How Fast Are You REALLY Going.

[carlt]

Slightly off-topic but on the subject of pulling over, listening to the radio last month they had a discussion between an "all caravanners must be shot" person and someone high up in the Caravan Club of GB. When the former complained that caravan towers consistently held people up, the latter claimed it was the explicit policy of the Caravan Club to pull over and let people past. In 26 years of driving on British roads, this has never happened to me. Am I extremely unlucky or what?

When I attempted to join the caravan club (some of their certificated sites are in very nice spots) they asked me to send them a photograph of my camper.

 

I cancelled my application, immediately.

[Naughty Cal]

When I attempted to join the caravan club (some of their certificated sites are in very nice spots) they asked me to send them a photograph of my camper.

 

I cancelled my application, immediately.

 

Do you not like sending people photos?

[Nine of Hearts]

Do you not like sending people photos?

 

I think it's more the point that they wanted to know what his 'van looked like. I doubt they wanted to know so that they knew which vehicle to bring the welcome basket to.

[Naughty Cal]

I think it's more the point that they wanted to know what his 'van looked like. I doubt they wanted to know so that they knew which vehicle to bring the welcome basket to.

 

Even so if you want the benefit of their facilities then you have to play by their rules. If that includes a photo so be it.

[Nine of Hearts]

Even so if you want the benefit of their facilities then you have to play by their rules. If that includes a photo so be it.

 

So if you object to their rules on an idealogical level, you'd change your ideology rather than saying, "Well, in that case I don't want to join"????

[Naughty Cal]

So if you object to their rules on an idealogical level, you'd change your ideology rather than saying, "Well, in that case I don't want to join"????

 

Why would sending a photo of a van be such a big issue?

 

If i objected to someones rules so badly i wouldnt want to join their "club" in the first place.

[Nine of Hearts]

If i objected to someones rules so badly i wouldnt want to join their "club" in the first place.

 

That statement would appear to agree with my original point, but the tone would suggest otherwise. I'm going to bang my head on a different brick wall now. If that's ok.

[magpie patrick]

But would you pull over when it became clear you were holding up a lot of boats?

 

Yes, especially if your boat was obviously capable of greater speed than mine!

 

When one narrow boat is catching another on a narrow canal it can be tricky, as the time difference between them might be only one or two minutes a mile, but on the Fossdyke (or the G&S) if what I'd call a cruiser is following us I ease off and to one side, I wouldn't wait to be asked

[Naughty Cal]

That statement would appear to agree with my original point, but the tone would suggest otherwise. I'm going to bang my head on a different brick wall now. If that's ok.

 

Please feel free however you will note it was you who got involved in someone elses conversation.

[alan_fincher]

Please feel free however you will note it was you who got involved in someone elses conversation.

 

Ahem - this is a forum thread - anybody can post.

 

If you want a 1-to-1 conversation use personal messages or email.1

 

 

But would you pull over when it became clear you were holding up a lot of boats?

 

I have no experience of pulling over for anyone on wide navigations. On the Severn last year the Tupperware sped from the locks long before we did, so it wasn't an issue.

 

I will always let someone pass on narrower canals if I can, but very few people seem to have little idea how to overtake, or how to be overtaken.

 

I have regularly caught people up who then wave you past on a stretch that is marginal for so doing. Many seem to re-open the throttle as you are alongside, not when in front, causing some anxious moments.

 

I now do it only on my terms, not because someone else indicates I should.

 

Letting a very big, powerful boat past you can also cause issues, if you have to move to shallower waters to achieve it, as they can easily wash you aground if they forge past at full tilt.

 

I don't think there is "one size fits all" answer, and the hardest thing is trying to guess the intentions, and particularly the skill (or lack of it) of the other steerer.

[Naughty Cal]

Ahem - this is a forum thread - anybody can post.

 

If you want a 1-to-1 conversation use personal messages or email.1

 

 

 

 

I have no experience of pulling over for anyone on wide navigations. On the Severn last year the Tupperware sped from the locks long before we did, so it wasn't an issue.

 

I will always let someone pass on narrower canals if I can, but very few people seem to have little idea how to overtake, or how to be overtaken.

 

I have regularly caught people up who then wave you past on a stretch that is marginal for so doing. Many seem to re-open the throttle as you are alongside, not when in front, causing some anxious moments.

 

I now do it only on my terms, not because someone else indicates I should.

 

Letting a very big, powerful boat past you can also cause issues, if you have to move to shallower waters to achieve it, as they can easily wash you aground if they forge past at full tilt.

 

I don't think there is "one size fits all" answer, and the hardest thing is trying to guess the intentions, and particularly the skill (or lack of it) of the other steerer.

 

If only it had been a wider navigation, alas it was the Fossdyke which is hardly helped by the overhanging trees BW seem to have given in on and the stupidly narrow channel.

[FadeToScarlet]

Lighter boats with a shallower draught and perhaps a longer hull may be able to go faster and specially designed high speed hulls with powerful engines can 'plane' above the trough (rather than sitting down in it) but I doubt if there are any narrow boats capable of aquaplaning!

 

There used to be, though, back in IIRC the early C19th. You'd have a team of horses to get it up on the plane, then one horse could keep it going at the trot.

[carlt]

There used to be, though, back in IIRC the early C19th. You'd have a team of horses to get it up on the plane, then one horse could keep it going at the trot.

This was a myth, bandied about by the Shropshire Fly Boat Trust, for a while (when they were the "Symbol Destruction Trust") but there is no way a conventional narrowboat hull would ever get on the plane.

