Jump to content

Are boaters getting more selfish or is it just the world in general


tagulablue

Featured Posts

On 04/07/2022 at 10:36, cuthound said:

 

That is why I point to myself and then the way I intend to go, and the point to the other steerer and the way I want him to go. It is intended (and usually does) ensure that the other boat understand what I am about to do and what I want him to do. 

I would not expect to have to interpret hand signals when there are sound signals laid down. I am not watching the steerer I am watching the boat. The steerer could be drinking a mug of tea with one hand, am I to take it that he is pointing to himself?

2 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I would not expect to have to interpret hand signals when there are sound signals laid down. I am not watching the steerer I am watching the boat. 

I need to know his I intentions and I will place my boat appropriately. 

 

Edited by LadyG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

To perfectly illustrate the premise of the OP, I put forward these photos as exhibit A (yes, it might be 'naming and shaming' but given the level of ignorance, I really don't care)

The water point/Elsan/Rubbish disposal point at Braunston at 11.30 am this morning

 

Not a problem I thought, I'll moor up opposite and wait until he's finished. So I stood around like a lemon on the opposite side of the canal for about a quarter of an hour waiting for something to happen. There was no sign of watering up, dumping rubbish or emptying of Elsan's (or even going into the nearby chandlers)  A nearby moorer walked past and asked me if I was waiting for the boat to move ,I obviously answered "Yes" to then be told, "Oh, he's moored up, he's been there since yesterday afternoon". Annoying doesn't begin to describe it. Realising this muppet's ignorance I then managed to squeeze in behind him but not properly moored so whenever a boat came past the bow kept drifting out. I did the necessary (Elsan, Water,rubbish) and then reversed back telling the crew not to bother fending off if the bow hit the moored boat; as it turned out the boat reversed as straight as an arrow (on the one occasion I had rather hoped it wouldn't) so we didn't. By the time I'd finished there was a queue to get the the service block.

It can be seen here that there was plenty of mooring available opposite

 

 

....but if that wasn't good enough for him, this is what the Braunston moorings looked like at the time......

 

 

When watering up I was conversing loudly with a moorer on the other side of the canal of just how ignorant this piece of mooring had been, but since there was no reaction from anyone on the boat I can only assume that to compound the matter, the boat was unoccupied.

 

I have a level of sympathy with someone turning up at Braunston at, say, 7pm no mooring available and taking the only place he could find (if that was indeed the case). I have no sympathy whatsoever with someone leaving the fecking thing there for the whole morning when alternative moorings were available:angry2:

 

Rant over!!

 

 


I would have been tempted to moor up at the Midland Chandlers mooring untie them and move them down to the available moorings using a pole/shaft or at least wake them up  😢☹️

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, Higgs said:

 

You do slow down, don't you? 

 

 

Obviously I proceed with caution so that if something is coming the other way and is committed, I can engage astern, three toots, but I'm still going forwards at that point . I would expect him to slowdown, I might put my nav lights on to help him work out my direction of travel.

Edited by LadyG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, LadyG said:

Obviously I proceed with caution  if something is coming the other way and is committed, I can engage astern, three toots, but I'm still going forwards at that point 

 

It was on a blind bend that I was referring to. I remember one occasion when I gave the horn some exercise, but unfortunately, the other boat was a working boat, and the bloke was in a cabin and couldn't hear the horn. Frantic reversing practice and lots of black smoke. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Higgs said:

 

It was on a blind bend that I was referring to. I remember one occasion when I gave the horn some exercise, but unfortunately, the other boat was a working boat, and the bloke was in a cabin and couldn't hear the horn. Frantic reversing practice and lots of black smoke. 

 

 

Strange, I have just got a new horn and it's not as loud as my other one, mostly cos it's pointing at cabin roof, but I hope it will be effective for most occasions, including steering positions inside.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When approaching a bridge on a blind bend many boaters give a brief 'pip pip' of their horn and often you don't know whether it's a boat approaching from the other side or a car's horn from the road. One or two continuous 5+ second long soundings of the boat's horn would remove any doubt, but few do this. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We did our summer cruise a few weeks ago, Droitwich over to Gayton way via the GU and then around the Coventry to come back.

