Slow Down?????

[Ray T]

I have to say I do find the serial slow down moaners a bit tiresome and now just shrug my shoulders, as I always pass on tickover. Moored up outside the pub today whilst enjoying a drink in the beer garden I saw this boat steaming along, certainly not on tickover. It was what I saw as it passed that made me chuckle. Displayed either side of the rear doors were large signs in a red circle stating please pass on tickover. Clearly this one did not practice what he preaches and no doubt whinges if anyone rocks his boat.

 

Outside The Admiral Nelson today:

 

DSCN0013

 

The little red / white disc on the tunnel bands.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Ray T

[haggis]

Off topic- but related...I've noted a tendency over the last few years for painstakingly slow exits from locks. Gate, up or downhill open and nothing happens for a while... Boat emerges at an absolute crawl...the waiting boat unable to line up easily. Why?

They are counting the number of bricks in the lock wall and it takes a while :-)

 

Haggis

[casper ghost]

 

Nonsense. Sorry, but that's just tosh if you ask me.

 

and you should be able to leave the boat for 2-3 weeks without the pins coming the slightest bit loose. If the bank is loose, double stake it.

 

 

 

 

Daniel

In my opinion, it's not tosh, but true. It's the ropes that actually loosen, not the pins.. As a boat passes, it sucks water from under the moored boat lowering it in the water, which makes the ropes loosen, no matter how it's tied. Indeed, some boats are not tied as well as others, but if you pass quickly they'll all move. I can beat your 10 years by the way. People seem to be in a hurry, got to get a far as possible in the daylight hours, and engines are have got more powerful too.

Casp'

[dave moore]

Thanks Ray. I'd love to be able to claim to be the originator of the " Soul " comment, it fits perfectly in my opinion....the mundane truth is that I saw it displayed in the window of a boat somewhere. Likewise " Master boaters slow down....masturbators don't! " which used to be in a window of a boat once moored near Fazeley. " tunnel bands?" I've always known them as counter bands....what does Mike call them?

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[Neil2]

Am I the only one who finds those "Tickover" stickers as irritating as the "Baby on Board" notices you see in the back of cars?

[dave moore]

No

[Doodlebug]

Just shout that you are on tickover.

 

We have an outboard and the pitch makes it sound like we are going faster than we actually are. So often get people moaning about our speed based purely on the sound.

 

But yes they need to tie up properly. With tight ropes and fenders there should be no effects on the boat.

[Emerald Fox]

Do you have a printer? I feel its about time to produce a little pamphlet which you could download as a PDF and print out a couple of dozen, containing "learn how to tie up properly" instructions and also a reminder of some of the canal rules, like the fact that you can drive after dark, etc. Simply giving out the pamphlet to moored boaters will save explaining the basics time and time again.

 

Excellent idea - we will print some tomorrow which we can hand out, they will say: " Please do not ask us to Slow Down as a punch on the nose often offends ".

 

(Window Tapper yesterday - I heard but just looked the other way, ignorance is taking the piss I mean Bliss, eh?)

Sign for display and pointing at:

 

GET A CRT LICENCE YOU WINDOW TAPPER!

[Wanderer Vagabond]

In my opinion, it's not tosh, but true. It's the ropes that actually loosen, not the pins.. As a boat passes, it sucks water from under the moored boat lowering it in the water, which makes the ropes loosen, no matter how it's tied. Indeed, some boats are not tied as well as others, but if you pass quickly they'll all move. I can beat your 10 years by the way. People seem to be in a hurry, got to get a far as possible in the daylight hours, and engines are have got more powerful too.

Casp'

I'm not quite sure I understand what you are saying here. I would accept the logic that if the bank is loose the pins may well pull out but I don't understand how," It's the ropes that actually loosen, not the pins". My knots do not loosen under any circumstances (well, OK, when the muppet casts me off overnight in Birmingham, but not otherwise) and if the knots are sound how else will the ropes loosen? Yes passing boats will draw water from under the moored boats but it is only about six inches or so (unless the passing boats are up on the plane ) which the ropes will easily make allowance for, as I said when I moored in a tight space the boat only moved forward and back less than a couple of feet (probably only about 15 inches or so). To give some idea of how much of a hurry I am not in, it has taken me 26 days to traverse the Leeds Liverpool at the rate of about 4 hours travel a day which gives me an average speed of about 1.2 miles per hour (yes there are also a few locks!). I am in no hurry to get anywhere in particular which is why it miffs me when I get bozos shouting, short of getting myself a horse I can't go any slower!

[Emerald Fox]

It's OK to hit me - no Baby on Board!

[SteveS]

Having just become a proud grand dad for the first time, I just thought a quick comment on the baby on board sticker thing. Apparantly they were invented after an older couple were involved in a car crash and the emergency crews missed the baby in the back because they didn't expect to be looking for one. So whilst I too am not impressed with 'little princess' stickers etc. I think I might be putting a sticker in the back window for a couple of years and I will just have to suffer the derision of my fellow human beings.

