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How Slow is Slow past moored boats?


D. W. Walker

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20 hours ago, BruceinSanity said:

This is a well worn theme and I guess most of it's been said before. Tie your boat in expectation of being passed at speed, pass other boats as if they were moored to thistle stalks.

What gets up my anatomy is people not slowing down when they can see a problem up ahead, even just another boat in the middle of mooring. Nothing worse than having to frantically cling onto a line because you've got one end sorted and you were just about to fix a chain or drive a pin at the other. I once had a well mounted bowline fairlead ripped clean off by a boat tanking past in that situation.

Absolutely, I was on the New Mills diesel wharf (which is much shorter than 70') a few days ago. The lady was actually putting the diesel in while I was holding the centre rope (the back was tied but nothing could be done about the front).

Two boats passed at a speed which would have been fine were I moored but which took no account of the situation.

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13 minutes ago, frahkn said:

Two boats passed at a speed which would have been fine were I moored but which took no account of the situation.

Surely you were aware this could be a possibility when you put your boat in this situation. 

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19 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

It's CaRT's fault for putting the rings too close together, and the hire company's fault for providing a centre rope.  

Not hirers but private boats ! Rings where spaced ok for front and back so why ?

 

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23 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I'm fortunate enough to have an engine that runs at 500rpm full chat. 

Whatever speed I go past, it sounds like I'm on tickover...

New fangled internal explosion engines...  ... 350 rpm max on open water, 220 is a nice crusing speed.

 

On 2017-5-19 at 19:21, Ex Brummie said:

It's CaRT's fault for putting the rings too close together, and the hire company's fault for providing a centre rope.  

Better than oppersite the Ashton Packet now. Having lost one of the three rings when redoing the towpath for cyclists, in a way you can no longer use pins, they put the remaining two back at around 140ft spacing!

 

Daniel

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22 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Surely you were aware this could be a possibility when you put your boat in this situation. 

Of course I was but I needed the diesel!

New Mills has a short wharf, I have a 70' boat, my only opportunity to avoid the situation was 4 years ago when I bought the boat. If I had foreseen last weeks issue I could have purchased a smaller boat. 

So perhaps you are right, it wasn't their speeding, it was my lack of vision.

Thanks for pointing that out, I must be an idiot not to have realised.

Frank.

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On 5/19/2017 at 10:20, D. W. Walker said:

 If the rocking of your boat really does bother you so much, sell it and buy a house, they don't (usually!) rock with passing traffic!

 

I disagree with the OP, if people find the rocking of their boat too much they don't need to buy a house, they just need to untie that rope that they used to tie the top of the cabin tight to the ground!

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31 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Or if you were unable to secure your boat, purchase your fuel elsewhere. 

When I said "I needed the diesel" I didn't mean in a spiritual way - like 'I need to become a better person' - I needed it now, to keep my engine going. I knew New Mills would be open and had diesel (I phoned them) and I knew I had sufficient fuel to reach them.

Frank.

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9 minutes ago, Neil Smith said:

That's what I thought you meant, it's not like on the road where 5 mins up the road you find another garage.

Neil

Very true, but boat fuel tanks are often of larger capacity. Ours is 60 gallons

Edited by rusty69
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A well discussed subject but many seem to fail to grasp the large number of variables that contribute to your boat causing excessive movement to moored boats you pass. These include and where possible in order of importance:

Depth of water at mooring particularly and where moving boat is

How well moored boat is tied up 

Speed of passing boat

Width of canal or river

Hull shape and draught of passing boat

to mention just a few. This means that a badly tied up boat can be moved around by a boat passing at little over 1 mph in some circumstances, whilst the same boat in others will have little effect travelling at 4 mph. It's definatly a case of horses for courses and common sense has to prevail rather than absolute speeds. The effect your boat has on the bankside will often give a clue.

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On 5/20/2017 at 19:19, DHutch said:

 

Better than oppersite the Ashton Packet now. Having lost one of the three rings when redoing the towpath for cyclists, in a way you can no longer use pins, they put the remaining two back at around 140ft spacing!

Ideal when boating with a pair then!

:D

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Well I have just traversed the 1.2 miles of moored boats on the Shropshire Union, had a pleasant wave of smile from everyone I saw, only one boat could be seen to move as we passed and the was the one with lose ropes and the name had Larger in it 

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8 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Well I have just traversed the 1.2 miles of moored boats on the Shropshire Union, had a pleasant wave of smile from everyone I saw, only one boat could be seen to move as we passed and the was the one with lose ropes and the name had Larger in it 

Isnt tickover so simple to do :cheers:

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On 25/05/2017 at 21:51, mrsmelly said:

Isnt tickover so simple to do :cheers:

 

No. 

Tickover (150rpm) on my boat results in about 0.1mph, so the 1.2 miles mentioned would have taken me about 12 hours to pass.

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7 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Isnt tickover so simple to do :cheers:

It's more simple than slipping in and out of gear all of the time. 

I reckon some people are almost waiting to moan at you as you go past. Maybe they should stick to mooring up in marinas. ;)

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What about plastic cruisers? We've got a 28' cruiser with an outboard. Firstly we struggle to go as slowly as a NB on tick over, especially if the wind's blowing, when we skate sideways (and our only steering is when we've got thrust). Secondly with our low displacement we don't disturb moored boats as much as a heavy NB.

We still slow down for moored boats, but not as slow as a NB on tick over. Are most NB'ers relaxed to see a cruiser go by a bit quicker than a NB?

I can foresee answers like "you're in an inappropriate boat". We will get something metal one day, and up until now we've been on rivers.

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As has been said on here many times, it is not just passing speed, but draught & displacement of the passing boat, depth and shape of canal bed, how early you slow down before reaching  the moored boats and how securely the moored boats are tied, all of which affect moored boats to some degree or other.

There is no "one size fits all solution", but the advise to pass on tickover works for everyone, even for the "hard of understanding" ;)

If you are intelligent enough to take the above into consideration, it is usually possible to pass moored boats at a quicker pace without disturbing them.

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1 hour ago, max campbell said:

What about plastic cruisers? We've got a 28' cruiser with an outboard. Firstly we struggle to go as slowly as a NB on tick over, especially if the wind's blowing, when we skate sideways (and our only steering is when we've got thrust). Secondly with our low displacement we don't disturb moored boats as much as a heavy NB.

We still slow down for moored boats, but not as slow as a NB on tick over. Are most NB'ers relaxed to see a cruiser go by a bit quicker than a NB?

I can foresee answers like "you're in an inappropriate boat". We will get something metal one day, and up until now we've been on rivers.

I rather like gently bouncing up and down a bit due to the surface waves created by a passing cruiser. As you say the displacement effect is much less noticeable - and it's the latter that can pull pins out and so on.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm guessing there's more to this than people worrying about spilling tea? When I lived on a narrowboat we had boats going past, I don't remember being bothered when my boat rocks - but, having said that, it wasn't *my* boat - I was in a friends' for 8 months. Maybe every time the boat rocks there's a bigger chance of [insert narrowboat maintenance knowledge here] that I need to find out about? Or are people who chose to live on boats truly getting narked when their home rocks on the waves a touch...?

 

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While pootling through Luddenden Foot on the C&H, a lady leaned out of an upper window of a 3storey canalside house and accused me of going too fast, I was "making a wash". I was going under 4mph, it's a 35 ft NB with .5m draught, outboard powered. Without stopping , I tried to educate her in the difference between a wash , a breaking wash  and a wake. I didn't slow down, the house didn't move!

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