solo parallel parking

[howardang]

7 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

What? the girlie buttons??(irony alert!!)

It's the only way to go!

 

Howard

[ditchcrawler]

13 minutes ago, howardang said:

Or stop parallel to the bank and use the bow and stern thruster!

 

Howard

You dont need a stern thruster with an outboard 

[Wanderer Vagabond]

10 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

You dont need a stern thruster with an outboard 

Isn't a 'stern thruster' another name for an outboard??

[TheBiscuits]

If Ronnie hasn't figured it out yet it's fine ...  He is a good painter ?

[pete.i]

What the **** is the matter with you people and bow thrusters. If you have a boat is infinetly easier to handle with a bow thruster than one without. It isn't at all clever to be superior when you have to moor up the hard way. I don't have a bow thruster but I wish I did. I have helmed a 60 foot narrowboat with bow thrusters extremely easier than my narrowboats and I have helmed a 20 foot cruiser with an outboard which I owned for a year and that was moored between expensive GRP cruisers.

 

Anyway to answer the OP's question. Manouvering a light plastic boat is very much easier than manouvering a heavy steel narrowboat. For a start you can put your engine in reverse and actually have steerage that does not happen in a boat with a tiller (in spite of what the, so called, experts on this forum will tell you.) Also because a GRP boat is so much lighter it responds much more readily to the throttle than a heavy steel narrowboat does. Really the only thing that mucks up your control of a light GRP cruiser is the wind. Even a slight breeze can push you off course. The upside is that if a steel narrow boat hits a GRP the plastic boat will, inevitably, come off worse. Your plastic boat against another plastic boat will mostly (hopefully) end up with just a scratch  

[Wanderer Vagabond]

19 minutes ago, pete.i said:

What the **** is the matter with you people and bow thrusters. If you have a boat is infinetly easier to handle with a bow thruster than one without. It isn't at all clever to be superior when you have to moor up the hard way. I don't have a bow thruster but I wish I did. I have helmed a 60 foot narrowboat with bow thrusters extremely easier than my narrowboats and I have helmed a 20 foot cruiser with an outboard which I owned for a year and that was moored between expensive GRP cruisers.

 

Anyway to answer the OP's question. Manouvering a light plastic boat is very much easier than manouvering a heavy steel narrowboat. For a start you can put your engine in reverse and actually have steerage that does not happen in a boat with a tiller (in spite of what the, so called, experts on this forum will tell you.) Also because a GRP boat is so much lighter it responds much more readily to the throttle than a heavy steel narrowboat does. Really the only thing that mucks up your control of a light GRP cruiser is the wind. Even a slight breeze can push you off course. The upside is that if a steel narrow boat hits a GRP the plastic boat will, inevitably, come off worse. Your plastic boat against another plastic boat will mostly (hopefully) end up with just a scratch  

I think you'll find it is a regular p take, probably along the lines of fatty v narrowboat, nothing malicious in it, just a bit of 'joshing'. I also don't have a bow thruster but then the only occasion that I would admit to missing one is when trying to reverse, since most narrowboats are pigs to reverse. I have never really found any necessity for one when mooring since I don't really see that it helps much, I swing my rear in and step off with the centre line that I wrap around a bollard or hook up to a 'nappy pin', nothing that a bow thruster offers makes much difference to my mooring method, even in strong winds (yup, I've moored in a few of those as well).

[howardang]

23 minutes ago, pete.i said:

What the **** is the matter with you people and bow thrusters. If you have a boat is infinetly easier to handle with a bow thruster than one without. It isn't at all clever to be superior when you have to moor up the hard way. I don't have a bow thruster but I wish I did. I have helmed a 60 foot narrowboat with bow thrusters extremely easier than my narrowboats and I have helmed a 20 foot cruiser with an outboard which I owned for a year and that was moored between expensive GRP cruisers................

 

 

There is a mentality on here  that it is not "macho" to use something that can make your life easier, and more to the point, if you use BT's properly they enable you to handle the boat with more finesse, and maybe allow you to get out of a tight situation.

 

Stand back and watch for the clever comments from those that think they know better!

 

Howard

[frahkn]

3 minutes ago, howardang said:

There is a mentality on here  that it is not "macho" to use something that can make your life easier, and more to the point, if you use BT's properly they enable you to handle the boat with more finesse, and maybe allow you to get out of a tight situation.

 

Stand back and watch for the clever comments from those that think they know better!

 

Howard

 

Well Howard, I don't know better, I've never had a bow thruster and I don't handle my 70' narrowboat all that well in high winds, though I doubt that one would help much..

 

But I've seen a lot of bow thrusters used and off hand I can't remember a single use which involved much finesse.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

9 minutes ago, howardang said:

There is a mentality on here  that it is not "macho" to use something that can make your life easier, and more to the point, if you use BT's properly they enable you to handle the boat with more finesse, and maybe allow you to get out of a tight situation.

 

Stand back and watch for the clever comments from those that think they know better!

