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Stopping boats elegantly by the canal side ?


Stroudwater1

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32 minutes ago, RebeccaM said:

Slow is the key - I don’t profess to be an expert at all, given we have one holiday under our belt, but by the end of it I had realised I was initially trying too hard when it came to stopping.  Getting speed down to nearly nothing and then using the boat’s remaining momentum to almost drift in made for (mostly!!!) cleaner landings. 

 

The other way to avoid trying too hard is repeatedly trying to use the engine get the boat perfectly lined up against the bank in slightly awkward conditions (and ending up giving the boat momentum and/or pushing it further away), when there are perfectly good ropes for that

 

This mooring lark's easy I thought, the first couple of times I came to a stop lined up perfectly with the bank with a bit of wind assistance. The next time, with a very slight breeze in the opposite direction and a couple of obstacles to avoid, I spent about 15 minutes going backwards, forwards and diagonally across the canal trying to replicate that perfect parallel park with all the success of the Evergreen Grande, when I could have stepped off the stern with a centre line right at the beginning...

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23 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Jumping off is a great way to discover things hidden in the towpath grass, such as various sharp rubbish, discarded fishing equipment, dog eggs, wasps nests, ants nests, sinkholes, lost bollards and the fragility of the human ankle.

Unfortunately you can still find all of those stepping off, and the tree huggers campaign for not cutting the towpath edge has not helped. This is the lock moorings on the Stratford canal.

smallDSCF5264.jpg

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2 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

Eventually you'll also find the gap to the bank exceeds your personal best jump distance, realisation usually occurs whilst you are airborne ;) 

 

A risk admirably illustrated by Andrew Denny's photo of me from some 15 years ago. Having dropped my son George off with the bow rope, I was steering the stern in so I could then step off with the stern rope, when George took a turn round the bollard, and the stern started drifting out again. I made a split second decision... (and I made it to the bank).

david_mack_leaps_off_fulbourne.jpg

https://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2006/08/fulbourne_at_na.html

Edited by David Mack
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5 hours ago, Tonka said:

As in aviation, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing

Although , if you bend the aircraft, it's more of an arrival.

Edited by Iain_S
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Reverse bank effect: when the application of reverse makes the stern swing out.

 

As others have said, slower on approach might be the key, with a quick burst of forwards with tiller hard over to encourage the stern to swing in without making the boat go forwards too much. Mooring to the left bank might be easier, as, with a right handed propeller, prop walk may assist in bringing the stern in. (You don't often have a choice, though :D )

 

If there are rings or bollards, the crew can take the bow rope back along the length of the boat before temporarily securing, at which point slow ahead and tiller towards bank will bring the boat alongside, using the bow rope as a front spring.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Iain_S said:

Although , if you bend the aircraft, it's more of an arrival.

No it's still a landing. When the BA 777 was written off at Lhr which crash landed on the grass it still was classed as a landing

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love david mack's photo definately deserves a greeno but i dunno how to award one. Im pretty sure i would not have made that jump a) in the first place and b)succeeded in  landing on the hard stuff if i had tried. For a bonus point can we discuss mooring up elegantly when there is a 40 mile an hour wind blowing off the tow path ? I  reckon crash the bow into the bank is as good a way as any of bringing the stern in

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5 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

In very strong wind I have bought the stern in and secured it loosely by which time the bows are across the cut. I then go and pole the bows in to the side and secure them.

I keep going until I am round a bend (not THE bend you will note) and the wind is not driving me off the bank. Simples. Few canals are so straight that this won't work.

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If you ever see video of scrapyard grab operators practising, not with a scrap car but with an egg or similar. Cruise ships come in to dock with delicate touches. Slowly, slowly, gentle as, and nowt wrong with a bit of a quick blast of revs to correct.

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Watched Thompson" Celebration "dock at Flam, very professional use of the thrusters to bring along sideways.  Captain finished off by lighting a Marlboro on the flying bridge!

 

Back to reality, I sometimes find giving the tiller a sweep to bring the stern in, bit like a butty tiller but not as effective though!  Sometimes it works🤔

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2 hours ago, Iain_S said:

Reverse bank effect: when the application of reverse makes the stern swing out.

 

As others have said, slower on approach might be the key, with a quick burst of forwards with tiller hard over to encourage the stern to swing in without making the boat go forwards too much. Mooring to the left bank might be easier, as, with a right handed propeller, prop walk may assist in bringing the stern in. (You don't often have a choice, though :D )

 

If there are rings or bollards, the crew can take the bow rope back along the length of the boat before temporarily securing, at which point slow ahead and tiller towards bank will bring the boat alongside, using the bow rope as a front spring.

