going through locks backwards single handed

[Richard10002]

No locks on The Bridgewater, but I usually reverse the few hundred yards to the clubhouse, (cassette emptying and loading shopping and wife etc. ), then back to the mooring forwards.

 

It only saves me a few hundred yards at either end for turning round, but it feels worth saving, and I like the practice. Its quite difficult to get your head around how it all works in reverse, but once you've reversed a few times to the pump out, including the lock, you will be pretty much an expert. When you have to do it in anger, it will be second nature.

 

Without a bow thruster, your bow thruster is tiller hard over, and a burst of forward gear. This will spin the boat as much as you want, without taking too much reverse way off. Again, if you have done this lots of times, in fairly relaxed circumstances, it will be second nature when it matters.

 

I'm not an expert in reverse yet..... But I'm better than I was a year ago

[Doug Scullery]

No matter what time you do it some clever bystander will appear like an apparition.

And he will be a man in his 60's who knows everything there is to know about boats because his family took a couple of narrowboat holidays when he was a child. I've met him so many times.

[mark99]

And he will be a man in his 60's who knows everything there is to know about boats because his family took a couple of narrowboat holidays when he was a child. I've met him so many times.

 

He only appears when it's going wrong too. He waits in the bushes, and if the manouver is a good one, just skulks off. He only pops out (happy) when it's a disaster.

 

I used to practice reversing on every hire boat we hired when no one was about on empty stretches of canal. Hope it does me good one day!