 

Howard

I suppose that the first point is that I try not to get into a 'tight' situation in the first place, but if I have done, I can't really see that a BT is going to be much help. If, on a stationary boat, I push the tiller over hard whilst powering the engine, the stern will go one way an the bow will go the other way, what will a BT do that is any different? As I said, I would appreciate one whilst reversing but then I try not to do that too often because I know the boat is a pig to reverse, so for reversing they are brilliant, not quite so much for going forwards though.

 

And when you black your boat, do you make absolutely certain that the BT tube gets blacked at the same time? because it is something that can cause you major problems if you don't.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Wanderer Vagabond

[howardang]

4 minutes ago, frahkn said:

 

Well Howard, I don't know better, I've never had a bow thruster and I don't handle my 70' narrowboat all that well in high winds, though I doubt that one would help much..

 

But I've seen a lot of bow thrusters used and off hand I can't remember a single use which involved much finesse.

The appropriate comment in my post is ..."if you use BT's properly they enable you to handle the boat with more finesse,"...

Bow thrusts are an aid, not the answer to a maiden's prayer, and most of the time not necessary, but very useful on the odd occasion where you have got into an awkward situation and where a sideways push would be very useful. They are a help, not a necessity, and i would rather have one than not. As it happens, the boat which I share also has a stern thrust, which is also very useful extremely rarely but falls into the "nice to have" category, rather than essential, but I wouldn't lose any sleep if it stopped working. 

 

Howard

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

13 minutes ago, frahkn said:

 

 

 

But I've seen a lot of bow thrusters used and off hand I can't remember a single use which involved much finesse.

Thats because you would not have noticed the ones that did

13 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

  I push the tiller over hard whilst powering the engine, the stern will go one way an the bow will go the other way, what will a BT do that is any different?  

 

What if your stern is already hard against something so cant go one way to make the bows go another

[frahkn]

Just now, ditchcrawler said:

Thats because you would not have noticed the ones that did

 

That may be totally correct - I can hardly argue, can I?

 

Mostly I notice bow thruster use when I'm moored and inside the boat - I hear them in use, look out the hatch and see a plonker making a fool of himself (or vice versa of course).

[Wanderer Vagabond]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

Thats because you would not have noticed the ones that did

I don't know, when I'm coming in to moor I want the stern in first so that I can step off with the centre line, the BT isn't much help for that. When setting off I want to push the stern out first so that it is in deeper water and out of the weeds so once I've pushed the stern out I have a gentle reverse and then set off, once again, not much of a role for a BT there either. Possibly might help if pinned onto a lee shore whilst trying to set off, but then I try not to do that much.

[ditchcrawler]

Just now, frahkn said:

 

That may be totally correct - I can hardly argue, can I?

 

Mostly I notice bow thruster use when I'm moored and inside the boat - I hear them in use, look out the hatch and see a plonker making a fool of himself (or vice versa of course).

I think you are probably correct there. I have watched narrowboats come along while still in a lock trying not to touch the sides using a bow thruster. They are not a magic answer and a lot of people rely on them before trying to steer using the rudder.

 

[Wanderer Vagabond]

9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

 

What if your stern is already hard against something so cant go one way to make the bows go another

I can't think of many occasions when that has been the case. Possibly in the locks of the Huddersfield Broad and Calder and Hebble where you need to 'jiggle' a 60' boat a bit to get out of the lock, but all I've done was to manually push the stern across and then manouevre accordingly. The only occasions when I've ever thought," I could really do with a BT" is when reversing, and I do accept that for reversing they are a boon, not much interest in them when going forwards though.

[frahkn]

5 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

I don't know, when I'm coming in to moor I want the stern in first so that I can step off with the centre line, the BT isn't much help for that. When setting off I want to push the stern out first so that it is in deeper water and out of the weeds so once I've pushed the stern out I have a gentle reverse and then set off, once again, not much of a role for a BT there either. Possibly might help if pinned onto a lee shore whilst trying to set off, but then I try not to do that much.

 

The only time I was pinned on a "lee shore" was in Ventnor Farm marina (had called in for diesel).

 

The yard guy got me off but only by getting max revs from my Beta 43 (he asked first if I was happy that the engine could take it). Doubt that a bow thruster would have managed.

[howardang]

19 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

I can't think of many occasions when that has been the case. Possibly in the locks of the Huddersfield Broad and Calder and Hebble where you need to 'jiggle' a 60' boat a bit to get out of the lock, but all I've done was to manually push the stern across and then manouevre accordingly. The only occasions when I've ever thought," I could really do with a BT" is when reversing, and I do accept that for reversing they are a boon, not much interest in them when going forwards though.

Re your last comment, they rapidly become ineffective as soon as you move through the water, and by the time you reach 2 mph or so they are virtually useless. They are not rudder replacements, they are at their best when giving a push to supplement the manouvering capability of the propeller and rudder. 

