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Horns: does anyone use them anymore?


BrumBargee

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Remember the horn signal of 3 hoots followed by 4 hoots followed by 2 hoots followed by one long blast. It translates as "I've engaged reverse, I'm turning around to port, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!" or alternatively in Morse code as " S H I T " which amounts to much the same thing.

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9 minutes ago, RAB said:

I suspect that the majority of those on this forum use the horn at blind bends, junctions etc,  but very few of us actually remember all the signals and even if we do it requires both parties to understand. The canals ought to have a much simpler / shorter list of horn signals then it would be reasonable for more people to know / understand them. 

 

 

I don't think I've ever had occasion to use more than a long blast. I was quite glad though that I knew what the signal was for "I am turning fully round to starboard" when I heard it on the Trent not long before the rather large trip boat that had been some way in front of me reappeared through the bridge ahead going the other way.

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14 minutes ago, RAB said:

I suspect that the majority of those on this forum use the horn at blind bends, junctions etc,  but very few of us actually remember all the signals and even if we do it requires both parties to understand. The canals ought to have a much simpler / shorter list of horn signals then it would be reasonable for more people to know / understand them. 

 

Omg, you are suggesting ammending ColRegs, that won't work the boaters who use commercial canals will be laughed out of court, 

Long blast, I'm going through

One short blast I'm turning to std

Two short, I think of a drink, Double to port

Three short, operating reverse propulsion, this is usefull if you are faffing about and another boat comes up behind you. 

I used long blast when I was creeping out of a marina today, I was out of sight of anyone on approach or passing. 

I rarely use turn to Stb or turn to port, but it's best to make your intentions clear if there could be doubt. 

 

 

 

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33 minutes ago, RAB said:

The canals ought to have a much simpler / shorter list of horn signals then it would be reasonable for more people to know / understand them. 

 

You can 'think' as much as you like but the law with specific sound signals for the canals is very clear.

 

The details were posted a few posts ago

 

 

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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2 hours ago, David Mack said:

Always give a loud blast when about to pass under a hump-backed narrow road bridge. And wait for the sound of sudden braking.

 

Same rule as when operating a lift bridge - bonus points for catching SUVs.

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

We have to start somewhere.

 

 

I don't dispute the correctness of the audible signal requirements as posted above, but in reality the single long blast is all you need for practical purposes on a narrow canal.  

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The trip boats on the Thames still seem to use horn signals when turning round or manouvering. Sur le continent I don't think I have heard a horn, the commercials rely on talking to each other on vhf, their AIS and radar.

Come to think of it the ferries at Dover don't bother either.

Edited by Phoenix_V
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I do give a sound warning approaching blind corners/bridges, but I always also slow. I adopt similar tactics when driving on country roads and expect to see an obstruction in each case. I always aim to be able to be the one who can stop (for the benefit of the dashcam in the car) .

It's always good practice on the cut, as often people coming the other way often cannot understand why a 60ft boat can't bend in the middle to maintain its own water.

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As a short boat, I always reckon I'm more manoeuverable (I think I spelled that wrong) than most, and certainly more than a hirer coming the other way who may well panic when hooted at. The only use of a horn on a noncommercial canal is to signal "I am here" rather than intention, and that's fairly pointless as the bloke coming, if he can't see you, has no idea what you mean by it (even if he can hear it over the noise of his engine and his radio) - "I'm coming round the bend watch out" or "I can see you and I'm waiting impatiently for you so get a move on".

On a big river like the Thames it's different. On the cut it's a waste of electricity.

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I come across quite a few rowers, who from time to time get rather close to ramming me from astern. 
My normal horn is not much use in these circumstances, as it faces forwards. So I have a small plastic foghorn that I blow into to attract their attention. Very effective. 

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I tend not to bother with the horn much and work on the basis that there is bound to be someone coming through a blind bridge. At junctions it nose out slowly with Diana on the bows as lookout. Sort of defensive boating. 

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Some 40 years ago, when we hired a boat on the Norfolk Broads for a week at Easter, (for our first wedding anniversary!), on asking where the button for the horn was, the boatyard said they had removed them from their boats as hirers has been making nuisances of themselves by sounding them at night. At least the Broads doesn't have many of the sort of sharp bends and narrow bridges that abound on the canals.  

 

Interesting comment about non-use of horns on continental canals: I am sure I recall reading in the canal press some years ago that the UK had got an exemption for UK canals from a then-proposed EC regulation requiring the horn to be sounded as a continuous blast for at least 30 seconds when approaching all bridges, which would have meant sounding it continuously in some parts of Birmingham and other heavily built-up areas. Exemption was also got from or other regulations that made sense on deep waterways but were wholly inappropriate for those only 3' deep (if you are lucky). 

