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Keeping to the right

Water Rat.

By Water Rat.
in General Boating

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David Schweizer Veteran II

David Schweizer

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Posted (edited)

 

I know little of the technicalities of wood structure but, if it is a 'grown' pole, surely the grain will always be lengthwise?

 

Tim

 

You are correct in assuming that the grain of timber will always be lengthways, but there are also radial sheets known as medullary rays which radiate out from the centre of the tree which allow for sap to be transmitted across the trunk. In hardwoods these rays are more predominant and provide additional strength to the seasoned timber, making them capable of bearing more pressure and weight. Ash has a particularly straight grain with the medullary rays providing lateral strength which makes it more suitable for making poles and long tool handles,

Edited by David Schweizer
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magpie patrick Veteran II

magpie patrickDonate to Canal World

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Great - so there' s 2 opposed unofficial 'conventions' on hand signals. Hence why I ignore them, unless they're blindingly obvious. Lets all stick to the official sound signals instead....

 

 

And if both are understood is that a problem? Even verbally there are several ways to say the same thing.

 

If your belting down the Ouse with an oil barge bound for Immingham catching you sound signals are useful, although you should have VHF. On a narrow canal, or even most broad ones the horn is not that useful - unless you've got one off an HST it might not be heard and if used to the full official sound signals would result in a lot of unharmonious parping. Also in an urban area a horn sound could be coming from anywhere.

 

Two sensible boaters meeting each other will get it right, if either or both are idiots or hotheads they won't.

Edited by magpie patrick
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Scholar Gypsy Veteran

Scholar Gypsy

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And you had no negative reaction to your boat giving Oxford as its home mooring?

A bit of gentle banter; some confused tourists who thought they were in Cambridge not Oxford that day; and a few who were surprised to learn you could get from one to the other by boat ... Edited by Scholar Gypsy
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Emerald Fox Rising Star

Emerald Fox

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Hmmm... an HST horn for our boat. I like that. Would be great, as at 3.25, 3.39, 4,22, 5,04 & 5,13 in Youtube's 'London to Peterborough - Part 2 - Intercity 125' clip. Surely the handsomest trainset ever. Wonder where I can get one. Could be cool in canal tunnels.

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Paul C Veteran II

Paul C

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We have twin tone air horns on our boat, but as an upgrade, instead of the one compressor and the air pipework having a Y splitter feeding the two horns, we have 2x air compressors each feeding its own horn - high and low pitch. This was done because one or other of the horns would clog up with debris/spiders webs/dust etc and the air would go to the other horn, leaving a somewhat unintended sound coming out of it. Now with each horn having a dedicated compressor, it sounds right. There's a bridge on an S bend which requires our horn (twice, ideally) and its somewhat overbearing but it does the job of being noticed by other boaters etc. unlike a lot of miserable toots on the canal.

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Emerald Fox Rising Star

Emerald Fox

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I like the idea of blasting spiders and their webs and dust and debris out of a horn! Like a blunderbuss!

We have a silly little horn that came with the boat and it's at the back, I got another from Ebay which is from a boat and when I touched the battery terminals with it the loud toot made me jump! Will stick it on to the front of our boat when we get time to do it.

As I roar through the tiny hamlet of Pahkala each morning in my bus at 100km/hour I sometimes see a man looking in his postbox for the morning paper and give a couple of toots and he gives a wave - don't know him but we've been doing this since last December! Bit of fun in the countryside. Normally I just go 'toot! toot!' but a couple of weeks ago when I spotted him at distance I did a 'tooooooooot! toot! toot!'. Works out well when the timing is spot on.

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Dharl Rising Star

Dharl

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Like the idea of upgrading to an air-horn for the boat, current one is soooooo quiet am not sure if really is effective at warning people at blind corners let alone giving a sound signal to indicate ones intentions......

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Guest

Guest

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Like the idea of upgrading to an air-horn for the boat, current one is soooooo quiet am not sure if really is effective at warning people at blind corners let alone giving a sound signal to indicate ones intentions......

It wouldn't just be a case of a straight swap in most cases as the power draw of the compressor used to drive the horn would normally require the use of a relay.

 

It could be done though by the running of some additional wiring.

 

You might get away with powering the compressor with the existing pos and neg but given the distance from the switch and the wiring gauge this would be unlikely. It could be done more easily by mounting the relay, the compressor and the horns nearer the blunt end of the boat rather than the more usual location for the horn which is of course the pointy end.

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David Schweizer Veteran II

David Schweizer

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We had a pathetic little "peep" horn on our boat which could hardly be heard at the front end, so I replaced it with a pair of second hand horns from an Audi A6, which I bought from our local VW/Audi breakers for a fiver. Fortunately the original wiring was well over specced, so there is insignificant voltage drop. They will blast your socks off.

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TaffyRon Collaborator

TaffyRon

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Can't be arsed to reference this but I think you will find there is no requirement, advice nor custom to "Keep to the right". This is just what has been extrapolated by people from the rule to PASS on the right.

some situations require you to pass on the left so hand signals are good

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Alan Saunders Rising Star

Alan Saunders

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In many years of navigating the canals I have found both sound and hand signals ineffective. I may be intending to moor up or wind but none of my waving shouting and sound signals have any effect. I have to stop, usually aground, on the RH bank. On one occasion when I was crossing a wide basin a long blast on my horn, I had no idea what that meant, alerted the steerer of the boat that seemed intent to keep right on a collision course to realise that they had better pass astern of me.

 

Most canal boaters are too polite. As I plod along at 2mph they catch up with me but never get close enough to pass me on the next straight. Last Sunday a dark red broad beam followed me for miles (Betty Boo?) until we both moored at the Barge Inn. When I eventually get them to pass me they say they "did not want to hassle me" - I have been repeatedly looking back, calculating the best place for them to pass for half an hour. Similarly, at a bridge we both 'hold back' when I expected them to press on.

 

Recently I passed two boats coming from the opposite direction, I slowed to tickover but as I approached the obstruction, a moored broad beam, a third NB forced his way through. The lady on the bow said "He has to do this because we are deep draughted". Good luck and hydraulics avoided a collision. Had I engaged reverse gear my pair of boats would have 'jack-knifed' across the canal. Meanwhile the broadbeam owner was busy tightening his stern rope.

 

We all 'kept to the right' but the obstruction was on my side of the canal so I suppose, had there been a collision, I would be held responsible?

 

Alan

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