[BruceinSanity]

Sheila was once steering SA through Tatenhill bridge, the seriously narrow one on the T&M by the quarry. She likes to take it dead slow so was quite surprised by the fisherman hidden on the offside telling her to slow down and that he was going to report her to BW. Since she had the Garmin on the slide she was able to tell him that she was doing 1.5 mph and how much slower did he want?

 

As for locks, we try to leave at a decent speed but at 22 t and drawing 28" at the back under even gentle power there are just some SA leaves "one brick at a time" and there's nothing you can do about it, the bottom is too close to the top.

[gazza]

Having just become a proud grand dad for the first time, I just thought a quick comment on the baby on board sticker thing. Apparantly they were invented after an older couple were involved in a car crash and the emergency crews missed the baby in the back because they didn't expect to be looking for one. So whilst I too am not impressed with 'little princess' stickers etc. I think I might be putting a sticker in the back window for a couple of years and I will just have to suffer the derision of my fellow human beings.

 

As a self confessed petrolhead i could not entertain the thought of a Baby On Board siign in our cars.

 

I have heard that about the Emergency Services before but dont buy into it, Maybe in the days when you plonked a travel cot on the back seat, but child car seats are fairly bulky bits of kit and not easy missed. I would have thought all crews are trained to check for little ones, Its fairly hard to lose them in the footwell under modern seats anyway!

 

My neighbours car is festooned with the damn things, no rear visability at all - well safe!

Edited June 30, 2015 by gazza

[spadefoot]

I've been moaned at to slow down twice. The first time was my first day out on my own new boat. He was probably right. The second time, I was only about 2 lengths out from a lock, I'd moved out smartish to allow a waiting boat in. When I looked around, I was indeed making a bit of a wash in the shallow reedy edges. I think the bloke was more concerned about the environment than his boat.

I actually grumbled at someone the other day for the first time. I was moored fairly remotely with no other boats in sight, 200-300yds each way to curves in the canal. My boat suddenly lifted then dropped surprisingly violently, but when I checked out the hatch, no boats just canal rising & falling several inches in waves. I was trying to figure what on earth was causing it when a boat hove around the corner, bow wave like a tsunami & stern lower than a ducks arse. As soon as they saw my boat from the helm, they shut down the power. It was a hire boat full of lads, just messing about. They probably had no idea that they were pushing a wave a few hundred yds in front of them. I was quite astonished myself. I put on my best (only) sarcastic cockney and told them to book a track day for their next adventure. They did apologise.

I only shout at people who actually hit my boat and then not every time. We can all make mistakes in manoeuvring.

[Leo No2]

Off topic- but related...I've noted a tendency over the last few years for painstakingly slow exits from locks. Gate, up or downhill open and nothing happens for a while... Boat emerges at an absolute crawl...the waiting boat unable to line up easily. Why?

A similar sort of thing yesterday. Taking Sculptor up Braunston breasted to Owl. Trying to keep to the centre (or deepest) part of the pound and lined up, as best I could, for the next lock. Two boats coming down, so I held back a little but one insisted on passing me on the non-towpath side forcing me to move over enough to have a bit of a challenge lining up for the next lock. I had indicated I would like him to go round to the right of me (as did the other boat) but he insisted it was good practice to have one boat each side of me. No 'damage' done but no consideration given - much more about what was right for him.

[ROBDEN]

Nearly off topic.

 

Two days ago I was hit (only slightly) by a passing hire boat.

Not the hirer’s fault.

Hirer going past a line of moored boats slowly.

Obviously too slow for the share boat behind as he thought he would overtake.

He started to overtake on the wrong side.

When he was level with the hire boat he suddenly realised that he wasn’t going to clear

an overhanging tree.

So he didn’t try to stop (as he may lose face) he forced the hire boat over causing it to run down the side of a couple of the moored boats.

On the back of the idiot overtaker’s boat was the “pass at tickover speed” sticker.

 

Incidentally, the boat that hit me was the same one that clobbered me a few weeks ago which I posted on here about an insurance claim.

Same company, same boat. Different crew, different canal.

 

Rob….

[Neil2]

Having just become a proud grand dad for the first time, I just thought a quick comment on the baby on board sticker thing. Apparantly they were invented after an older couple were involved in a car crash and the emergency crews missed the baby in the back because they didn't expect to be looking for one. So whilst I too am not impressed with 'little princess' stickers etc. I think I might be putting a sticker in the back window for a couple of years and I will just have to suffer the derision of my fellow human beings.

 

I too am not convinced by the origin of the sign but I believe emergency services do search for an infant if there's a sticker in a car involved in an accident. The problem is folk don't remove the signs when the baby is not on board which can, and has, caused confusion and possibly a waste of valuable time for the paramedics etc.

