Landing advice

[rawsondsr]

Advice please - I seem to have trouble landing well to moor up or prep/close a lock.

 

I can come in nice and straight, be about 6 inches away from the edge then all of a sudden the bow is on the other side, and the stern is a few feet away.

 

i slow to tickover, come in to the bank, i'm nice and straight, slot it into reverse to slow/stop for a few seconds, then into neutral, and sometimes a small blast of forwards with appropriate tiller direction.

 

I then move the stern to the bank, and use the ropes to haul the bow in.

 

 

What am i doing wrong?

[Jennifer McM]

Sorry, deleted my first post, I didn't read your post well enough

 

Or maybe I did.... what the heck, this might help

 

 

Edited June 22, 2018 by Jennifer McM

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Do you normally boat on relatively shallow canals? If so, then the water getting trapped between the boat and side is pushing you out again. Particularly bad when you go in to reverse as this pushes water down the sides of your boat and the stuff between you and the bank forces the boat back out.  Less of a problem on deep canals and rivers. There is also prop walk, which will have more of an effect on one bank side than the opposite one and again is worse when it is shallow.

 

My technique is to slow down with reverse away from the bank and mooring, then use the rudder to turn towards the bank quite steeply still in forward, then just as the bow is about to touch, turn away with the rudder and immediately afterwards engage reverse to kill the forward speed. The turn away from the bank compensates for the water being pushed in to the gap by the prop as there is still some angular momentum turning the boat that carries on the turn to bring it parallel to the bank and right beside it. Works well on deeper canals. A bit hit and miss on shallow ones. Others will have better techniques I am sure. Have the centre rope ready to pick up as I step off and kill any slight remaining forward motion with that. When it goes well it actually looks like I know what I am doing. When there are gongoozlers around it is more likely to mess up.

 

Jen

[reg]

Wot jen says 

Normal behaviour for my boat when bank sides shallow, which is almost always, just need to compensate for it. Often get it right and when people are watching get it wrong. 

Key is to have center rope within easy reach, 2 ropes better than one. 

Video shows the technique well but in perfect conditions, just need to adapt that technique to a variety of circumstances. 

Edited June 22, 2018 by reg

[Bee]

Agree, its the nice and straight that messes it up, same in a wide lock, you need to come in to the chosen side at a bit of an angle but no matter what you do a puff of wind will make a fool of you. Its quite possible to travel along at 45 degrees to the bank for ages with the bow refusing to come in until you stuff it into the reeds. Stupid boats.

[reg]

5 minutes ago, Bee said:

Stupid boats

I blame the government. 

[Alan de Enfield]

13 minutes ago, reg said:

I blame the government. 

Nah - Its the EU Innit !!

[Boater Sam]

Its the ecofan.

[Lily Rose]

3 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

Its the ecofan.

Surely that helps, can't you just position so it acts as a stern thruster / rear bowthruster, or whatever it's called?

[Horace42]

What you describe is 'normal' when trying to come in nice and straight first time - and with a bit of practice easy to get right -

It is quite difficult muck it up a pretty landing when no one is watching.