And another thing. Slowing down.

[howardang]

seamanship ...

That's a dirty word on here:-)

 

Howard

[PhilR]

We gently cruise pass moored boats so as not to disturb or disrupt. But, sitting here in the middle of the countryside, the boats are hammering by, no sign of slowing down at all! All private boats. I have just yelled at one as we were catapulted back and forward. They were most indignant, so am I!

 

I am wondering if you might be away from your home mooring where your boat would normally be adequately tied up on deeper water. If you are currently on an overnight mooring in the countryside it is likely that the water is much shallower at the sides and you may also just be tied to two pins by something akin to breast lines. If so it might help considerably if you use 3 or 4 pins and deploy some spring lines. A couple of minutes work setting proper lines can make an amazing difference to your comfort at a mooring

 

I'm not condoning the speed that some boaters travel at even though I am sure that they are all travelling a lot less than 4 mph. The difference between normal cruising speed and the speed passing moored boats might only be a difference of ½ mph. It is impossible to make hard and fast rules, but in an ideal world everyone would be sensible and know how to read the signs from their wash and draw and adjust their speed accordingly. Unfortunately a lot of boaters don't seem able to interpret what is happening.

[Hastings]

Though I do slow right down past moored boats, I do have one or two observations.

 

Firstly, lots of people don't tie up properly. If the side is at at all soft, use springs front and rear, i.e. two ropes at each end, one pointing forward, and one back to about one third from the end of the boat. This should keep your boat fairly stationary when others pass. (And never use the centre rope for mooring - it's not meant for that. It's for holding the boat whilst in a lock or at a water point etc. on a temporary basis. If the water level changes significantly, it can cause your boat to list.)

In the "olden days", when I started boating, you wouldn't expect a loaded working boat to slow down. Time was money, and they drew rather more than most modern boats. You really did have to tie up well in those days!

It's tedious going at tickover past a long line of boats, e.g. at Wolverhampton and Chester near us. I can see why people speed up a little.

Depth of water has got a lot to do with it. You can pass moored boats at a higher speed in a deeper, wider canal, with little effect.

Some owners of moored boats will shout, however slow you go, just because you have caused the TV to flicker, or they have overfilled their glass with Chardonnay, and it has spilt!

 

In other words, whatever you do is wrong!

 

Peter

[JamesWoolcock]

I bet they were Breton capped, pompous and miserable old farts in traditional historic or shiny boats.

As an historic old fart with an historic old boat, and at times a bit shiny too, I wonder if you would have said that to my face?

I always try and pass moored boats at tick over, which is 2.1mph for this one, but it does displace a lot of water.

So tie up properly, use a spring, and just be a bit nicer.

And I wouldn't want to seen dead in a Breton cap, or a cowboy hat!

James

[kevinl]

I agree with the "moor up properly" school of thought, mooring up then expecting everyone else to do the right thing is a dream, wide boats*, deep draft boats, hires who don't know the rules, people who don't give a shit and the outright Onanists who are out there, someone will get you in the end.

It's not right and I'm not defending their actions but we live in an imperfect world.

K

*which due the there width will off course pass closer to you, not a dig at the owners of widebaems.

[Woodstock]

I almost burst out laughing last week- We must be one of the slowest boats on the cut and do slow down before passing boats- last week we were about to pass one boat on the T&M last week and the owner was stood outside his boat- I tried to catch his eye to say morning and initially he wouldn't look at me and then just said "Too Fast"

 

Honestly- I was actually shocked. When I managed to lift my jaw up- I suggested he learn to tie up correctly as there was no reason his boat should be impacted by us passing it

 

I think for some boaters it's becoming a Pavlovs dog reaction- If they see a boat pass they automatically shout "Too fast"

 

I have no sympathy for speeding boats, but some ( a small minority) boaters when moored seem to have no ability or desire to differentiate between speedinhg and non speeding boats

[John V]

On my cruiser which has good underwater lines and causes very little wash, the engine is mounted in a soundproofed box under the galley sink and has a watercooled exhaust and from a few yards away is almost inaudible. It means I have normally been and gone before the "Pavlov's dogs" notice.

 

An ex ladyfriends full length butty conversion has (or maybe by now, had) a diesel electric drive so people used to hear the BMC doing 1500 rpm and immediately shout out "slow down" irrespective of the actual speed.....

[Woodstock]

On my cruiser which has good underwater lines and causes very little wash, the engine is mounted in a soundproofed box under the galley sink and has a watercooled exhaust and from a few yards away is almost inaudible. It means I have normally been and gone before the "Pavlov's dogs" notice.

 

An ex ladyfriends full length butty conversion has (or maybe by now, had) a diesel electric drive so people used to hear the BMC doing 1500 rpm and immediately shout out "slow down" irrespective of the actual speed.....

Maybe thats it- we do have a BMC1500- so we're noisy not fast .

[bottle]

When will the term,

 

Slow down when passing moored boats

 

get changed to

 

Slow down before passing moored boats.

[Richard10002]

If everyone who gets passed by a speeding boat this summer starts a thread on the forum this is going to get very tedius....