 

 

 

I tend to do that with the centre line because it's longer

 

If I am mooring against piling with no obstructions , I tended to stop a couple of feet out then a burst of full ahead with the tiller over so the stern kicked in but no ahead motion was caused. Pause and step off with the centre line that is always run back along the cabin roof.

 

In really tight moorings I tend to do the same but with the bow outside the boat in front, kick the stern in, then gently reverse back at an angle so I can  step off but can easily stem back on and drive out if my estimate of mooring length proved to be optimistic.

 

On a river, I find it easier to ferry glide into a tight mooring and only kick the stern in when I am sure the boat fits (no good if you insist in mooring facing downstream).

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12 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I tended to stop a couple of feet out then a burst of full ahead with the tiller over so the stern kicked in but no ahead motion was caused. Pause and step off with the centre line that is always run back along the cabin roof.

 

I must admit, I forgot to mention that bit earlier. Not only is the centre line to hand on the cabin roof, it's already on the towpath side.

 

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When you have got the bows fully across the canal reverse back to the mooring and everyone will think that is what you intended to do. Just did it a couple of hours ago!

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1 hour ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

I must admit, I forgot to mention that bit earlier. Not only is the centre line to hand on the cabin roof, it's already on the towpath side.

 

 

That's why my centre line was twice the length I needed and attached to the  centre fixing by putting both ends through a loop  pushed through the fixing eye. Hence, two centre lines and a fixing that can  in extremis slip before snapping or pulling the eye out of the roof.

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I find that if the water is relatively deep, putting the boat in reverse at tickover after it has stopped, with the tiller hard over to port, will pull the stern in to starboard, unless there is a wind.

 

Unfortunately which way it works is dependent on the prop rotation.

 

At my home mooring, it doesn't work at all because the canal is really shallow there and the wind always seems to be blowing in such a way as to move the boat back across the canal.

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On the first trip with our barge 62 by 14.5 ft we met the old bargman Jo Briggs and invited him on to steer the barge, he praised it on its handeling music to our ears showed us that the deep water was always on the outside of the bend. When we approched a swing bridge he dropped it into nutral saying it takes 3 timed its length to stop coming to a dead stop along the landing stage without any reverce  totaly diferent to my usual heavy use of reverce i vowed there and then to copy his style.

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19 minutes ago, Wide boat man said:

On the first trip with our barge 62 by 14.5 ft we met the old bargman Jo Briggs and invited him on to steer the barge, he praised it on its handeling music to our ears showed us that the deep water was always on the outside of the bend. When we approched a swing bridge he dropped it into nutral saying it takes 3 timed its length to stop coming to a dead stop along the landing stage without any reverce  totaly diferent to my usual heavy use of reverce i vowed there and then to copy his style.

I think that is where most issues occur when trying to stop just a few feet from the mooring, if slowing down starts much earlier then there is less water moving by the time you want the boat to stop.

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Come in to the bank at a steepish angle, before the bow hits put the tiller over to straighten the boat, and once the stern is coming in hit reverse and the stern will continue to come in.  As it gets close and hopefully you have just about stopped moving forward, step of with the centre line and pull the boat fully in.  Then fix the bow and stern lines.

 

Sometimes it works well and other times no so well, depending on your timing and the number of people watching.

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A method that I've found quite useful, when mooring on armco, is that I have a 'nappy pin' mooring hook permanently attached to a short length of rope with a spliced loop on the end. As others have described I'll drift the stern in, step off and then drop the hook into the armco and drop the loop over a stern bollard. This means that the stern 'ain't going nowhere' whatever else I do. I can then either put the engine in reverse to try to bring the bows back in, or get hold of the centre line and get onto the towpath and just pull the boat in.  

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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7 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

A method that I've found quite useful, when mooring on armco, is that I have a 'nappy pin' mooring hook permanently attached to a short length of rope with a spliced loop on the end. As others have described I'll drift the stern in, step off and then drop the hook into the armco and drop the loop over a stern bollard. This means that the stern 'ain't going nowhere' whatever else I do. I can then either put the engine in reverse to try to bring the bows back in, or get hold of the centre line and get onto the towpath and just pull the boat in.  

 

I would have thought that was more likely to spring the bow out. I suspect tiller over and gentle ahead would be more likely to spring the bow in.

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