Do you slow down?

[Hairy-Neil]

I don't think it is a lot to ask for some common sense and consideration,

 

I don't have a problem with slowing down. There are those though that have nothing better to do than moan as a matter of course, no matter what speed you pass at.....

[wrigglefingers]

Can I say, categorically, I really dont mind when another boat passes me when I am moored online and their speed is such that my boat bounces around. I REALLY REALLY dont mind! I have everything inside my boat set up so that it does not fall. Frankly I think its is nice, to be reminded that I am on the water and not on land.

 

If it was something that bothered me I would buy a camper-van or a winnebago. Instead I just see it as an intrinsic part of being on a living, thriving, vibrant waterway.

 

A lot of people on this forum (and on the canals generally) need to start looking closely at the motorhome market where they will be much happier - or then again, perhaps not, perhaps they are just fundamentally unhappy with any situation.

 

Feel free to pass me at 4mph anytime. I wont complain. I like to enjoy the canals for what they are, instead of moaning about what they are not!

 

1) And can I say categorically that neither do I - I just object to my cat being injured by somebody else's thoughtlessness so I shall take extra care next time and not rely on others to do the decent thing.

 

2) Caravan forums seem to be about as grumpy as this one; full of people complaining about pitch prices, cost of diesel, byelaws and inconsiderate campers, so not much change there.

 

3) A gentle reminder to follow the accepted tenets and established practices helps to keep the waterways a civilised place. Whilst i quite like the idea of anarchy,I'm not convinced I like the reality and yes, I have seen teenagers at lunchtime.

 

Jill

[Hairy-Neil]

I usually drop an anchor or a mudweight if I am away from the boat.

 

Or padlock and chain to the Armco if the surroundings suggest it.

[wrigglefingers]

"change the boat interior"

 

 

Change the boat interior!!!!! - lie a few things down - its not complicated, even for me!

 

And before you start on about pulling pins out, I usually drop an anchor or a mudweight if I am away from the boat.

 

You really shouldn't bedropping anchors in the cut - it damages the puddle lining of the canal.

 

Edited because of an argument in Time Out which distracted me and caused slight syntax confusion.

Edited July 1, 2008 by wrigglefingers

[StoneHenge]

I don't have a problem with slowing down. There are those though that have nothing better to do than moan as a matter of course, no matter what speed you pass at.....

 

I've actually only mentioned it to one person asking them to mind their speed, I usually don't bother because a lot of the time its either going to be ignored, or I will get abuse back.

 

Despite seeing a few speedy hirers, the majority seem to be very courteous despite being on a time limit themselves. It's the grumpy ones who leave at 5am and whoop past or those that whoop past at 11pm that annoy me, but what's the point in saying anything, only to cause tension.

 

Most people don't have a problem with slowing down, like you.

 

Personally I enjoy ticking past the boats as I love looking at all the colours, shapes, sizes and usually always get a wave too. All part of the charm for me.

[alan_fincher]

I think this a question of degrees....

 

There is a huge difference between whether your boat "shuffles" back and forth a bit when someone passes, and the kind of speed necessary to actually start dislodging saucepans off of stoves.

 

We are in a marina, but the first thing we encounter as we leave it is a length of long established BW online permanent moorings.

 

You can potter along the long line of boats getting a friendly nod or wave from many, but when you encounter a particular boat near the end, (a "serial complainer"), they will quite likely stick their head out and bellow "Slow down!". I've asked the mooring warden if he considers our speed excessive, and he just smiles, and shrugs his shoulders.

 

I refuse to keep putting our (modestly powered) boat in and out of gear, to reduce our speed further when 90% or more of moorers are happy with our rate of progress.

 

Incidentally, not once when we were out on a recent 10 day trip did anybody cause us any issues at all with their passing speed. This included central London where many boats seldom slowed at all. But for the buzz of their engines, they were bearly noticeable. I accept the same is not always true on a narrow canal, though....

