Boating etiquette

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

[Hudds Lad]

[ditchcrawler]

23 hours ago, nicknorman said:

In my book not so much rude to point, as rude and arrogant to give orders (especially non-verbal ones) to strangers. They should get on with steering their boat and leave you to steer yours.

 

I have had two cases of frantic waving and pointing, both lady skippers and in both cases I didn't know what they wanted and as far as they were concerned I did the wrong thing meeting them left to left when they actually wanted me to go the other side. One was a professional. 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

One was a professional. 

 

Maybe she was waving and touting for business ?

[ditchcrawler]

7 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Maybe she was waving and touting for business ?

No she had a boat full of punters, she wanted me to wiggle so she had a straight run between bridges

[davewally]

Whilst in  the subject of boatine etiquette.

 

Does anybody slow down to tickover for moored boats on the Grand Union.

 

Most people seem to be coming past at high speed and pulling out the pins, making no effort to slow down at all.

 

We even had a Black Prince boat (Pip) come past at full throttle, hitting us and then the bank by a bridge trying to turn the bend.

 

Rant over.

 

Dave

[Tonka]

12 minutes ago, davewally said:

Whilst in  the subject of boatine etiquette.

 

Does anybody slow down to tickover for moored boats on the Grand Union.

 

Most people seem to be coming past at high speed and pulling out the pins, making no effort to slow down at all.

 

We even had a Black Prince boat (Pip) come past at full throttle, hitting us and then the bank by a bridge trying to turn the bend.

 

Rant over.

 

Dave

what do you expect moored on a bend near the bridge hole

[Captain Pegg]

9 minutes ago, davewally said:

Whilst in  the subject of boatine etiquette.

 

Does anybody slow down to tickover for moored boats on the Grand Union.

 

Most people seem to be coming past at high speed and pulling out the pins, making no effort to slow down at all.

 

We even had a Black Prince boat (Pip) come past at full throttle, hitting us and then the bank by a bridge trying to turn the bend.

 

Rant over.

 

Dave

I think the further south you travel on the GU then folk do tend to slow down less and less.

 

But there is no requirement to ever slow to tickover, the navigation authority say you should simply slow down.

 

Being a relatively wide and deep canal the same speed will also have less impact on moored boats than on most other canals.

 

And is it reasonable for thousands of boaters to collectively attach themselves to the bank in a near endless line and expect all moving boats to pass at a crawl for mile after mile?

[IanD]

10 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

I think the further south you travel on the GU then folk do tend to slow down less and less.

 

But there is no requirement to ever slow to tickover, the navigation authority say you should simply slow down.

 

Being a relatively wide and deep canal the same speed will also have less impact on moored boats than on most other canals.

 

And is it reasonable for thousands of boaters to collectively attach themselves to the bank in a near endless line and expect all moving boats to pass at a crawl for mile after mile?

 

I slow down to the point where there's no significant wake at bow or stern, which is usually a bit above tickover since many boats are then smoother and have more steerage way -- depending on the boat, engine and prop. It's going to be interesting in an electrically-driven boat... 😉

 

In answer to the last question -- no, they should moor up properly, not use a couple of slack lines at right-angles to the bank. Of course boats shouldn't come past at full cruising speed, they should slow down (e.g. as described above), but speed at tickover is *very* slow for a lot of boats, and boats are usually moving for a purpose -- for example, getting past endless lines of moored boats...

Edited July 18, 2023 by IanD

[Alan de Enfield]

30 minutes ago, davewally said:

Whilst in  the subject of boatine etiquette.

 

Does anybody slow down to tickover for moored boats on the Grand Union.

 

Most people seem to be coming past at high speed and pulling out the pins, making no effort to slow down at all.

 

We even had a Black Prince boat (Pip) come past at full throttle, hitting us and then the bank by a bridge trying to turn the bend.

 

Rant over.

 

Dave

 

 

Maybe learn how to moor-up correctly, properly sized pins (not tooth-picks) and use 'Springs' in addition to your standard lines, then, it doesn't matter what speed boats come past you

[davewally]

37 minutes ago, Tonka said:

what do you expect moored on a bend near the bridge hole

I moored there because I was on a set of bollards with two boat lengths behind me and a winding hole before the bend and a bridge and the canal was very wide at this point.

Not too close I think.

[Victor Vectis]

1 hour ago, davewally said:

Does anybody slow down to tickover for moored boats on the Grand Union.

Quite frankly, no.

 

Well, not on the Paddington Arm at least.

If I had gone into tick over I would have taken all day for what should be an hour or two of boating.

 

I echo the comments made about CMers mooring properly. And......

 

The number of nose to tail, double moored CMing boats there has put me off wanting to visit the southern part of the GU again.

 

[Midnight]

12 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Quite frankly, no.

 

Well, not on the Paddington Arm at least.

If I had gone into tick over I would have taken all day for what should be an hour or two of boating.

 

I echo the comments made about CMers mooring properly. And......

 

The number of nose to tail, double moored CMing boats there has put me off wanting to visit the southern part of the GU again.

 

 

We visited the southern Grand Union for the first time this year. Expecting nose to tail boats from inside the M25 we were suprised to find a mooring right outside the Malt Shovel at Uxbridge then very few boats until just before the Paddington Arm. From Uxbridge to Bulls Bridge we hardly needed to drop into tickover to pass boats. Plenty of vacant moorings around Wembley too. Admittedly we would have struggled to find a mooring in Paddington if we hadn't booked but there were some boats moving off occasionally during our two day stop over. 

[IanD]

35 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Quite frankly, no.

 

Well, not on the Paddington Arm at least.

If I had gone into tick over I would have taken all day for what should be an hour or two of boating.

 

I echo the comments made about CMers mooring properly. And......

 

The number of nose to tail, double moored CMing boats there has put me off wanting to visit the southern part of the GU again.

 

 

There are plenty of places on the Paddington Arm with space to moor boats, sometimes even not near other boats.

 

However if you want to moor close to somewhere with good access to shops/bus/tube then so do lots of other people, so there will inevitably be a gaggle of boats there. Move a couple of hundred yards and there are usually plenty of spaces, though maybe not such a "nice" mooring. But until you get in past Old Oak Common it's still not that hard to find a mooring -- after that and in the city centre, not so easy (or just plain impossible).

 

Towards Little Venice and beyond it's wall-to-wall wideboats/double-moored narrowboats, often even on the VMs... 😞

 

(and this is the problem -- funnily enough most boater visitors would rather moor somewhere like Little Venice than Harlesden or Willesden...)

Edited July 18, 2023 by IanD

[Captain Pegg]

1 hour ago, Midnight said:

 

We visited the southern Grand Union for the first time this year. Expecting nose to tail boats from inside the M25 we were suprised to find a mooring right outside the Malt Shovel at Uxbridge then very few boats until just before the Paddington Arm. From Uxbridge to Bulls Bridge we hardly needed to drop into tickover to pass boats. Plenty of vacant moorings around Wembley too. Admittedly we would have struggled to find a mooring in Paddington if we hadn't booked but there were some boats moving off occasionally during our two day stop over. 

I found the same when I first visited, the local boaters leave the visitor moorings free for visitors but there are very long lines of moored boats in parts from West Drayton to Watford. Hayes is seemingly no more desirable to boat dwellers than it is to land dwellers.

 

I also found that nobody seemed too bothered about the speed of passing boats and you could cruise at a constant reduced but sensible speed. I wasn’t put off by it at all. I probably find the typical moored boat every 100 to 200 metres on the nice long pounds either side of Stoke Bruerne more frustrating.

[davewally]

This was in the Warwick area. Not continuous moored boats. I found it easy to slow down when passing. 

I agree about slow rather than tick over. At tick over we hardly move. I was probably using as a way of saying quite slow.

This area is mainly concrete edges directly to a gravel path and it is difficult to get the pins to grip as they tend to move in the gravel. 

[Captain Pegg]

15 minutes ago, davewally said:

This was in the Warwick area. Not continuous moored boats. I found it easy to slow down when passing. 

I agree about slow rather than tick over. At tick over we hardly move. I was probably using as a way of saying quite slow.

