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Pair of ex-working boats


aleister

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On 27/09/2017 at 22:37, aleister said:

I had a moment of madness/enlightenment (delete as appropriate) and have bought a pair of ex-working boats. Can I request that someone with experience of steering a pair give my wife and I the benefit of that experience? 

Aleister

 

Gosh I'm impressed! And consumed with cursiosity.

Is it Archimedes and Ara? I can't think of any other pairs for sale.

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Now then peeps, reign in on the banter, Aleister is a newbie and wants support.

There is a wealth of knowledge on here so you should be able to call on us for help.

As said, which boats, where are they now and where are you taking them ?

You could read up on the Idle Women from the war who were able to learn very quickly from the old boater families how to handle a pair, but were also able to write it down.  Things like exploiting the butty's weight to push the backend of a motor round a tight bend.

Edited by jake_crew
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1 hour ago, jake_crew said:

Now then peeps, reign in on the banter, Aleister is a newbie and wants support.

He's already had two offers of possible actual help less than half a day after posting.

Seems a bit more than banter to me?

It would surely help to know which boats, and where.  Some may be able to help if it's not a long journey, but not able to travel half the length of England.

I'm not offering because I have little practical experience of butty steering, but would suggest he needs to be 100% happy with handling the motor before he ventures far with the pair.

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One way to learn would be to join the Narrow Boat Trust and go out on one or more appropriate runs on Nuneaton and Brighton. There are never quite enough volunteers, and the load of coal varies from empty to quite well laden, so you could experience steering on cross straps and a line respectively. If you're not fit enough to take part in unloading coal, you might want to avoid our trips on the Thames, like the one I'm about to go on.

I think Alan's suggestion is good, it makes sense to get familiar first with handling the motor (and confident that its engine is reliable). If you haven't steered a big old boat with separate throttle and forward/reverse controls before it takes a bit of getting used to.

Having done quite a lot of butty steering with the NBT, I consider myself good at it and may be able to turn up somewhere to teach it. I often crew for people on the forum who need help with a boat move, so if you do need to initially move the boats some distance I could assist with that too.

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Knowing which pair, the area they are in and the help required would help. As I've posted above I would be happy to provide some help if it is in the right area and the right time. If they have purchased Starling and Ethel from Streethay then that would be convenient for me to help.

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25 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

They may have purchased Eclipse and Echoes which have just sold on Rugby Boats. This was the modern pair that the new owners of Mountbatten and Jellicoe used to trade from.

Hard to describe Eclipse as an ex working boat though.

I didn't realise it had sold, but as the sale of Echoes was announced with no similar announcement at the time about Eclipse, I'm thinking they have probably gone to different owners.

My money is on Starling and Ethel, simply because I can't think of any other likely candidates.  (Prepares to be proved wrong!)

(Although the "Duck" doesn't yet indicate they are sold)

https://www.apolloduck.com/boat.phtml?id=529956

Edited by alan_fincher
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Start on cross straps  with an empty boat that means the butty will not go head on into another boat.

Try a short snubber next. Ours used to be our breasting up strap, very heavy and exactly the right length from t stud  to t stud , means you can take it of the motor dolly straight up the side of the motor and breast up .

and then onto a long line.. We gave up on them in 1988 but they are good if there is weight in the butty

. Practice breasting up in quiet locations, not Stoke bruerne on a Sunday in June.

Don't try and get off the bank in a gale other than breasted.

Don't listen to anyone who hasn't done it. 

Go very slow through blind bits.

Have no obstructions on cabin tops especialy on the butty ( the roof is the only route forward)

assume everyone else is a potential hazard and will do the wrong thing.

put a strapping line on each butty answer pin

make sure the motor has weight in the back you have two boats to stop

cross straps through tunnels....

 

 

  • Greenie 2
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We practice breasting up on the main line as there is good width and reasonably long straight bits then winding the breasted up pair in one of the junctions with the loops. Getting used to stopping the pair is a good thing to practice and how to manoeuvre them as a single unit.

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