New to canals... a couple of questions

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

My experience is that you pull the knob at any time and the engine stops, whether in neutral or not. The more common problem arises when you forget to push the knob in again, and the engine won't start.

 

Only if the stop cable outer is properly clamped, if not it tends to slide when you give the knob a good tug, then slide back into position when you push it back in. That is why, on the fleet, we gradually swapped from Bowden cable stop cables to recycled snapped Morse cables.

[Mike Todd]

7 hours ago, Slim said:

In part 'thruster or no thruster depends upon age and whether solo or not. I took up ditchcrawling when I was about 50 and much of it was solo. Initially I thought to have one would be a bit 'girlie'. Strangely, as the years passed bow thrusters looked far more attractive🤩  

But only if you start at that age. If by then you have some decent experience and learnt how to handle your bost, and can anticipate upcoming manoeuvres then to number of situations where a bowthruster is genuinely if help should be vanishingly small. You should also have learnt that most situations are best tackled slowly. But I would say that as we don't have a thrusters!

[Stroudwater1]

 

11 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

But only if you start at that age. If by then you have some decent experience and learnt how to handle your bost, and can anticipate upcoming manoeuvres then to number of situations where a bowthruster is genuinely if help should be vanishingly small. You should also have learnt that most situations are best tackled slowly. But I would say that as we don't have a thrusters!

 

What has age got to do with it? Some are good drivers, some will never be good. Same with boaters. You either get it or not. That’s more to do with various aptitudes unrelated to age. 

[Mike Todd]

3 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

 

 

What has age got to do with it? Some are good drivers, some will never be good. Same with boaters. You either get it or not. That’s more to do with various aptitudes unrelated to age. 

I know. I was simply responding, tongue firmly in cheek, to what the previous poster said.