Daniel Hutchinson wrote... >"Keens, Graham, VF UK - Technology \(RO\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> I believe with an un-powered craft you would use a rope pulled by >> someone on the towpath to swing the back round if the wind is not >> helping much. > >Yeah, i would have thought you would/could simply stear the buttys >bow intro the winding hole, pull the stearn round with a line, pull >the boat of backwards a bit, and go on the way you came. > Sorry to disagree with you both, but if they could, they would use the horse to do the work! I have been the steerer on a horse-drawn boat that was being winded, so I have actually done this.
The technique is like this: The horse stops pulling before you reach the winding hole. You keep the boat centre channel as you approach the winding hole. As you get to the winding hole, you steer the bow sharply in into the *towpath* side, kicking the stern across towards the wide part. At just the right moment, the horse starts pulling the towline back the way you have just come. This pulls the bow sideways. The boat, meanwhile, continues to rotate, so that the stern ends up in the wide part of the winding hole away from the towpath. The horse continues to walk back the way it came and the boat follows it, completing its rotation. The towline does not need to be disconnected at all. Nobody needs to pull any ropes. Easy. However, if you turn too soon or too late, the boat could wedge at a point where the canal is not wide enough. And, of course, it might be difficult to do this in Daniel's silted-up winding hole. -- Martin Clark Internet Boaters' Database http://www.boaterweb.co.uk Pennine Waterways Website http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk
