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Fending off boats with a pole


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11 minutes ago, dave moore said:

At one of the yards I regularly work in, staff always use ropes and shafts to move boats around, much easier in very tight situations.

Dave

At said yard I got a bit of a row (well, not really) for driving the boat into the dry dock, due to moving silt from the basin into the dock with the prop. Once the dock was drained and I was walking around on the bottom, I totally got the point.

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I have to use the long shaft every single time I leave the mooring as I have to reverse and do a very long 180 degree turn in a very narrow channel as we are in a dead end offshoot of canal. The first time I put the shaft on my neighbours bote hull it slipped and I ended up in the drink.

 

Nb good way to steer precisly in reverse. If you have someone on bow with long shaft.

Also yes me too beached on Thames and long shaft saved the day.

 

Edited by mark99
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11 hours ago, Bugsworth Tippler said:

A boater in our marina regularly avoids contact with other boats by pushing off with boat poles of various designs. Some boat owners believe that their boats have suffered damage as result; mainly damage to expensive paint jobs.

What's the 'perceived etiquette' (nice phrase - might mean nothing at all) here? Are we justified in complaining? Other boaters maneuvering in the marina manage to push themselves away from moored boats manually without there being any significant dangers.

 

If this is happening in the marina and you don’t fancy having a polite word with the offending boater, you could always ask the marina manager to have a word with them.

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As well as Thames beached on Oxford, Caldon, Shroppie, GU at Winkwell and Harefield, Wey and Basingstoke. Long shafted off without fuss rather than thrashing  the water to a froth with engine. 

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19 minutes ago, mark99 said:

As well as Thames beached on Oxford, Caldon, Shroppie, GU at Winkwell and Harefield, Wey and Basingstoke. Long shafted off without fuss rather than thrashing  the water to a froth with engine. 

It isn't necessary to thrash the water to a froth - in fact that is counter productive. Just use your engine appropriately. Throttles have variable power settings! :rolleyes:

Howard

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20 minutes ago, howardang said:

It isn't necessary to thrash the water to a froth - in fact that is counter productive. Just use your engine appropriately. Throttles have variable power settings! :rolleyes:

Howard

I'll take no advice from a bowthruster owner thanks.

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24 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

P.S. Getting back on topic, using a longshaft or cabinshaft on another boat's paintwork is going to cause far more damage than the hulls bumping would. So no, they are being grassholes doing this routinely.

Absolutely but I imagine that it's not the other boat's paintwork that they are seeking to protect.

As someone who's paintwork (above the gunnel) could never be described as 'shiny', I have seen others attempting some strange manoeuvres to "protect my boat" from collision damage.

 

Frank.

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12 hours ago, BWM said:

This depends entirely on the type of bend being moored on, if someone moors on a tight bend they deserve all that comes their way.

When you watch original Leeds liverpool short boats (62 x 14ft) rounding the bend with no problems at all you realise that these people in narrow boats that don't make the bend simply can't handle their boat properly. 

Too many people have adopted the 'contact sport' or the 'im on a steel boat, I can hit what I want without damaging my boat' mentality. You can usually spot these people because they are the ones who 'drive' their boats then 'park' up at night... 

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6 hours ago, Sammas09 said:

When you watch original Leeds liverpool short boats (62 x 14ft) rounding the bend with no problems at all you realise that these people in narrow boats that don't make the bend simply can't handle their boat properly. 

Too many people have adopted the 'contact sport' or the 'im on a steel boat, I can hit what I want without damaging my boat' mentality. You can usually spot these people because they are the ones who 'drive' their boats then 'park' up at night... 

This has nothing to do with the statement 'contact sport ', a term that makes me shudder. The canals were designed with the channel on the outside of bends, and a quick look at old video footage shows this. Getting a full length, deep boat around a sharp bend presents problems, as does any other craft in busy situations where boats are rounding bends with oncoming traffic. As soon as you are in contact with shallow water, steerage is comprised - even in the most competent hands.

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1 hour ago, BWM said:

This has nothing to do with the statement 'contact sport ', a term that makes me shudder. The canals were designed with the channel on the outside of bends, and a quick look at old video footage shows this. Getting a full length, deep boat around a sharp bend presents problems, as does any other craft in busy situations where boats are rounding bends with oncoming traffic. As soon as you are in contact with shallow water, steerage is comprised - even in the most competent hands.

^^^ exactly this. It's not the width of the canal that matters, it's the depth.

 

The stern of a deep draughted boat will happily suck itself towards the shallow water.

 

You've probably felt the same thing, if you try to pass someone and go too near to the bank- you point the tiller away from the bank a lot to try and force it away, otherwise the stern will suck into the bank.

The same thing happens on a deep draughted boat, but to either side of a narrow channel down the middle of the cut, and around the outside of bends.

 

To be able to get the boat around the bend, you have to start with the stern in the right place. Too far over to the inside of the corner, and the boat will continue in a straight line regardless of what you do with the rudder.

 

Get it right and the boat will steer itself around the corner, without having to use the tiller at all to steer.

 

This does mean the stern has to be near the outside of the bend, on the outside edge of the channel, to be pulled in towards the bank and swing the fore end around the bend. If someone has been inconsiderate enough to tie up their boat there, right where the stern needs to be, then I will normally be swearing under my breath at their lack of knowledge as I try to force the boat around.

 

Edit to add- if you see me out and about on Willow (big,dented, and blue) you're more than welcome to have a go at steering and see for yourself

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2 hours ago, BWM said:

This has nothing to do with the statement 'contact sport ', a term that makes me shudder. The canals were designed with the channel on the outside of bends, and a quick look at old video footage shows this. Getting a full length, deep boat around a sharp bend presents problems, as does any other craft in busy situations where boats are rounding bends with oncoming traffic. As soon as you are in contact with shallow water, steerage is comprised - even in the most competent hands.

Most boats make it round the bend (wide and narrow beams) so there is no denying that it is not doable. The boats that don't make it are usually going too fast and have an inexperienced person steering.

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