Warning Idiots at large

CX54WEK said:
Why not?

You can use whatever boat you fancy.

It is a shame to see these boats not at sea (our marina is another extreme case of this with 45ft flybridge boats wedged onto a 4ft deep ditch :( ) but not as much a shame as seeing them left to fend for themselves. At least this one appears in good nick and is used.

And no I dont condone their behaviour but then again neither do I condone naming and shaming on a public forum when a polite word would have been a more reasonable response.
Click to expand...

Yes of course you can USE whatever boat you fancy, but that doesn't stop it from being foolish and anti social does it?

What next? narrow boats moored at Southampton, doing day trips to France?

It's just silly :o

Public forums are a place to discuss these things. If people don't want to be named and shamed, perhaps they shouldn't upset people....:mad:
 
No Regrets said:
Public forums are a place to discuss these things. If people don't want to be named and shamed, perhaps they shouldn't upset people....:mad:
Click to expand...

Yes I agree totally! Do you really think that these are the sort who would respond well to a quiet word? I consider that, on balance, that that is a highly unlikely scenario.

A few years back, I recall witnessing a foolhardy speedboat, not only overtaking our 25ft Birchwood, with my daughter helming at the time, but also sinking a lady single sculler, through his speeding and reckless use of the steering wheel, and all within the Desborough Cut!

Nowadays, I am quick with the camera, as it provides supporting evidence should it be needed.
 
No Regrets said:
Yes of course you can USE whatever boat you fancy, but that doesn't stop it from being foolish and anti social does it?

What next? narrow boats moored at Southampton, doing day trips to France?

It's just silly :o

Public forums are a place to discuss these things. If people don't want to be named and shamed, perhaps they shouldn't upset people....:mad:
Click to expand...

How do you know that they dont intend to take their boat tidal and on the sea?

We keep our boat on a canal, a far less suitable place to keep it than the Thames in my opinion. But it gives us easy access to tidal waterways and the sea as well as easy weekend cruising on the canal and river. Just because they keep their boat on the river it doesnt mean that it where they will do all of their boating.

Having a boat different to your average river cruiser doesnt make it anti social.
 
SnowCat said:
Yes I agree totally! Do you really think that these are the sort who would respond well to a quiet word? I consider that, on balance, that that is a highly unlikely scenario.

A few years back, I recall witnessing a foolhardy speedboat, not only overtaking our 25ft Birchwood, with my daughter helming at the time, but also sinking a lady single sculler, through his speeding and reckless use of the steering wheel, and all within the Desborough Cut!

Nowadays, I am quick with the camera, as it provides supporting evidence should it be needed.
Click to expand...

Are you always so quick to judge people that you have not met?

By your theory everyone with a speed boat is a plonker who goes around sinking other boats which quite clearly is not true.

How do you know that these people wont respond to a quiet word in their ear? You have not even met them, yet you judge them purely on their boat.
 
apollo said:
No putting other boats on the bank with your wash does!
Click to expand...

So have a word with them. Posting photos of them and their boat is in my opinion just as anti social. The OP has said that they saw them again the next day so has had a chance to chalenge their behaviour face to face rather than behind the veil of an internet forum.
 
CX54WEK said:
So have a word with them. Posting photos of them and their boat is in my opinion just as anti social. The OP has said that they saw them again the next day so has had a chance to chalenge their behaviour face to face rather than behind the veil of an internet forum.
Click to expand...

And a fat lot of good it did him:

"I ran round to explain to them the damage that they could have done if we had been a smaller boat, one of them apologised whilst the rest of them said yes but it was hilarious!"

One of them (not necessarily the owner) may be a normal, functioning, human being, but the rest sound exactly like the sort of people that should be named and shamed.
 
As expected this thread has gone exactly where I thought it would, like all of the ones that post a picture and complain about the wash...to add I am not criticizing the OP for posting but I knew it would end this way..

What you have to remember is that not one single contributor to the Thames forum has ever broken the speed / acceptable wash limit, never ever, not even down those quiet stretches...never, would never happen...:rolleyes:
 
CX54WEK said:
Are you always so quick to judge people that you have not met?

By your theory everyone with a speed boat is a plonker who goes around sinking other boats which quite clearly is not true.

How do you know that these people wont respond to a quiet word in their ear? You have not even met them, yet you judge them purely on their boat.
Click to expand...

No, in both cases judgement is being passed on their actions.

The OP suffered from the inconsiderate behaviour of the pictured boat. Snowcat related an incident caused by an inconsiderate boater acting illegally.

Our club has flag officers who own sports cruisers. They are well aware of how to use them considerately and minimise their wash as necessary.

What is being discussed here is those who do not do so. This may be due to ignorance (need training?) or wilful antisocial behaviour.

With an 8 KPH speed limit on the non-tidal Thames, there is very little excuse for excessive wake.
 
Last edited:
RichardShead said:
As expected this thread has gone exactly where I thought it would, like all of the ones that post a picture and complain about the wash...to add I am not criticizing the OP for posting but I knew it would end this way..

What you have to remember is that not one single contributor to the Thames forum has ever broken the speed / acceptable wash limit, never ever, not even down those quiet stretches...never, would never happen...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

What Never?

No Never!

I'm hardly ever, ever sick at sea....


Chorus
Oh,
give three cheers and three cheers more'
for the gallant captain of the Pinafore
 
Last edited:
CX54WEK said:
How do you know that they dont intend to take their boat tidal and on the sea?

We keep our boat on a canal, a far less suitable place to keep it than the Thames in my opinion. But it gives us easy access to tidal waterways and the sea as well as easy weekend cruising on the canal and river. Just because they keep their boat on the river it doesnt mean that it where they will do all of their boating.

