SLOW DOWN! or maybe not…

[Big Bob W]

6 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Wet rope syndrome, where the rope between the T stud and the mooring ring is dangling in the water  

Much better if they are using nappy-pins that can clatter nicely for them

[Wanderer Vagabond]

22 minutes ago, IanD said:

They don't only have slack ropes, they have them close to a right angle with the bank, which pretty much guarantees that a) the boat is going to slosh backwards and forwards, and b) the increased tension due to the almost-right-angle is going to either slacken the ropes off even more or pull any mooring pins out...

And, even better, they also utilise the centre line also at right angles to the boat to pretty much ensure that any boat going past at any speed is going to cause their boat to tilt, spilling the ubiquitous 'hot kettle of water'.

[IanD]

12 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

And, even better, they also utilise the centre line also at right angles to the boat to pretty much ensure that any boat going past at any speed is going to cause their boat to tilt, spilling the ubiquitous 'hot kettle of water'.

And they use single mooring spikes in soft ground, often knocked in vertically or even leaning towards the boat, practically guaranteeing they'll pull out. And if they don't do this, they put them in with the loop towards the boat with the rope through it (instead of behind the spike) so the loop can get pulled off when the weak weld breaks... 😞

 

Maybe a condition of the license should be they attend a "mooring for dummies" class?

[Bargebuilder]

Are we talking about continuous moorers?

[hider]

9 minutes ago, IanD said:

And they use single mooring spikes in soft ground, often knocked in vertically or even leaning towards the boat, practically guaranteeing they'll pull out. And if they don't do this, they put them in with the loop towards the boat with the rope through it (instead of behind the spike) so the loop can get pulled off when the weak weld breaks... 😞

 

Maybe a condition of the license should be they attend a "mooring for dummies" class?

And knock the pin in half way then tie the rope to the top of it, crazy

[ditchcrawler]

42 minutes ago, hider said:

And knock the pin in half way then tie the rope to the top of it, crazy

That is my favourite 

[Jerra]

4 hours ago, Morris said:

 

Are you serious about chopping down Giant Hogweed? The sap is pretty nasty stuff, and could be a danger to you or any passers by after cutting. 

My youngest daughter works for a conservation organisation in Scotland.  They are dealing with hundreds of Giant Hogweed plants and those doing the work are wearing full protective suits with no skin exposed.

2 hours ago, Big Bob W said:

Much better if they are using nappy-pins that can clatter nicely for them

I often use nappy pins and have never had a sound from them.  Just make sure the rope is taught and if not using springs they run away from the boat foe and aft at 45 degrees.

[hider]

All chopped, done about 50m of the bank, no sweat, no itch. Thanks for the concern though, I knew the risk.

[Machpoint005]

2 hours ago, Bargebuilder said:

Are we talking about continuous moorers?

 

Not if their pins get pulled out, no!

 

 

34 minutes ago, Jerra said:

>> I often use nappy pins and have never had a sound from them.  Just make sure the rope is taught and if not using springs they run away from the boat foe and aft at 45 degrees.

 

Freudian slip by a former teacher, or just a rubbish spillchucker? 

 

 

 

[Jerra]

53 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Not if their pins get pulled out, no!

 

 

 

Freudian slip by a former teacher, or just a rubbish spillchucker? 

 

 

 

LOL.  It could be either.

[Mike Todd]

2 hours ago, Jerra said:

My youngest daughter works for a conservation organisation in Scotland.  They are dealing with hundreds of Giant Hogweed plants and those doing the work are wearing full protective suits with no skin exposed.

I often use nappy pins and have never had a sound from them.  Just make sure the rope is taught and if not using springs they run away from the boat foe and aft at 45 degrees.

But has it learnt?

[DandV]

8 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

You really need to tie one of the rings off or the boat can move back and forth with the rope running through the ring. You may of course have done that with the stern line, I cant quite see, but I often see boats moored just as your bow is. 

Or take 2or 3 turns when you pass it through the ring.

[Scholar Gypsy]

I find my folding cleats on the side decks very handy.  Not a trip hazard, in my experience.  Also a plug for big squashy fenders,  rather than the pipe variety.

 

Edited July 26 by Scholar Gypsy

[Grassman]

Until a few years ago I never bothered with a spring because the vast majority of passing boats slowed down. Nowadays because most don't slow down I always make a spring.

 

Better for my health than getting stressed every time it happens. 

[blackrose]

17 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

I might get something like that welded on. I have to tie to the dolly which obviously creates a trip hazard. 
But I climb in and out the front anyway, so little chance of tripping over the rope when I’ve had a few shandies. 

 

Part of the reason trip hazards are hazards is because it's not just the person who put them there and knows where they are who might trip over them. I wouldn't have anything fixed onto a gunwale. 

