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A polite plea to dawdlers.


noddyboater

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4 hours ago, IanD said:

I said "when there's space to do it". I've been stuck behing a dawdler-twit who was pootling along at idle where there were no moored boats and space/depth to pass, but who refused to move over because "it's not a race".

 

He didn't have to get the boat back close to the hire base (and for a booked meal) that evening, I did... 😞


You should have calculated your contingency properly 😉

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What does my nut is boats following each other so close together that it’s a pain when you meet them coming the other way at a bridge hole.

Either drop back and leave space or overtake.

 

mind it is funny when they’re so far up each other’s arses that when the first one has to stop the others have no room left to manoeuvre.

 

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4 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:


You should have calculated your contingency properly 😉

 

I did, I got to where we needed to after dawdler-twit eventually stopped. By steering across the canal into a side arm and shuffling backwards and forwards across the canal for five minutes while I sat there, rather than letting me pass (where there was room and deep enough water) before he moored. Harsh words were exchanged... 😞

 

Of course I originally had more contingency, but it got eaten up by unexpected closures on the Soar and Trent due to unseasonal heavy rainfall. But I'm sure your crystal ball would have predicted that even though the Met Office didn't... 🙂

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1 minute ago, Goliath said:

I think I’ve only once raced for a meal.

It was for a Sunday Dinner at Brewood.

Left Broad Street Basin at 8 am, with plenty of time,

but failed to build in to my contingency plan a couple of dry pounds.

but made it 

As did I -- but your dry pounds were not caused by needless dawdler-twat bloody-mindedness... 😉

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12 minutes ago, Goliath said:

What does my nut is boats following each other so close together that it’s a pain when you meet them coming the other way at a bridge hole.

Either drop back and leave space or overtake.

 

mind it is funny when they’re so far up each other’s arses that when the first one has to stop the others have no room left to manoeuvre.

 

 

Not just bridge holes, but as you know when the first boats pass on a shallow canal, there is a tendancy for the bows to end up pointing to the left unless the steerer is expecting it and compensates accordingly (plenty don't!). If there is a second boat following close behind they become a likely target for a collision!

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5 minutes ago, Goliath said:

I think I’ve only once raced for a meal.

It was for a Sunday Dinner at Brewood.

Left Broad Street Basin at 8 am, with plenty of time,

but failed to build in to my contingency plan a couple of dry pounds.

but made it 

Did you overtake a shareboat by getting crew on the bow to claim you were late for "a very important appointment" ?

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4 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

 

Not just bridge holes, but as you know when the first boats pass on a shallow canal, there is a tendancy for the bows to end up pointing to the left unless the steerer is expecting it and compensates accordingly (plenty don't!). If there is a second boat following close behind they become a likely target for a collision!

 

Close following like that is the equivalent of a driver on a road coming up behind a slower vehicle and being unwilling to overtake even when safe -- many drivers seem to think that overtaking is bad driving nowadays -- but driving so close behind them that anyone who does want to get past has to overtake both vehicles at once.

 

IIRC the Highway Code says you should always leave a gap, but many drivers ignore this -- again, maybe taking the view that "If I can't/don't want to overtake, neither should anyone else". Which is exactly the dawdling boater attitude this thread is about... 😞

Edited by IanD
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And there are the boaters who slow right down whenever they come to a bridge. The peak of this was a hireboat on the Llangollen who stopped completely while the bloke at the sharp end manoevred the pointy bit into the gap with the bargepole. They didn't seem to be drunk or stoned, either.

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42 minutes ago, nicknorman said:


You seem to be at great pains to make the case that overtaking is somehow difficult and rarely practical. I wonder why? Of course there are plenty of stretches of windy narrow and shallow canal where overtaking isn’t really on, but equally plenty of stretches where it is. No-one expects to overtake on blind corners etc but I think it is reasonable to expect co-operation from a slow boat in front when circumstances permit.

If someone wants to overtake me I pull over and come to a standstill so no harder than going past a moored boat, just not at tickover.

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5 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

The peak of this was a hireboat on the Llangollen who stopped completely while the bloke at the sharp end manoevred the pointy bit into the gap with the bargepole. They didn't seem to be drunk or stoned, either.

Witnessed a boat trying to do this from the lock landing into the bottom lock at Hurleston years ago, because he was "a boatmaster" and "knew what he was doing", it didn't go well.

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5 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

If someone wants to overtake me I pull over and come to a standstill so no harder than going past a moored boat, just not at tickover.

