Trad stern seating?

[matty40s]

wives and other people are for locks and tea and food aren't they????

[carlt]

I find sitting up there gives me back ache so I stand on the step,but I tend to change hands quite often.

Most of the time I keep a foot on the tiller, except for the tricky bits, when I get down and stand in the hatchway.

 

This keeps my back straighter, than if I use my hand.

[Liam]

I have been known to sit on the cabin in the hatch but I nearly always go along stood inside the hatch. As I have problems with my neck I am forever 'swapping sides' so I don't do my neck in any moor by constantly steering with my head looking to one side.

 

I have a mate who is very anti - trad and very pro cruiser, who has always said that he couldn't possibly put up with a trad as it would be very umcomfortable for more than half an hours worth of steering. I got fed up with this so took him out for a run on my boat. After some persuasion I managed to talk him into steering in the proper and safe way (inside the hatch) and after a 20 minute run he commented on how comfortable he was. I have steered his boat numerous times, as it used to belong to my uncle. It's OK generally but the height of the tiller is a bit too low and if you do sit down on the seat he has got running across his stern rails then you can't see a bloody thing.

 

A boat I moved in the Summer has these stern rails on the back of it. Two poles coming up from near to the dollies with a peice of wood on each end. Every time I stepped off the back end I always gave the top of my legs a nasty crack unless you got off sideways, it really was that narrow. I actually tried the seat just to prove a point to myself and thought it would be more comfy to sit on a rope. You also had absolutely no leverage on the tiller as you pretty much sat behind it. To turn at all you had to lean forward quite alot to move it at all.

[Chertsey]

Most of the time I keep a foot on the tiller, except for the tricky bits, when I get down and stand in the hatchway.

 

This keeps my back straighter, than if I use my hand.

I did master the art of operating the throttle with my knee...

[Speedwheel]

As Dave said I would not stand on the back deck while someone else is steering and wouldn't allow someone else to stand on there if I was steering. Standing on the gunnel forward of the deck (on the chimney side if it is cold!) is fine as is sitting on the slide.

 

Most of the time I steer with the small of my back - using my hands when more pressure is needed. A cushion can be used to sit on if t it is uncomfortable!

 

Cants are the upstanding bits around the rear deck. I'll see if I can find a pic.

 

Cruiser sterns maybe nice in the summer but no stove for the winter!

Edited January 5, 2010 by Satellite

[wrigglefingers]

I did master the art of operating the throttle with my knee...

 

I used to sit on the semi-trad edge, port side of Surprise, operate the tiller with my right foot and the morse throttle with the back of my calf and thus keep hands free for tea in one and sandwich in t'other whilst shouting orders to Ellen. Happy days ..... (Crunch!)

[Québec]

I did master the art of operating the throttle with my knee...

Aah....that answers my question..though I do find it a bit ironic given all the quite sensible advice we've had on the safety aspects of where to stand/sit when steering a trad

[wrigglefingers]

Aah....that answers my question..though I do find it a bit ironic given all the quite sensible advice we've had on the safety aspects of where to stand/sit when steering a trad

 

 

Well-spotted that person!

[Speedwheel]

Aah....that answers my question..though I do find it a bit ironic given all the quite sensible advice we've had on the safety aspects of where to stand/sit when steering a trad

 

Sorry but I don't see why.

[carlt]

Aah....that answers my question..though I do find it a bit ironic given all the quite sensible advice we've had on the safety aspects of where to stand/sit when steering a trad

What's wrong with operating the throttle with some other part of the body, other than a hand?

 

How do you make your car go faster?

[RLWP]

What's wrong with operating the throttle with some other part of the body, other than a hand?

 

How do you make your car go faster?

 

 

These dangerous practices also occur on cruiser stern boats. Tawny Owl's morse lever is conveniently placed to be operated with my left leg, which is what I usually do.

 

Richard

 

It does confuse people when the engine speed apparently changes all by itself.

[n.b.Goldie]

Hello ...

 

Willow has a trad stern, not much of a standing platform of course and other half is a bit scared about standing in the open when she is steering and thinks some sort of seating would be a good idea. We would have chosen a cruiser stern if we could have found our idea narrowboat but Willow came to us and ticks all the other boxes.

 

Any ideas for fabrication of seats, should I take it to a boat builder or have a go myself?

 

Thanks - Davo

Stand on the back-cabin-step, your tiller should be long enough to allow this, you can then lean against the hatch-side for a bit of comfort.

 

In cooler weather I shut the back doors and pull the hatch up to me. An adapted bilge blower then directs warm air from the engine room towards me, my central heating I call it.

 

Anyway, standing on the counter deck to steer would surely mean the tiller is very short and therefore there would not be much leverage to steer with.

 

Horses for courses I suppose.

 

Ditchdabbler

[DHutch]

Sit on the cabin roof.

 

Seats on a trad stern are more dangerous than none at all..

Ditto.

