Single person controlling a Narrow Boat

[OldGoat]

4 hours ago, magnetman said:

Single handing is no problem. Just take it easy and learn the best techniques for you.  Be careful about people offering to help because often they won't be in tune with your way of doing things and this can cause communication problems.

 

I've single handed all sorts of different boats from 32ft narrow to 72ft narrow up to 60ft x 12ft barge the length of the Thames several times and plenty of the canals and never had any problems at all. As long as you are sensible and never rush things its fine. Be careful on the Kennet and Thames in flood conditions though as it not very nice once the water is moving a lot. 

 

If anything once you get used to it you will find yourself faster than other people who have crew because the great thing with single handing is you don't have to rely on what other people do. You just get on with it.

 

Its great.

 

 

You mean the sluices button.

 

You do have to hold the gate button until the gates are completely open/closed but the sluices are usually (not always) on an automatic timer so only require one press until you hear the click of the relay.

My bad  - - I should have written "sluices"....

As a long time Thames (and canals too) boater I get cross / irratated /  when I see boater holding the sluices up button when the console notice clearly states 'press once only' (what is really means is 'a momentary press only' or 'do not hold the button'. It was possibly bad design or some other constraint  that made the quick push  the only way to run the process.

Today's boater  is often too much in a hurry to get to the pub / find amooring to wait for 1950s electro-magnetic equipment to grind its way inexorabily through the cycle....

 

 

 

[LadyG]

Two things that tell me I am seeing a novice is the way they handle ropes.

They don't know how to coil a rope in hand ie from the fixed end, so it ends up all tangled up. I've even had my own line handed back to me with a grannie knot, and all they did was catch the thing!

The other thing, they try to pull a boat in using the centreline while the wind is pulling it fiercely in the opposite direction. They don't know how  to loop the rope round a bollard to control  boat movement.

You have to be careful with ropes and boats, particularly singlehanded, in locks. I carry a knife in my pocket but I've never had to deploy it.

Edited January 5, 2023 by LadyG

[enigmatic]

23 hours ago, Andrew1976 said:

Strange title, looking to buy a 45ft canal boat, will be moored on the Thames in Reading close to Kennet and Avon canal. Major trips over 4 days will accompanied but many day trips will be just me, although the Thames locks are manned i am concerned about the Kennet locks and how difficult is the process with just a single person. Has anyone got any experience or advice

 

 

Thames locks aren't normally manned in winter, but the buttons and slow fill rate (and nice friendly steps) make them the easiest double locks to work on the system, at least when the buttons are working.

 

Kennet and Avon locks require a bit of ladder climbing and you'll want to keep hold of your rope and wrap (not tie) it round a bollard when getting off the boat (and go back to your rope as soon as you've opened the near-side paddle), but most not too difficult to operate once you've got the hang of it

 

Fobney lock just outside Reading is a right pig to operate single handed because it doesn't fill very well, which means trying to force the gates when there's still a water level difference. Doing that with the weight of only one person is hard. Last time I went through the single hander ahead of me had given up and called out CRT staff to help (Going the other way, I'd been helped by the large crew of a hire boat!) so don't be shy about doing that if there's noone else around to help. The more callouts they get, the more likely they are to sort it out...

 

The turf sided locks are weird looking and you need to be careful where you put your rope, but aren't actually that difficult, and neither is Woolhampton provided you remember to empty the lock and open the gates before opening the swing bridge going up so you're not slowing down traffic. And the swing bridges at the Reading end of the K&A actually have bollards to stop on the correct side to operate the controls, which is better than some other parts of the system!

 

 

21 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

If people behind you are being held up, let them past.  Simple.

Or, if they're a narrowboat, wait and share locks with them for an easier experience...

[magnetman]

Plenty of caution is needed on the stairwells on Thames locks as they are not cleaned. Yars ago the keepers used to regularly clean them with caustic soda mix but elfin safety put an end to that. Some of the are very slippery. I do go through certain Thames locks regularly in winter in a small launch and yes you do have to be very careful on the stairs. 

[Slim]

23 hours ago, David Mack said:

Actually with single handing swing bridges the bigger issue is the number of people you hold up on the road - especially if having opened the bridge and got back on the boat to steer it through, you then go aground. DAMHIKT.

As a solo boater I would agree that swing / lift bridges are significantly more problematical than locks. The easiest option is to tie up and wait until someone comes along and politely ask if you might follow their boat through. Never had a refusal or a grudging yes. As for locks, apologise and offer to let them through first. Again normally no problems or issues. If they're grumpy who wants to be near them anyway. More likely you'll be offered the loan of a couple of teenager children, now, they CAN appear grumpy but it's amazing what a can of coke can to. 

[MtB]

17 minutes ago, Slim said:

As for locks, apologise and offer to let them through first.

 

There is an advantage to this courtesy. They get to the next lock before you so they set it, and wait for you to arrive and sail straight is next to them! 

 

 

[cuthound]

On 04/01/2023 at 15:12, Dav and Pen said:

Never get off without a rope and a long one at that. It is not always possible to tie up at the mouth of a lock and the boat drift away. Don’t ask me how I know this. Done plenty of single handed boating with loaded boats , all down the Oxford and up Hatton, you can work out a method that lets the boat do a lot of the work and it’s a lot easier now locks have ladders in them.

 

Also make sure one end of said rope is attached to the boat...