What you can or can't do?

[Chewbacka]

9 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

This has been debated at great length on this forum. It isn't necessarily as inconsiderate as it may seem, as you can't know who was there first, or who has since disappeared. .

I think that what often happens is when the second boat arrives they moor up about a boat length away from the first boat, as does the third etc, however if a couple of little boats arrive latter and fit in the gaps you then have big gaps between boats.

[Naughty Cal]

There are of course also those who just  tie up wherever they land and don't even think about the gaps they have left.

[Ex Brummie]

On ‎13‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 08:30, nicknorman said:

Anyway, based on this morning, you can't just start your engine and chug off in the morning, you have to start your engine, rev it noisily, then let it run for a minimum of 10 minutes before setting off (all before 8am), else it will seize/blow up/conk out etc. Although funnily enough, the same people just get in their cars in the morning, start the engine and drive off.

Just catching up after a trip. A man with his Gardner engine Hudson told me that until the domestic battery bank had been partially charged from the night before, he couldn't consider trying to engage drive as the alternators put too much load on the engine.

This wasn't the same Hudson owner who I invited alongside at Torksey, waiting for the tide, couldn't turn his engine off, which was shaking our boat more than my own engine ever has, because the breadmaker was on, and if the freezer kicked in, would 'take out ' the electrics.

[Ex Brummie]

On ‎15‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 21:04, Starcoaster said:

When you get to a bridge hole with something coming the other way and it is clearly your bridge, you have to hang back or stop for a bit just in case the other party is coming through anyway, or you made a mistake and you're not really 50ft closer to it than they are.

Even when you are closer to the bridge, if you are towpath side, you must give way to an oncoming boat.

I was told this by a steerer  through hawthorn bushes on the Langollen some years back.

[mark99]

You must not say "I could not hear your pathetic toy horn its not loud enough" 

To the cretin wearing an admirals hat who asks "did you not hear my repeated signals" on a blind bridge hole.

[roland elsdon]

You can overtake a hirer on the Oxford canal at full throttle as long as you go into neutral when you get level with the boats moored on the towpath. The following wave will then bounce everybody including your own toy boat into the air. You then moor up 2 miles further down the cut and look aggressively at the boats coming slowly past. The tickover stick on was the last straw.

[mark99]

You must travel so slow the person behind you has to keep going into neutral and you resolutely must not  look back to see the poor sod right up your 'arriss.

When you do finally move over you then say "in a hurry?".

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by mark99

[bastion]

3 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

Even when you are closer to the bridge, if you are towpath side, you must give way to an oncoming boat.

I was told this by a steerer  through hawthorn bushes on the Langollen some years back.

I was told that too several years ago.

[Bettie Boo]

On 11/06/2017 at 18:55, Bewildered said:

 and the fact that once a stupid point of view is voiced as fact it doesn't take long for people to believe and start repeating it.

This has started me wondering are there any other boating rules/regulations that belong in the urban myth catagory?

So what complete tosh have you heard on the cut that you can or can't do?

Widebeams are not allowed to navigate north of Milton Keynes on the GU....or so we've been told by a few narrowboat folk over the past few years

 

[mark99]

4 minutes ago, Bettie Boo said:

Widebeams are not allowed to navigate north of Milton Keynes on the GU....or so we've been told by a few narrowboat folk over the past few years

 

I think Betty that perhaps stem from the Nicholson Guides which suggest widebeams past Berko are not welcome or something!

[Bettie Boo]

1 hour ago, mark99 said:

I think Betty that perhaps stem from the Nicholson Guides which suggest widebeams past Berko are not welcome or something!

I think your right Mark, we've read the navigational notes in the Nicholson's as well... "CRT request no wide beam craft moor on line between here & Braunston" (it's actually on the Hemel Hempstead page I believe)

Somewhere along the line some folks have turned a "request" not to moor into "your not allowed to navigate here, there's a rule about it"

But, if it is something CRT are serious about, then they wouldn't  organize wide beams through the tunnels at 8 am; which means we have to moor overnight before both tunnels (not complaining, just a fact); and they sell LT & winter moorings to loads of WB's online & allow boat yards and EoG moorings for WB's as well, between Hemel and Braunston. 

End of day, I figure we can go anywhere safely that a working pair can go when tied side by each without causing any major amount of agro to anyone else.

Edited June 22, 2017 by Bettie Boo
missing the word safely

[roland elsdon]

You miss a point breasted working boats can single out when needed. Even in the 80s we rarely went north of mars worth breasted why? You can't.

[windy miller]

You must never use a simple knot when a complicated one will do. For instance, a locking hitch on the T stud or a lighterman's hitch on the dolly. Far better to tie a Gordian knot of great complexity, using all 5 yards of spare rope, which takes your partner or colleague 20 minutes to undo!

[Naughty Cal]

1 hour ago, windy miller said:

You must never use a simple knot when a complicated one will do. For instance, a locking hitch on the T stud or a lighterman's hitch on the dolly. Far better to tie a Gordian knot of great complexity, using all 5 yards of spare rope, which takes your partner or colleague 20 minutes to undo!

Better still use the holiday makers hitch.

[ditchcrawler]

16 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Better still use the holiday makers hitch.

Is that 5 times clockwise round a dolly and then two half hitches in the same direction on the dolly?

[Naughty Cal]

14 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is that 5 times clockwise round a dolly and then two half hitches in the same direction on the dolly?

No. Just wrap it around as many times as the length of rope allows and hope for the best.

[MtB]

On 25/06/2017 at 16:30, Naughty Cal said:

Better still use the holiday makers hitch.

In what way is it 'better'?

[Athy]

5 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

In what way is it 'better'?

Presumably because it is a less secure way of tying up - Rachel was joking. That's how I interpreted it, anyway.

[Horace42]

From a slightly serious angle the skill of tying knots is to make sure they are easy to undo after use - making them secure is so easy for a whole number of reasons but like those mentioned above - impossible to untie - personally I like the 'round turn and two half hitches' - it is so useful - easy to tie under tension - but to make it easy to untie the first hitch is usually a loop with the free end to pull undone.

 

[zenataomm]

When securing your boat alongside metal piling - Armco - or anything else permanent always use chain and a padlock so it can't be uncast by anyone without the key.

This is particularly a good idea if you're weekending your boat around and need to leave it alone during the week. It also gives your insurance company something to sigh a heave of relief (Sorry got that the wrong way round there, I'll have another run at that ......) to heave a sigh of relief at when the boat next to yours catches fire. Insurance companies love excuses for shrugging their shoulders, another one that gives them joy in these circumstances is when you chain and lock your boat on stretch where the level can raise and drop dramatically and rapidly.