How to avoid 4½ hours in A&E on your maiden voyage.

[Keithmt]

This is going to sound so obvious that it hurts........

 

Brand new narrowboat, maiden voyage last weekend. Weather perfect, canal not too busy ......... what could possibly go wrong

 

We approach our first lock (Buckby top) one boat already in, both gates open, just need to gently slide our pristine, gleaming craft alongside.

 

I'm 2" out and I'm going to nudge the other boat........ my wife, in the front well makes and instant decision that we shouldn't be hitting the other boat and reaches out to push 16 tons of moving steel away from the rear of the other boat. Crack !

 

4½ hours in A&E and one broken hand later........

 

Anyway, the point of recounting this is twofold :-

 

1) for all other newbies on your first trip, remind everyone on board to keep all their bits inside the confines of the boat.

 

2) to publicly thank Len off NB Mariner who I've never met before and who I dragged from his pub lunch to help me turn the boat round and go back through Buckby top lock. Len, you are an absolute Saint and proof (if proof were needed) that canal folk really are the nicest people in the world.

 

Hopefully in 6 weeks time (when the plaster is off) the weather will be kind enough to try again.

 

Keith

[Sir Nibble]

A hire boat rammed me a week or so back with plentiful crew trying furiously to fend us off with their own soft flesh. I made the big unhappy noise, pointing out that boats are steel, they are the hardest things on the canal and bashing them about a bit is just part of the deal. Human flesh on the other hand is rather fragile and worth a lot lot more than my paintwork or rubbing strakes.

Onlookers were astonished that I valued the health and safety of strangers above my wet paint!

[Purple Fairie]

We were told (on our maiden voyage) that it is a contact sport!

[Jax48]

Your wife has my deepest sympathy - I would guess she did it on the spur of the moment without even having time to consider the consequences - a lesson hard learnt!!

 

She'll not forget her first voyage in a hurry!!!

[magnetman]

A nasty accident, i always worry when i see children sitting on the front dangling their legs over the side, out of view of the steerer. Not a nice thought that but it is a common sight.

[blackrose]

I give passengers a H&S lecture before we set out which includes limbs being kept within the boat's profile at bridges and locks and not fending off with limbs. And locks... well that's another lecture.

Edited October 16, 2007 by blackrose

[Supermalc]

Forget where it was, either on my boat, or watching another, or on a different boat........but sometime this year I had to yell and scream at someone to not try to fend another boat off with their arms. My warning was just in time, otherwise I'd have had to take someone to A&E.

 

Afterwards I apologised for shouting, but pointed out the folly.

 

Mind you, despite knowing this, it is still difficult not to do it, especially when on small cruisers you are used to doing just that, where it is feasable and possible when going slowly.

[barroca grande]

A nasty accident, i always worry when i see children sitting on the front dangling their legs over the side, out of view of the steerer. Not a nice thought that but it is a common sight.

 

 

I always tell steerer when I see this but sometimes the warning is not appreciated?!!

[dor]

It frightens me every time I see young, probably inexperienced hirers waving a boat pole about. I once saw one standing in the front deck with a pole held out straight in front of them to try and help line the boat up going into a lock. If I hadn't shouted and screamed at him he would have been skewered straight through the middle of his chest.

[DHutch]

Yeah its one of the first things i say with new people, its so very obvous when you thing about it, but jsut so easy not to think.

- There are two good ways not to die on a canal, one is geting yourself between something imovable and the boat when its moving, and the other is to fall in and drown on your way back from the pub. Is something i often say.

 

In all serousness however, having wittness a man very shortly after he used his angle as a button fender, never miss underestimate a large moving mass.

 

On a more stupid note, i also grabed onto a class mates arm and nearly knocked him over once in france, when he was just about to find out what happened if fingars were intorduced into the back of a metal fan with a 8litre tractor engine behind them.

 

 

 

Daniel

[Chris J W]

My sympathies ... as some ones who's still getting over the effects of his visit to A&E last month!

[honey ryder]

You are not alone and there will be plenty more people do the same in the future too.,

 

its hard to fight your natural instinct sometimes, you two are new to it and I have every sympathy, especially as it was your first trip out.

 

I always remember my dad, a seasoned boater with years of experience, when he had to have his 37' grp cruiser lifted out with a bent prop shaft from the trent, the mobile hoist had its spreaders a bit wide and the boat keeled over in the straps, my dad fearing the flybridge would be crushed on the top of the mobile hoist gantry did what all sensible people would try to do... and that is to try and stop it falling over with a hand on the corner of the hull....

 

er yes, well you can imagine the dangerous situation he put himself in, without a moments thought. on this occasion it was 10 tonnes of boat mostly above him, keeling over...

 

see, there are lots of people out there do silly things in the heat of the moment!

[morrisminor]

I once tied my boat up in an emptying lock, the rear end of the boat did momentarily come out of the water until the rope snapped

 

Could`ve been nasty

[magnetman]

I once accidentally set a can of petrol alight and then tried to blow it out like a candle. Lucky for me it was a 25:1 two stroke mix which is less explosive than neat 4 star. I was only 15 so had an excuse in a way.

