Passing moored boats.

[David Schweizer]

_{The point surely is (if anything) that on the inland waterways network most of us are sensible, considerate and friendly people. That being so, we 'do as we would be done by'. As I've said before, you can't legislate for the pillox who want to fubar it for the rest of us, so I'll smile sweetly, mutter an Anglo-Saxon epithet very quietly into my beard, and move on. My blood pressure is high enough already without artificial aids.}

 

_Ian

God that was hard to read, but I agree with you. I tie my boat up securely with big fat fenders to absorb most of the buffetting, and I do not shout at boats that pass too quickly, because the sort of person who knowingly rocks a boat violently on it's mooring wont slow down any way, and as I am not there most of the time I am sure it happens all the time.

 

One thing I have noticed over the years is that some of the poeple I know who shout at boats all the time for not slowing down, are not particularly good at slowing down themselves. Something to do with different perceptions of speed from different perspectives.

[Djuwenda]

God that was hard to read, but I agree with you. I tie my boat up securely with big fat fenders to absorb most of the buffetting, and I do not shout at boats that pass too quickly, because the sort of person who knowingly rocks a boat violently on it's mooring wont slow down any way, and as I am not there most of the time I am sure it happens all the time.

 

One thing I have noticed over the years is that some of the poeple I know who shout at boats all the time for not slowing down, are not particularly good at slowing down themselves. Something to do with different perceptions of speed from different perspectives.

 

 

On some sections of the oxford (ie: Hillmorton bottom lock) there is a rocky shelf under water against which the boats keeps getting thrown.

if you moor too tight, you end up on top of it at an angle, if you dont you will go mad listening to your hull hitting the rock.

Thats a very good reason for people to slow down.

 

An acquaintance who was in a slightly new agey boatyard full of wooden boats once asked a passing shiny boat to slow down as the hulls were being bashed against the bank. The steerer of the speeding boat just shouted back " I dont slow down for people like you".

 

being hippies, they did not follow suit and went back to work. One guy though, a little chap, very quiet, just went back to his boat, grabbed his porta potti, put it in his car and drove to the next bridge...

[Supermalc]

Just thought it was a topic worth discussing.......sorry I was wrong.

 

I can only TRY to make the world a better place:

Edited July 23, 2007 by Supermalc

[StoneHenge]

It is simply the fact the established order as it is at the moment appears to cause problems to many people. People moored moan about speeding boats, and moving boaters moan about having to crawl past miles of moored boats.

 

I don't moan about having to cruise slowly past moored boats. It's one of things I love about the canals, seeing all the different boats, shapes, colours, designs and people.

 

I only moan about nosie - but then you knew that already !

[Machpoint005]

Ian, have a bit of thought for my poor eyesight mate!

 

God that was hard to read, but I agree with you.

 

Sorry lads, I was very carefully not shouting!

 

(Control and '+' on my machine makes the text bigger, though!)

 

Ian

[David Schweizer]

As far as experience of canals, I have been on NBs and cruisers on canals, and in fact the Fosse Dyke is a shallow canal, just as the rest of the system. I have also travelled on the Soar, and Grand Union in my own boat, and a cruiser, as well as very short stretches on narrowboats. As I have also been on the Tidal Trent and into the Wash on a couple of occasions I suspect I have actually more experience over my 5 years than many have over 20.

Come back and argue that point when you have been doing it for more than 40 years.

 

In the days of working boats, which is what canals and NBs were designed

and made for, I expect they would never slow down to pass other moored boats.

Oh yes they did, I was boating in the 1960's and remember them very well, I also crewed a Northwich Star with an ex working boatman who always insisted that we slowed for moored craft.

 

How else can I stress what I am trying to say.

Try informed reasoned Argument

 

Why can't you understand that the answer to a perennial problem MAY??? be to alter the way it is approached.

I understand completely, I just don't agree with you.

Edited July 23, 2007 by David Schweizer

[Purple Fairie]

unless the river is wide and deep enough (as on the lower Witham, or Trent) to permit the wash to dissapate.

 

I'm sorry Malc but where do you get the idea that the Witham is wide and deep enough for the wash to dissipate? All last winter the EA was putting lines of stone about 6' away from the bank to stop the wash from speeding boats erroding the bank and protecting wildlife - as is obvious at Chapel Hill by the chunks of missing bank!

 

There is also a 'person' that has a boat near to us that makes it his mission to get his wash ONTO the floating pontoons along the Witham! I've never seen it done before and didn't know it was possible. But it seems to be more of a cult in our area to sit in the pub telling the tale of how quick you can actually get to and from a place.