 

There are those though that have nothing better to do than moan as a matter of course, no matter what speed you pass at.....

Exactly ! You said it in rather few words than I did though!

[GSer]

I don't have a problem with slowing down. There are those though that have nothing better to do than moan as a matter of course, no matter what speed you pass at.....

 

Only once, 20 years ago, was I ever shouted out at to 'slow down' it was my first trip on a hire boat on the Oxo, it's never happened since 'cos I slow down, to just over tickover passing moored boats, perhaps your own style of cruising is causing people to be sensitive when you pass.

 

Paul

[StoneHenge]

I have been on some wider canals and had boats pass us at speed and not noticed. Maybe due to the depth and width of canal has allowed for this and also as you have said, how well you are tied up. Most of the time we are able to use chains to tie up with quite good angles on the ropes which prevent a lot of movement.

 

The motion you feel as you are drawn slowly back and then as the boat gets almost to you you start drifiting forward is actually quite nice. As has been said, it reminds you you are on the water (apart from the gorgeous view in most cases). The motion of feeling the draw back to the point you feel a tension, then you just know it's going to 'clonk' is just not a pleasant one and we tie up really well. So they must of been at some speed to do this.

 

The other situation which seems to also make this worse is when two boats are passing each other passing you as a moored boat. One the other day was inches away from us, just having exited a bridge, with a boat passing to his left and was at full pelt. We really did get clonked you could hear the ropes squeaking under the tension.

 

 

I think this a question of degrees....

 

There is a huge difference between whether your boat "shuffles" back and forth a bit when someone passes, and the kind of speed necessary to actually start dislodging saucepans off of stoves.

 

We are in a marina, but the first thing we encounter as we leave it is a length of long established BW online permanent moorings.

 

You can potter along the long line of boats getting a friendly nod or wave from many, but when you encounter a particular boat near the end, (a "serial complainer"), they will quite likely stick their head out and bellow "Slow down!". I've asked the mooring warden if he considers our speed excessive, and he just smiles, and shrugs his shoulders.

 

I refuse to keep putting our (modestly powered) boat in and out of gear, to reduce our speed further when 90% or more of moorers are happy with our rate of progress.

 

Incidentally, not once when we were out on a recent 10 day trip did anybody cause us any issues at all with their passing speed. This included central London where many boats seldom slowed at all. But for the buzz of their engines, they were bearly noticeable. I accept the same is not always true on a narrow canal, though....

 

 

Exactly ! You said it in rather few words than I did though!

[John Orentas]

xx

Edited July 1, 2008 by John Orentas

[BlueStringPudding]

When we were at Ansty last week, a boat came speeding through the bridge (which is on a corner by BW moorings). The boat hit us full on as we were slowly approaching the bridge and it hit a moored boat too. They couldn't give a toss about it.

 

Someone also hit us on the corner by Tesco's near Rugby because they were going too fast with moored boats on both sides, it was a blind corner and they were on the wrong side for passing.

 

Both were short boats not being considerate about moored boats or indeed about longer boats manoevreability (us).

 

We also had some near squeaks which Kev deftly steered us out of - again because of speeders.

 

We too have the interior of the boat set up in such a way that it's very difficult to knock stuff off shelves however much we rock around, but if someone hits you, it doesn't matter how good the set up is inside, summit's likely to get damaged - if only the exterior paintwork and a few egos!

 

If the ground's wet (as it was all last summer) mooring pins do get pulled out by fast boaters. It happened to us last year on the Trent & Mersey. Not everywhere has metal siding or rings to moor up to especially out in the middle of nowhere. For us the point of boating is to be in the middle of nowhere sometimes.

 

When we're in a hurry we try to make a point of slowing down for moored boats. Last week it was very windy and we slowed down for a boat who was rather stupidly moored on a sharp bend on the North Oxford, only to find the wind took control and we missed hitting him only by the use of my foot! After that we slowed a little for moored craft but couldn't slow much for fear of actually losing control of the boat again to the wind. In that situation we need to rely on boaters mooring sensibly. Most do, some don't.

