Are hire boats given any instruction

[___]

Is @magnetman actually a cat?

 

As someone who has a lot of experience of rigging up temporary tunnel lighting in lieu of a functioning forward light I would absolutely defy anybody to be able to cruise through Braunston (and pretty much any tunnel of more than half a mile in length) and avoid making hard contact with the sides without some form of forward light that illuminates the tunnel profile at or ahead of the boat cabin front.

 

More than that I’d think you a fool to even try.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Captain Pegg

[Arthur Marshall]

24 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 

I know someone who, in a land based residence, did something similar. His neighbours used large amounts of some kind of perfumed air freshener and it was getting into his house, he was allergic to perfume and his house was getting nigh on uninhabitable. Despite discussing the problem they neither stopped using the stuff nor stopped the flow into his house, so he set up one of those huge PA speakers you used to see around fairgrounds, pointed it at the party wall and set up a system to play a loud "ping" at random intervals during the night. A  few days later Environmental Health came round and asked him to stop, he refused, they said they'd prosecute, he invited them to do so - they went round to the neighbours and suggested they stop using air freshener. 

I did the equivalent with my neighbour's endlessly barking dog  which started howling when he went to work and stoped when he came in from the pub. Mentioned it politely, got told to go forth and multiply. Rigged up the band's PA against the adjoining wall, recorded his dog howling one day, stuck it on a tape loop, turned it up full volume at midnight and went and stayed at a friend's house for the night. Dog vanished two days later. Mind you, he never spoke to me again, either, so double win.

[1st ade]

5 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I met some people on a hire boat who, when questioned (nicely) as to why their engine was still running two hours after they'd moored up after a full day's running, said they'd been told by the yard the engine should be running at least eight hours a day. They did know about 8 to 8.

When we hired from Bruce Boats on the K&A it was a requirement to run the engine a certain number of hours a day - and be responsible for any battery damage if you didn't. Mind, these were fully disabled accessible with motorised lifts front and back, charging points for Powerchairs and the like. I was having a gentle "nose" (as you do out of curiosity) at the 240v, 24v and twin 12v electrical systems and found a neat rack of USB data loggers - presumably Bruce Boats had been caught often enough in a "yes we did", "no you didn't" for it to be worthwhile being able to prove "look, Tuesday you didn't start the engine until 10:00 and stopped at 13:00"

[Lady M]

In my experience, a light on the front of the boat in tunnels is essential so that the boat coming the other way knows where the front of your boat is.  The old boatmen used to put the cabin lights on and have the back doors open.

[MoominPapa]

1 hour ago, Lady C said:

In my experience, a light on the front of the boat in tunnels is essential so that the boat coming the other way knows where the front of your boat is.  The old boatmen used to put the cabin lights on and have the back doors open.

I once met a CRT tug in the middle of Braunston tunnel with a standard tunnel light on the front of it. I'd already met the unlit pan it was pushing 70ft earlier, which was quite a surprise!

 

MP.

[Lady M]

Yes, me too.  

[magnetman]

7 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Is @magnetman actually a cat?

 

As someone who has a lot of experience of rigging up temporary tunnel lighting in lieu of a functioning forward light I would absolutely defy anybody to be able to cruise through Braunston (and pretty much any tunnel of more than half a mile in length) and avoid making hard contact with the sides without some form of forward light that illuminates the tunnel profile at or ahead of the boat cabin front.

 

More than that I’d think you a fool to even try.

 

You don't need to light it up in front of the boat. All you need is to allow your natural peripheral vision to work and steer the boat. A lamp at the stern which illuminates a certain amount of the tunnel sides while not killing your night vision is ideal. 

 

 

You won't know if I am making it up unless you try it and you probably won't try it. 

 

Do try going through a tunnel with no "tunnel light" it is enjoyable and no doubt how countless others did it before. 

 

I'm not sure my stenosis would want to deal with the legging thing but these days we have engines and propellers.

 

[Paul C]

It depends. If its a full moon, cloudless night, in an urban setting with plenty of other lighting, great. If its cloudy, rural, there will be too little ambient lighting to help, no matter how well your eyes adjust. And the light level will be so low that any stern light in sight will ruin the night vision. I am careful to keep the back door closed and/or the cabin lights off to not do that.

 

Cruising with little/no light can be done but its much easier and safer with a decent light, just as car driving is.

[___]

13 minutes ago, magnetman said:

 

You don't need to light it up in front of the boat. All you need is to allow your natural peripheral vision to work and steer the boat. A lamp at the stern which illuminates a certain amount of the tunnel sides while not killing your night vision is ideal. 

