Steerers at risk

I read , with great sadness, the other night, of the inquest into the death of another holiday maker on their first canal holiday on the Oxford Canal. It put me in mind of the death of another ‘first timer’ at Alrewas in recent years. This got me thinking about some of the things I have seen over the years, especially recent years, which have me cringing with fear at the foreseeable potential for accidents.

Why don’t working boats have seats/handrails round their counter? And I think the answer is straight forward.

Why did working boatmen stand in the hatches and not on the counter to steer? And I think the answer is straight forward

Why did ‘passengers’ always stand on the side gunnel of a motor boat and not on the counter? And again I think the answer is straight forward

It has taken 200 years for the working narrow boat to reach it’s stage of design, from very crude early beginnings, through horse boats, steamers, motor boats, giving rise to what we now accept as a fairly universal basic design with company/builder variations. So to answer some of the questions I set, with, as always my answers and views.

Why don’t working boats have seats/handrails round their counter; When any craft goes into astern, its tiller can, and does strike things both above and below the water line. The result of this. as we know from 200 years of working practice, is for the tiller bar to be violently swung round to its full arc taking anything or anybody with it. If the boat is fitted with one of these rear handrails/seats, this then hits the steerer around their thigh height tipping/toppling them straight off the back end of the boat and into the cut. If the boat is in astern this usually would result in entanglement around the propeller. To make matters even worse these hand rails, in a lot of cases are also deemed to be seating fitted with wooden tops, which encourages the bad practice of positioning the steerer between moving tiller bar and the cut.

Why did working boatmen stand in the hatches and not on the counter to steer? First of all you can not safely steer a traditional design narrowboat from off the counter as you are in your own way, if you have to pull the tiller bar over towards you, you are in risk of pulling yourself into the cut, or, for the same reason as described above I don’t know when this trend started but now you will see lots of boaters, sometimes even including persons operating working boats(just watch the antics of some of the people in charge of working boats operated by societies/trusts/trippers etc, (usually ‘houseboat’ owners themselves)) standing on the counter at the side of the tiller bar, some even with their partner/colleague standing the other side.

Why did ‘passengers’ always stand on the side gunnel of a working motor boat and not on the counter? The steerer of the motor boat has enough to think about and do without having to be careful of not pushing their ’passenger’ into the cut.

And so to my conclusions and advice!

1. Boat builders, please stop fitting boats with these handrails/seats for if this practice continues to be used we will see the continued, unnecessary deaths of people, especially those with little or no experience, who end up being tipped into the cut and ending round the blades.

2. Boat owners who have these hand rails/seats, my advice is have them cut off they are an accident waiting to happen.

3. Always stand in the hatches to steer. (Apart when the need arises such as handling rope work etc.)

4. Steerers, never allow anyone to stand on the counter of your boat while you are travelling, make them stand at the cabin sides.

5. If you have the need to sit down while steering, have a semi-traditional boat with seating in a suitable position

Accidents will always happen even to the professional, there have been many cases where boat people, who were born on the boats and worked their whole life on the cut ended up dying in some tragic event. Like the boatman on the BBC’s recordings ‘Narrowboat’ “I had my first wife killed in Birningum, left me with seven, going down Camp Hill locks, er was stepping onto the boat and her foot slipped and er dropped down between the boat and the wall, fractured two of her ribs and moved her heart, she lived about six hours” or well known character Georgy Page who’s wife fell off the forend of their pair coming out of The Cape locks and went under the boats and he ran over her. So while I realise that accidents can happen, it wont be long, if these deaths continue, that actions will be introduced which will signal the death of the canal system as we know it, with hand rails around all lock sides and life jackets being compulsory and -----it goes on and on.

Ok so rant over and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Blossom