 

In that time we experienced :

A boat who we followed through Braunston tunnel who proceeded to start dropping down through the top lock by themselves, even though they knew we were right behind them, and then refused to wait to share the next lock even though we asked them to. They then turned the next lock against a boat coming up, even though he was just coming into the lock landing, and told him that they thought he was going down 'Backwards ?' was his reply.

 

At Rugby there was another boat moored in the winding hole, despite there being space on the Armco 20 yards away. I asked him politely if he would like to move up so that he wasn't blocking it, his reply 'well is been ok so far'.

 

At Tardebigge wharf, a Black Prince boat was moored at the end of the Anglo Welsh yard completely blocking the bridge. It was impossible to get through at all. They had apparently stopped for water even though they had only picked the boat up 2 hours before. Fortunately one of the Anglo Welsh guys was still on site and 'directed' them.

 

The next day going down Tardebigge, we had 4 Black Prince boats moored at various places in the flight who had clearly spent the night there. The worst was a pair moored together in the curved pound above the reservoir. Their comment when they saw us coming was that they hoped we could get past (we did with a bounce off them and we are only 50 foot). I asked if they were going to move soon as the flight would be busy, 'no we are still having showers and haven't had breakfast yet'. Later we spoke to another Black Prince crew who were about to moor on a lock landing to have breakfast. They said that Black Prince had told them to do as many locks in the flight as they felt like and then moor up when they had done enough, so you can't blame the hirers. There is a CRT employed lengthsman at Tardebigge who was not pleased and was on his way to see BP to have words.

 

At the bottom of the flight we had someone so desperate to turn a lock on us that he'd opened both bottom paddles despite the top gate being wide open as the boat in front of him who was coming up had left it open for us. 

 

Yesterday we've done a short trip down to Worcester. Every single offside tail gate from Offerton down to Bilford had been left open, so someone clearly couldn't be bothered to walk back over the lock to close then and left it to be someone else's problem.

 

I've also lost track of just how many paddles have been left open.

 

We were only out for 3 weeks, what stuck in my mind was just how many things we'd seen in such a short time. I know it was peak season, so a lot of boats moving, but we've never come across so much 'couldn't give a toss' attitude before. And whilst a good proportion of the incidents were hirers so could be put down to ignorance, not all of it was.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many boaters aren't slowing down as they pass moored boats, and some that make the effort are cutting their engine speed when they're right on top of you and hammering it back on immediately they pass. Ok, I'm learning to be more tolerant. It's a case of having to. 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

I thought of that but the canal is too narrow there so I'd have blocked it. Some of us have consideration for others, unlike that muppet.

 

People react badly sometimes to speeding boats (and I still think speeding is rude and selfish, personally), but blocking moorings on cramped water points is I think the thing that annoys me most when out cruising. 

Thankfully I don't see it too often.

Even selfish d*cks realise that someone else is bound to come along shortly and want to moor there, and their normal selfish instincts are constrained by that cold reality. 

As a word of warning, one place that it does happen a lot is at the water point just outside Ellesmere Port boat museum.

I visited four times over the last 6 months or so, and on three occasions there were boats moored on the water point. One had stayed overnight, and another was visiting the museum (but not taking his boat inside). I never saw the owner of the third. 

I just can't see an acceptable excuse for mooring overnight on a water point and staying there all next morning- other than a medical emergency on the boat. 

Even someone who arrived there late at night and has a local place of work to get to simply cannot justify leaving their boat on a water point all morning. 

You would just get up earlier than usual and move the boat off there early in the morning, before you left for work.

Its one of the few things that really winds me up. If anything causes my temper to get the better of me one of these days and start shouting, it will be an idiot mooring on a water point for hours.

