A question for boaters

[Steilsteven]

The thing I like about meeting Hire Boaters is that they remind me how lucky I am to have discovered this great way of life, and how lucky I am. Never heard a Hire Boater be anything but posative about the Canals and sometimes I need reminding (mainly after reading some of the posts on here including my own!!!)

 

Totally agree, I very often feel envious of new comers to the waterways as it reminds me of the feeling of awe I had when it was all new to me.

 

I have to say that it's not just hire boaters who suffer stick from those who think they know it all. When I was a crew member on President and Kildare many years ago we suffered some severe verbal abuse from a couple on a converted joey.Whilst waiting for them to descend a lock, we decided to breast up by the bottom gates with the intention of reversing to let them by as they came out.At the sight of this the woman went ballistic and when she opened the gate her husband drove straight at us at full throttle.As they passed us there was more shouting and swearing and telling us we didn't know what we were doing. To this day I'm still confused as to what inconvenience we had caused them when all we did was a standard maneuver for a pair of boats.

 

Keith.

[Dominic M]

Carl

 

If you do hire next summer can you let me know when and where, don't want some river moorer scratching my new boat.

And he'll be whining away in Est'ry Inglish an' all no doubt

[KeithL]

Hi All,

 

Ime new hear, obviously Ime 17 Ime intrested in boats and railways ive worked for a narrowboat hire company and been on a few narowboat holidays, I have a question, Do private boaters generally like/respect hire boaters. The reason I ask is because on my last boating holiday we moored up at Castlethorp (GrandUnion) and during the night we had our mooring pins stoled and our boat became stuck across the canal, While we tried to get our boat unstuck we were called alsorts inc Useless hire boaters, and worse .

 

Adam

 

Your mooring pins were probably pulled by some local chavs 'havin a laff' not a fellow boater i hope!

[RLWP]

Your mooring pins were probably pulled by some local chavs 'havin a laff' not a fellow boater i hope!

 

There is another possibility though. As other boats passed, the boat surged backwards and forwards, pulled it's own pins and dropped them in the cut. I seem to remember having this happen first time we hired.

 

Richard

[Woollymishka]

hi Adam

Welcome and hope you find the forum useful - as they say it takes all sorts and unfortunately the cut has some people with whom I have no wish to associate with but in the main the people are very friendly and can be exceptionally helpful.

I always try and remember that it might be me one day who needs some help or advice so have no issues about offering help to anyone - they can always say no!

Enjoy the forum and have a lovely Xmas

Tim

[Naughty Cal]

You will be fine as long as you have a boat like theirs.

 

Bring something new into the ditch and forget it you will be driven out.

[mayalld]

You will be fine as long as you have a boat like theirs.

 

Bring something new into the ditch and forget it you will be driven out.

 

It is nothing to do with the boat dearie.

 

Everything to do with the boorish attitude.

[Jason Wilson and Family]

You will be fine as long as you have a boat like theirs.

 

Bring something new into the ditch and forget it you will be driven out.

 

Please don't let children like Phylis here turn you away. There are many different types of boats on the canal and they are all welcome as long as they can suit the regulations and common courtesies of the canals.

[bottle]

Sorry to go

 

Phylis you just don't get it, the type of boat doesn't matter, even if it is one that cannot go slower than 4mph, it is the type of person that matters.

 

By the way you do not matter.

[Pete of Ebor]

A great number of hirers, on the water, have been boating longer than I have (25 years) and simply do not want the hassle of boat ownership.

 

I have to agree. I .. well, we, being a group of about 8, have been hiring for over 15 years. I love boating, canals and all that but I've never felt the need to actually own a boat. It seems rather expensive and tying .. ie tied to one mooring/length of canal until that week, only 3 or 4 times in the year when I might actually be able to use it..

 

There's another side to hirers that many may not have considered.. I reckon that if there were NO hirers at all anywhere on the system, many parts of the system would see no boats at all.. then soon, the weed & silt will set in, followed by more rubbish being dumped - after all, it looks disused now - and before long, some parts of the system will become even less navigable than they are now..