This area is mainly concrete edges directly to a gravel path and it is difficult to get the pins to grip as they tend to move in the gravel. 

I sometimes wonder if certain hire bases tell their customers about the need to slow down when passing moored craft. That’s based upon lots of instances of being caught up while passing moored boats rather than the speed they pass me; mostly because I rarely spent that long moored to the bank.

 

I wonder if that may be deliberate because of the increasing number of moored boats?

 

Ultimately I will side with a moving boat over a moored boat providing the behaviour isn’t obviously unreasonable.

[Guest]

I remember once being shouted at less than politely coming out of a lock,on the T&M possibly Wychnor. A row of boats all tied up waiting to enter the lock. I honestly dont think I could have gone any slower.

 

Yes the boats concerned were healing quite badly as I passed. All of course were tied up with their centre lines only so hardly surprising really. I (less than politely in return) told them to either belt up OR tie their boat up correctly.

 

(I nearly always tied up centre line only waiting for a lock but I could hardly then legitimately complain if my boat healed when another passed).

[dixi188]

I have a problem with my throttle as it won't stay put at the sweet spot just above idle, so going past moored boatd is a bit of a pain at the moment.

I have either 800 rpm or 1200 rpm. (Barrus Shire)

It's a Morse control, is there a friction adjuster inside that I can adjust?

[GUMPY]

It used to be so nice when the gravel boats were running south from Denham and down the Paddington Arm to West Drayton. Everyone on the stretch learnt how to tie up their boats or ended up in the middle of the canal.

Another bonus was that part was well dredged so speed for leisure boaters was not an issue.

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, dixi188 said:

I have a problem with my throttle as it won't stay put at the sweet spot just above idle, so going past moored boatd is a bit of a pain at the moment.

I have either 800 rpm or 1200 rpm. (Barrus Shire)

It's a Morse control, is there a friction adjuster inside that I can adjust?

In my experience this can be caused by misadjustment of the gear cable. Just coming off idle the gear linkage is still moving slightly and if this is “blocked” because the gearbox lever has hit its stop, this feeds back into trying to close the throttle. Also, if it is a PRM150 gearbox, long term it is bad for the box to have the lever hard up against the stop - wears the shaft and o ring and causes an oil leak. You might need to move the attachment point on the gear cable in or out at lever end or gearbox end, to reduce the travel.

 

Treating the root cause will be better than trying to mask it by increasing friction.

Edited July 18, 2023 by nicknorman

[Francis Herne]

On 12/07/2023 at 20:25, Tonka said:

Would a tyre fitted inside out over the bow fender prevented this from happening 

Not necessarily. Atlas has a tyre over the fender like that, and it still gets hung up on the handrails of some BCN locks.

 

(We often have to take it off anyway, they're relatively short locks not built for an ex-GU boat.)

Edited July 18, 2023 by Francis Herne

[blackrose]

On 16/07/2023 at 15:01, ditchcrawler said:

I have had two cases of frantic waving and pointing, both lady skippers and in both cases I didn't know what they wanted and as far as they were concerned I did the wrong thing meeting them left to left when they actually wanted me to go the other side. One was a professional. 

 

I just follow normal waving etiquette:

 

Smile and wave at everyone on passing boats and also at walkers on the bank if they seem friendly. Then as soon as I moor up and get off the boat I avoid smiling and waving at anyone and even avoid eye contact especially if I happen to spot the same people I was waving to from the boat earlier that day.

 

It's the English way...

Edited July 18, 2023 by blackrose

[Tacet]

The problem with waving signals is that they are often unclear whether the signaller is declaring its own intentions or giving instructions

 

It helps if you point at yourself before sticking out a hand to, say, port.

[IanD]

20 minutes ago, Tacet said:

The problem with waving signals is that they are often unclear whether the signaller is declaring its own intentions or giving instructions

 

It helps if you point at yourself before sticking out a hand to, say, port.

That's what I do.

 

Didn't stop an obnoxious boater refusing to take notice -- and almost causing a collision coming out of a lock -- then shouting "Idiot, don't you know to *always* pass on the right?"