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SLOW DOWN


manxmike

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Currently I'm moored on the Llangollen and the only boats actually slowing down past a series of moored boats are hire boats. The privately owned boats seem to be determined to go water skiing and I have watched some of them actually open the throttle more as they pass at what seems too high a speed anyway.

When I owned my own boat I used to slow down, now hiring I still slow down, obviously I am making a big mistake.

When I see any of the boats that have hurtled past I will try to pass them at 6 mph at about two inches distance, bet I get shouted at !

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2 minutes ago, manxmike said:

....

When I see any of the boats that have hurtled past I will try to pass them at 6 mph at about two inches distance, bet I get shouted at !

Won't that make you as daft as them? 

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1 minute ago, manxmike said:

Currently I'm moored on the Llangollen and the only boats actually slowing down past a series of moored boats are hire boats. The privately owned boats seem to be determined to go water skiing and I have watched some of them actually open the throttle more as they pass at what seems too high a speed anyway.

When I owned my own boat I used to slow down, now hiring I still slow down, obviously I am making a big mistake.

When I see any of the boats that have hurtled past I will try to pass them at 6 mph at about two inches distance, bet I get shouted at !

 

My favourite response to "SLOW DOWN!" is full emergency astern while alongside followed by "Sorry. Is that better?" as their boat rocks from side to side much harder than it did when I was going past at less than 2 mph. :D

 

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I've just spent three weeks on the Llangollen, got bumped by one panicking hire boat (not speeding, just confused, no harm done though he was too frazzled to apologise!). No speeding boats, no problems,  everyone very pleasant apart from a minor fracas at Grindley where there were no lockies on.

It may well be that the OP's interpretation of events is simply wrong. Engines go faster upstream while boats go slower, and boats go faster downstream with slower revs. Perhaps he should just moor better, use a spring and not, like the vast majority of boats I saw, the centre line.

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44 minutes ago, manxmike said:

Currently I'm moored on the Llangollen and the only boats actually slowing down past a series of moored boats are hire boats. The privately owned boats seem to be determined to go water skiing and I have watched some of them actually open the throttle more as they pass at what seems too high a speed anyway.

When I owned my own boat I used to slow down, now hiring I still slow down, obviously I am making a big mistake.

When I see any of the boats that have hurtled past I will try to pass them at 6 mph at about two inches distance, bet I get shouted at !

It's the beginning of silly season on the Llan, most boats are sensible but I think that because there are so many boats there is the same percentage of idiots in general just more actual number of idiots plus because you are already primed to notice and you have a lower threshold you notice them more.

Plus by the time you get up to Chirk it's not uncommon for long convoys of boats to have built up as they are held up by Chirk aquaduct and the two tunnel, again this makes the idiots stand out because by the time the 15th boat has passed in a fairly short time it is easy to allow the grumps to take hold.

There's no avoiding it, moor properly travel early or late and try to chill because it is worth it or do it in the winter because it's quiet, it rarely freezes and quiet frankly the last few miles in a cold frosty morning is just stunning 

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11 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

Sometimes it's quite satisfying,  although not clever.

We had some new livaboards dossing up and down the canal near us, I watched as he came past my moored boat one day near enough flat out.   I walked up to the next lock and had a chat with him,  kind of explained that it's polite to slow down past boats,  and if I came past him at that speed I'd pull his pins out.

After being told to "F#$@ off" and mind my own business I did exactly what I'd mentioned I'd do. And it did.

 

I usually just think "Pillock" and leave it at that. Although in your case I can see there's an element of satisfaction.

 

You have to be careful when plotting revenge. A few years ago I was moored in Hebden Bridge. The fella on the boat behind was steaming cos he said someone had gone too fast past his boat causing his Buckby can to fall in and sink. He went up to the top moorings at night and cut the ropes of the 'offending' boat, but it turned out to be a mate's boat who had cruised over from Manchester. Mate wasn't happy and when we worked it out steaming fella had to part with £60 or take one for the team. 

Edited by Midnight
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Do the same as them, shout at them or chase after and berate them, you’ll not make them behave differently.

Either learn to live with it or move from the busiest canal on the network to somewhere quieter.

Only person thats being affected by getting wound up is you, and it’ll not do you any good.

 

When we were based up at Overwater we did the Llan quite a lot, you just learn to embrace the madness and enjoy it. In fact dealing with the log jam at Trevor on a May Bank Holiday is one of my happiest memories of all the times we did it, utter chaos. :) 

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45 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've just spent three weeks on the Llangollen, got bumped by one panicking hire boat (not speeding, just confused, no harm done though he was too frazzled to apologise!). No speeding boats, no problems,  everyone very pleasant apart from a minor fracas at Grindley where there were no lockies on.

It may well be that the OP's interpretation of events is simply wrong. Engines go faster upstream while boats go slower, and boats go faster downstream with slower revs. Perhaps he should just moor better, use a spring and not, like the vast majority of boats I saw, the centre line.

Gosh, I would never have known that going with or against the flow of water would alter the speed!

My problem is the wake a speeding boat creates, that's what is causing the boats to bounce.

For some reason, after 60 odd years using the canal system I do have a vague idea how to moor securely.

So far I have towed one boat off a mudbank, helped a young couple get themselves unstuck, enjoyed the beautiful scenery and had a wonderful time. There will always be thoughtless people - comes with the territory, but I generally just think "prat" and go back to my beer.

