Ignorant Boaters...........

[Dave_P]

2 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Well yes, but it now passes underneath the bridge. So you can't use it to pull the boat to the bank. 

 

Use the cabin shaft to either pick up another line from the boat whilst standing on the bridge, or to catch the line you are holding and pull it through to the other side of the bridge where the boat now is. 

A-ha yes.  I do it, a different way.  Your's sounds quite good too though.  I'd be worried on a wide-ish canal on a windy day that my boat would go out of reach of my hook.

[MtB]

14 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

A-ha yes.  I do it, a different way.  Your's sounds quite good too though.  I'd be worried on a wide-ish canal on a windy day that my boat would go out of reach of my hook.

 

That can't happen as on a windy day, you'll have tied the boat to the bridge with the line that now passes under it! 

[pete harrison]

1 hour ago, zenataomm said:

Has anyone mentioned Banbury Sticks?

 

55 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

You can tell it's been a While (40 years) since I went down that way. ?

Most of the lift bridges on the southern Oxford Canal are now left in the raised position, although the word 'most' does indicate that there are still a few that are down. This was certainly not the case when I was going down there regularly in the 1970's and early 1980's when just about all of them were down 

[Momac]

I have met some very pleasant people on all sorts of boats.

I have also occasionally received completely unprovoked and abusive and insulting comment from narrowboats while I have been aboard my cruiser.

I once moored next to a narrowboat and they immediately lit up their wood burner deliberately making toxic smoke (on a mild afternoon) .  We took the hint and moved off and they put the fire out.

I once moored up next to a narrowboat and I said hello to the occupant who completely blanked me as if I was invisible.  They continued with this attitude the next day.

I once talked to nice lady while operating a lock.  She had not seen my boat.  She soon started to complain about tall the ‘’plastics’’ taking up the mooring spaces. It was almost as if her narrowboat didn’t take up any space at all or as if the ‘’plastics’’ didn’t have a valid license. Never did find out what she thought when she saw our cruiser.

Remarks such as 'Plastics',  ’Tent Top’, ‘Gin Palace’, ‘Yogurt Pot’, ‘Splitter’. ‘U Boat’, ‘Sewer Tube’ do nothing for the reputation of boating as a whole.

There are lots of different types of boats .  We should be tolerant of them all and must resist being excessively critical of those with less experience. We were all novices at some point.

[Dave_P]

2 minutes ago, MartynG said:

I have met some very pleasant people on all sorts of boats.

I have also occasionally received completely unprovoked and abusive and insulting comment from narrowboats while I have been aboard my cruiser.

I once moored next to a narrowboat and they immediately lit up their wood burner deliberately making toxic smoke (on a mild afternoon) .  We took the hint and moved off and they put the fire out.

I once moored up next to a narrowboat and I said hello to the occupant who completely blanked me as if I was invisible.  They continued with this attitude the next day.

I once talked to nice lady while operating a lock.  She had not seen my boat.  She soon started to complain about tall the ‘’plastics’’ taking up the mooring spaces. It was almost as if her narrowboat didn’t take up any space at all or as if the ‘’plastics’’ didn’t have a valid license. Never did find out what she thought when she saw our cruiser.

Remarks such as 'Plastics',  ’Tent Top’, ‘Gin Palace’, ‘Yogurt Pot’, ‘Splitter’. ‘U Boat’, ‘Sewer Tube’ do nothing for the reputation of boating as a whole.

There are lots of different types of boats .  We should be tolerant of them all and must resist being excessively critical of those with less experience. We were all novices at some point.

Bloody plastics, coming over 'ere, stealing our jobs, having if off wiv our wimmin, cruising our rivers....

[Athy]

27 minutes ago, MartynG said:

as 'Plastics',  ’Tent Top’, ‘Gin Palace’, ‘Yogurt Pot’, ‘Splitter’. ‘U Boat’, ‘Sewer Tube’ do nothing for the reputation of boating as a whole.

 

We sometimes see a cabin cruiser which is called 'Yoghurt', which strikes me as nicely self-deprecating humour.

Surely they become U boats only when they have sunk? (I have never heard this expression applied to a cabin cruiser - why would it be?)

[Jim Riley]

2 minutes ago, Athy said:

We sometimes see a cabin cruiser which is called 'Yoghurt', which strikes me as nicely self-deprecating humour.

Surely they become U boats only when they have sunk? (I have never heard this expression applied to a cabin cruiser - why would it be?)

Some things just happen by osmosis. 

[Momac]

6 minutes ago, Athy said:

We sometimes see a cabin cruiser which is called 'Yoghurt', which strikes me as nicely self-deprecating humour.

Surely they become U boats only when they have sunk? (I have never heard this expression applied to a cabin cruiser - why would it be?)