Perhaps we could have one thread and everyone who thinks they are going to achieve something by moaning on the forum about speeding boats could post in one place?

Not everyone is aware that speeding past moored boats causes a problem... We were all new once.

 

If one person discovers that you should slow down passing moored boats by reading a thread like this, it will have been worth it.

 

Merely IMHO

[keble]

 

 

An ex ladyfriends full length butty conversion ...

NOw there's a phrase i havent heard before

[bizzard]

As an historic old fart with an historic old boat, and at times a bit shiny too, I wonder if you would have said that to my face?

I always try and pass moored boats at tick over, which is 2.1mph for this one, but it does displace a lot of water.

So tie up properly, use a spring, and just be a bit nicer.

And I wouldn't want to seen dead in a Breton cap, or a cowboy hat!

James

Ahoy James. Well I'm really one of the biggest old farts of all time, but without a historic boat. And yes I would say it to your face if you were belting along like a loony upsetting everything like a great many do.

[blackrose]

Slowing down is important and I do, but a HUGE number of people don't tie up properly. As I pass them 20 tons of water has to go from in front of me to behind me. If they are secured to the tops of two knitting pins pushed half into the bank and the ropes are slack then their boat WILL move forwards, backwards, and forwards again as I pass and yank at the pins as the ropes come tight. Unsurprisingly that can only happen a few time before the pins lose what little grip they had and come loose.

 

N

 

You're quite right. In my case 32 tonnes of water is displaced so I slow right down. But as well as having no idea how to moor their boats securely, some people look at me as though their boat isn't supposed to move while moored up. It's almost like they don't seem to realise that they're not in a flat. Personally I enjoy the feeling of the movement of passing boats because I know my boat is securely moored - but that's just me...

Edited May 24, 2014 by blackrose

[pearley]

We are moored in the pound above Star Lock in Stone at present. It is amazing the speed some boats can get to in such a short space from one lock to the next.

 

The worst was the restaurant boat. Pulled the pins out on the BP boat behind though admittedly they were only in halfway.

[b0atman]

Maybe CaRT could put more mooring rings in !

[Pykebird]

Just had a laden Woolwich go past me and I hardly moved at all, only knew it was coming because of noise from engine

[J R ALSOP]

As someone said a couple of weeks ago "Tie up and shut up" I have started using it all the time.

[Tesla]

As someone said a couple of weeks ago "Tie up and shut up" I have started using it all the time.

Well that is very clever of you. I think most of us know how to tie up properly and the implication of not doing so. I think the question raised by the OP is around speeding boats. Do you slow down when passing moored boats? Should I? Is walking speed the accepted standard or should I not give a stuff? Call me old fashioned but I still hold doors open for people, wave thank you when someone gives way for me and slow down passed moored boats...its not a big contribution to the greater good I know but hey...

[kingswood]

I went past a moored boat on tickover with my twin lister and got a bollocking from someone who just happened to moor on the least wide bit you could find

[tommytelford]

The booze cruise boats on the river Lea go past slowly but the music at full volume and screaming girlies is worse than than a bit of movement caused by somebody passing by a bit too quickly, I sometimes wish they would go past a bit faster so the noise wouldn't last as long

[Graham Davis]

Well that is very clever of you. I think most of us know how to tie up properly and the implication of not doing so. I think the question raised by the OP is around speeding boats. Do you slow down when passing moored boats? Should I? Is walking speed the accepted standard or should I not give a stuff? Call me old fashioned but I still hold doors open for people, wave thank you when someone gives way for me and slow down passed moored boats...its not a big contribution to the greater good I know but hey...

 

 

Really?

From the past queries about springs on here I somewhat doubt that.

[bizzard]

 

 

Really?

From the past queries about springs on here I somewhat doubt that.

I think the reason why most narrow boaters don't use springs is because they usually have no really suitably positioned cleats to attach them to without the ropes chaffing on the cabin side ect's paintwork.

[Naughty Cal]

Often way over powered too. but a bit of speed does help them to be more directional in their progress and not blow about so much in a wind. A good many of these need ballast or more ballast in my opinion to help with this. Also many have badly designed, wonky or worn out steering gear with lots of play in it.

That just shows how little understanding you have of the design of the design of cruisers in general.

I think the reason why most narrow boaters don't use springs is because they usually have no really suitably positioned cleats to attach them to without the ropes chaffing on the cabin side ect's paintwork.

Which is still no excuse for not tying up sufficiently in the first instance.

Cruisers seem to be in a hurry most of the time, it's rare to see one going less then the speed limit.

It's comments like that which make us wonder why we bother slowing down. If we are always going to be perceived as going too quickly no matter how much we slow down why bother at all?

[John V]

On our creek there is an 8 knot speed limit but that doesn't stop jet skiers bombing along. However it's the ones that do slow down that cause the biggest wash!

[The Lockie]

Just had a week out on the south oxford-- Braunston to Aynho, quite busy in the sunny bits, in that week there was one boat that went past slightly quick, all the others and there were plenty including hireboats went past nice and slow!! Is this speeding problem specific to certain parts of the system??