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The name describes my demeanour and voice! I love narrowboating and that is why this blog is mainly about the boat and our interaction with it. I have been keeping a log for Sonflower ever since we bought her and moved onto her as our main residence. Some incidents in our boating life have been hilarious, some scary and some down right dangerous. I cannot tell what will come in the future but you can now share them! The crew are an 'ordinary' couple. The Best Mate and I.

Saturday 18 August 2007

How do I know it's a hire boat? -part 2


Here is a picture I took of a boat in a pound on the Hatton Flight.

One would think that it is a relatively simple task to get your boat from one lock to another one approximately 60 yards ahead in a straight line. However, this boater made a complete hash of this manoevre. After Sonflower had vacated the lock and pulled to the right as seen, the hire boat misjudged the approach, failed to take notice of a slight wash from Sonflower's stern and then could not recover. The helmsman also refused to accept that he couldn't steer the boat when the engine was going astern and scraped it's way down the side of Sonflower with the helmsman over the stern rail trying to push his boat off. (1 man against 17+ tons of narrrowboat is poor odds).

How do I know it was a hire boat?

2 comments:

Den said...

We've all been there (most boat owners started with hireboats. Next time try to be more patient and understanding.

eeyore said...

Yes Den, we have all been there. But this particular individual refused to take advice as to how he could regain control and get his boat off mine. I then retreated to take the photo.I now have to paint the damage before winter.