no moorers, though.L09830s.jpg.fc1929d48fa9ed510ecc01739c98c525.jpg

 

 

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5 hours ago, Keeping Up said:

I had the same question asked of me by a tourist at Stratford on Avon as I reversed out of Bankroft Basin down to the river. I simply answered "Yes"

 

That's the sort of riposte that can wait a very long time for an opportunity to use it.

 

My favourites are: 

(at a water point) "Are you going to be long?".  Response: "No, just over 48 feet";

(in a pub) Punter stares out of the window and says "Looks like rain".  Response: Lift beer glass and inspect it with the words "Yes, with just a faint taste of hops".

 

 

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On 17/09/2020 at 11:37, tree monkey said:

One thing to watch is that it can confuse the hell out of people and cause much reving and 

Absolutely nothing to do with boating but it brings to mind a journey by car a few years ago.  Tootling down a dual carriageway in the dark and as I caught up the dark shape ahead of our car resolved itself into the front end of a rather large artic.  Scared the bejazus out of me - thought he was coming the other way.  When we got to the next well lit roundabout it turned out to be an artic cab unit being towed backwards with just the hazard flashers working - no trailer board or red lights.  Caught MY attention ?.

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2 minutes ago, Opener said:

Absolutely nothing to do with boating but it brings to mind a journey by car a few years ago.  Tootling down a dual carriageway in the dark and as I caught up the dark shape ahead of our car resolved itself into the front end of a rather large artic.  Scared the bejazus out of me - thought he was coming the other way.  When we got to the next well lit roundabout it turned out to be an artic cab unit being towed backwards with just the hazard flashers working - no trailer board or red lights.  Caught MY attention ?.

Yeah, I have to admit to similar, only moments of confusion but confusion none the less ;)

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