How do you feel, when someone hits you?

[Monkey 1]

I believe people use "it's a contact sport" to lighten the situation, keeping things cheerful, and not to be taken as a disregard for the boat they just hit.

 

Also, I have said it to boaters that have hit me so they don't feel so bad about it.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Monkey 1

[Dharl]

I believe people use "it's a contact sport" to lighten the situation, keeping things cheerful, and not to be taken as a disregard for the boat they just hit. I have said it to boaters that have hit me so they don't feel so bad about it.

but it is different depending on who has said it.... If you do the hitting then by saying "Just Contact Sport" makes it sound like you don't care but if you have been hit (depending on the hit !) and then say it, then it has a totally different meaning!

[Sir Nibble]

To my way of thinking a slight contact between boats is almost inevitable given the size of the boats concerned and the limited room to manoeuvre. Add to this the large number of novice steerers (who may well oblige me to nudge your rubbing strake to avoid a total catastrophe!) and I really think we have to accept that from time to time boats will kiss.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

To my way of thinking a slight contact between boats is almost inevitable given the size of the boats concerned and the limited room to manoeuvre. Add to this the large number of novice steerers (who may well oblige me to nudge your rubbing strake to avoid a total catastrophe!) and I really think we have to accept that from time to time boats will kiss.

Totally Agree as I posted earlier,And that's why people who Helm Boats,should

practice Safe Boating, and have Protection !.

Most of us know,a simple piece of strategicly fitted Rubber can save all sorts of problems.!.

 

Remember, There is no point in a morning after

Protection.

(Tongue in cheek)

 

 

Ref Big Col,

 

Yep,know it well, in fact I was there a cpl of weeks ago.

I sometimes find a blast of astern,with Helm hard over into tide can sometimes straighten you up quickly when caught Abeam a racing tide between Gin Palaces, albeit ending up in you facing the wrong direction. Yep been there too Col. But it does give you a second chance at cocking up !.

 

I wonder what those people who have got 3/4/5 600,000 pound boats,that cruise anything from Trans Atlantic to all over the place would be thinking of the 'Contact Sport' Opinions of some members.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[Monkey 1]

but it is different depending on who has said it.... If you do the hitting then by saying "Just Contact Sport" makes it sound like you don't care but if you have been hit (depending on the hit !) and then say it, then it has a totally different meaning!

I've never interpreted people saying " it's a contact sport" as not caring, more something said cheerfully to perhaps hide embarrassment. I dont believe anybody really wants to bash another boat.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

but it is different depending on who has said it.... If you do the hitting then by saying "Just Contact Sport" makes it sound like you don't care but if you have been hit (depending on the hit !) and then say it, then it has a totally different meaning!

Yes Dharl,

I read it as Monkey 1,being the ' Hit ' boat, lightened the situation and or any embarrasment by making that comment,as I would have done,if there was no damage and

the attitude was apologetic.

Maybe.

But yes,quite different as you say Dharl if you where to say that, when you're boat was doing the hitting.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[Monkey 1]

Maybe I didn't word my post to well! The last sentence not being related to the first. My appologies, I have edited it for clarity.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Monkey 1

[Phil Ambrose]

I've never interpreted people saying " it's a contact sport" as not caring, more something said cheerfully to perhaps hide embarrassment. I dont believe anybody really wants to bash another boat.

Often heard the phrase but never with the word SORRY attached.

Phil

[Wanderer Vagabond]

It seems that the general consensus is that when we are navigating our own boats we do everything we reasonably can to avoid collisions and feel embarrassed if we fail, and if someone else fails when acting otherwise reasonably we adopt the mindset of 'there but for the grace of God go I' and are generally fairly forgiving. This shows what a generally pleasant bunch we are compared to, say, car drivers who will get excited over ANY contact even if all it does is takes some polish off! On the other hand, look at how much better off we are than car drivers who are always complaining about their ever-increasing insurance premiums whilst I would like to think that we would be looking at some pretty serious damage before we'd be looking at Insurance claims. Speaking for myself, even if the minor contact led to a scratch in the paintwork I would just accept an apology and get on and touch up the scratch myself, if no apology I might shout a bit but would still touch up the scratch myself. It is this approach that means we pay reasonable insurance premiums since for £250 I get cover for the total destruction of a £50,000 boat, if we were constantly making trivial claims on our insurance you could guarantee that we would be paying substantially higher premiums than this.

