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Horse Boating Rope?


magnetman

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We used cotton line, either 1/2 or 5/8 . Cut length  80 to 85 ft, stretches to about 90ft after some use. The rope diameter might appear to be a bit small but with all the obstacles around on the cut these days there's always a lot of line  throwing  and it  is heavy when wet. It is important to keep the rope clean and free from  abrasive towpath grit, so frequent washing in the cut was the norm.

Passing of horseboats was accomplished on the Caldon Canal   some years ago- Boats Birdswood and Maria passed near Froghall. I forget which boat dropped the line into the cut but the completely unrehearsed manoeuvre was completed without problem. Both boats had a similar draught at the time. I don't recall any photos or video taken then.

5 hours ago, Peter-Bullfinch said:

This was Countess  on the Montgomery a couple of  weeks ago, passing us whilst we were moored up.

20170806_120256_001.jpg

The forked stick for lifting the line over boats is standard issue these days- very hard work if there's a long line of boats to negotiate. I am surprised that the horse is being led rather than driven- if the latter the driver has much better control of both the horse (by means of reins) and the towline which can be quickly disconnected from the swingletree in an all too frequently occurring emergency- e.g.  another boat , pedestrian or cyclist trying to pass between horse and towed  boat.

Bill

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On 02/12/2007 at 17:42, magnetman said:

I have read that when two horse drawn narrowboats passed each other the outer boat dropped their towline under the other boat, or the unladen boat dropped their rope if the other had a load. What type and diameter of rope was used?

I just read a book and it talks of the uphill and down hill boats with respect to who does the rope moving, surly as two boat meet they are both inside and only one becomes outside when they actually pass and the rope has been handled. It was this book http://hnbc.org.uk/shop/shropshire-union-fly-boats-jack-roberts-story

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I the 60's when SUC ran the horse drawn trip boats first wooden "Iona" & later GU " Bellerophon " name changed to "Iona" we only ever came across 1 other Mule drawn boat Bunny Bunford with " Gifford" the horse line we used was 5/8" cotton & we used to flick the line over the other boat the boat away from the towpath did this can't remember having to much bother taking the range chimney pipe down in good time was an advantage Leisure boats the rope was flicked over the roof.

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18 hours ago, Peter-Bullfinch said:

This was Countess  on the Montgomery a couple of  weeks ago, passing us whilst we were moored up.

20170806_120256_001.jpg

Interesting picture, my mate helped Sue Day when she Horse boated from the Midlands down to an IWA rally at Waltham Abbey, it was about 2000, they had problems then lifting the rope over moored boats, would be impossible to do these days. I think he walked the section from Stoke Bruerne to Hemel Hempstead.

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15 minutes ago, LEO said:

Interesting picture, my mate helped Sue Day when she Horse boated from the Midlands down to an IWA rally at Waltham Abbey, it was about 2000, they had problems then lifting the rope over moored boats, would be impossible to do these days. I think he walked the section from Stoke Bruerne to Hemel Hempstead.

That trip started and finished  in Ashton Under Lyne, near Manchester,  not "the Midlands".An epic journey by any standards using one horse power wherever possible for 95% of the route. Motor towage was needed on the Thames to reach the Millennium Dome thing.

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4 hours ago, Heartland said:

It is useful to see how the rope is passed over boats in modern times, but the technique in previous days is something that deserves further inspection

I suspect boats that were not on the move were tied on the offside to prevent the need of lifting lines. It's a different world from what it used to be.

Those passing in opposite directions would need one boat to drop lines to allow the other to pass over the sunken line. There are images of such shown in some publications.

Edited by Derek R.
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