Boating etiquette

[NB Alnwick]

When boating on canals I usually steer as close as I can to the centre where the water is likely to be the deepest.

There are several reasons for this, including minimising damage to the canal infrastructure, avoiding getting stuck aground and maximising propulsion efficiency.

When I meet a boat approaching from the opposite direction, I usually move to the right just enough so that our boats pass nicely close to each other without touching or either boat being forced aground. This always works very well and, so far, I have not been involved in any collisions. However, on several occasions lately, I have encountered situations where the person in charge of an approaching boat sounds their horn and gesticulates wildly or points to the bank (on my side) as if to say "get out of my way". One steerer became very angry and told me that I should have "slowed down" for him - in fact I had slowed but clearly, he felt obliged to give me instructions. This angry reaction is something that I do not recall experiencing in the past - usually as I pass boats coming in the opposite direction, we exchange a pleasant wave or a friendly verbal greeting - sometimes providing information such as if there is another boat following etc.

I know that 'Alnwick' is in dire need of a re-paint (which is scheduled for later this year) so I wonder is this pompous attitude is because they see what they perceive as a scruffy boat approaching - or do they expect all boats to keep out of their way?

[dmr]

I think maybe you have not been boating for a bit, times are changing, and many people on boats are not really hard core boaters and passing other boats closely is beyond them.  Its still a wonderful place so just try to move over a bit sooner to avoid causing upset. I think just sometimes you can sense that an approaching boat knows what they are doing so then you can do it properly. 😀

[nicknorman]

You do see oncoming boats hugging the bank. I think “if that was our boat, I would be aground by now!”

 

But the other side of the coin is a collision I had a few years ago, long line of moored boats on my right, very fancy boat coming opposite direction right in the middle of the cut, which didn’t leave me enough room. I assumed he would swerve right a bit at the last moment to “do the dance”. But he didn’t. I had about 6” between me and moored boats, he has about 15’ between him and the far bank. But, whilst looking straight at me, he just continued with about minus 6” gap. We clanged, I bounced into a moored boat, moored boat owner came out, his missus came out at the bow. They could see why the collision had happened and didn’t blame me. I said to driver that he had a huge amount of room, why hadn’t he moved over a bit? He said “it might have been shallow”. So a head to head collision was preferable to the possibility of scraping the bottom!!

 

So back to your experience, firstly there are an increasing number of angry people on the canals who think they are entitled to tell you how you should be driving. Often this is born out of their own incompetence, lack of experience and insecurity. But also there is the risk that the person coming along the middle is some nutter who doesn’t know what they are doing and isn’t going to give water at the last minute,

[David Mack]

I used to do the same. Both boats in the middle of the channel heading directly towards each other until a boat or a boat and a half's length apart, then both steerers push their tillers over, the boats dance around each other with a few inches between the hulls and as the sterns pass the steerers nod a greeting and the boats pull each other back into line. Neat, quick, efficient and pure delight.

 

These days, steering a full length ex-working boat I rarely do that. Several lengths before I meet the oncoming boat I move across at least half a boat's width to signal to the other boater both that I have seen him and that I am making room for him to pass. Some boaters pass without fuss, with a nod or a word or two in greeting. Others seem frightened by Big Woolwich bows and scuttle off to the side leaving several feet between us, and in the worse cases they panic, go astern, lose all steering and end up across the canal. And them I'm the 'arrogant working boater' who steamed through without stopping!

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I used to do the same. Both boats in the middle of the channel heading directly towards each other until a boat or a boat and a half's length apart, then both steerers push their tillers over, the boats dance around each other with a few inches between the hulls and as the sterns pass the steerers nod a greeting and the boats pull each other back into line. Neat, quick, efficient and pure delight.

 

These days, steering a full length ex-working boat I rarely do that. Several lengths before I meet the oncoming boat I move across at least half a boat's width to signal to the other boater both that I have seen him and that I am making room for him to pass. Some boaters pass without fuss, with a nod or a word or two in greeting. Others seem frightened by Big Woolwich bows and scuttle off to the side leaving several feet between us, and in the worse cases they panic, go astern, lose all steering and end up across the canal. And them I'm the 'arrogant working boater' who steamed through without stopping!

I don't think it's anything to do with you being in a scary Big Woolwich, I've always tried to pass how you first described in a friendly little hire boat but still get the same reaction, including the other boat sometimes ending up aground or across the canal... 😞

[NB Alnwick]

I sometimes wonder how some boat owners learn their boating skills. I remember that we did a lot of research before we started boating including taking the RYA's 'Inland Waterways Helmsman Course' and spending a time learning from experienced boaters. These forums were also full of advice about best practice, especially to us in those early days.

Another observation is that people I have recently encountered on hire boats do seem to have a much better idea of what they are doing than in past times and are more pleasant to meet than the "angry boaters" that I described in my opening post.

