Etiquette!

[NickF]

4 hours ago, Dave_P said:

I suspect the OP just means a vintage slow revving engine RN, Kelvin, National. 

What a lovely sound to wake up to!

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, NickF said:

What a lovely sound to wake up to!

It’s only a lovely sound to wake up to if you want or need to be awake. If you need to sleep in order to be fit for work the next day, and are the sort who struggles to go back to sleep once awoken, then it is not so lovely.

[NickF]

5 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

It’s only a lovely sound to wake up to if you want or need to be awake. If you need to sleep in order to be fit for work the next day, and are the sort who struggles to go back to sleep once awoken, then it is not so lovely.

I entirely accept Nick that my comment is my personal opinion and I realise not everyone may think like me!

[Chewbacka]

2 hours ago, NickF said:

What a lovely sound to wake up to!

Would you say that at 3 in the morning??

[Rob-M]

When we were on the BCN challenge and Spey came in to Walsall town basin around 3am with its Bollinder thumping away it was a welcome sound to wake up to as we wanted to set off.

[Peter X]

Generators are another matter, but the only etiquette about noise (people or engines) when going boating in the early morning is that it should be kept to the minimum necessary, and a dawn start is a very good idea especially to use the limited daylight in winter. In other words, start and run the engine briefly before casting off to make sure it's OK, then move slowly at first while it's warming up, or when passing housing. I think it's generally not good for engines anyway to push them hard when starting from cold? It's difficult to feel much sympathy with someone who's bought a flat long after the canal was there.

[Naughty Cal]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

It’s only a lovely sound to wake up to if you want or need to be awake. If you need to sleep in order to be fit for work the next day, and are the sort who struggles to go back to sleep once awoken, then it is not so lovely.

6am is hardly the dead of night though is it?

43 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

Would you say that at 3 in the morning??

It isn't uncommon to be woken up at 3am in coastal marinas as people cruise around the tides.

 

[noddyboater]

3am, 6am, who cares? 

If someone with a Bolinder wants to come and moor outside my house and leave it running all night (as if it would!) they're welcome. Some people have no soul. 

[Arthur Marshall]

I'd reckon it would be worth getting up just once and going to see what boat it was. Lurking by the lock means you could talk to the owner and find out, for a start, how long they were going to be doing this early morning run - if it's a work boat, knowing that the problem is going to stop at some stage might take some of the pressure off.  If it's just an early rising boater out for a chug for no apparent reason, they might be amenable to doing it an hour or so later if asked nicely.

[thebfg]

3 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I think I misinterpreted this in my middle-of-the-night reply.  I took you to mean the boat turns up and goes repeatedly back and forth through the lock for an hour each morning, between 6am and 7am. Most odd behaviour if this is what you mean.

On reflection I think you probably mean it transits the lock going one way at 6am, then goes back through the other way at 7am. Is that right? This is normal use of the canal, if this is the correct interpretation and nothing to complain about.

Which leads to a question. What is down There?

A winding hole, water point or an elsan. If they are going up and down. There must be a reason.

[KevMc]

Maybe they can't switch off the engine

[max's son]

Has the OP seen the boat or just heard it?

And when they say back and forth over what time period between the journey?

 

[Naughty Cal]

Perhaps they have taken the term continuous cruiser to the extreme and are on a 24 hour loop.

[Laurie Booth]

Dare I say "Double Glazing"

[MtB]

5 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

One could reasonably accept the bells ringing for the Friday evening practice, and Sunday Services, but to be rung EVERY morning at 6:00am would become a bit wearing.

 

The principle remains though. People buy a cut-side property then only realise how much traffic there is once they move in.

I think a lot of the non-boating public think the canals are near deserted and derelict, and the reality comes as a Big Shock! The OP should have known there would be traffic though, being a boater himself. 

Edited December 21, 2017 by Mike the Boilerman

[colinwilks]

To be fair to the OP, he's a boater himself, enjoys living by the cut and has simply asked if this noisy boat's toing and froing in the morning is reasonable behaviour. Hopefully he will not be put off by his reception here but will get up early tomorrow, help the boat through the lock and enlighten us all as to what sort of boat it is, what engine it's got and why it's going up and down "his" lock every morning, oh, and where on the system he lives.

 

[system 4-50]

Times change. What is acceptable at one time cannot be made into an iron rule that stands for all time. I ring church bells. I accept that over time more and more of them will have to be sound proofed so that they can only be heard over a very limited radius. This is necessary as we are forced to put housing into every possible square inch of this tiny country. There is no way that a half-mile park can be preserved around them for evermore. Similarly if you want to run a noisy engine it should be limited to civilised hours. Some people like some noises, most do not.

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

I ring church bells.

 

Me too.

Any other ringers here?

[Alan de Enfield]

3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Me too.