 

The best way to stop people from shouting 'Slow down' when you pass them, is to slow down well before passing them. But then, I didn't realise people did moan about slowing down, I thought (as Stongehenge dies) that was the joy of boating

[carlt]

Whether or not you are moored securely I will slow down to tickover when passing you, my eyesight isn't good enough to see if you are tied on to rings, piling hooks, toothpicks, marquee pins or bits of twigs from the hedgerow when the decision has to be made.

 

This is common sense and common courtesy. If you slow down, you won't upset anyone, you won't pull the pins of those who don't possess our vast experience and you won't leave a drifting boat for a more considerate boater to tie up.

 

It's all very well blaming the moorer for allowing their boat to come adrift but it is not only them you are inconveniencing.

 

Anyone who thinks they have a right to speed past moored boats just because they are 'more experienced' than the poor newbie, who should have tied up securely is an inconsiderate fool, who was obviously born blessed with experience and has never needed to learn.

[Carrie]

If someone is zooming past as though I wasn't there, I just don't bother turning round to wave as I usually do. No shouting at them or pulling faces. Today, I kept my eyes down on my washing up as a speed-freak shot past and he yelled out " Get a grip for fuck sake!" Ha! Insulted in my own home!

[fender]

If someone is zooming past as though I wasn't there, I just don't bother turning round to wave as I usually do. No shouting at them or pulling faces. Today, I kept my eyes down on my washing up as a speed-freak shot past and he yelled out " Get a grip for fuck sake!" Ha! Insulted in my own home!

 

Torpedo the buggers!

[Jason Wilson and Family]

*Adds bow and stern tubes to list of 'must haves'... the boat search continues*

[MikeV]

....as Stongehenge dies....

I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences!

[Janet S]

Not being able to afford the luxury of our own narrowboat, we are one of that dreadfully maligned breed - the hire boater! Every one of the companies we've hired from over the past several years has stressed in their literature and handover talks about slowing down for moored boats.

 

We are always on a mission to complete some ring or another, or squeeze just another few miles out to make sure we see as much of the system as we can in our allotted time. We always manage to achieve more than we thought possible, but despite time constraints, we never, but NEVER, go past moored boats in anything other than tickover (and as I'm an angler myself, we cruise past fishermen in neutral when we can!)

 

It's all about consideration for other users. If you're really in that much of a rush, then perhaps you shouldn't be on the canals at all.

 

Janet

[Purple Fairie]

(as Stongehenge dies)

 

oops! sorry Stongehenge

obviously i meant 'does'

[StoneHenge]

oops! sorry Stongehenge

obviously i meant 'does'

 

Phew, I thought for a second there I had come back as a ghost, and wondered if that was the case, what the heck I was doing at work!!

 

I think as most people have said, it's just common courtesy to slow down in the first place, usually a good boat's length before you even get close. Shouldn't be any other variation in it whatsoever.

 

The hire companies should not be encouraging unrealistic journey's if they know the ultimate resolution will be a bunch of boaters who spend their time shouting at hirers and I don't want them to have a bad name because they have been misinformed and encouraged to do something which isn't possible unless you get the perfect conditions and you have long cruising days etc. I, as probably a lot of you on here started out on a hire boat, and had my fair share of bumps, and even trying to moor in a private spot too small for the boat (but you live and learn), but I never ever thought it was a smart idea of not slow down.

 

As carlt says, you don't know how the boats are secured, so why risk it anyway. Plus I've had instances when I have been either tying up and untying to leave, had someone speed past and then ended up losing the rope as the gets torn out of my hand. Could have been nasty.

[Sir Nibble]

Out of interest, is there anything to be gained by phoning the hire company if you encounter bad behaviour from hirers? I'm not thinking of the hire company making the offenders walk the plank on their return, but perhaps they might be encouraged to alter the tone and emphasis of their instruction.

[John Orentas]

Out of interest, is there anything to be gained by phoning the hire company if you encounter bad behaviour from hirers? I'm not thinking of the hire company making the offenders walk the plank on their return, but perhaps they might be encouraged to alter the tone and emphasis of their instruction.

 

 

 

Excellent, are we having a 'lets beat up the hire boaters' topic.

 

I have seen many inconsiderate pig ignorant hire boaters in my time but have seen many more private ones with similar or worse behaviour. Never yet had a foul mouthed hire boater yelling at me to slow down or anything else.

[carlt]

Out of interest, is there anything to be gained by phoning the hire company if you encounter bad behaviour from hirers? I'm not thinking of the hire company making the offenders walk the plank on their return, but perhaps they might be encouraged to alter the tone and emphasis of their instruction.