17 hours ago, hider said:

The whole subject changes of course if you have to drive pins in the soft, unstable, overgrowth covered towpath that most of us have to try to anchor our boats to.

 

 

Especially if you use the small pins that most narrowboaters use which are only about 15" long and undersized for the job if you're mooring on that sort of ground. 

 

I have a few of those but I also have 3 bigger ones which are 1m long. They're the ones I normally use.

[haggis]

The extra cleats we use for springs every time we moor are not where they would be trip hazards. The one at the front is in front of the cratch board and the one at the rear is further back than where you step off the trad stern. This doesn't leave much distance between the two cleats at the back but with the front spring it holds the boat nicely. It never moves no matter how fast passing boats go.

[Arthur Marshall]

6 minutes ago, Grassman said:

Until a few years ago I never bothered with a spring because the vast majority of passing boats slowed down. Nowadays because most don't slow down I always make a spring.

 

Better for my health than getting stressed every time it happens. 

I've got a short rope with a permanent nappy pin attachment for use when I need a spring. I've been on the Middlewich branch for most of this week and haven't needed it, every boat has gone past at a sensible speed (above tickover but not 4mph) except one - he went past with the bow nearly out of the water and a massive breaking wave and even that hardly shifted me. I thought for a moment I must have sunk without noticing. Made me laugh, he had to do an emergency stop on the corner as there was a boat slowly coming through the just out of sight bridge.

There again, when on my permanent mooring I set two springs.

[blackrose]

16 hours ago, dogless said:

 

Never really understood the desire to be on water but not move.

 

 

Me too. I actually like to feel my boat moving when boats go past. 

 

I was moored on a bit of bankside on the Thames near Boveney once, when a big trip boat came past very fast and that was a bit scary. I realised I needed to set up some springs and once I did that the next time it came past it was fine.

2 hours ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

I find my folding cleats on the side decks very handy.  Not a trip hazard, in my experience.  Also a plug for big squashy fenders,  rather than the pipe variety.

 

 

Yours are in an open and obvious position which everyone can see and they have other options rather than walking on the gunwale. The ones that are trip hazards are next to cabin sides where people will be walking along looking at the handrail rather than the gunwale.

[NarrowboatTor]

Moored up near Cropredy last night and a group of around 15 canoeists decide to use the section I'm on as a time trial raceway.

My boat has never rocked so violently as it did last night for around an hour.

Thankfully they started getting tired at that point and buggered off, slow down indeed.

It's surprising how much water is moved when they group up.

Edited July 26 by NarrowboatTor

[dogless]

That's the thing about water, it moves.

 

But then again, isn't that kind of the point of boating ?

 

Rog

[DandV]

What I would have liked to have had,  were four bigger versions of the fastening points for those awful pipe fenders our Reeve's hull had.

Two immediatly aft of the front corners of the deck house and two immediatly forward of the aft corners of the deck house.

They were notch cut out of the gunnel edge with a bar across right on the gunnel line and the rear  infilled with a piece of angle iron.  So no trip hazards,  but an opening to pass through a line or at least clip in a carabiner for a spring line.

Ours were just two small to pass either a suitable line or carabiner.

[hider]

38 minutes ago, NarrowboatTor said:

Moored up near Cropredy last night and a group of around 15 canoeists decide to use the section I'm on as a time trial raceway.

My boat has never rocked so violently as it did last night for around an hour.

Thankfully they started getting tired at that point and buggered off, slow down indeed.

It's surprising how much water is moved when they group up.

That would be the local canoe club, it is a daily event, wait until the weekend when there will be many more. It is surprising how much water they can shift with a paddle.

Are you there for Fairport then? Its a smashing 3 day weekend festival.

[IanD]

9 hours ago, DandV said:

Or take 2or 3 turns when you pass it through the ring.

Which is exactly what I now do, see followup reply 🙂 

[NarrowboatTor]

1 minute ago, hider said:

That would be the local canoe club, it is a daily event, wait until the weekend when there will be many more. It is surprising how much water they can shift with a paddle.

Are you there for Fairport then? Its a smashing 3 day weekend festival.

Nah, just passing through heading north and looked a nice quiet spot away from the railway with good armco mooring.

Yes, those paddles shift a fair bit of water especially when 3 abreast going like the clappers.

 

[Rob-M]

22 minutes ago, DandV said:

What I would have liked to have had,  were four bigger versions of the fastening points for those awful pipe fenders our Reeve's hull had.

Two immediatly aft of the front corners of the deck house and two immediatly forward of the aft corners of the deck house.

They were notch cut out of the gunnel edge with a bar across right on the gunnel line and the rear  infilled with a piece of angle iron.  So no trip hazards,  but an opening to pass through a line or at least clip in a carabiner for a spring line.

Ours were just two small to pass either a suitable line or carabiner.

We have similar fastening points, I put a soft shackle through one and set a spring from that when required.