 

As far as collisions go, I would say that if someone strikes my boat in parallel (misjudgement or wind drifted) then it is barely worth comment, if however I get 'T-boned' by the bow of the other boat then words will be exchanged. A sideways impact can happen to anyone, but I would struggle to find an excuse for 'T-boning', fortunately such collisions are quite rare.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Yep,, I think that's about the size of it WV !.

[Phil Ambrose]

I agree with Paul, WV has summed it up correctly, so in a nutshell its not a contact sport as we all try to avoid contact but accept that on occasion it will happen. And don't forget to say "sorry about that"

Phil

[Ange]

Yep - try to avoid it at all costs. Red faced and apologetic if it happens and forgiving to anyone who gets in a pickle and accidentally hits your boat.

 

Obviously there are the occasions when someone is reckless or careless, and they deserve a mouthful of abuse, but we've been fortunate enough not to encounter any on our travels.

[Emerald Fox]

If I be in situation where it's unclear which side to pass I'll shout "I read that thread all about it on canalworld.net forums and I still don't have a clue!!!"

[NickF]

Being very much the novice, we've been "kissed" twice, both by boats trying to pull out of their moorings and make their way around us. On both occasions, the person at the helm apologized and we said no problem and meant it.

 

On the other hand, we manage to "kiss" Victoria pretty much every time we try to "park" at our allocated mooring spot and feel extremely bad. It's our personal challenge to get into our mooring spot without brushing her stern; so far we've managed it once....water was like glass on that occasion and not a breath of wind. There is never anyone on-board, so no one to apologize to; but our plan is to leave a bottle of wine with a note when we leave the marina for good - not because we've done any damage, just because we feel so bad about it.

 

We also "nudged" other boats out on the cut, the first couple of times we went for a practice cruise. The one word that sums up our feeling for doing it - embarrassed. When there is someone about we apologize and explain we are new and just learning, in the majority of cases the response we get is "don't worry about it, it's a contact sport", or "don't worry, we were all new to this at one time"

 

I don't mean to sound like we are constantly bumping into other boats, skew whiff bridges get kissed by us much more often! When we do nudge something it's on tick over as we make sure we slow right down when approaching other boats and narrow bits on the canal.

I quite liked the idea of an earlier poster on this thread to put out a big squashy fender at the appropriate point just for maneuvering into your mooring if it is particularly tricky!

[Athy]

I quite liked the idea of an earlier poster on this thread to put out a big squashy fender at the appropriate point just for maneuvering into your mooring if it is particularly tricky!

It is perhaps more practical to affix such fenders to the mooring rather than carry them around on the boat. Both our end of garden mooring at home and our recent mooring at Clattercote Wharf had old motor tyres strategically placed for this reason.

[Scholar Gypsy]

It is perhaps more practical to affix such fenders to the mooring rather than carry them around on the boat. Both our end of garden mooring at home and our recent mooring at Clattercote Wharf had old motor tyres strategically placed for this reason.

 

Here's a photo (courtesy of NB Galatea) of said fenders. Some twit forgot to lift them onto the roof..

 

[sassan]

I've hit other boats and been hit (never very hard). My policy is if they apologise then I tell them that's ok, or offer some advice on avoiding it next time; if they don't then they may get an earful.

 

The one that annoyed me most was actually a rowing boat on the river. I was going along nice and straight, not weaving or dawdling (5mph or so) and suddenly I hear *splash* *splash* *SMASH*, they had rowed straight into the back of me. I wouldn't have minded if it'd just been the three chaps facing the wrong way, that I could understand, but they had a cox on board (who, as far as I understand it, is there to prevent this type of thing. The problem seems to have been that in order to save weight they'd found the tiniest girl they could for cox and she wasn't able to make herself heard over the oars (isn't that what megaphones are for?).