 

 

 

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The one time I didn’t use my horn on a blind bend I think on the Ashby I met a trip boat for the disabled under the bridge on a blind bend….we hit fender to fender…they should have really put the brakes on the wheelchairs……

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Agreed

 

i train steerers to give an 8 second long blast at blind bends etc and 2 short ones to pass on the wrong side (and the latter when leaving a tunnel if required). We pass a lot of trip boats between Camden and Little Venice and they understand and respond in kind.  Once one of my steerers didn’t and hit a trip boat who also hadn’t at Cumberland turn.

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I give a long blast of the horn rather than a few short 'pip pip's', on the basis that if it's a road bridge an oncoming boat would probably think the latter was from a car approaching the bridge not a boat coming the other way. 

 

I know of several boaters who, when approaching a blind spot actually speed up so they can get through it as quickly as possible before anybody appears from the other way. Utter madness of course, but I reckon there's a fair few who do this.  These days it seems to be getting worse, so much so that I now mount my car dashcam at the front on the basis that if there's a collision and any subsequent damage. it might help with an insurance claim.

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10 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:

.  

 

Interesting comment about non-use of horns on continental canals: I am sure I recall reading in the canal press some years ago that the UK had got an exemption for UK canals from a then-proposed EC regulation requiring the horn to be sounded as a continuous blast for at least 30 seconds when approaching all bridges, which would have meant sounding it continuously in some parts of Birmingham and other heavily built-up areas. Exemption was also got from or other regulations that made sense on deep waterways but were wholly inappropriate for those only 3' deep (if you are lucky). 

 

 

 

I think that must be another brexit myth I have never heard a commercial sound the horn on approach to a bridge, like I said they use radio, ais,and radar. I hope you did'nt vote on the basis of the myth!

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11 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:

Interesting comment about non-use of horns on continental canals: I am sure I recall reading in the canal press some years ago that the UK had got an exemption for UK canals from a then-proposed EC regulation requiring the horn to be sounded as a continuous blast for at least 30 seconds when approaching all bridges, which would have meant sounding it continuously in some parts of Birmingham and other heavily built-up areas.

 

As Phoenix_V just said, this is complete Brexit rubbish. There are horn signals within the CEVNI rules which form the 'highway code' for inland boating on Continental waterways (see my RYA book for an explanation in English  ? ), but a long blast is defined as 4 seconds and there is nothing more prolonged than this. AIS is a recent addition, but certainly VHF is used extensively. You might hear sound signals on the Scheldt through Rotterdam, but not on the smaller canals. Craft also have an all-round yellow light synchronised with the horn, so you can see which craft is signaling too.

One of the few times I used a horn in some 20 years there was to try to attract the attention of a pleasure boater who was intent on reversing back into us as I approached a lock. He'd not responded to VHF and didn't respond to my horn either - luckily Di was on the fore end and has a loud enough voice to make him aware of the situation.  ?‍♀️

 

Tam

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21 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

I do use mine, in just such a situation.

If there is a blind bridge hole, I always assume there is someone about to appear.

 

 

 

It is always safe to assume - and I speak from recent experience - that, even if you have steamed for the last two hours without seeing a single craft, the first blind bridge hole you come to .........

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4 hours ago, Opener said:

It is always safe to assume - and I speak from recent experience - that, even if you have steamed for the last two hours without seeing a single craft, the first blind bridge hole you come to .........

And the same applies to bikes -- riding along the towpath most days I always slow down and ring my bell coming up to blind bridges, doesn't stop idiots coming the other way charging through them at full speed and nearly ending up in the canal as a consequence -- has happened twice under the same bridge...

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On 14/05/2021 at 14:19, Alan de Enfield said:

Print this off, laminate it and kep it by your helm.

 

I agree in principle, but in my very limited experience people just interpret multiple blasts as being annoyed and that has occasionally led to a minor argument. Which is fine, but just means the horn signal was a waste of time. No one is committed enough to do this, but ideally we'd hand those instructions out to as many boaters as possible.

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I would have read the horn article, probably in "Waterways World", years before Brexit raised its head. I binned my older issues some time ago, but in the light of the attached item from the April 2012 WW, I now wonder if it might have appeared in an April issue for an earlier  year!

 

652060964_WWApril2012.jpg.9fa958cb7b9222193e7255ab1db658e3.jpg

The name "Lori Falop" in this article is a giveaway .....

Edited by Ronaldo47
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