The "slow down" shouters

[Nige]

Hi folks,

 

Im always amazed at the "Slow Down" shouters. I personally love the feel of my boat moving as other boats go by. Im on the L&L, about 5 miles outside Skipton North Yorkshire (Bridge 159 - wave when you pass !!) and we often get the Silsden hire fleet boats going by - amongst others. I've been there a year now and not had any problems at all.

 

The very nature of boats means you are going to get movement - end of discussion, move along, NEXT !!

 

If people don't like their boats moving when other boats go past - buy a Bl**dy caravan or go back to bricks and mortar !!!

 

 

PS - and yes I do slow down as I pass other boats..........

[gaggle]

spot on

[Carrie]

Don't mind the movement at all. And I take a pride in disturbing other boaters as little as possible. BUT, I have had my pins pulled out twice on a soft mooring and it is annoying when some folk show no difference in their speed before or after passing you. I was also taught to slow down when passing a moving boat, but am amazed to find people who plough fast past you. At your slower speed, you are drawn into their wake.

Ain't moaning, just observin!

[Billypownall]

Don't mind the movement at all. And I take a pride in disturbing other boaters as little as possible. BUT, I have had my pins pulled out twice on a soft mooring and it is annoying when some folk show no difference in their speed before or after passing you. I was also taught to slow down when passing a moving boat, but am amazed to find people who plough fast past you. At your slower speed, you are drawn into their wake.

Ain't moaning, just observin!

After 2 weeks cruising I cannot remember more than two or three boats who caused us a problem with wake when we were moored. As to passing a boat slowly this sounds a very dubious proposition and I have never come across any problem. Glad you aren,t moaning but get some longer pins and go a bit quicker !!

[alan_fincher]

I was also taught to slow down when passing a moving boat, but am amazed to find people who plough fast past you. At your slower speed, you are drawn into their wake.

Did they say why, Carrie ?

 

Unless the canal is restricted or particularly shallow at the point in question, I'd say significantly fewer people slow down to pass than those who hold their speed, (but I cruise mainly on a generally quite wide and deep canal).

 

I've never been shouted at for passing a moving boat too fast, so far as I can recall, and admit I seldom slow much when passing on wide unobstructed sections, (......obviously this doesn't apply if there are also people moored up nearby!....)

 

So am interested in what your trainer had to say about this. A general rule whenever you pass anyone moving the other way, or dependant on circumstance ?

 

(Happy Birthday, by the way !....)

 

Alan

Edited September 3, 2006 by alan_fincher

[Christine]

Did they say why, Carrie ?

 

Unless the canal is restricted or particularly shallow at the point in question, I'd say significantly fewer people slow down to pass than those who hold their speed, (but I cruise mainly on a generally quite wide and deep canal).

 

I've never been shouted at for passing a moving boat too fast, so far as I can recall, and admit I seldom slow much when passing on wide unobstructed sections, (......obviously this doesn't apply if there are also people moored up nearby!....)

 

So am interested in what your trainer had to say about this. A general rule whenever you pass anyone moving the other way, or dependant on circumstance ?

 

(Happy Birthday, by the way !....)

 

Alan

 

I was instructed to always slow down when passing other boats. When we we out on the SU last March in driving snow and blowing a howlie, it was as much as I could do to keep the damned thing straight.

 

I got the Oh so funny quip - 'I see you have lost your water skier' - when I passed a guy. at a reasonable speed to hold a straight course. Any slower and I would have been on the piling. I know its because I was a woman......grrrrrrr

 

The attitute towards women NB drivers by some wrinkly old men , driving about in their shiny, fresh out of the yard, chardonnay palaces with witty names like 'Annuity' or 'Mother's Inheritance' just makes me wanna ram 'em up the fender.

 

You can spot 'em a mile away - they wear V necked pullywoolovers with the golf club logo, she's wearing the marigolds for doing the dishes and the bed has been made.

 

(....rant over)

[tomandsophie]

I am back on the K&A now after a lovely summer on our river mooring (on the Bristol Avon). Of course on the wide deep river it makes no difference how fast people go past because there is virtually no 'draw' effect. It is this that makes the boat move, not wash. In fact, our boat (perhaps because of the design of the hull) makes hardly any wash even if we really speed along (which we don't!), but the draw of our wide hull would make moored boats bump against the side very hard indeed.

Anyway, we're back on the canal now and I tried mooring with springs for the first time as I didn't own the necessary ropes until recently. It's magic - now we don't move even when boats roar by! I would recommend it to anybody. Of course I love it when the boat rocks a bit, I just don't like getting smacked against the side, and now we don't get that. Moor with springs, it makes life on the canal much nicer!