 

I think moorers need to use their common sense (we saw about 8 boats moored within 5ft of narrow bridges last week (one actually moored UNDER a bridge on a corner ) and easily 20 or more moored on sharp corners) AND boaters need to be cosiderate and SLOW DOWN when travelling past.

 

And the less said about the mooring around the Braunston Festival this weekend, the better! I don't think there was a single piece of BW morring legislation that wasn't breached! We toyed with the idea of mooring horizontally across the underside of Bridge 93, just to fit in with the general chaos!

Edited July 1, 2008 by BlueStringPudding

[Chris Pink]

The amount of wash, hence disturbance to the moored boat has very little to do with speed, a cruiser coming past slowly causes much wash, a working boat causes no wash but moves a lot of water around, nothing to do with speed. The BW workboats, shovel fronted couldn't slow down enough to avoid a wave. A lock causes water to move around. A deep channel causes little water movement a shallow one more.

 

To make arbitrary rules is ridiculous.

 

If your pans are likely to fall off in (almost) any circumstances then do the correct thing for being on a boat, fit fiddle rails.

 

Ever seen a canoe slow down?

[Dominic M]

I think we have to accept that whether or not it is courtesy to slow down, many do not, or not enough. Therefore it makes sense to moor better. Attaching a single spring, as referred to earlier, makes the world of difference. So too does having the stern and bow ropes passing to the shore at something like 45 degrees. So many boats these days tie up with what seafarers know as breast ropes – i.e. at 90 degrees to the bow and stern, which will cause the boat to roll excessively, especially when combined with the modern fad for using the centre rope to moor as well. I'm not sure that people who fail to moor their boat properly have any grounds for complaint.

 

Here on the northern Oxford it is pretty busy for most of the year. Maybe this place is unrepresentative but many boats hammer past the moorings here with little or no attempt to reduce speed. Private boat owners are the majority of offenders by a long chalk, usually looking like they have just swallowed 3 lemons whole.

 

P.S. I never slow down for people who cannot spell “unlicensed”

[Ex- Member]

We have always slowed down passing moored boats, simply because when first on the canal and talking to other boaters it seemed to be the done thing and considered courtious. As we're wide beam also and do tend to push a fair amount of water especially when narrow, it seems a natural common sense thing to do anyway. When we've been moored on the canal though, quite often boats have passed at quite a pace rocking even our wide boat to quite a degree, a narrowboat would suffer even more disturbance. Surely it's just common sense to slow down, especially if quite narrow and passing close.

 

We find mooring on the river more preferable though, so avoiding the passing boat disturbance you get on the canal and much more peaceful generally.

[Hairy-Neil]

Only once, 20 years ago, was I ever shouted out at to 'slow down' it was my first trip on a hire boat on the Oxo, it's never happened since 'cos I slow down, to just over tickover passing moored boats, perhaps your own style of cruising is causing people to be sensitive when you pass.

 

Paul

 

I don't speed past moored boats and I have seldom been shouted at.... On the odd occasion when I have been I have often thought, where did that come from and drew the conclusion that they were just regular moaners.

[John Orentas]

Only once, 20 years ago, was I ever shouted out at to 'slow down'

Paul

 

 

I find that hard to believe, I've had the "Slow down" when I have been stopped.

[NB Alnwick]

I think we have to accept that whether or not it is courtesy to slow down, many do not, or not enough. Therefore it makes sense to moor better.

 

This is human nature - some people only think of themselves and showing courtesy and consideration for others would never occur to them. Sadly, even when properly tied with springs we have to allow some slack because the water level at Cropredy tends to vary. A bit of bumping about we can cope with but, as previously stated, I have suffered injury and damage when the boat has been unnecessarily bumped while I have been preparing food or hot drinks.

