Using your horn & lights on the canal
The horn Every narrowboat should have a working horn. Typically mounted somewhere on the bow, this can be used to alert other boats of your presence around tight, blind bends,
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Securing your canal boat with ropes
In seven years of living on a narrowboat I never learned to tie a proper knot, much to my shame. However, when you have a boat you are going to
Continue readingSpeed limits on the canals & rivers
Let’s not go mad on that throttle. The general speed limit on the canals is 4mph and frankly if you’re doing that, you’re going too fast to be civilised anyway.
Continue readingHow do you slow down / stop a canal boat?
The bad news is there are no brakes on a boat. Thus you have two options to slow down. Firstly, just put the throttle into neutral (so the engine is
Continue readingSteering a canal boat
In essence, things are very simple. For throttle, you’ve got a lever that gives you a choice of forwards, backwards and neutral, with the speed varying according to how far
Continue readingUsing your canal boat on rivers
When I first took my boat on a river, it was a scary experience. Whereas canals are shallow and (mostly) have no flow – so even an engine failure isn’t
Continue readingHow to navigate canal tunnels safely
As the canal builders became more confident and experienced, they faced geographical obstructions such as hills that would have taken many, many locks to overcome. Instead, they used dynamite and
Continue readingWhere can you moor, on a canal boat?
Before we start, do have a read of this page which is ostensibly about mooring costs but in which I inevitably had to describe various types of mooring so there’s
Continue readingWhere can you go on a canal boat?
So you’ve bought your boat, insured it and now intend to set off into the distant unknown at 3 mph; but where exactly will and can you go? Assuming you’ve
Continue readingDiesel engine servicing: the basics
Just like a car, a canal boat’s engine will also require regular scheduled maintenance. In fact, it’s worse than a car because that only requires a bit of an oil
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