Manners Please!!

[soffy]

Hi is it just us or are people using boats getting ruder and displaying very bad manners.

We have just come off the Oxford Canal and although we have met some lovely people (mostly liveaboards)

We have encountered some extremely rude and bad mannered utterly snobby people, who (if you are a liveaboard) consider you

nothing but tinkers and gypsies (we have had this said to our face at one lock whilst in a queue!!!!! ) Very nice love - thank you if you had waited a bit longer I would have read your palm for free!!!! HEHEHEHEHe

We have met time sharers who looked down their noses and refuse to pass the time of day and refuse to go near a lock with you incase you should scratch their paint work.

We met a boat who tried to queue jump at a lock because they wanted to get at some moorings on the otherside for the night

and well the list goes on.....

Please just because we live on our boat doesnt mean we are gypsies, just because we have lettices and tomatoes growing in pots instead

of huge pots full of flowers covering our boat doesnt mean we are hippies. Just because we say hallo and pass the time of the day - the least

you could do is smile and humour us and acknowledge our presence (sorry if I have spelt that wrong (not into spelling today).........

Boating is a wonderful way to live and a wonderful passtime so let good manners and politeness and consideration for the beauty around us .

Sorry everyone just had to get this off my chest.....Back on the GU now and straight away met nicer people......

Is it US !!!!!!

[Naughty Cal]

Well you cant please everyone

[Boatgypsy]

I quite agree. I've noticed a distinct deterioration in manners on the cut in the last ten years. I put it down to two things: 1, a change for the worse in general society and 2, a boom in the popularity of boating.

 

It is sad to say that the worst offenders in my experience are the regular hire boaters. First timers don't seem to present a problem at all. Next come the owners who go out in their shiny boats maybe for a couple of weeks a year. The most sociable are the genuine liveaboards or long term cruisers.

 

Of course this is a generalisation, before you all jump down my throat, and there are nice and nasty people in any grouping.

 

I'm getting heartily sick of people passing my boat as if they have a water skier on the back. Last week I politely asked someone to slow down who was going flat out and was told "f**k off somewhere else if you don't like it". That was a very well kept private boat - you know who you are!

[Lady Muck]

Worst <gossip> I'd heard was from the lady at the lock cottage at the end of the Shroppie in Middlewich. She saw a private boater ram a hire boat. The helmswoman onboard the private boat thought that the hire boat was about to 'steal her lock' so she rammed it deliberately. It wasn't planning to 'steal the lock, it was simply being turned around to take back to the hire base by a hire base worker.

 

We've seen very little bad manners or cross words on our trip in general. I suppose we fit into the hippy boater stereotype as well. We've noticed that each canal is very different though with different boaters and that you really can't judge a book by it's cover.

Edited July 23, 2009 by Lady Muck

[Heffalump]

A plastic thing pushed past me yesterday when I was winding a 69 footer. I've had dry feet for about a year so it was stressful enough in a tight spot without them to worry about!

[blackelle123]

While traveling the Nene around Denford and Ringstead, we have come across those that don't intend to go through the locks, but insist on taking up mooring space that has been put aside for those that use the locks. They then look on with blank expressions on theyr'e faces when you try to moor up at inappropriate places or at dangerous angles in order to negotiate the locks and leave it as it should be left. I should have just been rude and shouted for them to get out of the bl**dy way.

[mrsmelly]

A plastic thing pushed past me yesterday when I was winding a 69 footer. I've had dry feet for about a year so it was stressful enough in a tight spot without them to worry about!

 

Now then young Jim please call them by their proper title they are " Airfix kits " always keep a tube of humbrol cement onboard ya boat in case you accidently nudge one

[Heffalump]

Now then young Jim please call them by their proper title they are " Airfix kits " always keep a tube of humbrol cement onboard ya boat in case you accidently nudge one

 

Ahaha! well I came a bit close to that purple one opposite the winding hole in't yard yesterday! I think I'm getting back into the swing of this boating lark now though

Edited July 23, 2009 by Heffalump

[Naughty Cal]

A plastic thing pushed past me yesterday when I was winding a 69 footer. I've had dry feet for about a year so it was stressful enough in a tight spot without them to worry about!

 

Didnt know VW made an amphibious vehicle. Thought the Thing was more of an off road type vehicle

[blackrose]

I can't say I've noticed a decline in general politeness or an increase in rudeness in the last 10 years, but what I have noticed is an increase in the numbers of boaters (particularly liveaboards) who aren't interested in boats!

This has obviously come about due to the increase in property prices so people who had no interest in boats looked for alternative accommodation.

 

Some of these people will develop an interest in boats and the waterways but it never ceases to amaze me when I meet a rank amateur on a boat who quite obviously has no interest.

[carlt]

Some of these people will develop an interest in boats and the waterways but it never ceases to amaze me when I meet a rank amateur on a boat who quite obviously has no interest.

To be fair I have little interest in houses, but I live in one and Swmbo doesn't understand my fascination with old cars but she still drives them.

 

And don't get me started on washing machines.

[The Toad in the Hole]

It's hard to keep your head when all around are losing theirs.

 

I'll be on the upper reaches of the Llan this w/end and I fully expect to see somebody lose their rag. I'll try hard for it not be me. It'll be busy and there will be lots of newbies setting out. There will also be one or two of the inevitable numpties abroad. There will also be a lot of shared/liveaboard/retirement villages out there with their intolerance meters turned up to 11 and somewhere in the middle will be the rest of us. My blacks a bit tatty, but even so I resent being pushed into the Dee by a speeding dayboat as much as the next person. Trick is to rise above.