 

How's that for a can of worms... Discuss ...

[Byeckerslike]

Hi All,

 

Ime new hear, obviously Ime 17 Ime intrested in boats and railways ive worked for a narrowboat hire company and been on a few narowboat holidays, I have a question, Do private boaters generally like/respect hire boaters. The reason I ask is because on my last boating holiday we moored up at Castlethorp (GrandUnion) and during the night we had our mooring pins stoled and our boat became stuck across the canal, While we tried to get our boat unstuck we were called alsorts inc Useless hire boaters, and worse .

 

Adam

 

Hi,

 

Yes, I remember that incident, the boat was adrift across the canal, by a bridge hole, another boat was ably assisting in re-moring your boat, it appeared that there no-one on board at the time.

 

Rob

[nbtafelberg]

I Love Hire Boaters too!

 

"Keep your feet away from the edge, the alligators in here are small but they can give you a nasty nip"

[Night Hawk]

I don't have a problem with hireboaters as a rule - most of them are charming people....

[onthecut]

Hi all.

 

Anglers, cyclists, walkers, hirers, owners ------ all welcome. We need as many waterway enthusiasts as we can get in these troubled times. Remember the cutbacks after the Defra fiasco --- well, since Gordon saved the world using all our money, I dread to think what lies in store. The more people we have on board, the better.

 

Mike.

[OGGDOG]

i must admit i am struggling with this converstion, i have been hiereing boats for nearly 30years, broads and canals.

have many a time gone to look at buying my own but have felt financialy it safer to hirer.

 

When i am boating i can think the same as a private ownwer thinks but this time it is against the private, some are polite some are stuck and some just completley ignore you and think they are the cats whiskers.

 

I completley agree with others saying without hireres where would the canals be.

 

we should all help one another whenever it is needed

[DHutch]

When i am boating i can think the same as a private ownwer thinks but this time it is against the private, some are polite some are stuck and some just completley ignore you and think they are the cats whiskers.

I would back this up.

- I can well imagine that there was a time between the time that the only boats our there there hire boats, and the present time, where the few people that had actually bought a boat (proberbly after hiring) where the boaters, who knew what they where doing, and had done it before. Such that you could basicaly rely on a private/owner boater to be competent. Where with a hire boat you had to take it as it came.

 

However currently, so many people have bought a boat, often without having hired before or being boaty people, that i personal do not see/notice/expect any change incompetance between thoughs owning and those hiring.

 

The only diffrence i do fine, is that its very rair to find a hirer who isnt willing to take advise (bar possably at a time when there already in a fumming temper with themselves) however with owners you never know quite where you stand.

 

 

- And welcome to the forum Adam.

 

 

Daniel

[Ange]

I would back this up.

- I can well imagine that there was a time between the time that the only boats our there there hire boats, and the present time, where the few people that had actually bought a boat (proberbly after hiring) where the boaters, who knew what they where doing, and had done it before. Such that you could basicaly rely on a private/owner boater to be competent. Where with a hire boat you had to take it as it came.

 

However currently, so many people have bought a boat, often without having hired before or being boaty people, that i personal do not see/notice/expect any change incompetance between thoughs owning and those hiring.

 

The only diffrence i do fine, is that its very rair to find a hirer who isnt willing to take advise (bar possably at a time when there already in a fumming temper with themselves) however with owners you never know quite where you stand.

 

 

- And welcome to the forum Adam.

 

 

Daniel

 

I agree. We've hired a boat on four different occasions for a week at a time and have always appreciated the assistance offered by boat owners (and experienced fellow hirers). We've found varying attitudes from boat owners - I suppose you have to view the boating community as a cross section of society - you're going to find a mix of friendly and helpful people and those that make the world a less pleasant place.

 

Now we have our own boat I'm hoping people don't assume we know what we're doing all the time - we're reasonably competent most of the time but there's going to be a lot of situations we haven't come across in our four weeks on popular sections of the canals. We're going to be more than happy to take advice.