Any other ringers here?

The other thread has degenerated into discussing campanologists ringing the changes in crutch-less leather gear.

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, Naughty Cal said:

6am is hardly the dead of night though is it?

It isn't uncommon to be woken up at 3am in coastal marinas as people cruise around the tides.

 

It is to me! But of course it depends on one’s working hours. For example if doing an afternoon shifts and finishing at say midnight and getting to bed at 2am, being woken up repeatedly at 6am results in sleep deprivation. Annoying at the best of times, dangerous to others if said person is eg a driver or pilot.

I don’t have a problem with people going boating at 6am - we have been known to do it! I do have a problem with people having boats that are anti socially noisy, ditto for people with “boy racer” exhausts on their cars who go screaming around town at 2am. Selfish and attention-seeking, pure and simple.

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

The principle remains though. People buy a cut-side property then only realise how much traffic there is once they move in.

I think a lot of the non-boating public think the canals are near deserted and derelict, and the reality comes as a Big Shock! The OP should have known there would be traffic though, being a boater himself. 

However the OP mentions he has not had a problem for the past 2 years, it is just this repeat offender that is causing a problem.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, nicknorman said:

 

I don’t have a problem with people going boating at 6am - we have been known to do it! I do have a problem with people having boats that are anti socially noisy, ditto for people with “boy racer” exhausts on their cars who go screaming around town at 2am. Selfish and attention-seeking, pure and simple.

 

The OP however, contains mild inconsistencies.

For example the only narrowboat engine I can think of capable of firing as infrequently as every two seconds is a Bolinder with a hit and miss governor. But the note of a Bolinder exhaust is a gentle 'boom', not "almost sounds like someone hitting a sledge hammer every couple of seconds". Or "the boat in question is extremely loud!" could easily be the case with any hot bulb semi-diesel but this is not consistent with "It's a very very very slow chug". Hot bulbs other than Bolinders tick over at about three firing strokes per second. 

Either this is a boat far bigger than a narrowboat or the OP is prone to some exaggeration, I think. 

[MtB]

Oh and another inconsistency is this:  "I have been awoken between 6-7 am everyday for at least the last 10 days now."

Much of the cut has been frozen solid until recently so this boat must have been icebreaking in the dark. Possibly this IS the reason for the early morning passage! perhaps it will stop now we have warm weather again.

[Ratkatcher]

13 hours ago, Ashs85 said:

After living here for 2 years with no problems whatsoever I have been awoken between 6-7 am everyday for at least the last 10 days now. It's the same boat going back and forth extremely early in the morning. I overlook the lock and feel privileged to do so, but the boat in question is extremely loud! It's a very very very slow chug, almost sounds like someone hitting a sledge hammer every couple of seconds. A faster/consistent idle speed would be much less distracting! 

As I say, I choose to live her for a reason, but I do work extremely long hours late into the morning.

 

I love the defensive comments about vintage engines but reading the bits I have highlighted throws a valid perspective to the question.

Perhaps the OP might consider nipping to the lock at this early hour and meeting the boater and possibly gleaning the answer to 'how much longer?' but he is being woken by someone's pride and joy at an unsociable hour (I'd consider being woken up a couple of hours early regularly unsociable too) and I can sympathise with his post.

Vintage engines sound wonderful, but are invariably very loud (no doubt some members here will explain why silencers do not seem to work on them) in comparison to 'modern' diesel engines.

 

ETA: I recall a vintage boat passing by on the Shroppie early Autumn, very erratic firing with what seemed an age between 'booms', I heard it long before it passed me and for a long time after - but at least it was in the middle of the afternoon (still woke me as I was taking an afternoon nap with the dogs )

Edited December 21, 2017 by Ratkatcher

[MtB]

3 minutes ago, Ratkatcher said:

Vintage engines sound wonderful, but are invariably very loud

 

Frankly I disagree. Mine are all pleasingly quiet.

I suspect you are only noticing the occasional loud one!

Listers I agree tend to be unpleasantly loud (except the JPs) but then they barely fall into the category 'vintage'. Nor do they run "very very very slow"

[nicknorman]

4 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Frankly I disagree. Mine are all pleasingly quiet.

I suspect you are only noticing the occasional loud one!

Listers I agree tend to be unpleasantly loud (except the JPs) but then they barely fall into the category 'vintage'. Nor do they run "very very very slow"

All internal combustion engines are very loud. But considerate people fit them with silencers and then guess what? They are no longer very loud! People with loud (ie unsilenced) vintage engines are quite clearly in the “look at me, aren't I so important because I’ve got a vintage engine”. Equally there are plenty of people with non-vintage engines that don’t have adequate silencing, so I am not against vintage engines, I am against unreasonably loud engines.

Edited December 21, 2017 by nicknorman