I was driven to sarcastic comment a good few years ago when my dinner fell off the cooker as a hire boat came tootling past. The huge chappy decided my humour was misplaced so stepped off his boat to discuss my imminent demise.

 

Fortunately his charge back down the towpath was arrested when he saw I was willing to demonstrate an alternative use for my C&H spike. He returned to his boat heartily bidding me farewell.

I rang the boatyard and they told me he'd already punched one old boy and the police would be meeting him along the way.

 

They also told me that, next time I was up their way, make sure the tank was empty and they'd fill it as compensation. This didn't happen for nearly a year but he didn't forget and I got a mug as well. Only a 10 gallon tank though, wish I'd had Usk, with her 100 gallon main tank, then.

[BlueStringPudding]

If a boat passes and your mooring pins are pulled out it is your fault and it is your responsibility.

 

In the weather we've had recently, it's not as simple as that, John. And as I said above, the worst offenders have been boat owners, not hirers. In fact, with the exception of a floatilla of students on Napton Boats, most hirers we've met seem genuinely surprised when you talk to them about the effects of hurtling past moored boats - I don't think they're given proper instruction. Also, when you come from the world of 40mph road speed limits, 4mph does feel very slow. They probably think that IS slow enough not to affect moored boats.

[BlueStringPudding]

I must say though, that 4mph didn't appear to cause much havoc with moored boats.

 

What we've learned in the last few weeks is the effects that a passing boat CANNOT see or hear happening to a moored craft it passes. The lurch of the moored craft as the mobile boat APPROACHES, for a start. I'd never have guessed that the speed we travelled at could affect a moored boat so much BEFORE we reach it, until we've experienced it from the other point of view.

 

Equally, the lurch and rocking AFTER the boat has almost passed is far more problematic than any rocking when it's parrallel to you.

 

So from the point of view of the driver of the moving boat, it really doesn't "appear to cause much havoc" - but it does. Similarly, with your engine running as you pass, you can't hear the creaking of the moored boats' ropes or any knocking against the hull. (Sorry, this isn't supposed to sound like a nag, just observations from our few weeks aboard!)

 

And next time we're rocked and I'm cooking or DIY-ing and I have to put out an arm to balance myself, and the passing boat driver thinks I'm waving and waves back at me, I'll scream!!!

[carlt]

What we've learned in the last few weeks is

And next time we're rocked and I'm cooking or DIY-ing and I have to put out an arm to balance myself, and the passing boat driver thinks I'm waving and waves back at me, I'll scream!!!

After a while you instinctively put out an arm with just the one finger (middle) extended.

Edited July 24, 2007 by carlt

[BlueStringPudding]

Oh, and by the way, whoever sped through Warwick at 6am today in a "chug chug" tug - thanks for waking up the entire row of moored boats opposite Kate Boats by rocking us around like buckaroos!

After a while you instinctively put out an arm with just the one finger (middle) extended.

[StoneHenge]

No-one is beating up hire boaters John, it's just that the hire companies obviously are not passing on instruction and emphasising the need to slow down whilst passing moored boats. Despite it being clearly displayed on the stern, they need to be told, and re-told before they set off to realise that it's the way things are.

 

As you so rightly said, it's not just hire boats. Many private boats have seen fit to hurtle past (for want of a better word), and also assume that the game of chicken they like to play not giving some way when passing cruising craft and hogging the middle as if their life depended on it, can be as rude as anyone else. No-one is dishing the hire boats, or the hirers, but it should be something emphasised when they are given insutruction. Simple as.

[BlueStringPudding]

No-one is dishing the hire boats, or the hirers, but it should be something emphasised when they are given insutruction. Simple as.

 

Hear hear.

 

And perhaps an incentive such as being told they could lose their deposit if complaints are received, as the reputation of the hire company is at stake - and feasibly if proper damage is done to another craft or contents, might the hire company be liable for that? A cost that could be passed on to the hirer too?

 

Good incentive to be considerate of other boaters. Now as for the offending boat owners - that's a whole different kettle of seamen...

Edited July 24, 2007 by BlueStringPudding

[Hairy-Neil]

........and also assume that the game of chicken they like to play not giving some way when passing cruising craft and hogging the middle as if their life depended on it, can be as rude as anyone else.

 

I'll put my hands up to this one.......You'd be amazed how little room is actually needed between passing boats, it is very difficult to clash in this situation due to the natural effects of the water pushing the boats apart......Three feet is ample....some people seem to need twenty feet.....and will bury themselves in the trees rather than come any closer....It tickles me to see it....