U boat is an expression referencing a narrowboat. 

[Alan de Enfield]

33 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

Bloody plastics, coming over 'ere, stealing our jobs, having if off wiv our wimmin, cruising our Canals...

 

33 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

Bloody Sewer Tubes, coming over 'ere, stealing our jobs, having if off wiv our wimmin, cruising our rivers....

A couple of small amendments.

[Dave_P]

12 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

A couple of small amendments.

 it's worse than I thought!

[cuthound]

Surely as Dr Bob cruises with Mrs Bob,  he can dispatch her to operate lift and swing bridges? ?

[BruceinSanity]

5 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

 

That sounds like a reasonable alternative to my (admittedly so far untested) method. I'd be a bit worried about my ability to achieve step 5 of your proposed alternative method though.

 

I'm not sure I'd be too confident of someone ALWAYS turning up to help if I was going through just after sunset though, so it's good to have a plan B and a plan C.

Mike forgot to mention that you take all your clothes off before starting the process, this absolutely guarantees that someone will turn up 

 

But then Mike is the star of "Confessions of a Boiler Repair Man" ?

[Peter X]

Looking at MtB's plan, I'm not sure about it. You cross the lift bridge with centre line (I'm assuming it's long enough) and cabin shaft, raise the bridge, then start to pull the boat towards you. Its centre of gravity will be somewhere astern of the middle, so the bow should come out from the bank more than the stern, so far so good.

But it won't be easy to control the steering to make the bow go into the channel under the bridge; the bridge is up, so you can only stand on the offside bank, by the bridge plus whatever else is accessible to you. Having got the boat moving under the bridge, MtB proposes to tie the centre line to the bridge; I think you pretty much have to be able to hook the centre line on the other side, which won't be easy. The boat has to go far enough under the bridge, which should be possible, pushing it forwards if need be. But will you be able to reach the line, bearing in mind that you're on the bank? Having achieved that, you then need to hold it (perhaps tying it to the bridge so it doesn't fall back), untie the end from the other side, and then somehow persuade the boat to move on beyond the bridge, presumably by pushing it again from the offside bank. If you can achieve that, the rest should be easy; hold the end of the centre line, lower the bridge taking care that the boat stays clear of it, then just walk across and pull your boat in.

 

In my mind the big difficulty would be reaching everything when you're only able to stand on the offside bank; you're going to need a longer pole/shaft/whatever it would be called. I'd suggest this (untested) plan, but it does call for some ability to climb and depends on exactly what's there on the offside:

1 Stop boat short of bridge, take the bow line, walk across bridge, tie line temporarily while raising bridge.

2. Pull boat to you, climb down onto bow, stow rope.

3. Get back to stern, steer boat through, get stern in close enough to climb off it onto the offside end of the bridge, taking stern line.

4. Climb up, lower the bridge, get back aboard and go. Getting back aboard means either climb down the way you came, or if it's easier walk across the bridge then use the stern line to pull the boat to you. You might need to use a pole to get the bow away from a bank before moving off.

[Dr Bob]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

Surely as Dr Bob cruises with Mrs Bob,  he can dispatch her to operate lift and swing bridges? ?

She's given up. The first one we came to on the south oxford, south of Banbury, the farmer had just gone across and left the damn thing down. We pulled in and Mrs Bob went to open it. There she was hanging from the rope, bouncing up and down.....no movement at all. We swapped over and I grabbed the rope and had to both dangle and bounce up and down to get it to shift (and I'm 6' 2'' and overweight!). After that, Mrs Bob prefers steering past them.

[cuthound]

13 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

She's given up. The first one we came to on the south oxford, south of Banbury, the farmer had just gone across and left the damn thing down. We pulled in and Mrs Bob went to open it. There she was hanging from the rope, bouncing up and down.....no movement at all. We swapped over and I grabbed the rope and had to both dangle and bounce up and down to get it to shift (and I'm 6' 2'' and overweight!). After that, Mrs Bob prefers steering past them.

 

Can't say I blame her! 

 

Try the ones on the Llangollen, they are hydraulically operated so you wind those up and down with a windlass.

 

The swing bridges at the the Leeds end (Skipton to Leeds) of the Leeds & Liverpool are truly heavy.

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by cuthound
To unmangle the effects of autocorrect

[Ray T]

Went out on a solo potter on t' boat today. Met other boaters, towpath walkers and cyclists, all were friendly. In fact one of the boaters needed reassurance that I was okay. Most kind of him.