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7 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

 

When we were based up at Overwater we did the Llan quite a lot, you just learn to embrace the madness and enjoy it. In fact dealing with the log jam at Trevor on a May Bank Holiday is one of my happiest memories of all the times we did it, utter chaos. :) 

My favourite was chirk tunnel about 10 boats all trying to sort them selves out while waiting for the tunnel to empty, there was a chap who took control, lots of pointing and centrelines being thrown to breast up, I sat on the aqueduct until I saw the boat start to leave the tunnel, obviously I left the aqueduct and as he past I asked "anyone in the tunnel" "nope" said the chap, so I tootled past the macrame and entered the tunnel, I was not popular  😉 

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One lunchtime I passed a moored boat with owner sitting in lounger on the roof, I passed out of gear so as not to tip him in the cut.

Couple of hours or so later we were having a BBQ on the front deck and he came hammering past.

0530 next morning we started boating, spotted the offending boat at about 0600. Suddenly the speed wheel wound itself up to maximum and we went sailing past and left his boat rocking. A very bleary eyed boater appeared at his front door to be greeted with the words "paybacks are a Motherfkr"

That was in the days when I had a boat with a JP3 and 2'10" draft 🤭

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29 minutes ago, manxmike said:

Gosh, I would never have known that going with or against the flow of water would alter the speed!

My problem is the wake a speeding boat creates, that's what is causing the boats to bounce.

For some reason, after 60 odd years using the canal system I do have a vague idea how to moor securely.

So far I have towed one boat off a mudbank, helped a young couple get themselves unstuck, enjoyed the beautiful scenery and had a wonderful time. There will always be thoughtless people - comes with the territory, but I generally just think "prat" and go back to my beer.

Sorry if I sounded patronising. But, really, we get these grumbles every year and it's very rare that even a speeding boat does any harm. On the Llangollen you have a lot of boats on a tight schedule so they leg it a bit and it's quite easy to misread your speed because of the flow.

And you have to expect it on the Llan, though as I said I didn't experience it over Easter.

Just out of interest  is it the wake wot makes you bounce? I thought it was the water displaced by the boat and screw coming back again. Mine just goes back and forwards, rather than bounce. And I did see a huge proportion of boats moored with centre lines this year and not one with springs. I blame Robbie Cummins.

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9 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Sorry if I sounded patronising. But, really, we get these grumbles every year and it's very rare that even a speeding boat does any harm. On the Llangollen you have a lot of boats on a tight schedule so they leg it a bit and it's quite easy to misread your speed because of the flow.

And you have to expect it on the Llan, though as I said I didn't experience it over Easter.

Just out of interest  is it the wake wot makes you bounce? I thought it was the water displaced by the boat and screw coming back again. Mine just goes back and forwards, rather than bounce. And I did see a huge proportion of boats moored with centre lines this year and not one with springs. I blame Robbie Cummins.

I have a deep draught boat. On the Llan I have to be very careful coming downstream as the boat accelerates alarmingly through every narrows or bridge hole.

If you are moored below a bridge, I could have no control over how fast I go past. Throwing it in reverse is not sensible as steering is lost. That could lead to a contact.

I find canoes make a boat bounce worse the anything else.

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Thinking back over the past 18 years since we launched Midnight I can't remember a boat passing so fast that it pulled the pins out. When we're tied to rings I don't really care. Admittedly I have invited boats to slow down but it seldom changes anything. 

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25 minutes ago, booke23 said:

 

I don't know why, but this really tickled me! 🤣

Steaming fella didn't think it was so funny. It was stood on his gas locker top. We spent days with sea searcher magnets dragging the canal. I heard later he retrieved it right next to his bow. 

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Just spent a week on the Bridgewater, they know how to pass moored boats

Yes usually flat out... if its a bank Holiday, but being wide and deep they can get away with it....😂

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4 hours ago, manxmike said:

and I have watched some of them actually open the throttle more as they pass

 

 

I too open my throttle when I've slowed down too much passing a moored boat and lost my steering.

 

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3 hours ago, manxmike said:

Gosh, I would never have known that going with or against the flow of water would alter the speed!

My problem is the wake a speeding boat creates, that's what is causing the boats to bounce.

For some reason, after 60 odd years using the canal system I do have a vague idea how to moor securely.

So far I have towed one boat off a mudbank, helped a young couple get themselves unstuck, enjoyed the beautiful scenery and had a wonderful time. There will always be thoughtless people - comes with the territory, but I generally just think "prat" and go back to my beer.

 

I am wondering how it is that you, and several other people on here, constantly encounter speeding boats passing to the point you/they get aggravated and feel the need to vent on here. Whereas by comparison in the 50+ years I've been boating I can barely remember any passing boats ever giving cause for irritation. None that I can remember on the Llan although it is a few years since we last did it. Could it be that your boat (or actually yourself, since it seems you are not on your own boat) are somehow jinxed or cursed? Did you ever fall out with a gypsy or druid? Failing that I can't really understand how it is that you have this problem and yet we don't.

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Given that I haven't been on the canals for over five years I think "constantly" is a bit ott. 

If you have never experienced boats going past at speed, causing your boat to rock then I can only wonder how you moor up. Boats travelling too fast, causing breaking wakes have been a fact of life since the canals were created. There were boats towed by galloping horses in the 18th century - they were known as packet boats and were equipped with cutters to sever the tow lines of slower boats that got in the way. I wonder if they caused other boats to rock and roll.

Long may you continue to live in a world of peace and tranquility. 

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