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Acknowledging passing boaters


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I've noticed an oddity this trip. Boaters passing when I'm moored up will glance at me sitting in the back of the boat, either as they approach or as they go past, I give them a friendly wave and they stare grimly at me and don't respond.

About one in ten smile or wave back. I don't think I've got scarier, just older, greyer and considerably less hairy, and I wasn't holding the trombone, so it's not that they're music lovers.

My theory (as a Sussex boy who escaped to Yorkshire at the first opportunity) is that they're all southerners exploring the north for the first time and they haven't learnt how to behave yet. Anyone else noticed this? It's not just owners, it's hirers too.

PS "acknowlodging" really doesn't look right. If I've spelt it wrong  get Athy to adjust it for me...

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I'm afraid it's a sign of these changing times. I have boated for 70 out of my 75 years and the acknowledgement of and by fellow boaters was once a given. Now, even though being amply proportioned, I feel on occasions I must be invisible. I always wave( assuming I get eye contact) but the majority look at you as though you're half daft. Shame

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8 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've noticed an oddity this trip. Boaters passing when I'm moored up will glance at me sitting in the back of the boat, either as they approach or as they go past, I give them a friendly wave and they stare grimly at me and don't respond.

About one in ten smile or wave back. I don't think I've got scarier, just older, greyer and considerably less hairy, and I wasn't holding the trombone, so it's not that they're music lovers.

My theory (as a Sussex boy who escaped to Yorkshire at the first opportunity) is that they're all southerners exploring the north for the first time and they haven't learnt how to behave yet. Anyone else noticed this? It's not just owners, it's hirers too.

PS "acknowlodging" really doesn't look right. If I've spelt it wrong  get Athy to adjust it for me...

 

On our recent (brief!) excursion on the Broads we noticed everybody bar a few were willing to exchange a wave. 

 

It was the occasional skipper of a posh fly bridge boat who would cruise past with their nose in the air. I just suppose the novelty of exchanging greetings with the hire boating underclass had worn off for them.

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3 minutes ago, beardshave said:

I'm afraid it's a sign of these changing times.

 

I think there is a degree of truth in this too. Some people do seem to have become more 'insular' since the extended lockdowns we went through when wider social interaction was pretty well forbidden.

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I found the south-east to be an unpleasant place which seems to be under the control of some self elected load mouths who have no allegiance to CRT and who seem to think they control the mooring rights using their own criteria. Sad to see, needs sorting out but I'm not sure if CRT have either the will or resources. 

 

 Happily this trend has not so far traveled to far North.

 

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7 minutes ago, reg said:

I found the south-east to be an unpleasant place which seems to be under the control of some self elected load mouths who have no allegiance to CRT and who seem to think they control the mooring rights using their own criteria. Sad to see, needs sorting out but I'm not sure if CRT have either the will or resources. 

 

 Happily this trend has not so far traveled to far North.

 

You didnt like Thrupp then? 🤣

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4 minutes ago, beardshave said:

Good point but here at Cowroast a twitch of the head nowadays would be seen as an invitation to some sexual proclivity.

That's the spot between Tring and Berkhamstead is it? asking for a friend :D 

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Totally agree and had this conversation with a few who find the same.

Fairly often I find them watching you approach from hundreds of yards away then staring intently at your bow to spot any sign of a bow wave .

Think the non wavers may be just shy though as they mostly always acknowledge me when I shout a cheery greeting to them as they look away.. 😀

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6 minutes ago, Tam & Di said:

Before pleasure traffic held sway the working boatmen would acknowledge each other with the merest slight twitch of the head - we referred to it as 'the boatman's nod' - and I've always found that perfectly satisfactory. Vigorous waving is just someone saying "look at me - I'm on a boat', and I've always found that totally unnecessary.