[Tunnelman51]

I have often wondered whether the 'Banbury Stick' idea could be improved, using a motorcycle tyre as a 'cushion' to prevent bridge damage. It would have to be a front tyre (thinner and lighter).  It would be necessary to be going slowly enough to place the tyre flat ways on the abutment first, followed by the Banbury stick, ( both connected to a separate line which is essential not to let go of !)  Then, as you clear the bridge, yank out the Banbury stick, the bridge will drop and rebound slightly. On this rebound then pull out the tyre.   

 

In theory this sounds do-able.  I have yet to try it out.  So, if anyone sees a bloke on a 30' boat on the South Oxford splashing around in the water with a six foot piece of 2x2, wearing a tyre as a necklace, and nursing a sore head whilst trying to clear his prop you will know the result...….I am tempted to try it though, especially given the fact that I have at least made some token effort to placate the Wellbeing & wonderous trust in my endeavours.

[pete harrison]

5 minutes ago, Tunnelman51 said:

I have often wondered whether the 'Banbury Stick' idea could be improved, using a motorcycle tyre as a 'cushion' to prevent bridge damage.

Is a 'Banbury Stick' any use on the Oxford Canal any more as when I passed through from Oxford (Dukes Cut) to Napton a few weeks ago the lift bridges were mostly up, and the few that were down were operated either mechanically or electrically   

[NickF]

6 hours ago, MartynG said:

I have met some very pleasant people on all sorts of boats.

I have also occasionally received completely unprovoked and abusive and insulting comment from narrowboats while I have been aboard my cruiser.

I once moored next to a narrowboat and they immediately lit up their wood burner deliberately making toxic smoke (on a mild afternoon) .  We took the hint and moved off and they put the fire out.

I once moored up next to a narrowboat and I said hello to the occupant who completely blanked me as if I was invisible.  They continued with this attitude the next day.

I once talked to nice lady while operating a lock.  She had not seen my boat.  She soon started to complain about tall the ‘’plastics’’ taking up the mooring spaces. It was almost as if her narrowboat didn’t take up any space at all or as if the ‘’plastics’’ didn’t have a valid license. Never did find out what she thought when she saw our cruiser.

Remarks such as 'Plastics',  ’Tent Top’, ‘Gin Palace’, ‘Yogurt Pot’, ‘Splitter’. ‘U Boat’, ‘Sewer Tube’ do nothing for the reputation of boating as a whole.

There are lots of different types of boats .  We should be tolerant of them all and must resist being excessively critical of those with less experience. We were all novices at some point.

I do so agree with you Martyn that we should not judge people by their boats...well said ......

[Tunnelman51]

2 hours ago, pete harrison said:

Is a 'Banbury Stick' any use on the Oxford Canal any more as when I passed through from Oxford (Dukes Cut) to Napton a few weeks ago the lift bridges were mostly up, and the few that were down were operated either mechanically or electrically   

Chisnell bridge near Somerton is sometimes down for farm access, I think that one is still original.

[cuthound]

13 hours ago, pete harrison said:

Is a 'Banbury Stick' any use on the Oxford Canal any more as when I passed through from Oxford (Dukes Cut) to Napton a few weeks ago the lift bridges were mostly up, and the few that were down were operated either mechanically or electrically   

 

Well, I suppose you could use it to push the buttons on the electric bridges, making it a crude form of remote control. ?

[Dave_P]

17 hours ago, Peter X said:

 

 

In my mind the big difficulty would be reaching everything when you're only able to stand on the offside bank; you're going to need a longer pole/shaft/whatever it would be called. I'd suggest this (untested) plan, but it does call for some ability to climb and depends on exactly what's there on the offside:

1 Stop boat short of bridge, take the bow line, walk across bridge, tie line temporarily while raising bridge.

2. Pull boat to you, climb down onto bow, stow rope.

3. Get back to stern, steer boat through, get stern in close enough to climb off it onto the offside end of the bridge, taking stern line.

4. Climb up, lower the bridge, get back aboard and go. Getting back aboard means either climb down the way you came, or if it's easier walk across the bridge then use the stern line to pull the boat to you. You might need to use a pole to get the bow away from a bank before moving off.

This is exactly what I do.  A bit time consuming but I've always managed it with little difficulty.

[Hudds Lad]

17 hours ago, cuthound said:

Try the ones on the Llangollen, they are hydraulically operated so you wind those up and down with a windlass.

 I especially like that one of a close pair (forgotten its number) near some moorings that winds up just fine, but then when you come to wind it down does nothing. so you stand there ten minutes wondering where the number for CRT is, trying it again, getting annoyed, handle just spinning, until one of the nice people from one of the moored boats comes and tells you the trick of winding it the opposite way then quickly reversing direction to wind it down and lo and behold it works.

[system 4-50]

5 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Well, I suppose you could use it to push the buttons on the electric bridges, making it a crude form of remote control. ?

Could a drone with camera do this?