ADUK Archive

To this:





This is what I'm 'driving' today.

Dom

Bit quicker than what you're used to......

And there was me thinking I had a barge...

I liked driving (?) a narrowboat. Mostly it's slow motion drifting whilst powering through bends.

A little like a car, if you take your eye off the ball for a few seconds at some inopportune moment then you'll probably crash, except the crash isn't immediate, it's about 30 seconds later.

Try and separate steering and acceleration, see how you get on

Lift your vision. You'll detect currents and deviations better if you have a horizon reference point above the bow.

Hmmmmm

Brake Gear Overlap?

I'm just back from 2 weeks on this:



Great fun - 'COAST' seems to work well...

Aw - but it's got no sails - nor yours Martin. How do they move??!

Planning, planning, planning, and remember you have no brakes! Was it good fun?

I've "driven" canal boats before, and they were broad-beam so a bit of a tight squeeze through some of the smaller locks, but as someone said up there, it's completely different from driving since you have to do drifts to navigate tight corners, and crashes tend to happen a minute after you make the mistake, not a second!

The other thing that's weird is how you have to push the tiller to the left to make the boat go right, and vice-versa.
Another thing is how things happen so slowly, such as you want the boat to go right slightly, so you push the tiller to the left a bit, and nothing happens, so you push it even further left, then suddenly the boat goes to the right very much, so you have to quickly push the tiller to the right, and so on, thus making a pretty zig-zagging wake
Having said that, it's much easier (for me) to steer a boat using a tiller than a steering wheel.

Angus wrote:Bit quicker than what you're used to......

Cheeky.

4MPH is about it, but it's nice and relaxing.

Dom

trashbat wrote:I liked driving (?) a narrowboat. Mostly it's slow motion drifting whilst powering through bends.

A little like a car, if you take your eye off the ball for a few seconds at some inopportune moment then you'll probably crash, except the crash isn't immediate, it's about 30 seconds later.

Try and separate steering and acceleration, see how you get on

You need power to steer.

Kept the power steady and just kept going lovely.

Dom

michael769 wrote:Hmmmmm

Brake Gear Overlap?

What brakes and gears?

Dom

martine wrote:I'm just back from 2 weeks on this:



Great fun - 'COAST' seems to work well...

COAST works brilliantly, was yours a narrow boat? This was a wide beam, basically 2 narrows in 1.

Dom

swatchways wrote:Aw - but it's got no sails - nor yours Martin. How do they move??!

Planning, planning, planning, and remember you have no brakes! Was it good fun?

Engine.

It was brilliant fun. I have driven it before, but went today to help him out with the locks as it's bloody difficult on your own.

Dom

TheInsanity1234 wrote:I've "driven" canal boats before, and they were broad-beam so a bit of a tight squeeze through some of the smaller locks, but as someone said up there, it's completely different from driving since you have to do drifts to navigate tight corners, and crashes tend to happen a minute after you make the mistake, not a second!

The other thing that's weird is how you have to push the tiller to the left to make the boat go right, and vice-versa.
Another thing is how things happen so slowly, such as you want the boat to go right slightly, so you push the tiller to the left a bit, and nothing happens, so you push it even further left, then suddenly the boat goes to the right very much, so you have to quickly push the tiller to the right, and so on, thus making a pretty zig-zagging wake
Having said that, it's much easier (for me) to steer a boat using a tiller than a steering wheel.

That was the first vehicle I could steer with my back. Don't think I'd want to try that in a car.

Overall, awesome fun, but very very tiring.

11 Locks (mostly Electric but still tiresome)
2 swing bridges
1 lift bridge

The swing and lift bridges we're great fun to upset car drivers.

Thorne to Eastwood, 9 hours ish, car would've took half an hour.

http://goo.gl/maps/zXV1P

Dom