Single handing.

[Tigerr]

Increasingly, I think my boating is going to be singlehanded. I've done quite a few cruises on my own over the years, but I do admit, as I am less athletic now, single handing is starting to look like quite hard work.  I've started to look for routes with less locks or staffed locks. Avoiding wide lock routes. 

I am sure this has been done before so by all means point me to the same thread started in 1970, but useful tips would be welcome. 

[Arthur Marshall]

I've done almost all my boating singlehanded and I never was athletic... at 75 I'm now even less so, but I still find it very satisfying. I take locks and their ladders a bit slower and more carefully, walk round locks if I don't feel like crossing the gate, accept help from vlockies whenever offered and take a bit more care at swing or lift bridges than I used to.

I do avoid wide locks if possible, but, really, they aren't much harder to work and they just take longer. It's a bit embarrassing if sharing with a crewed boat, but I usually suggest they go on ahead to the next one and I'll close up as that seems more efficient.

I avoid the lock ladders if I can, going down I'll pull the boat through rather than shin down and drive it - a but harder in the back but less fuss than climbing down, mooring up and going back to close up. Going up locks is simpler than going down, though it seems counterintuitive.

Crucially, just take your time. If people are waiting for you to get out of a lock and don't come and help (which is more and more prevalent), don't rush because you're trying to be helpful, let them wait. It's rushing that gets you hurt, and I've got two slipped discs to prove it.

Oh, and I got one of of those ratchet lock twanglers. Wonderful thing. GoWindlass, that's it.

[Ray T]

 

This little book?

Edited February 10 by Ray T

[TheBiscuits]

19 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Crucially, just take your time.

 

That's the trick.  You don't need to deliberately dawdle, but rushing - or worse allowing yourself to be rushed - is for idiots.  Once you get into a smooth rhythm it tends to speed up, but doing all the steps of the process carefully and deliberately is far more important than doing it quickly.

 

It's not actually that difficult if you can climb ladders, but as Arthur says above sometimes it's just easier to not bother and line the boat in or out of a drained lock than it is to keep climbing up or down.  Where you choose to do it matters as well - on a 5' deep lock it's fairly trivial, on a 15' lock it feels harder!

[cuthound]

27 minutes ago, Ray T said:

 

This little book?

 

I bought that book when I first tried going single handed and found it full of the blindingly obvious, possibly because having boated for many years before trying single handed I had already subconsciously worked out what I thought would work.

Edited February 10 by cuthound
Clarification

[Arthur Marshall]

17 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

That's the trick.  You don't need to deliberately dawdle, but rushing - or worse allowing yourself to be rushed - is for idiots.  Once you get into a smooth rhythm it tends to speed up, but doing all the steps of the process carefully and deliberately is far more important than doing it quickly.

 

It's not actually that difficult if you can climb ladders, but as Arthur says above sometimes it's just easier to not bother and line the boat in or out of a drained lock than it is to keep climbing up or down.  Where you choose to do it matters as well - on a 5' deep lock it's fairly trivial, on a 15' lock it feels harder!

I do find that, certainly as far as narrow locks go, I'm quicker by myself than most crewed boats. As above, you get in a rhythm and you aren't slowed down by having to watch what some else is doing!

[trane]

The best advice I would give is to not be worried about other boaters and their offers to help. Yes its great to have help but last year, as an example,  I had a problem at a lock when a log caught between the boat and the lock wall and the boat hung up. I would rather get off the boat and work the lock, even if there are other boaters offering to help. On this occasion I spotted the problem, dropped the paddle and then refilled the lock/flushed the boat free. The boaters waiting to come up didn't have a clue why I dropped the paddles-I shudder to think what would have happened had I been at the stern trying to communicate with them. I have had "helpers" lift all the paddles then walk off back to their boats or wander off to talk to their friends--I prefer to be on the lockside when the boat is in a lock and I'll work it myself. 

 

[magnetman]

Yes.

 

I wonder if anyone has successfully routinely taken a Boat through manually operated locks alone with only one hand. 

 

It could be a bit of a challenge. 

 

 

 

I aways get off the Boat including in Thames locks and it sometimes confuses lock keepers. 

 

Done it like that all my life and 99.9% of my Boating on canals and the River has been by myself. 

 

[LadyG]

I found at first that I felt rushed if there was another boater around, because I did not have my routine ingrained. I've now worked out my pace, which is v slow in winter as even a tiny slip can tweak a muscle, I just wear my lifejacket most of the time  and try to move when conditions are most favourable.

Occasionally I have to ask for assistance with lock operations from healthy looking passers by, sometimes they ask to assist, and I like to encourage their interest, I don't usually ask them to operate the paddles if I am on my boat.

The biggest tip I would give to newbies is to learn to use the ropes. Unbelievably, not long ago, a guy handed me a long centreline back and somehow he had managed to put three granny knots in it!  

I generally control tne boat from the shore by puting the centreline once round a bollard, or under a ring to  give me control.

A three strand rope needs to be coiled clockwise  In tne hand due to the lay. 

 

Edited February 10 by LadyG

[Arthur Marshall]

1 hour ago, magnetman said:

I aways get off the Boat including in Thames locks and it sometimes confuses lock keepers. 

 

Done it like that all my life and 99.9% of my Boating on canals and the River has been by myself. 

 

I tend to stay on the boat if offered help and they look as if they know what they're doing. I have been wrong a few times, but with a short boat I prefer to control it with the engine. I think it's a matter of opinion, bit like riding the gates, which I have never done and never will, but others seem to do it without often sinking their boats.

Which means, listen to advice from everyone, and then do only what you are comfortable with. You're the only person who knows your boat, and who knows your own capabilities. And if anyone insists they are an expert, for god's sake ignore everything they say.