My hackles still rise when I think of those idiots having breakfast on the water point at Bettisfield last year.

 

Edited by Tony1
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

My hackles still rise when I think of those idiots having breakfast on the water point at Bettisfield last year.

 

I take it there isn't an elsan at the same spot. Because otherwise, I'm sure there'd have been a solution. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Was it anything to do with a Volockie, surly he is not there to police such things, if he is not a boater he probably doesnt even know its not the done thing

I’d hoped that being the same vollockie we’d seen the week before he would have a bit of info as to what was going on, didn’t expect him to police anything. Boater or not you can see when something is causing a bottleneck at busy times though surely?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

To perfectly illustrate the premise of the OP, I put forward these photos as exhibit A (yes, it might be 'naming and shaming' but given the level of ignorance, I really don't care)

The water point/Elsan/Rubbish disposal point at Braunston at 11.30 am this morning

image.png.b461ecac28d01e2e0b050f39c72d75ba.png

Not a problem I thought, I'll moor up opposite and wait until he's finished. So I stood around like a lemon on the opposite side of the canal for about a quarter of an hour waiting for something to happen. There was no sign of watering up, dumping rubbish or emptying of Elsan's (or even going into the nearby chandlers)  A nearby moorer walked past and asked me if I was waiting for the boat to move ,I obviously answered "Yes" to then be told, "Oh, he's moored up, he's been there since yesterday afternoon". Annoying doesn't begin to describe it. Realising this muppet's ignorance I then managed to squeeze in behind him but not properly moored so whenever a boat came past the bow kept drifting out. I did the necessary (Elsan, Water,rubbish) and then reversed back telling the crew not to bother fending off if the bow hit the moored boat; as it turned out the boat reversed as straight as an arrow (on the one occasion I had rather hoped it wouldn't) so we didn't. By the time I'd finished there was a queue to get the the service block.

It can be seen here that there was plenty of mooring available opposite

image.png.3543c195b4579b1e557e98ab52919fe1.png

 

....but if that wasn't good enough for him, this is what the Braunston moorings looked like at the time......

image.png.e14ca80486dad94c2873a5d128ca20a7.png

 

When watering up I was conversing loudly with a moorer on the other side of the canal of just how ignorant this piece of mooring had been, but since there was no reaction from anyone on the boat I can only assume that to compound the matter, the boat was unoccupied.

 

I have a level of sympathy with someone turning up at Braunston at, say, 7pm no mooring available and taking the only place he could find (if that was indeed the case). I have no sympathy whatsoever with someone leaving the fecking thing there for the whole morning when alternative moorings were available:angry2:

 

Rant over!!

 

 

The pirate flag on the front deck may have given you a clue.

 

I was at Wheaton Aston services a few years ago for water, urgently needed early in the morning. Two boats on the water point, no sign of anyone. Gave them a bang as  I breasted, no response from one, the other guy stuck 2 fingers out of a port hole.

I walked across the deck of the other boat, watered up and then left the hose running into Mr. Fingers cratch cover whilst I closed my tank, adjusted the cratch cover, had a scratch and a breather. 

Took the hose in and left, with a smile.

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Higgs said:

 

I take it there isn't an elsan at the same spot. Because otherwise, I'm sure there'd have been a solution. 

 

 

 

Correct- no elsan at Bettisfield. 

It was a real effort to restrain my language as I was standing there holding my boat against the breeze, and they sat there eating breakfast, right in the middle of two moorings, so a second boat wasnt able to moor there properly. 

They were hirers, but surely the boat traffic should tell them more boats are going to want water very soon, and not to moor right in the bloody middle? Grrrr.

Ellesmere facilities were so busy last year during the summer that even the idiots didn't seem to linger there. 

 

Edited by Tony1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 03/07/2022 at 23:24, IanD said:

Not *that* kind of gesture... 😉

 

(anyway, one finger is more likely nowadays...)

One finger is the American gesture.