[Breals]

That's right it does seem to be the draw of passing boats, rather than the wake, which makes you bump about on a canal.

 

I'm still on the river, and there's no draw effect at all when boats pass. However, big cruisers frequently pass at 6mph or more, and the wake makes my boat pitch - makes visitors nervous, but I'm used to it now

Edited September 4, 2006 by Breals

[tony collins]

Of course on the wide deep river it makes no difference how fast people go past because there is virtually no 'draw' effect. It is this that makes the boat move, not wash. In fact, our boat (perhaps because of the design of the hull) makes hardly any wash even if we really speed along (which we don't!), but the draw of our wide hull would make moored boats bump against the side very hard indeed.

 

This is, perhaps why on the infamous Canaltime boats, the notice on the rear bulkhead requests slowing down BEFORE passing moored boats.

 

 

Tony

[gaggle]

which boat did the SLOW DOWN moaner come out of ?

the one that has moored blocking the services for 1 week,six weeks or 10 weeks?

notice the poor old people in the foreground climbing off their boat,they have to clamber through the fence.

they only want to use the services.

did the slow down moaner even care about the trouble and hassle he was causing to other boaters by his behaviour,apparently not ,he is still there and he is still moaning at passing boats to slow down.

 

you have to laugh

[Crazy Scheme]

On the River Lea, we don't get any wash as its quite wide, but our mooring is nextdoor to a kayak and canoe centre so the odd 'doink' is quite common of a weekend.

 

I don't really care, to be honest. If I didn't want it to wobble, I'd be living in a caravan or a flat.

[gringogordo]

My mooring is on a bend on a narrowish section of the K&A and I get a lot of people going to fast past me. Hire boaters are the worst for this but I wouldn't really draw too much distinction. But to be honest around that area between Bath and Trowbridge there are so many boats moored up that for every 5 miles you get 0.5 - 1 mile without nose to tail mooring. Around this stretch I tend to just go at half speed or I would never get anywhere. Maybe I'm wrong to do this but surely the canal is primarily about moving your boat up and down it?

 

Ben.

[Supermalc]

While chatting yesterday to someone about my recent trip up the Trent, and how a large Broom, supposed to only do 6mph upstream, met me at speed, as I've mentiioned earlier.

 

He had a 26ft widebeam cruiser, and said he was going down the Fosse Dyke canal to Torksey last year, when he met 2 large sportscruisers returning to Burton Waters at speed. The wash was such he could not turn into it after the first boat had passed, and was in real danger of being washed onto the bank.

 

You may also remember the incident when several youths took a ski boat to Lincoln from Boston last year. Returning at around 40mph in the early hours. They tipped at least one boater out of bed.

 

Yesterday I towed a large wooden sleeper floating on the opposite bank to where we could remove it. One of the men with me think he has already hit it earlier in the year. Had they (or someone) hit this, the boat could have been sunk, with even people killed.

[Mick and Pauline]

That's right it does seem to be the draw of passing boats, rather than the wake, which makes you bump about on a canal.

 

I'm still on the river, and there's no draw effect at all when boats pass. However, big cruisers frequently pass at 6mph or more, and the wake makes my boat pitch - makes visitors nervous, but I'm used to it now

 

Hi Breals,

 

You are so right about the draw a boat makes, some of the water displacement a boat makes travels ahead of it and lifts any craft just ahead of it. If you cruise a commercial waterway, Aire & Calder for instance, you can often see or feel if a large heavily laden craft is coming your way by the amount of water movement in front of them. This is even sometimes before the craft comes into sight, say round a bend, then care is needed when the craft clears and you get pulled into the wake with the water returning back to it original level.

 

So if this is scaled down to a deep draughted narrowboat on a narrow shallow canal it will have the same effect. The displacemant effect on the moored boat will be felt by them just before you come alongside and again just after you have past.

 

The speed of the passing boat needed to be reduced before passing the moored boat to have any effect and give the water displacement more time to act.

 

Mick & Pauline.

[William Martin]

strictly speaking - you can safely speed back up once you are level with the moored boat - thought I rarely do for fear of the miserable moaners!

[Foxglove]

Hi ,

 

just back from nearly three weeks boating in which I covered 426 miles and went through 308 locks ( no speeding , just long days ) . To my surprise I only had one incident of being shouted at , in fact the female occupant of the boat screamed her effing objections from inside , not even bothering to show her face . She asked if I could go any effing faster , to which I replied yes , much faster .