 

ETA unless it's Tony Brooks or Gibbo, obviously.

Edited February 10 by Arthur Marshall

[MtB]

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

but others seem to do it without often sinking their boats.

 

Boaters with full length boats do it TO AVOID sinking their boats....

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

....and I like to encourage their interest, I don't usually ask them to operate the paddles if I am on my boat............

Then how are the paddles operated ?

[LadyG]

I know I nearly lost my boat ( as in it nearly went downstream) when I stepped off on a river on to a lock pontoon.

I was heading in to the stream, looked fairly quiet ....and had my long strong centreline in my hand. I stepped on to the lock pontoon as soon as I could, but the river quickly caught the bow so I was left taking the weight of the boat as it tried to move broadside 

I just managed to get the rope round something on the pontoon,  and the centreline held the boat, a bit scary. I then had to clamber over some trees to actually get back on to the boat for the windlass, the stern had stopped on the bank.

I  then opened the lock, and got back on to the boat, but had to ask a passers-by to release my centreline, which he handed to me!

It just happened quickly and unexpectedly as the river seemed quite benign.

I was also concerned the boat would tip over as the river hit it broadside and it was fastened by the centreline. I had my Stanley knife in my pocket!

The only thing I felt I could have done differently was to get the stern next to the mid pontoon cleat rather than stepping off the stern on to the end of the pontoon.

No more unmanned river locks for me!

 

Edited February 10 by LadyG

[magnetman]

Get off with a long line attached to the bow then you can't lose the front of the Boat. 

Centre lines are dodgy when the water is flowing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw someone almost roll a narrow when they tied it by the centre line to a bollard too near the lock then emptied the lock. The boat went so far over I could almost see the baseplate on the outside. Must have been at least 45 degrees. 

[MtB]

12 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Get off with a long line attached to the bow then you can't lose the front of the Boat. 

Centre lines are dodgy when the water is flowing.

 

My first narrowboat was a Hancock and Lane shell they made for me. It had centreline bollards welded to the side decks os both sides which worked brilliantly with (obviously) no tendency to roll the boat.

 

Horrendous trip hazards even though I knew they were there. Every time!

 

 

[magnetman]

Its quite a difficult thing to organise. I dislike articles on the side decks but a low down fixture point would be handy. 

 

My first narrow was a Hancock and Lane Marlin but centre lines were fixed to the box tube handrails. 

I think a recessed and structurally supported bollard in the side of the cabin could work. Perhaps weld in a scaffold tube from base to cabin top and bracket to the side deck then let in a recess so one could put a rope around it. 

 

That would help leave the side deck clear of tripping hazards. 

[Arthur Marshall]

10 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Boaters with full length boats do it TO AVOID sinking their boats....

 

 

Maybe, but how many 72 footers do you see out there? Anything much shorter it's a daft idea.

[Alan de Enfield]

9 hours ago, magnetman said:

Get off with a long line attached to the bow then you can't lose the front of the Boat. 

Centre lines are dodgy when the water is flowing. 

 

Perfect answer.

You can always tell posters who have some experience of 'real' rivers (rather than large brooks)

[cuthound]

21 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Boaters with full length boats do it TO AVOID sinking their boats....

 

 

 

It also works with boats of 60 foot and over in locks known to have a strong pull, such as some on the T&M.

Edited February 11 by cuthound
Spillung

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, cuthound said:

................in locks known to have a string pull, such as some on the T&M.

 

Was that in the days of horse drawn boats, or is it still in force today ?

[cuthound]

11 hours ago, MtB said:

 

My first narrowboat was a Hancock and Lane shell they made for me. It had centreline bollards welded to the side decks os both sides which worked brilliantly with (obviously) no tendency to roll the boat.

 

Horrendous trip hazards even though I knew they were there. Every time!

 

 

 

My boat has dolly's mounted at the front of the well deck, just behind the cratch board, one oer side.

 

I find them useful for attaching spring lines as well as attaching a long line to control the boat in wide locks with a strong flow, such as Newbury.

[magnetman]

I'm a fan of bow hauling but string is rather thin. 

[cuthound]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Was that in the days of horse drawn boats, or is it still in force today ?

 

Doh, another case of phat phingers, now corrected.

 

[MrsM]

When you have another boat to go through with I enjoyed wide locks the best. 2 boats are nice and stable and you've generally got someone to help with paddles & gates. A nice chance to get to know other boaters too.

[Peugeot 106]

41 minutes ago, MrsM said:

When you have another boat to go through with I enjoyed wide locks the best. 2 boats are nice and stable and you've generally got someone to help with paddles & gates. A nice chance to get to know other boaters too.

Yes but when single handers just stay on their boats and make no effort to help at all I do get irritated. Some seem to expect us to do it all for them even though we are often a lot older. I get even more irritated when they can’t/won’t manoeuvre through one gate and expect us to open ( and close) both gates. 
 

We have been known to stop for a pretend lunch or coffee. but it can mean all the subsequent locks can be set against us. 
If they offer to help we often say no we can manage but a lot of singlehanders seem to think they are entitled to a free ride and don’t say thank you, smile or offer a biscuit.  They can make no effort at all to help even when they can see us doddering pensioners struggling and I can get the feeling that they may have been lying in wait. I do wonder how some cope on their own. 

Rant over but it has happened quite a few times though I’m sure MrsM would not behave like this. Luckily the offenders generally don’t travel far but it’s not good if you’re on a flight. 
 

To singlehanders. Even just  the offer of help can make a big difference. The curt nod “ we are all boatmen and part of a big brotherhood” doesn’t cut it with me