The waterways look set to be very busy this summer, so it’s more important than ever to have good boating manners.
Tuition is included in all our holiday packages. During your boat handover, as well as showing you how to operate your boat, our boat yard staff will explain the rules and how to navigate the waterways in a considerate way.
Here are our tips on how to share the space and be kind:
Considerate mooring
Be considerate to householders and moorers in nearby boats – avoid running your engine to charge your batteries or make hot water between 8pm and 8am, keep the music and TV volume down, and don’t come home late from the pub talking loudly. Sound travels amazingly well over water.
Shuffle up and share at visitor moorings – don’t leave big gaps between boats when you moor up
Don’t moor up next to locks, bridges or bends – this makes navigating the canals harder for others
Keep reasonable cruising hours – try not to push the envelope on cruising times. So don’t set off too early or carry on too late. We suggest mooring up by around 6pm.
Watch your speed
Keep your speed in check – the maximum speed on our waterways is 4mph. Ways to check you aren’t speeding, include making sure you aren’t creating breaking wash, and someone walking reasonably briskly on the towpath should be able to overtake you.
Don’t rock the boat – slow right down to tick-over when passing moored boats, so you don’t cause unnecessary movement and tipping
Don’t bang into other boats – however narrow the channel or strong the wind, you really shouldn’t biff other boats. If you do misjudge it, and someone yells at you, don’t make it worse by answering back. Just say you are sorry.
Take steps to save water
Share locks whenever possible
Make sure you close all lock gates and gate paddles
When you moor for the night in a short length between two locks, check that all the paddles on the lock below you really are fully closed. Otherwise you’ll end up having to call the Canal & River Trust out in the middle of the night when the water has gone down and your boat is tilting.
https://www.drifters.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Winding-the-windlass-scaled-e1623772902704.jpg6671000Debbie Ludfordhttps://www.drifters.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/logo-300x62.pngDebbie Ludford2021-06-15 16:06:382021-06-16 13:11:52Tips on how to have good narrowboating manners
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
Essential Website Cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
Google Analytics Cookies
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
Other external services
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
Other cookies
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
Privacy Policy
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.