OMG. ALL OVER THE CANAL

[Ray]

Honest guv, you weren't that bad, you just needed a few pointers regarding the use of wheel steering on canals.

 

In a little while you'll be able to show others how to do it.

[blackrose]

It is difficult to see very much detail on the video as it jumps about a lot, but I think you would benefit from being deeper in the water at the stern or fitting a cowl over the blades. As someone else noted, you are trying to get in to a place that is very shallow, but you appear to be rather heavy handed with the throttle, and splashing water up into the air rather than having it make the boat move in the desired direction. This is pulling the arse end of the boat down, making it even more difficult to get in - you'd be a lot more successful in those conditions to do it more gently.

 

It looks too that you probably have right handed blades, which means the stern pulls to the left in reverse. That should make it much simpler to come into the bank on your left as in the video. You should be able to get the fore end right in, then go astern with the rudder to port which should drop the back in too. You looked to be trying to get in from a position parallel to the bank for some reason. If your blades are actually left handed then it is a lot more fiddly getting in to a quay on your left as the prop bias throws the stern away when you hold back. In that case you can either get the fore end in first for crew to put a line onto something and drive in against that, or get it in and give little squirts of power in head gear to drive the arse end in once the bow is pretty much against the bank.

 

Hope I'm not teaching grandmothers to suck eggs - it's also very difficult to expain stuff like this in words.

 

I agree with this. You've come into the bank more or less parallel and then you're trying to get the stern to swing in. With a right-handed prop your stern is more likely to swing the other way (assuming the water was deep enough), so this is a trick best done when bringing the boat in on the starboard side. Next time you're coming in on the port side, bring the bow in slowly and then you can gently steer the stern in before going into astern to bring the boat to a halt. Also as Tam says. be a bit more gentle with the throttle - it's got various positions between idle and full!

 

For reference my boat is 57' x 12' with a 55hp engine and a 19" x 13" 3 bladed RH prop. For the canals your barge certainly has a big enough engine.

Edited July 1, 2012 by blackrose

[bigcol]

Hi Blackrose

 

Thanks for the heads up re engine size

 

had been told its underpowered for size of boat!!?

[Ray]

Hi Blackrose

 

Thanks for the heads up re engine size

 

had been told its underpowered for size of boat!!?

 

I hope that wasn't the impression that I gave. I didn't mean it to sound like that.

[bigcol]

No! No! Ray

 

not you, lol

 

engineer in the yard hinted to me a week ago, and another boat owner in the yard so i was thinking this could be a reason

 

also a Quote from Biggles on this thread

 

My boat is a bit bigger than yours but not much. IMO 50hp sounds a bit low and might well account for your other performance issues hence Blackrose post

 

Im more than happy and sorted thanks to you and other folks on the forum

 

 

col

Edited July 1, 2012 by bigcol

[Bee]

19 x 14 propeller should be fine, its a heavy boat so will take a while to react, as for steering response it really is just a case of getting used to it, its a skill, like welding, books can`t teach you, you just get better the more you do it,you are steering the equivalent of a small barge with a good load on so it will handle like a loaded boat.