 

 

You won't know if I am making it up unless you try it and you probably won't try it. 

 

Do try going through a tunnel with no "tunnel light" it is enjoyable and no doubt how countless others did it before. 

 

I'm not sure my stenosis would want to deal with the legging thing but these days we have engines and propellers.

 

And we have lights. I’ve been through Wast Hills Tunnel with no light. I entered Braunston last week to find that the tunnel light had failed (it was working when I picked up the boat). Just about managed with the forward facing navigation light. I switched that on again at dusk but eventually heading through Brockhall woods it was simply too dark to navigate safely without the steaming light (as the ‘tunnel’ light was actually called on the switch).
 

I can manage a tunnel of about 600 yards OK without a forward light but longer than that I can’t do it because if I can’t see the front of the boat relative to the profile of the tunnel then I can’t tell whether it’s heading between the walls or toward one of them.

 

You obviously have better night vision than me.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Captain Pegg

[magnetman]

You have to actually try it to find out. 

 

Most people would assume it would be impossible and in some cases it is but it is remarkable how much you can see when you really get into it. 

 

I suppose it is a bit bad in a way advising people to cruise around at night with no "headlights".

 

It is worth remembering that steering a boat doing 3mph on a 40ft wide ditch with nobody coming the other way is not particularly similar to steering a car at 45mph on a 25ft wide road with people hurtling towards you at a similar or faster speed. 

 

 

 

[___]

23 minutes ago, Paul C said:

It depends. If its a full moon, cloudless night, in an urban setting with plenty of other lighting, great. If its cloudy, rural, there will be too little ambient lighting to help, no matter how well your eyes adjust. And the light level will be so low that any stern light in sight will ruin the night vision. I am careful to keep the back door closed and/or the cabin lights off to not do that.

 

Cruising with little/no light can be done but its much easier and safer with a decent light, just as car driving is.

I find cloud is better in an urban environment because it reflects the artificial lighting. The picture below was taken at 2137 on 1st November and although there’s obviously flash it isn’t illuminating the chimney and the visible Bankside that are well ahead of the the boat. And note that the boat it is taken from doesn’t have a light (although it doesn’t really need one).

 

Moonlight can have a benefit but it can also cast very dark shadows. That’s a problem with any form of light used at night, particularly when working locks.

 

 

[matty40s]

2 hours ago, Paul C said:

It depends. If its a full moon, cloudless If its cloudy, rural, there will be too little ambient lighting to help, no matter how well your eyes adjust. 

 

Cruising with little/no light can be done but its much easier and safer with a decent light, just as car driving is.

We set off late Feb at 6.30 pm as we just wanted out, the mid level cloud and light pollution from Northampton, Dirft, the distribution depots at Jn16 etc made the cruise spectacularly easy and no moon was needed. In the olden days light pollution was frowned on, but nowadays, the planning authorities are only interested in stopping Jeremy Clarkson's latest cafe extension

[LadyG]

13 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

A couple of weeks ago I got a ‘friendly’ hand gesture from a woman in a moored boat as I passed a linear mooring site at 2015 in the evening.

I was proceeding properly slowly so I reckon it must have been someone who rarely if ever moved and thought the 0800-2000 rule applied to everyone.

 

Though, I guess it could have been a business proposal.

 

It wasn't me!

[IanD]

On 16/04/2023 at 12:53, IanD said:

 

We once (Xmas 1986) went right through London overnight, starting from Broxbourne on the Lea after midnight -- lovely trip, over 10mph downstream on the Lea IIRC, and a *lot* fewer moored boats than today... 🙂

 

Later on we were going down Marsworth about 1am in full moonlight and snow (with mugs of hot soup, mmm...) when the bows got hung up on a protruding stone, sodding hydraulic paddles which take forever to drop meant we came perilously close to disaster... 😞

Coincidentally, I spotted what I think is the boat we did this on today near Southall -- "Baron", used to be owned by Kate Snow in the 80s, had a full-length cabin on then but now a fuel boat. Going by the sound, it's still got the same engine (Bolinder 1043) that pushed us along at speed getting on for 40 years ago... 😉

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by IanD

[magnetman]

It does have the Bolinders engine still in there. 

[Annie cariad]

Well the hire boats/boaters in question were from the land of warm beer and cold women IE down south ...

 

After a night in the boat pub drinking real beer they was all ill next morning just right for me to run me engine , hammer a new edge on a coal scuttle open hatches and cook bacon and eggs ahhh so satisfying.....

[___]

I was cruising through Rugby the other day and being followed by one the ABC managed Diamond Resorts 'Castle' share boats. I swear the skipper sounded the horn at a duck that was in it's path.