Dangerous boating

YOU see some funny things out on the water. I am currently at Thrupp and here all things, good and bad, about boating can be seen every day of the week, writes Maffi.

I find it quite odd that some boats are built so that the tiller extends far past the footprint of the boat. So much so that other boats can get caught on them as they pass and they themselves can under certain conditions catch on the structures around them causing damage.

Dangerous

Tuesday about ten o'clock I put a canoe in the water, at our Canal & River Trust authorised launch point, just before College Cruiser nb Brasenose came through the bridge. There is a right angle bend here and to get around the corner you have to have the tiller quite far over while the stern is still under the bridge. In the case of Brasenose this is dangerous because the tiller is far too long, and it caught on the bridge supporting structure. The end of the wooden handle was scrapped off and the tiller ended up at 90° to the rudder.

I heard this happen while I was briefing my customers, and shortly after saw the position of the tiller. The crew seem not to understand that this was a problem so I told them that the boat was now dangerous and that they should moor up exactly where they were and I would call their base and get an engineer to come out and fix it.

Not control boat

The man on board refused. I pointed out that he could not properly control his boat and could cause an accident. I said he should moor up now! Still he refused and continued up the canal in a straight line with the tiller hard over. He could only steer to the right. He had little or no tiller movement to steer to the left.

I phoned College Cruisers but they didn't seem particularly interested. I phoned CRT and pointed out that there was a boat moving on the water in a dangerous condition, funnily enough they didn't seem particularly interested either. I sent an email to College Cruisers to hopefully ensure they really understood what I said on the phone.

Should brief hirers

At the very least College Cruisers and all other hire companies should be briefing their hirers that if anything goes wrong they must stop immediately! No ifs and/or buts! There needs to be a point when an experienced member of the boating community can demand that a boat in trouble should stop, and he can then contact the hire base, and the hirer should be briefed that is the case and failure to comply will result in the boat being stopped and they themselves evicted from the boat by a representative of the hire company.

I don't want to stop people enjoying their time on the water, but for the benefit of all waterways users something has to be done to stop such stupidity!

Addendum

Well, well, well, nb Brasenose came back Thursday 18:00 and the tiller was still at 90o to the rudder. I took some pictures and was threatened with violence!

No one on the boat could see there was a problem. One foreign guy thought it was all very funny, another said."I am a publican, and I wouldn't let you in my pub."

Isn't it amazing he would stop me going into his domain for no reason, but he and his people can come here and behave in a dangerous manner and expect every one to turn a blind eye. I continued to point out that the boat was not safe and he said, "What's it got to do with you?" After which he threatened to ‘do' me.

Did nothing

I phoned College Cruisers and spoke to a very nice lady, Cerys Bunns I think, the boss' wife, and told her about the tiller. She knew nothing about it. Who ever I spoke to two days ago did nothing about my call at all, and what happened to my email?

Come to that CRT did nothing either. I phoned CRT and the chap said he will pass it on to the head office again. He never asked me where I was!

What is really annoying is the hirer blamed me because I had a canoe in the water, right in the corner, a place where they were never going to go.

Acceptable rules

Whatever happens on the waterways, CRT and hire companies have to start playing from an acceptable set of rules. A dangerous boat has to be stopped and the problem sorted, not tomorrow or the next day but now!