Having a boat different to your average river cruiser doesnt make it anti social.
Click to expand...

One of the 'problems' with being based for far away oop north is that the two waterways are quite different in their nature. The canal where you are is wide and deep and I suspect you are not all that far away from the sea with few locks to negotiate. 'Twould be reasonable to say there are fewer boats and even fewer "continuous cruisers" to pass.

The boat in question is well up river. If his reason for a sports boat is that he wanted to go to sea often then he has to negotiate a lot of locks. Let's see:-
Temple, Marlow,Cookham, Maidenhead, Bray, Boveney, Romney, Old Windsor, Bell Weir, Penton Hook, Chertsey, Shepperton, (pause for breath)
Sunbury, Molesey, Teddington (Richmond) (Thames Barrier)
That's 41 miles and 15 locks to Richmond where the world ends, about two days at river speeds.
OG can advise how long it takes after the EOW.

Not a hugely practical option for regular sea trips methinks??

No it's not cool to have a boat that's seen as a chugger.
It's more about coolness and image. The sadness is that cool boats don't really work on the Thames for practical reasons, but who's practical nowadays.
 
TrueBlue said:
One of the 'problems' with being based for far away oop north is that the two waterways are quite different in their nature. The canal where you are is wide and deep and I suspect you are not all that far away from the sea with few locks to negotiate. 'Twould be reasonable to say there are fewer boats and even fewer "continuous cruisers" to pass.

The boat in question is well up river. If his reason for a sports boat is that he wanted to go to sea often then he has to negotiate a lot of locks. Let's see:-
Temple, Marlow,Cookham, Maidenhead, Bray, Boveney, Romney, Old Windsor, Bell Weir, Penton Hook, Chertsey, Shepperton, (pause for breath)
Sunbury, Molesey, Teddington (Richmond) (Thames Barrier)
That's 41 miles and 15 locks to Richmond where the world ends, about two days at river speeds.
OG can advise how long it takes after the EOW.

Not a hugely practical option for regular sea trips methinks??

No it's not cool to have a boat that's seen as a chugger.
It's more about coolness and image. The sadness is that cool boats don't really work on the Thames for practical reasons, but who's practical nowadays.
Click to expand...

One comment in there made me laugh. :)

"The canal where you are is wide and deep"

Yes its about 50ft wide and 4-5ft deep at most :D

Not massive by anybodies standard I think you would agree. But yes we do have easy access to the sea. A days cruising and a few locks in either direction.

Im not trying to condone this chaps behaviour, quite clearly it caused some upset. But I do believe that there are better ways about going about complaining about it than this. A witch hunt is not the answer. I am sure that we have all been subjected to people passing us whilst we are moored a bit quicker than we would like but at the end of the day the effects are over and done with in a matter of minutes and it isnt worth getting hung up about. :)

And on another note, Who wants to be practical anyway?
 
TrueBlue said:
The boat in question is well up river. If his reason for a sports boat is that he wanted to go to sea often then he has to negotiate a lot of locks. Let's see:-
Temple, Marlow,Cookham, Maidenhead, Bray, Boveney, Romney, Old Windsor, Bell Weir, Penton Hook, Chertsey, Shepperton, (pause for breath)
Sunbury, Molesey, Teddington (Richmond) (Thames Barrier)
That's 41 miles and 15 locks to Richmond where the world ends, about two days at river speeds.
OG can advise how long it takes after the EOW.

Not a hugely practical option for regular sea trips methinks??

No it's not cool to have a boat that's seen as a chugger.
It's more about coolness and image. The sadness is that cool boats don't really work on the Thames for practical reasons, but who's practical nowadays.
Click to expand...

I have a boat very similar the the one pictured in the first post and last year could have been seen as far up as Oxford. Now you might think that is impractical but the truth is that I was on the river for a season. I am now back on the salt and since ownership the boat has visited the Solent, France and Essex and Suffolk. Later this year we will be going to the Channel Islands. Next year I might be back on the Thames. It is not ideal as a River boat but it is a better compromise for my kind of boating than a 'proper' river boat. You shouldn't judge unless you know the whole story. :)
 
CX54WEK said:
If we travel in our boat at 8kph it will kick up one hell of a wash. :D
Click to expand...

You've hit it on the head!
There are loads of planing boats on the Thames - waters which are totally unsuitable for them. But the boats are pretty and macho - so folks buy them. At the top end of the river speed limit they create wash and I think there's little difference in speed between acceptable wash and not. It's the way that the hull designed.

Most owners don't understand that and care less - and why not? not everybody wants to get involved with the nuts and bolts of their hobby and unless you cruise distances a lot, the River is just a conduit for getting from one place to another.

This thread has turned away from the actual incident into a discussion on how folks ought to treat their boating, so I'm trying to see the problem from all angles and for future public reference.
 
Yes but we kick up wash at the speed limit too and certainly aren't a planing boat. Displacement matters as well. I just try to be conscious of it particularly where there are moored boats.

Clearly affected by depth, river flow, width etc - so sometimes not much wash, other times lots at the same speed.

But people will buy all sorts of boats and they should. Purely about being considerate in whatever you are in.
 
TrueBlue said:
The sadness is that cool boats don't really work on the Thames for practical reasons, but who's practical nowadays.
Click to expand...

Ahem..... Sports Cruisers are practical, I seem to remember about 10 of us sitting in my cockpit last year enjoying the sun and some wine, your good lady thought it was a very nice boat;) the NB's cockpit was a bit too cosy:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top