I find coming to a complete standstill (power off) can cause more problems than dropping to idle, you often get pulled out towards the other boat as it passes and having some steerage way helps counteract this.

 

Especially if the boat coming up behind you has the hammer down and is making a wash like a speedboat, like one last year... 😞

Edited by IanD
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The other boat passing helps pull you back out in to the channel especially if it is quite shallow which saves you having to jump off and push the boat out or destroy the bank with a bow thruster.

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10 minutes ago, IanD said:

I find coming to a complete standstill (power off) can cause more problems than dropping to idle, you often get pulled out towards the other boat as it passes and having some steerage way helps counteract this.

 

Especially if the boat coming up behind you has the hammer down and is making a wash like a speedboat, like one last year... 😞

I just noticed there is a boat name on your profile now. Does this mean you have got your new boat? Of course with a name like that, presumably you are one of the dawdlers!!😅

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6 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

The other boat passing helps pull you back out in to the channel especially if it is quite shallow which saves you having to jump off and push the boat out or destroy the bank with a bow thruster.

 

Indeed, but if they're coming past like they're towing a waterskier (see my post) you can tend to get pulled out too soon, it's useful to have some power on to counteract this rather than having no manoeuvrability. Of course if they pass so fast that you inevitably get pulled out into the channel and they collide with you it'll obviously be your fault, not theirs. DAMHIK... 😞

 

5 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

I just noticed there is a boat name on your profile now. Does this mean you have got your new boat? Of course with a name like that, presumably you are one of the dawdlers!!😅

 

Not yet, it's in the final stages of fitting out. I don't think I'll ever be a dawdler, but neither will I block somebody who wants to go faster than me even if they seem to be going surfing... 😉

Edited by IanD
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I'm trying to remember if we have ever been overtaken on the canals🤔..........no can't remember once.

On the Thames however we have often been overtaken by gin palaces and twice been flagged by the EA for going to fast 😱

 

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8 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

They misremember it when mooring though .... Gits!

Oh I dunno, surely if they left a gap big enough for another car/boat to get in there wouldn't be any problem, would there? 😉

 

6 minutes ago, Loddon said:

I'm trying to remember if we have ever been overtaken on the canals🤔..........no can't remember once.

On the Thames however we have often been overtaken by gin palaces and twice been flagged by the EA for going to fast 😱

 

 

I don't think I've been overtaken except very occasionally by boats going "too fast" -- meaning, with a big bow wave and breaking wash, like they're not supposed to have, or doing more than 4mph with the hammer down and clouds of black smoke.

 

But like drivers doing 90+mph on the motorway, if they want to come past like that (and there's space) I'll let them, it's not my job to enforce speed limits and it's less stressful to let them thrash off into the distance than block them... 😉

Edited by IanD
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11 minutes ago, IanD said:

it's not my job to enforce speed limits and it's less stressful to let them thrash off into the distance than block them...

I've never blocked anyone on the canals, they would have to catch me first 😉

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2 hours ago, IanD said:

 

I did, I got to where we needed to after dawdler-twat eventually stopped. By steering across the canal into a side arm and shuffling backwards and forwards across the canal for five minutes while I sat there, rather than letting me pass (where there was room and deep enough water) before he moored. Harsh words were exchanged... 😞

 

Of course I originally had more contingency, but it got eaten up by unexpected closures on the Soar and Trent due to unseasonal heavy rainfall. But I'm sure your crystal ball would have predicted that even though the Met Office didn't... 🙂


I don’t have a crystal ball, apparently my projects tend toward late delivery.

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I think I've only ever been overtaken by a hire boat and they seemed in a great hurry so I let them race off and open the next swing bridge for me....

 

I have over taken a couple of dawdlers, but usually when they have acknowledged me and waved me on at a suitable point, I think thats fine, and thats what I would do if someone wanted to get past me. its the pratts who refuse to acknowledge you that are there are are infuriating...  (in which case its put the kettle on time and moor up )

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The only times I can recall overtaking taking place  (both by our boat and by others) was during my first canal holiday in 1976 on the Grand Union main line South of Braunston, in places where the canal was wide and deep enough for it not to be a problem.  Time was very much of the essence that year due to the very restricted lock opening times.  We did not want a repetition of our first night, moored at the bottom of a flight of locks sandwiched between the M1 motorway and the London-Birmingham main line until 10.00AM the following day and a mile from the nearest pub, due to our failure to appreciate that the lock flight closing time was the time by which you had to exit the flight, last entry being an hour earlier! 

Edited by Ronaldo47
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