 

 

I daresay I'll still give them a hand at New Marton, even if their 276 children have been sat on the lock gate watching grannie drown and I've been steering through a Stella bottle slick for the last mile and a half. Similarly I'll nod and smile when the bod with the titanium & platinum lock key disparages the perfectly competent boaters working through the lock - because their boat has the name of a hire company, and he has a long dead haulage company written on his.

 

Or maybe I'll smear myself in stern tube grease and run naked through the streets of chirk with the head of "he's just being friendly" impaled on my boathook, ranting incoherently about BW's winter stoppage programme.

 

We'll just have to wait and see.

[NB Willawaw]

You need a little red button

 

http://nbwillawaw.blogspot.com/2009/07/lit...red-button.html

[carlt]

You need a little red button

 

http://nbwillawaw.blogspot.com/2009/07/lit...red-button.html

Nahh!

 

Just chuck 'em in the cut and hold their head under, with your boot, until they stop squirming!

[pquinn]

It's hard to keep your head when all around are losing theirs.

 

I'll be on the upper reaches of the Llan this w/end and I fully expect to see somebody lose their rag. I'll try hard for it not be me. It'll be busy and there will be lots of newbies setting out. There will also be one or two of the inevitable numpties abroad. There will also be a lot of shared/liveaboard/retirement villages out there with their intolerance meters turned up to 11 and somewhere in the middle will be the rest of us. My blacks a bit tatty, but even so I resent being pushed into the Dee by a speeding dayboat as much as the next person. Trick is to rise above.

 

 

I daresay I'll still give them a hand at New Marton, even if their 276 children have been sat on the lock gate watching grannie drown and I've been steering through a Stella bottle slick for the last mile and a half. Similarly I'll nod and smile when the bod with the titanium & platinum lock key disparages the perfectly competent boaters working through the lock - because their boat has the name of a hire company, and he has a long dead haulage company written on his.

 

Or maybe I'll smear myself in stern tube grease and run naked through the streets of chirk with the head of "he's just being friendly" impaled on my boathook, ranting incoherently about BW's winter stoppage programme.

 

We'll just have to wait and see.

 

 

 

 

ha,ha,brilliant.not sure what your saying but i like it.

[Heffalump]

Nahh!

 

Just chuck 'em in the cut and hold their head under, with your boot, until they stop squirming!

 

weed hatch?

[carlt]

weed hatch?

I prefer to call it "The Mincer" (insert manic laughter, here).

[Albatross]

Now then young Jim please call them by their proper title they are " Airfix kits " always keep a tube of humbrol cement onboard ya boat in case you accidently nudge one

Typical steel boat bad attitude that this thread is all about

[Soulgirl]

If our paths (or canals) ever cross soffy I'll be sure to say hi

[Phil Ambrose]

I think the bad manners, bad attitude and bad behaviour is just a sign of what a crap world we live in today.

 

Phil

[Soulgirl]

You're right Phil

[Amduck]

It's hard to keep your head when all around are losing theirs.

 

I'll be on the upper reaches of the Llan this w/end and I fully expect to see somebody lose their rag. I'll try hard for it not be me. ............ intolerance meters turned up to 11 and somewhere in the middle will be the rest of us. .......Trick is to rise above.

 

I'm with The Toad. Tolerance and gritted teeth are the key. Others may also be having a bad day. We're mostly out there to relax and have fun (even when combined with running a life and living aboard), so why not try to remember this and smile, even when others are snarling.

[mrsmelly]

Typical steel boat bad attitude that this thread is all about

 

Ahhhh you mean steel boat owner who has the bottle to give, age boat name boat location etc and not hide anonimously like a big girls blouse

[matty40s]

I am quite calm usually, and have had a very stress free last 6 months so am almost horizontal. However, coming down the GU in the last two weeks, I, just for once, opened my mouth , as someone put both me,my boat, and my daughter and her friend in danger. We were coming to the bottom Ivinghoe lock and a windlass armed couple were sat with the bottom gate open,waiting. I entered the lock and the gate was closed behind me. I got up on the roof with the centre line but before I managed to even get my rope on the side , never mind get up the ladder, the paddles were opened. I shot up the ladder and tried to hold boat, but fore-end was swept across lock into opposite wall. My daughter and her friend, who enjoy locking, were on the front deck wondering what was going on. After hauling the boat back and letting the lock fill, I approached the couple and pointed at their nice (shiny) boat.

"Is that yours, would you like me to open the paddles for you when you get in"

...."No thats ok, we will do it ourselves"

......."Well, next time, don't bother doing it for someone else, you put me, my boat and my kids in danger" .......

 

"we know what we're doing, we've been doing this for a long time"

 

 

"%%@!!%%££&&**%%@@~#%%"

which roughly transalates to...... I've been doing it 30 years too, have a nice day

 

I know it was out of character, as when we left the lock, my daughter and her friend said "" yeh, Go daddy""

Edited July 23, 2009 by matty40s

[Lady Muck]

I'm with The Toad. Tolerance and gritted teeth are the key. Others may also be having a bad day. We're mostly out there to relax and have fun (even when combined with running a life and living aboard), so why not try to remember this and smile, even when others are snarling.

 

I simply decided to avoid the Llangollen.

 

<floating in an oasis of calm on the L & L>

 

Have only seen one person lose it in almost three months of boating.