 

Back on topic, even though it's only June almost all the canals we've travelled on in the past few weeks have been shallow, some alarmingly so. It's simply impossible to move a 10-20 ton boat through such waters without causing disturbance to moored boats. Ironically, however, the only place I've been shouted at this year was Sawley Cut where the displacement effect on stationary boats is hardly noticeable. The guy was on a wide beam too.

[nb Innisfree]

We were once moored opposite a small narrowboat moored on the offside, several times during the day we would feel a slight bump caused by said boat drifting across the cut complete with rear mooring line and pin trailing in the water. Eventually I walked a few hundred yards to a bridge and moored his boat up properly. Problem was caused by the owner knocking his pins in a quarter of their length and tying off to the top, totally ineffective. When he got home from work I went back across the bridge to explain the situation, he was completely baffled as to why his boat kept pulling pins out, when I showed him how to hammer pins all the way in he was genuinely amazed. Some folk simply have no idea.

[Ray T]

A bit of speeding here:

 

 

Photo from NarrowBoat Summer 2015

 

To quote Captain Smith:

 

"Churning up the mud and knocking down the banks with his blasted motor engines."

Edited June 30, 2015 by Ray T

[Athy]

Or maybe hit reverse, reverse back up the cut a bit and then pass at flat out and say "now THAT is certainly too fast!"

I have sometimes thought of doing that. One day perhaps I will, though I'm a bit shy so I'm not sure if I would dare.

 

I can't remember ever being stridently requested to slow down, though. On a couple of occasions I have pre-empted such a comment, for example on a very windy day when I had to keep going quite fast to avoid being blown on to moored boats, I explained this to someone on one of the boats, who seemed to accept it.

[Emerald Fox]

"I put on my best (only) sarcastic cockney"

 

 

"You lot look well posh!" = 'Cut the wash!'

 

"Pirates Avast!" = 'Going too fast!'

 

"Are you lot mental?!" = 'I observe your vessel is a Day Rental!'

Edited June 30, 2015 by Emerald Fox

[TheBiscuits]

 

"I put on my best (only) sarcastic cockney"

 

 

"You lot look well posh!" = 'Cut the wash!'

 

"Pirates Avast!" = 'Going too fast!'

 

"Are you lot mental?!" = 'I observe your vessel is a Day Rental!'

Guybrush Threepwood is that you?

[MtB]

I've been moaned at to slow down twice. The first time was my first day out on my own new boat. He was probably right. The second time, I was only about 2 lengths out from a lock, I'd moved out smartish to allow a waiting boat in. When I looked around, I was indeed making a bit of a wash in the shallow reedy edges. I think the bloke was more concerned about the environment than his boat.

 

 

It isn't the wash that bothers moored boaters. It's the 'draw' or 'surge' as you pass them. Where your blade sucks tonnes of water out from under your boat (and theirs) and pushes it out behind you. Their boat will move forwards if their lines are slack as you approach, then stop dead as the lines tighten. Then they will surge backwards as you actually come level with them, and their boat will be jerked to a halt again as their lines tighten the other way. Watch carefully as you pass loosely moored boats to see this effect, it isn't obvious while you are moving yourself too.

 

The tiny amount of wash you make is of little consequence compared to the surge you create by going 'too fast'.

Edited June 30, 2015 by Mike the Boilerman

[WarringtonWhite]

Passing a long line of moored boats on the way back from Skipton, a fella popped his head out of the boat. Here we go i thought. He shouted across that it was great to see someone who knew how to slow down going passed moored boats........

 

4 boats down (and no change of speed) I had a doorhandle head come screaming out of the boat yelling at me to slow down before he conducted some unspeakable act on me. I dont think he expected the torrent of abuse I threw at him because he did what I told him - he wound his neck in and got back in the boat without taking up my suggestion of me assisting him with winding his neck in......

 

Blow me, about 10 boats down an elderly lady thanked me for taking it easy.

 

Some days you just cant win..... I did enjoy the look on the doorhandles face when he worked out that I wasnt joking - because I started going astern!!! ---- Classic moment, for everything else theres Master Card!

[Jess--]

 

 

It isn't the wash that bothers moored boaters. It's the 'draw' or 'surge' as you pass them. Where your blade sucks tonnes of water out from under your boat (and theirs) and pushes it out behind you. Their boat will move forwards non slack lines as you approach, then surge backwards as you actually come level with them.

 

The tiny amount of wash you make is of little consequence compared to the surge you create by going 'too fast'.

Not moored but experienced the surge in quite a big way on my last outing

 

had been watching a trip boat (71 foot ex working boat full of primary school children) steadily gaining on me for about 20 minutes (I was in no hurry but they were obviously on a schedule), at a suitable wide point I slowed to tickover and waved them past.

 

as they started to draw alongside it stopped my boat absolutely dead and actually pushed / pulled me backwards (weird feeling to be moving forwards through water forwards but going backwards in relation to land)

once their stern passed my bow I was drawn along behind them (at almost 3 times the speed I should have been)