 

What irritated me particularly is that they didn't apologise, or even acknowledge me in any way. I offered them a tow to shore, or to allow them aboard if needed, they didn't even look up.

 

Another, more friendly, rower who saw the incident was kind enough to confirm that they were indeed A: in the wrong and B: arseholes.

 

Still, can't complain, didn't even scratch my paintwork but completely totalled their expensive looking racing rowing boat. It gave me some satisfaction to watch them struggle to the shore in a rapidly sinking boat.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

A good example of Karma at work.

[Neil2]

I've hit other boats and been hit (never very hard). My policy is if they apologise then I tell them that's ok, or offer some advice on avoiding it next time; if they don't then they may get an earful.

 

The one that annoyed me most was actually a rowing boat on the river. I was going along nice and straight, not weaving or dawdling (5mph or so) and suddenly I hear *splash* *splash* *SMASH*, they had rowed straight into the back of me. I wouldn't have minded if it'd just been the three chaps facing the wrong way, that I could understand, but they had a cox on board (who, as far as I understand it, is there to prevent this type of thing. The problem seems to have been that in order to save weight they'd found the tiniest girl they could for cox and she wasn't able to make herself heard over the oars (isn't that what megaphones are for?).

 

What irritated me particularly is that they didn't apologise, or even acknowledge me in any way. I offered them a tow to shore, or to allow them aboard if needed, they didn't even look up.

 

Another, more friendly, rower who saw the incident was kind enough to confirm that they were indeed A: in the wrong and B: arseholes.

 

Still, can't complain, didn't even scratch my paintwork but completely totalled their expensive looking racing rowing boat. It gave me some satisfaction to watch them struggle to the shore in a rapidly sinking boat.

I've never met a woman who needed a megaphone.

[Peter X]

I've hit other boats and been hit (never very hard). My policy is if they apologise then I tell them that's ok, or offer some advice on avoiding it next time; if they don't then they may get an earful.

 

The one that annoyed me most was actually a rowing boat on the river. I was going along nice and straight, not weaving or dawdling (5mph or so) and suddenly I hear *splash* *splash* *SMASH*, they had rowed straight into the back of me. I wouldn't have minded if it'd just been the three chaps facing the wrong way, that I could understand, but they had a cox on board (who, as far as I understand it, is there to prevent this type of thing. The problem seems to have been that in order to save weight they'd found the tiniest girl they could for cox and she wasn't able to make herself heard over the oars (isn't that what megaphones are for?).

 

What irritated me particularly is that they didn't apologise, or even acknowledge me in any way. I offered them a tow to shore, or to allow them aboard if needed, they didn't even look up.

 

Another, more friendly, rower who saw the incident was kind enough to confirm that they were indeed A: in the wrong and B: arseholes.

 

Still, can't complain, didn't even scratch my paintwork but completely totalled their expensive looking racing rowing boat. It gave me some satisfaction to watch them struggle to the shore in a rapidly sinking boat.

 

Having done rowing for a few months myself long ago at Oxford, I can say you are absolutely right.

I only ever rowed in eights, at bow where if the cox doesn't speak up it can be difficult to hear, especially if the boat is going into the wind. In a four that should be less of a problem.

 

The ideal crew for rowing is 4 or 8 gorillas and a loud intelligent midget, and my problem was being in between those sizes. I was put at bow because I was the lightest oarsman in the boat, which is standard practice to balance the load.

 

In my day, in an all male college, the boat club would ply the weediest little bloke with beer and talk him into becoming a cox, but nowadays coxes are often female because they can come in even smaller sizes. It is of course the job of the cox to steer and to instruct the oarsmen, who are only there to follow orders and power the vessel. In your case it sounds as if the cox was too dim and/or quiet, or the oarsmen disobeyed orders. If there really were only three oarsmen the one who had a side to himself would have had to work much harder than the others to stop the boat going in circles. Being a much faster vessel and coming up behind you it was very much their responsibility to prevent a collision; an experienced crew can do an impressive emergency stop.