 

[matty40s]

Modern boaters learn their stuff on YouTube and Instg. They are also trying to film their latest vlog( episode 257, "Drama at the Dustbins"), and cant film, voice with 4 different cameras at normal speeds so do tickover and loose steerage.

[Ewan123]

11 hours ago, NB Alnwick said:

I sometimes wonder how some boat owners learn their boating skills. I remember that we did a lot of research before we started boating including taking the RYA's 'Inland Waterways Helmsman Course' and spending a time learning from experienced boaters. These forums were also full of advice about best practice, especially to us in those early days.

Another observation is that people I have recently encountered on hire boats do seem to have a much better idea of what they are doing than in past times and are more pleasant to meet than the "angry boaters" that I described in my opening post.

 

 

I assume most just buy the boat and learn on-the-go, which I don't see a problem with generally speaking. We only did a couple of days hire-boating before doing the same, and the hire experience didn't really count as instruction. 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Ewan123

[Ray T]

Over the past 12 or so years of owning our own boat plus some 20 years of hiring boats prior to this I have noticed more and more of what I call “motorway manners” creeping onto the cut. I was listening a while ago to a radio 4 programme which was pro-porting we are now in a “Me” generation where the “World revolves around the axis of their own ego.” 
Many no longer appear to care about the etiquette or history of the canals any more.

How do you educate these folks?

Edited July 12, 2023 by Ray T

[MoominPapa]

12 hours ago, nicknorman said:

firstly there are an increasing number of angry people on the canals

There are an increasing number of angry people everywhere in the UK. I've been noticing it for a while but it's more obvious when you go elsewhere and then come back. If they were all angry about the same things that could be a positive, but unfortunately they're mostly angry with each other.

 

MP.

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Over the past 12 or so years of owning our own boat plus some 20 years of hiring boats prior to this I have noticed more and more of what I call “motorway manners” creeping onto the cut. I was listening a while ago to a radio 4 programme which was pro-porting we are now in a “Me” generation where the “World revolves around the axis of their own ego.” 
Many no longer appear to care about the etiquette or history of the canals any more.

How do you educate these folks?

 

I think you need to have started a couple of generations back, with the grandparents.

 

Back in the 60s and 70s the hippy culture of "Doing your own thing", was the start of the self-centredness.

 

 

 

[GUMPY]

6 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

There are an increasing number of angry people everywhere in the UK. I've been noticing it for a while but it's more obvious when you go elsewhere and then come back. If they were all angry about the same things that could be a positive, but unfortunately they're mostly angry with each other.

 

MP.

I think it started back in 2016 😉

[alan_fincher]

The problem that Graham explains in his initial post is even more of a problem if the oncoming boat insists on staying in the middle of the canal, but both of you are in a "2-way" tunnel!

[DShK]

38 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

The problem that Graham explains in his initial post is even more of a problem if the oncoming boat insists on staying in the middle of the canal, but both of you are in a "2-way" tunnel!

I had a guy screech at me for daring to enter a (two way) 1500 yard long tunnel while he was in it. "What if you were a widebeam!!!" 😂 He also spent the entire time in the tunnel blinding me with multiple lights.

 

 

[Arthur Marshall]

Just met a very angry man at Middlewich Big lock because the two boaters waiting to come up didn't bother to walk up to help. Fair enough, you might think , except I'd arrived at the lock (which for those who don't know it, is a wide lock) before he'd started going down (though he had shut the gate and gone inside to put the kettle on), and he ignored me and dropped the lock anyway. All of us singlehanding. But very odd all round.

[SLC]

We are very inexperienced boaters but it does surprise me how slow you have to go to prevent a wake which can damage the bank of the canal. Certainly less than 4MPH which leads me onto my first observation. Boats are going too fast in certain (imho many) circumstances. The Oxford canal surprised us how blind some of the turns are and on several occasions, although we were going very slow, struggled to avoid a boat in the opposite direction travelling too fast given that the bend was blind. Would the horn have helped? Should you use a horn? 

We did go through Braunston Tunnel with a very experienced boater and met a boat coming in the opposite direction ridiculously fast, a view confirmed by our colleague. It is not really necessary.

Secondly, we were surprised how easy it is to ground our boat just off the centre of the canal. We did so at least once in spite of our best endeavours to keep close to the boat coming in the opposite direction who was in a reasonable position.

(Should we have got a smaller boat with a lower draft than 27"?)

However, in none of the incidents we observed did we see anything other than politeness. And we enjoyed ourselves and do not think we upset anyone else......

 

[Ray T]

@SLC

It is perfectly legitimate to give one long blast on the horn at blind bends & bridges.

It effectively means "I am here" not get out of my way, you are a plonker or anything else.