[Dominic M]

This is human nature - some people only think of themselves and showing courtesy and consideration for others would never occur to them. Sadly, even when properly tied with springs we have to allow some slack because the water level at Cropredy tends to vary. A bit of bumping about we can cope with but, as previously stated, I have suffered injury and damage when the boat has been unnecessarily bumped while I have been preparing food or hot drinks.

Well I suppose you could go through the whole business of tying up that sea goers do - 2 springs, bow and stern ropes, and breast ropes. Nothing will move you then short of an earthquake. You shouldn't need any slack on a spring though. The angle, if you run it to about amidships, will cope with a rise and fall way beyond anything on the canal.

 

The business of yelling "slow down" is far too often done by those who have not taken the time to learn how to moor up properly.

Edited July 1, 2008 by Dominic M

[Smelly]

So do we:

 

a) analyse how much rope and on what angle is between every bank and boat we see or...

 

slow down to the minimum navigable speed?

 

Easy answer really. "You're not moored properly" is a cheap excuse after a few soggy days. The responsibility is solely with the person who's got the throttle open too far.

 

edit: the smiley isn't deliberate but has massive value now it's landed.

Edited July 1, 2008 by Smelly

[Hairy-Neil]

The responsibility is solely with the person who's got the throttle open too far.

 

Disagree.... Never heard of self preservation?

 

The person with the throttle in their hand perhaps has a duty of care to his fellow citizen. However the main responsibility must lie with the person who's got the kettle in their hand and the cat under their feet.

[GSer]

I find that hard to believe, I've had the "Slow down" when I have been stopped.

 

And I find that hard to believe

 

In my defence I must add that i do remove my hearing aid whilst cruising

 

Paul

[Dominic M]

Easy answer really. "You're not moored properly" is a cheap excuse after a few soggy days. The responsibility is solely with the person who's got the throttle open too far.

In an ideal world everyone would slow down. But they don't. Some don't seem to care, others think that by reducing the throttle only at the point they reach a moored boat will do. All I was saying that given this unarguable fact, would it not be better if people moored their boats up more securely? You may regard it as the the responsibility of the person tanking past you to ensure that your pins don't get pulled out of the ground, and you're right in most cases. What are you going to do, enter into a pointless unconstructive verbal slanging match? Sue him or her? Anyone who learns to sail at sea would be expected to master such ropework pretty much before anything else. And they would check their mooring ropes on a regular basis and adjust them if necessary.

[fender]

We find mooring on the river more preferable though, so avoiding the passing boat disturbance you get on the canal and much more peaceful generally.

 

Rivers? If you moor on the Thames its worse than the canal. There are a few trip boats whose sole purpose is to make life uncomfortble for narrow boats, and in some cases cause extreme distress...

 

and they dont care

[BlueStringPudding]

edit: the smiley isn't deliberate but has massive value now it's landed.

 

 

[Hairy-Neil]

Rivers? If you moor on the Thames its worse than the canal. There are a few trip boats whose sole purpose is to make life uncomfortble for narrow boats, and in some cases cause extreme distress...

 

and they dont care

 

Give them their due. They have a schedule to meet and some of them, the Salters boats, have been plying the route for 100 years. Salters used to run a service from London to Oxford, but had to give it up when loss of the right of passage at locks made it impossible to keep to anything like a timetabled service at busy times..

[tidal]

Anyone who learns to sail at sea would be expected to master such ropework pretty much before anything else. And they would check their mooring ropes on a regular basis and adjust them if necessary.

 

They also tend to accept that they are on a fluid enviroment, (unless they get it wrong ) and as such their vessel will occasionally move suddenly up, down or sideways, sometimes quite violently, and adjust their lifestyle, fittings and actions accordingly.

 

One of the most revealing things about my tours of prospective boats this last year was how many I found where the fittings, fixtures and installed equipment/personal bric a brac seemed more appropriate to houses built on solid foundations rather than a boat.

 

And don't get me started on how most boats were moored.................