I was about to make the same point. It was an almost imperceptible nod of the head in a slightly diagonally downward direction. And it was more or less universal. I got it from steerers of ex working boats (converted and unconverted), purpose built pleasure narrowboats, grp and wooden cruisers, lifeboat conversions, ex army pontoons, and all the other variety of craft one saw on the Midlands canals in the 70s.

These days the boaters I pass mostly either ignore me completely staring straight ahead, or engage in furious arm waving that seems to require I respond in kind.

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43 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've noticed an oddity this trip. Boaters passing when I'm moored up will glance at me sitting in the back of the boat, either as they approach or as they go past, I give them a friendly wave and they stare grimly at me and don't respond.

About one in ten smile or wave back. I don't think I've got scarier, just older, greyer and considerably less hairy, and I wasn't holding the trombone, so it's not that they're music lovers.

My theory (as a Sussex boy who escaped to Yorkshire at the first opportunity) is that they're all southerners exploring the north for the first time and they haven't learnt how to behave yet. Anyone else noticed this? It's not just owners, it's hirers too.

PS "acknowlodging" really doesn't look right. If I've spelt it wrong  get Athy to adjust it for me...

Arthur, tried putting some clothes on? You're frightening them!   :wub:

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13 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Arthur, tried putting some clothes on? You're frightening them!   :wub:

There used to be a mooring warden at "Arm End" who sat in his well deck reading his paper most weekends with not a stitch on. Shocked a few people 🤭

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5 minutes ago, Loddon said:

There used to be a mooring warden at "Arm End" who sat in his well deck reading his paper most weekends with not a stitch on. Shocked a few people 🤭

The daily mail 😲😲

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've noticed an oddity this trip. Boaters passing when I'm moored up will glance at me sitting in the back of the boat, either as they approach or as they go past, I give them a friendly wave and they stare grimly at me and don't respond.

About one in ten smile or wave back. I don't think I've got scarier, just older, greyer and considerably less hairy, and I wasn't holding the trombone, so it's not that they're music lovers.

My theory (as a Sussex boy who escaped to Yorkshire at the first opportunity) is that they're all southerners exploring the north for the first time and they haven't learnt how to behave yet. Anyone else noticed this? It's not just owners, it's hirers too.

PS "acknowlodging" really doesn't look right. If I've spelt it wrong  get Athy to adjust it for me...

Might have something to do with those 'Wanted' posters, did this start shortly after that episode on Crimewatch?

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've noticed an oddity this trip. Boaters passing when I'm moored up will glance at me sitting in the back of the boat, either as they approach or as they go past, I give them a friendly wave and they stare grimly at me and don't respond.

 

My impression is that people behave slightly differently when passing a moored boat than when passing a moving boat. 

The moving boats I pass almost all seem to follow the convention of giving some form of greeting, but the moored boats don't always give a greeting, and those passing a moored boat sometimes fail to give a greeting. 

As someone said above, I think its partly down to a slight unease around the issue of how fast the moving boat might be going. 

So the driver of the moving boat might be wondering whether they will be admonished in some way by the person on the moored boat, and the people on the moored boat are mentally noting the speed of the moving boat, and making a decision as to whether it is too fast- and if it is fast, whether it is worth saying anything. 

For example, I decided against saying anything to the half dozen boozed-up and shouty young men who passed my moored boat going flat out down the cut last summer, because they would have ignored my advice anyway, and I might easily have gotten into an altercation facing very bad odds. 

Sometimes I've been doing some job or other on the stern (or down in the engine bay) when a boat passed, and I've been distracted enough not to consider greetings to passing boats. 

But if I were sat out on the stern, I would generally expect a passing boat to give a greeting- and certainly if I gave them one to start with. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tam & Di said:

Before pleasure traffic held sway the working boatmen would acknowledge each other with the merest slight twitch of the head - we referred to it as 'the boatman's nod' - and I've always found that perfectly satisfactory. Vigorous waving is just someone saying "look at me - I'm on a boat', and I've always found that totally unnecessary.

 

"'ow do!"

😁

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