The traditional British gesture is two fingers.

Too much American television and film influence. 🐵

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Higgs said:

 

You do slow down, don't you? 

 

 

I don't, usually. Nor do I honk. Canals are full of blind bends and bridges at weird angles. You'd never get anywhere if you slowed at every corner and the constant hooting would upset the ducks.

I just keep alert (lerts make excellent pets and never mess on the towpath). It seems to work ok. I do creep out of T junctions, though.

  • Greenie 3
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were out a couple of weekends ago and experienced some weird behaviour. The closure of the T&M has put a lot more pressure on the top end of the SU so it was busier than usual, but still. Incidents from memory were:

 

Firstly at Bunbury staircase. I was steering, daughters (11 and 13) did the lock (while wife did the Elsan). As we were arriving at the lock to go down, a pair of boats came out, so we were pretty much straight in, held over to one side, that gate closed behind us. We could see a boat coming behind so waited for them. The first of their lock crew arrived and informed us that they were travelling with someone else behind them, so to go through, and closed the second top gate. He seemed annoyed that we had already delayed them by waiting. Bunbury was a new one for us, so my daughters read the board and followed it. This involves draining the bottom lock of the staircase first, then opening the middle paddles to get the level between the two chambers etc. I started dropping in the lock so couldn't see much; next thing I see is elder daughter dropping the middle paddles before we were level and then the bloke shouting at her and my other daughter, and opening the paddles again, then coming and having a go at me, but I can't hear anything on the counter over the noise of the engine. Then the bloke from the Anglo-Welsh hire base turned up and sorted it out. Turns out that the boats coming up hadn't correctly shut the middle paddles so once the top gates were closed, the water had started dropping in the top chamber and there wasn't enough to make the level. Elder daughter had noticed that the levels weren't coming right, so had dropped the paddles while she worked out what the problem was. At this point, the bloke, with no knowledge of what was going on, decided to get shouty and start opening paddles. Being a single boat halfway down a fairly deep broad chamber there wasn't much I could do, which is perhaps fortunate, however his wife then turned up and had a right go at him, and he slunk off back to his boat.

 

Second one was coming back over Nantwich embankment. We were looking to moor in Nantwich but there were no spaces. As we were approaching the last boat in the line, elder daughter and I were on the counter, discussing whether we could moor beyond it. At this point, someone on the counter of the moored boat started shouting and screaming at us. I couldn't hear it exactly over the engine but did catch "@@XX keep going!" shouted several times along with various other obscenities. Bearing in mind that they had moored right at the last point, creating a git gap behind them, it was quite clear what their intentions were. In practice I don't think I would have wanted to moor next to them anyway!

 

We also had a couple of boats, one in the broad locks that we shared with, the other ahead of us in a narrow flight, where the crew absolutely refused to get off and work the locks, expecting us to do it for them. In the broad lock there were at least three adults on board, one of whom just sat there drinking beer. He was perfectly capable of getting off as when they moored up he stood on the towpath drinking beer. My daughters are perfectly capable, but there is a point where physical strength and size are an advantage they don't have in getting some of the heavier gates and paddles to move. Going up the narrow flight there were also three adults on board and at some locks none of them got off at all - there was another boat going up ahead of them singlehanded and elder daughter gave him a hand (and had a very pleasant chat on the way) so it ended up with my wife re-setting each lock for the boat ahead and then working them through (none of them even got off to open the top gate) and myself and younger daughter then re-setting and working the lock for our boat. The problem was, the boat ahead of us would just have sat there waiting for someone else to do it so there was no way past him. We would have just stopped and waited to see what happened, but we needed to get back to our mooring and get home with school the next day.

 

Finally, we got back to our home mooring and found that the boat on the next mooring down had decided to take ours! It's an offside linear mooring and they had just moved up to the next boat up. We can't get in behind them as it isn't deep enough (we are deeper than them). I had to nose in, let someone off with a rope and then move them back to where they should be. I spoke to the owner of the next boat up about what was going on and he said that when they had moored there he asked them whether we weren't coming back and his response was "I have no idea but *@*@ them!"