Unfortunately very few learn the horn signals now.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Ray T

[nicknorman]

2 minutes ago, SLC said:

We are very inexperienced boaters but it does surprise me how slow you have to go to prevent a wake which can damage the bank of the canal. Certainly less than 4MPH which leads me onto my first observation. Boats are going too fast in certain (imho many) circumstances. The Oxford canal surprised us how blind some of the turns are and on several occasions, although we were going very slow, struggled to avoid a boat in the opposite direction travelling too fast given that the bend was blind. Would the horn have helped? Should you use a horn? 

We did go through Braunston Tunnel with a very experienced boater and met a boat coming in the opposite direction ridiculously fast, a view confirmed by our colleague. It is not really necessary.

Secondly, we were surprised how easy it is to ground our boat just off the centre of the canal. We did so at least once in spite of our best endeavours to keep close to the boat coming in the opposite direction who was in a reasonable position.

(Should we have got a smaller boat with a lower draft than 27"?)

However, in none of the incidents we observed did we see anything other than politeness. And we enjoyed ourselves and do not think we upset anyone else......

 

4mph: yes that is a limit, not a target. Plenty of shallow canals don’t support 4mph travel. The measure of speed is the wash and especially any breaking wave, not the mph. And going too fast can make steering more difficult, the stern tends to want to get sucked into the shallower sides.

 

Blind bends: Yes, use the horn if you can’t see far ahead and there is an obstacle eg bridge or overhanging vegetation. A long blast. This is required by the BW bylaws.

 

Tunnels: Often fast is best, it helps to keep the boat central. But of course when you are approaching an oncoming boat it is advisable to slow right down, not only makes things less frantic and easier to steer to the side, but if the other boat can’t steer, it makes the resulting impact less severe!

 

Some canals are very shallow at the sides, either because they were built like that (saucer shaped) or because of silting. Often if the side is a wall or piling, it is probably fairly deep. If it is just earth, it won’t be. There is quite a low of variation eg much of the grand Union is not too bad at the sides, much of the S Oxford is very shallow.
 

27” draft is not deep, we are 32”. Much easier to handle a deep drafted boat in strong winds.

[Ex Brummie]

But bear in mind, a long blast on the horn does not absolve you from proceeding with due caution, or give you any priority.

[Machpoint005]

1 minute ago, Ex Brummie said:

But bear in mind, a long blast on the horn does not absolve you from proceeding with due caution, or give you any priority.

 

Especially when the idiot about to come around the blind bend doesn't give you a long blast on the horn in return.

 

 

[SLC]

We were so naïve we couldn't find the button for the horn! It is not very convenient especially if you are trying to steer, control throttle and bend backwards to reach it. However, we are more accustomed to steering and the need to use the horn before you get to the complicated bit!

Interesting feedback which I appreciate though we are getting more familiar with the boat and waterways. Honestly!

But nothing is as memorable as when a wife pushed the front out of the boat when leaving the mooring and toppled over as the boat moved away. Not our boat, not us but the couple were still chuntering as they eventually went past us....

[Arthur Marshall]

4 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Especially when the idiot about to come around the blind bend doesn't give you a long blast on the horn in return.

 

 

Or just can't hear you because he's 70 years old and standing on top of an aircooled Lister.

Horn signals are a waste of time. Blast it out by all means but assume no one's heard it. And definitely don't bother with all the fancy beeps, nobody at all will know what they mean and they'll just assume you've got a wobbly horn, if you'll pardon the phrase.

[Machpoint005]

1 minute ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Or just can't hear you because he's 70 years old and standing on top of an aircooled Lister.

Horn signals are a waste of time. Blast it out by all means but assume no one's heard it. And definitely don't bother with all the fancy beeps, nobody at all will know what they mean and they'll just assume you've got a wobbly horn, if you'll pardon the phrase.

 

All the more reason why he should have used his horn first!

 

[Hudds Lad]

I approach every unsighted bend/bridge/obstacle as if another boat is going to appear, as it often will, and make sure i'm going at a speed that will allow me to stop or take avoiding action if it does.

Some seem to take the opposite view that they should get through it as quickly as possible.

The last time we were hit was a bridge on a blind corner. I was in tick and had given the horn a blast, as i passed under the bridge a boat came round the bend at full speed and chucked it in reverse when he saw me, which meant he had no steering and t-boned our bow. If he'd been going a reasonable speed for the bend he'd have had the time and control to steer away from any collision. Luckily we only lost a bit of blacking and a cupboard came open.

These days i'll usually wave an oncoming boat through a bridge first even if i'm a bit closer, got sick of the loonies that give it full beans to try and beat you to it  

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

12 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

I approach every unsighted bend/bridge/obstacle as if another boat is going to appear, as it often will, and make sure i'm going at a speed that will allow me to stop or take avoiding action if it does.

Some seem to take the opposite view that they should get through it as quickly as possible.

Sounds like you’ve ridden a motorbike 😃

Best ride/drive defensively. 
 

But why does it happen that when you ain’t seen a boat all day it’s always at a bridge hole or bend when you’ve drifted off in to your own world and ain’t concentrating that you meet three coming tail to tail!