 

If i objected to someones rules so badly i wouldnt want to join their "club" in the first place.

Which is precisely why I withdrew my application.

[NB Alnwick]

Surprisingly, I was once shouted at by the steerer a boat following because he thought we were going too slow. I tried to explain that we were struggling because of the lower than normal water level and that we were almost on the bottom despite being in the centre of the canal - so he asked me to pull over to the side

 

Some people just don't understand . . .

Edited March 2, 2009 by NB Alnwick

[Reiki Master]

Actually, for complete accuracy, the nature of the sandwich must be taken into account. Never be tempted to substitute buttered toast, for example. It is well known that this will always land butter side down when dropped, and therefore the force due to gravity will vary according to which way up you are holding the toast.

 

The power of this phenomenon can be demonstrated by the fact that UFOs are powered by large banks of cats (which always land on their feet) with buttered toast strapped to their backs, producing two opposing forces that cancel each other out, thus producing a zero-gravity field.

 

 

Will all this science be equally accurate if you pick up a bap and not a sandwich????????

[Morphyous]

Actually, for complete accuracy, the nature of the sandwich must be taken into account. Never be tempted to substitute buttered toast, for example. It is well known that this will always land butter side down when dropped, and therefore the force due to gravity will vary according to which way up you are holding the toast.

 

The power of this phenomenon can be demonstrated by the fact that UFOs are powered by large banks of cats (which always land on their feet) with buttered toast strapped to their backs, producing two opposing forces that cancel each other out, thus producing a zero-gravity field.

The buttered toast phenomena may be disproved by strapping the toast to a cats back and dropping it.

of course according to Einstein one would have to be standing on the scales and playing ping pong, whilst being observed by

by a stationary person on the bank preferably they should be not eating a crispbread as the lack of calories

would prove this exercise to be worthless.

[FadeToScarlet]

I managed 6 kph (with one lock which took 10 mins, so probably faster than that) last night; that's my normal cruising speed when on the open river. As in, I set off at 4pm, and arrived at my destination, 6km away, an hour later.

Edited March 17, 2009 by FadeToScarlet

[sociable_hermit]

Last year we got involved in a minor arguement with another narrowboat capt'n on the long flat section beyond Foxton. 'Amanda' swims very well and creates very little wash. We caught up with an older boat that seemed to be making very heavy weather of things - lots of noise and smoke but slow progress, and it was all over the place in bridge holes. Eventually on a long straight stretch they pulled over to the left, so we went up the right hand side (thinking they were mooring up, or at least letting us past).

 

Once thoroughly commited, it became clear that the other boater had no intention of backing off at all. As we came up alongside we had all of the normal gumph about "it's not a bloody racetrack you know" so we said, yes, we know, but our boat swims better than yours so we don't damage the banks, and you're holding us up. "I doubt it". Well, let us past and we'll show you. Oh no, far too easy - he had a go at us for "creating a bloody dangerous situation" because by this stage we were now two abreast approaching the next corner (even though his was the boat on the wrong side of the canal), and then he cut across our bows.

 

At this stage I backed off - no point in being foolish about it - and watched as he thrashed his boat off into the distance, making a point, and creating a huge bow wave and a thunderous racket. So much for it not being a racetrack!

 

Steel or tupperware, it isn't the boats which cause problems, it's the pig-headed facking idiots who man some of them.

[Gary Peacock]

Messing about yesterday on a river test I did see 7mph which was quite a bit faster than expected.

 

Before anybody starts shouting slow down we have to do full throttle tests and they are done on a river and only once in a blue moon for a short run.

[mykaskin]

Messing about yesterday on a river test I did see 7mph which was quite a bit faster than expected.

 

Before anybody starts shouting slow down we have to do full throttle tests and they are done on a river and only once in a blue moon for a short run.

 

Surely a short full throttle test isn't much of a test. It's only after running flatout for 12 hours that you know if things are properly installed!

 

Mike

[Gary Peacock]

Surely a short full throttle test isn't much of a test. It's only after running flatout for 12 hours that you know if things are properly installed!

 

Mike

 

It's normally quite easy to do just that with 40hp or so but with a 135hp running on the turbo it would attract a bit too much attention quite quickly on the 1 mile of river it is captive on.

[Strads]

Any one managed to water ski behind their NB yet?

 

just curious as to the "sporting" value on certain stretches... and checking the look on the crews face of the up coming boat...

[Farey]

I've got a GPS on my phone, which is quite useful. You can download google maps and get a satellite view of the canal you're going down.

 

Fastest I've done on my narrowboat (recorded on a friend's GPS) was close to 14 mph! We did the tidal Thames a couple of years ago, leaving Teddington just before the tide turned. By the time we passed Westminster we were going with the tide, and with the engine barely on tickover we were doing something like 6-8mph. Then I wondered if I should be on the other side of the river - there were large buoys, moored in the centre of the river, so I tried to cross over. I realized the current was rapidly taking me towards one of these buoys, so I rammed it into full throttle to get past. We safely cleared it, but that was when the GPS recorded nearly 14 mph. A scary moment, on a great trip.

[blueprince]

I have just performed some calculations, (wild assed guesses), and have come to the figure of 8364hp as the minimum required to get a narrowboat to plane, would you recommend a v hull for this?

[Naughty Cal]

I have just performed some calculations, (wild assed guesses), and have come to the figure of 8364hp as the minimum required to get a narrowboat to plane, would you recommend a v hull for this?

 

It would help

 

You got room for 4 caterpillar engines in the back of your NB. I know of some we could borrow for the trials. And a welder to make your hul a V.