I did find myself becoming quite frustrated at times when passing very long lines of moored boats but managed to keep my speed reasonable i.e. no adequately moored boat was rocked or pulled about .

 

I had a variety of retorts ready in my mind ranging from a smile and wave to suggesting land-based accomodation but , apart from the above occasion , they remain unused .

 

On my home linear mooring I wave and smile at boats passing at reasonable speed , ignore those going a bit too fast and only shout ( to make myself heard above their engine ) at those whose wash is breaking onto the towpath .

 

Some steerers of longer , wider or deeper boats don't seem to realise that they need to go by slower than smaller boats . They displace more water as they pass and this creates more pull on the lines / pins of the moored boats .

[Khayamanzi]

Don't mind the movement at all. And I take a pride in disturbing other boaters as little as possible. BUT, I have had my pins pulled out twice on a soft mooring and it is annoying when some folk show no difference in their speed before or after passing you. I was also taught to slow down when passing a moving boat, but am amazed to find people who plough fast past you. At your slower speed, you are drawn into their wake.

Ain't moaning, just observin!

 

Slowing down when passing moving boats coming in the opposite direction is a common technique taught on the helmsmans course - not out of courtesy but ease of operation for yourself! If, as your bow meets their midships, you knock your throttle to tickover, you won't loose any speed or momentum but the draw as your bow passes their stern will pull you gently back into the middle of the channel again ready to motor on past without you needing to fight the tiller when your boat is pulled violently across their rear end, (so to speak!) It's also a common technique apparently when 2 heavy laden working boats passed each other.

 

(Sorry, comes from having a father who is a historian!)

[Noah]

Slowing down when passing moving boats coming in the opposite direction is a common technique taught on the helmsmans course - not out of courtesy but ease of operation for yourself! If, as your bow meets their midships, you knock your throttle to tickover, you won't loose any speed or momentum but the draw as your bow passes their stern will pull you gently back into the middle of the channel again ready to motor on past without you needing to fight the tiller when your boat is pulled violently across their rear end, (so to speak!) It's also a common technique apparently when 2 heavy laden working boats passed each other.

 

(Sorry, comes from having a father who is a historian!)

Hi Andy

 

I’ll give that a try next time I’m out.

 

To send this “slowing down” topic off course a little, have you ever encountered a novice oncoming boater who panics as he approaches you and slows down so much that his boat skews across the canal, often near a moored boat or near a bridge? This happened to me last week when a hire boater and myself ended up doing a waltz because he didn’t maintain sufficient speed to keep control. We both managed to have a good laugh though with only minor scrapes.

 

Noah

[Khayamanzi]

I know what you mean!!

 

I've never had one coming towards me with that problem but have followed many struggling to keep control and forced to do what I call 'the back deck dance' as they thrust the tiller from one side to the next - if only they sped up a little the steering would gain more sensitivity!

 

Many, many years ago in my early hiring days I had a hire boat coming towards me, (which was rare in itself!) with a lady steering and she put the tiller the wrong way and panicked. Her way of coping was to scream for her husband and throw her hands over her eyes as if the problem would somehow simply vanish, needless to say there was a loud thump and cupboard doors were all flung open below - we did laugh afterwards!

[rog guiver]

Sunday, strong westerly wind, with at least ten degrees of drift, passed opposite traffic and came within six feet of moored boat with engine at idle (GPS 1.2mph).

 

The language (fowl) from the moored boat had to be heard to be believed. Their licence expired over a year ago.

 

A complaint will shortly be winging its way to BW.

[Breals]

[adam1uk]

The language (fowl)...

 

They shouted something about ducks at you??

[rog guiver]

Thanks Adam,

 

Alas the spell checker missed that one.

 

Must make sure I get the correct spelling off to BW correctly.

[gaggle]

c,mon rog what are you going to write"please sir the man shouted at me"smack his wrist.

even if you snitch his licence has run out i dont think bw are going to marshall up the troops to do anything about it.

better spending the time in bed with your woman than writing the letter

[rog guiver]

Gaggle,

Alas too late, BW have just phoned to confirm they have taken action and given them a couple of weeks to pay up for the mooring and licence. In the words of the lady at BW "If I was moored with no licence and not paying for the mooring I would keep my head down and not swear at passing boats"

 

While talking about BW they have also sent me a cheque for compensation for being delayed when a planned closure was actioned early stranding about eight boats for a day (go for it duncan) on the K&A.

 

In the case in question my "woman" and I together with friends went out for a very nice meal and BW picked up the tab!

 

Talk to the right people at BW and you get action.