 

Howard

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

10 hours ago, howardang said:

Re your last comment, they rapidly become ineffective as soon as you move through the water, and by the time you reach 2 mph or so they are virtually useless. They are not rudder replacements, they are at their best when giving a push to supplement the manouvering capability of the propeller and rudder. 

 

Howard

 

 

Spot on and so many owners dont realise that and yes I have one .

[howardang]

11 hours ago, frahkn said:

 

The only time I was pinned on a "lee shore" was in Ventnor Farm marina (had called in for diesel).

 

The yard guy got me off but only by getting max revs from my Beta 43 (he asked first if I was happy that the engine could take it). Doubt that a bow thruster would have managed.

Bow thrusts are not the answer to everything. However, maybe a spring may well have helped in this situation, together with a bow thrust (if you have one)?

 

Howard

 

 

 

[Bee]

I never reverse into a tight space. On the canal I just steer the thing in - slowly, get the thing to stop with the bow up against the edge and as far forward as possible, fling as many bits of rope ashore as possible followed by the sledgehammer, some mooring pins and the dog and then step of the front end and pull all the ropes in. Easy. On a river or with a bit of a breeze then you must use the current or wind to help and not blow one end or the other out into the river / canal. I never reverse into tight spaces, some boats do, some boats don't, mine don't.

Edit to add. I have not got a bowthruster, I really wish I had, I would swap one, maybe two of my kids for one (And I do know how to steer but we spend a lot of time on French waterways, the French do not waste money on guarding weirs or proper stopping places above them)

Edited February 26, 2019 by Bee

[system 4-50]

24 minutes ago, Bee said:

I never reverse into a tight space. On the canal I just steer the thing in - slowly, get the thing to stop with the bow up against the edge and as far forward as possible, fling as many bits of rope ashore as possible followed by the sledgehammer, some mooring pins and the dog and then step of the front end and pull all the ropes in. Easy. On a river or with a bit of a breeze then you must use the current or wind to help and not blow one end or the other out into the river / canal. I never reverse into tight spaces, some boats do, some boats don't, mine don't.

Edit to add. I have not got a bowthruster, I really wish I had, I would swap one, maybe two of my kids for one (And I do know how to steer but we spend a lot of time on French waterways, the French do not waste money on guarding weirs or proper stopping places above them)

Please post details of the kids.

[howardang]

34 minutes ago, Bee said:

I never reverse into a tight space. On the canal I just steer the thing in - slowly, get the thing to stop with the bow up against the edge and as far forward as possible, fling as many bits of rope ashore as possible followed by the sledgehammer, some mooring pins and the dog and then step of the front end and pull all the ropes in. Easy. On a river or with a bit of a breeze then you must use the current or wind to help and not blow one end or the other out into the river / canal. I never reverse into tight spaces, some boats do, some boats don't, mine don't.

Edit to add. I have not got a bowthruster, I really wish I had, I would swap one, maybe two of my kids for one (And I do know how to steer but we spend a lot of time on French waterways, the French do not waste money on guarding weirs or proper stopping places above them)

Does the dog pull the ropes in or hammer in the mooring Pins?  However, Bow Thrusts are nothing to do with steering.

 

Howard

[Bee]

4 hours ago, howardang said:

Does the dog pull the ropes in or hammer in the mooring Pins?  However, Bow Thrusts are nothing to do with steering.

 

Howard

Nah, the dog just has a wee on someone elses mooring lines. And you're right about the steering, its the faffing about and trying to stay stationary whilst pointing the right way that I'd like a bow thruster for.

[Jim Riley]

Spring lines as an aid to mooring single handed in a tight space? Brilliant CWDF  idea!

1. go into tight space, get off and attach spring line. Return to get back on.

2. Realise the error of your ways.....Sack that one, Attach bow and stern lines cos you are already on the bank with the boat in the gap.

 

Re rudder attachments, I had an aluminium single blade one on my Honda 20. It bent with the prop thrust at higher speeds. I took it off and find short sharp bursts of power as effective at low speed. I realise a ruddersafe is slightly different, sitting around the prop and rising as speed increases so it is out of the prop thrust.

 

Another yoghurt pot owner has commented on the need for ballast in the bow, I agree, it made my dc22 easier to handle. I had an old honda 10 on the back of that, perfectly adequate. The 20 is on the back of my 32ft nb.

[howardang]

7 minutes ago, Jim Riley said:

Spring lines as an aid to mooring single handed in a tight space? Brilliant CWDF  idea!

1. go into tight space, get off and attach spring line. Return to get back on.

2. Realise the error of your ways.....Sack that one, Attach bow and stern lines cos you are already on the bank with the boat in the gap.

 

 

It is not clear what you are trying to say but f you are referring to my earlier post (no 69), you may notice that I was specifically addressing the difficulty Frakhn had when trying to get off a berth with an adverse wind, not when mooring. And before you mention the single handed situation, rig any spring you may use as a bight so you can let it go from the boat. 

 

Howard