 

The outcome of the collision is no surprise; racing craft are fast, lightweight and flimsy and an end-on collision will crumple the bow badly; I was once in a low-speed collision into a landing stage which mangled the bow, the result of an error by the cox, and I can well imagine that a full-on collision into your heavy boat would be disastrous for the four.

[Ricco1]

That's twice in a few days now. This latest one was 20 minutes ago, in the dark, very well respected boat builder up here on the side of the boat. No lights on the boat. Stuck my head out, the helmsman said "this wind is a nightmare". Indeed, perhaps it would have been better not to cruise at night in these conditions eh? I didn't say anything though.

[Paul C]

If you find yourself getting hit quite often, its worth seeing if your mooring position is part of the issue.

[FadeToScarlet]

Having done rowing for a few months myself long ago at Oxford, I can say you are absolutely right.

I only ever rowed in eights, at bow where if the cox doesn't speak up it can be difficult to hear, especially if the boat is going into the wind. In a four that should be less of a problem.

 

The ideal crew for rowing is 4 or 8 gorillas and a loud intelligent midget, and my problem was being in between those sizes. I was put at bow because I was the lightest oarsman in the boat, which is standard practice to balance the load.

 

In my day, in an all male college, the boat club would ply the weediest little bloke with beer and talk him into becoming a cox, but nowadays coxes are often female because they can come in even smaller sizes. It is of course the job of the cox to steer and to instruct the oarsmen, who are only there to follow orders and power the vessel. In your case it sounds as if the cox was too dim and/or quiet, or the oarsmen disobeyed orders. If there really were only three oarsmen the one who had a side to himself would have had to work much harder than the others to stop the boat going in circles. Being a much faster vessel and coming up behind you it was very much their responsibility to prevent a collision; an experienced crew can do an impressive emergency stop.

 

The outcome of the collision is no surprise; racing craft are fast, lightweight and flimsy and an end-on collision will crumple the bow badly; I was once in a low-speed collision into a landing stage which mangled the bow, the result of an error by the cox, and I can well imagine that a full-on collision into your heavy boat would be disastrous for the four.

As a loud, supposedly intelligent midget, I can tell you that it's entirely possible to lose an entire narrowboat in the blind spot that's directly ahead behind the rowers. The cox is there to prevent that sort of thing, but mistakes do happen; I had an eight I was steering nearly written off one night a few years ago by another crew on the wrong side of the river, whose bow light I just could not see. Luckily it was a directly head on collision, and so the boats took the impact, not the people. During daylight there's much less of an excuse, though, because even if you can't see the boat, the chances are you'd see the wash and so be reminded to check the blind spot. Volume shouldn't be much of a problem nowadays, as boats are fitted with waterproof speaker systems and the cox has a. Microphone and amplifier.

 

That said, it's still very much their fault, if the narrowboat was in completely the correct place.

 

I wouldn't expect any of my crew to talk to the narrowboater if I were in that situation; if the rowing shell is damaged so much it's taking on water and sinking, then the immediate priority is to get it to the side of the river, and if they weren't listening to me or doing what they were told in that situation, they'd get a very loud earful and be told what to do in no uncertain terms. I'd be asking the rowers in the bows to turn around and have a look at the bow, and see if any water is coming in, so I can take proper and safe control of the situation and get us to safety. But once the situation is under control, then I'd be able to talk to the narrowboater and get a look at the name of the boat, or the registration number, for the accident report paperwork- and at that point, I'd be apologising, once we were all safe.

Edited April 2, 2014 by FadeToScarlet

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

It's been suggested way back on page 3 I believe, that 15T Boats can be seen in ones 'Peripheral Vision' at close quarters, Especially by Dogs.

So there surly can't be any Blind spots,on any craft, Can there ?.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[Paul C]

It's been suggested that 15T Boats can be seen in ones 'Peripheral Vision' at close quarters, Especially by Dogs.

 

One wonders why they don't use dogs as coxes on rowing boats!