[saltysplash]

Hope the injury soon mends and so does the pride

 

Have been giving swmbo her first lessons in lock working today trying to keep the emphasis on safety such as taking taking the windlass off when finished winding and not trying to scare her too much into not being able to enjoy the locks for fear of death and dismemberment.... The girl done good onto steering tomorrow

[Amduck]

Have a few anecdotes about the daft things people do - possibly my favourite is the retained firefighter who decided to give his bonfire a boost with some petrol...oops.

 

Unfortunately, ambulance control didn't heed his assertions that only an ambulance, and not fire brigade, were required, so his colleagues turned up to put out his bonfire. I think the humiliation hurt more than his burnt arm!

[NB Alnwick]

[quote name='Keithmt' date='Oct 16 2007, 02:49 PM' post='166410'

 

Hopefully in 6 weeks time (when the plaster is off) the weather will be kind enough to try again.

 

 

Keith,

 

Really sorry to hear about the injury. What your wife did is a nothing more than a perfectly natural reaction - most of us have suffered varying degrees of pain in learning to respect the potential for injury from our boats and equipment but I guess only a few people have suffered quite that much - broken bones in the hand are usually sickenenly painful and debilitating.

 

As others have said, whatever you paid for a boat or paint finish - in the balance it is not worth risking even the slightest injury for.

 

We suspect that after that, a lot of care, sympathy and whatever other therapy comes to mind will be needed in copious quantities if she is not to be put off the idea of boating altogether.

 

Good Luck with that . . .

[Radiomariner]

I have witnessed two very memorable events on this subject.

 

First was hilarious to watch. Boat entering lock far too fast. A guy stands up in the bow with a pole to stop the boat hitting the gates. The boat of course halted when it hit the cill with a thump, but not before the pole went through the window behind the boater!

 

The second was more serious. Two small boys, (age approx. 7 and 10) jumped off a boat coming into moorings, with the bow rope.

They put two turns round a bollard and held on while their dad went ahead faster, using the bow rope as a backspring. A reasonable way to do things especially if you are in a hurry to get to a pub before it closes for lunch. Unfortunately two turns alone was not enough and the rope surged round the bollard dragging the boys hands towards it. All their dad could do was shout at them to pull harder and call them whimps. Fortunately I was near enough by then to shout, nay scream at them, to let the rope go, which they did before they got their fingers caught. Result, my boat was clobbered really hard but it was right on the button fender, and the only damage done was a spilt cup of tea and shattered ornament (which I didnt like anyway). Dont know about the other boat. I had abuse from an angry parent as I had made his kids cry. Turned out they were crying because their hands were sore. I looked at their hands which were red raw and bleeding. I had a telephone, so it was me that had to arrange for a taxi to take them to hospital. When they came back some hours later, I had more abuse from the parent for not helping the kids and for shouting at them. I doubt if, to this day, he realises that their injury was entirely his fault or is even aware of the perils of a rope surging and getting fingers caught between rope and bollard. (At sea, on bigger boats with bigger ropes, I have seen one death and one hand amputated in this way)

 

 

edited for grammer and spelling

Edited October 19, 2007 by Radiomariner

[Keithmt]

Sincere thanks to everyone for the kind notes and humorous/terrifying tales of similar woe.

 

SWMBO's plaster is off earlier than expected and it's now down to time and TLC for the swelling to go and the break to heal. I'm just thankful that a) it wasn't worse and it's not the start of the season.

 

I'm sure we'll spend a few nights on the boat even if we don't go out.

 

Keith

[Supermalc]

I think the worst thing I've done in this vein is to try to stop my boat with the boat hook.

 

Strangely enough I seem to value small objects of little value the most. This boat hook was on my Norman when I first got it, and one of my few boating possessions I liked.

 

Well shortly after I got Wud I was going to Chapel to see Fred (obviously then still alive) The engine kept stalling when I shut off (peculiarity of the govenor, as I later discovered). On the way back it behaved ok, running fine until I got to Bardney Lock. I shut off for the lock of course, only to find it stopped.........no reverse, no brakes. Well she carried on and only going slowly I put the boat hook on the ladder, which was then pulled out of my hands. Wud went on to hit the wall, however it was made of stern stuff and didn't demolish the lock

 

The boat hook however fell into the water, and despite searching for many hours for the rest of the year, remains lost to this day

[magnetman]

Apparently a bloke was killed some years ago trying to stop a dutch barge hitting Chertsey bridge. Grim.

Edited October 25, 2007 by magnetman

[turnbuttonboy]

We have the good fortune to be the first boat on offside moorings immediately after a bridge. Off course the towpath projects by a foot or so under the bridge on the towpath side and occasionally boats 'clip' the stuck out towpath and ricochet across the cut. Inevitably wide boats are the most vulnerable and we have managed to be struck twice - we know what is coming once we hear the engine being revved madly and just have to watch them run into the back of us. Fortunately we have a wrap round fender on the stern and no harm has been done to anything other than steerers egos! The first time it happened I briefly thought about fending off but being between two 30 tonne plus boats at even 1mph only needs very brief consideration.

Good Boating

Giles