 

Along with cruiser sterns, you should never stand within the arc of the tiller bar. If you where you be sat on seats or on a taff rail round the stern and something where to jam in the prop against the rudder your only going to end up in one place. With cruisers you can even remain in this place while using reverse. which is when someones ends up going through the prop in the middle of there holiday. (sorry, but its true, and it will happen again)

 

I was always told that I was to stand on the gunwale forward of the back deck when on a working boat so that the steerer had space to swing the tiller safely.

Certainly that what i do if im the second on the back of the boat.

 

 

When steering a trad (not that common, but it had happened) I too oscillate between standing and sitting, changing sides when standing, although always sitting on the right for the smoke-in-the-face factor. Steering emilyanne (wheelhouse) i oscillate between the seat as designed, and siting on the side as per a semitrad.

 

 

Daniel

[Richard T]

I have made seats for our boat and a friends which make steering whilst sitting on the cabin top very comfortable whilst steering. They are simply 18mm ply supported on 75x50mm softwood trimmed to the boat shape so the ply is level. They are upholstered with 50mm of fairly firm foam and leathercloth type fabric. Very smart they look - perhaps when I retire I'll go into business making them.

 

To return to the original subject of the topic many years ago a teaching assistant was killed on a school trip when she was knocked off the stern by the tiller of a trad boat into the water and the prop. I can't remember the exact details of the incident, I think it was a UCC boat and that the accident took place at Salford junction. I know that other hirers of trad boats fitted signs stating the correct steering position was the top step following this accident. I know from experience that if the rudder on our boat hits an obstacle I cannot hold it and the force would easily knock me into the water.

[nb Innisfree]

My solution for a safer cruiser stern, why bother with a tiller and lose the advantage of a large rear deck?

 

[DHutch]

Padded seats i have seen and as long as there secure i would suggest fairly safe and well as no doubt more comfortable.

 

Ive also noticed a lot of the canaltime boats now have a line on the stern marking the arc of the tiller

 

 

 

Daniel

[sueb]

What no one has said is that you usually get knocked off the boat when you put it in reverse. There have been several accidents/deaths by people going under the propeller. It just isn't worth standing anywhere but in front of the tiller on a trad.

Sue

[n.b.Goldie]

What no one has said is that you usually get knocked off the boat when you put it in reverse. There have been several accidents/deaths by people going under the propeller. It just isn't worth standing anywhere but in front of the tiller on a trad.

Sue

Well said!

 

Ditchdabbler

[Liam]

Agreed Sue, but it's not just in reverse.

 

My old boat didn't have the extra bottom plate on the weedhatch, going along one day, I picked up a big log which jammed between the prop and the rudder. As it got jammed it threw the tiller hard over. If I would have been sat behind the tiller then it would have either knocked me over the rail and into the canal or crushed me between the back rail and the tiller bar.

[nb Innisfree]

The biggest danger with reverse is you are far more likely to be drawn into the prop.

[Byeckerslike]

I also didn't know so went to find out. A 'cant' (as in 'cant in the road') is a beveled or sloping edge between two surfaces, so I'm assuming the cants on a NB are the slightly raised ledges around the stern. But could be speaking a load of cant!

 

Now, you are speaking like a right cant! (Are you from dahn sath (Londonistan way??)

[Davo_Willow]

OK - So now I know seats for steering are a BAD idea on a trad, and I have lots of posts now to back me up when I tell her no!

 

Thanks for all the advice, we will stand in the hatch and sit on the roof when we must.

 

Now waiting for the ice to melt to practice ....

 

Davo

[Liam]

I also didn't know so went to find out. A 'cant' (as in 'cant in the road') is a beveled or sloping edge between two surfaces, so I'm assuming the cants on a NB are the slightly raised ledges around the stern. But could be speaking a load of cant!

 

Yep you have it right, images below to show you.

 

 

[Byeckerslike]

Hello ...

 

Willow has a trad stern, not much of a standing platform of course and other half is a bit scared about standing in the open when she is steering and thinks some sort of seating would be a good idea. We would have chosen a cruiser stern if we could have found our idea narrowboat but Willow came to us and ticks all the other boxes.

 

Any ideas for fabrication of seats, should I take it to a boat builder or have a go myself?

 

Thanks - Davo

 

Seriously,

We too, have a similar cause of consternation, my left knee is knackered - I'm due to have a half knee replacement. When under way, I'm more than happy sitting on the starboard side roof, operating the morse control with my foot (often in sandals - even in winter), I have often toyed with the idea of double hinged tiller so that I don't have to bend forward when altering direction, much like what is found on dinghy's rudder and a bum hammock/sling, which could easily hook over both rails of the rear hatch, this could be made of bungee cords, adjusted / raised, so that I have a good clear view of the bows: on second thoughts, I'll try to make one!

 

Regards,

 

Rob

Edited January 5, 2010 by Byeckerslike

[Québec]

Now, you are speaking like a right cant! (Are you from dahn sath (Londonistan way??)

 

 

Well, some can, and others just cant