 

Fortunately, the above was offset by meeting some very nice people, seeing some interesting boats and a very pleasant meal at the Chinese restaurant by the city walls in Chester, but it seemed rather a lot of things for one weekend!

 

Alec

Edited by agg221
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Grassman said:

When approaching a bridge on a blind bend many boaters give a brief 'pip pip' of their horn and often you don't know whether it's a boat approaching from the other side or a car's horn from the road. One or two continuous 5+ second long soundings of the boat's horn would remove any doubt, but few do this. 

One long blast, not sure what two blasts indicate to an approaching boat, except confusion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, LadyG said:

One long blast, not sure what two blasts indicate to an approaching boat, except confusion.

Two blasts = pass on left instead of right...

 

I always remember this since I built (from scratch!) an IC-engined radio-controlled plane back in the 70s, the only control was rudder, and the remote control box consisted of one button -- press once to go right, twice to go left.

 

Was named Great Expectations. Flew twice, crashed into a tree the first time and a wall the second time, then sat in the garage for years. RC planes nowadays have rather more sophisticated controls... 😉

Edited by IanD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, LadyG said:

Obviously I proceed with caution so that if something is coming the other way and is committed, I can engage astern, three toots, but I'm still going forwards at that point . I would expect him to slowdown, I might put my nav lights on to help him work out my direction of travel.

On the subject of lights, as I was approaching a bridge hole, a boat was coming towards me, and in my opinion he was nearer the bridge than me so I slowed right down to wait for him. He did the same, and we were both almost stationary when I decided to go though the bridge or we could have been there all day. As I started forward, the tunnel light on the other boat started flashing on and off. As I passed the steerer, I mentioned that perhaps he had a problem with his light. "No, I was just flashing you to come through" was the reply.

Edited by monkeyhanger
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was cycling along the towpath on the way home from my boat, when I stopped at Old Ford lock on the Regents canal. The lock had recently had a gate damaged and repaired, and I was interested to inspect the repair. A boat was coming up in the lock at the time, and I chatted to the guy about the condition of the gates. He pointed out that the bottom gates were leaking really badly. The lock filled and he opened the top gates and his partner started to move the boat out of the lock. The lockwheeler announced to me that he wasn't going to close the gates as they were a bit rickety. He boarded the boat and as the boat was adjacent to the top paddles, I pointed out to him that both were still raised. He shrugged his shoulders and continued on his way. AND this was a wide beam boat, so he could very easily have dropped one paddle and walked across his stern deck to the other one. Totally lazy and selfish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, LadyG said:

I would not expect to have to interpret hand signals when there are sound signals laid down. I am not watching the steerer I am watching the boat. The steerer could be drinking a mug of tea with one hand, am I to take it that he is pointing to himself?

 

 

You do realise that 90% of private boaters and almost all hire boaters don't know the COLREGS sound signals?

 

That is why I use hand signals to make myself clear, rather than risk a collision 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, agg221 said:

 

In the broad lock there were at least three adults on board, one of whom just sat there drinking beer. He was perfectly capable of getting off as when they moored up he stood on the towpath drinking beer. My daughters are perfectly capable, but there is a point where physical strength and size are an advantage they don't have in getting some of the heavier gates and paddles to move.

 

 

Tbh when sharing a double lock with a boat that has a few crew, I always make a point of asking people in advance what they want me to do in the locks.  

Sometimes they'll say 'just stay on the boat', and sometimes they prefer some help- which is fine of course.

And I'll quite happily work the double locks if there are a significantly older couple who seem a bit hesitant, or complete newbies .

But if someone just flatly refused to leave their boat- and especially with a crew- I'd probably back out of the lock, or not enter it. I'd tell them I'd changed my mind and was going to moor up short of the lock for a while. 

  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.