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Steering a Narrow Boat.

Steering a barge or narrow boat is unlike an ordinary boat with a conventional v shaped hull. My experience with boats had been in sailing boats all my life until the day I went out in a narrowboat at Warwick with Kate Boats. We were given little instruction and left to run down to the first lock where we were given more instruction and left to learn ourselves! It wasn’t until I started thinking of skippering on Rosalind of Swan Canal Cruises Ltd that I realised I couldn’t afford to bump the barge if I had guests aboard in the bows sipping their cocktails or drinking hot tea. I began to study how to navigate a narrow boat and after a period of time realised that the narrowboats are steered by the thrust of the water at the back that is channelled in different directions, unlike conventional boats that extend their waterline on one side or the other with the rudder and causing the one side of the boat to go faster than the other.

 

Narrowboats and barges have flat bottom hulls with a curved pointed lower rear end hull section through which the propeller axel runs with the propeller on the outer end of the pointed curve. Above and still below the water line is a shelf that extends another two foot beyond and over the propeller. This creates channels of water when the propeller turns that get sucked along the end of the hull into a channel created by the curve of the hull to the propeller and rudder. The rudder is behind the propeller and guides the stream of water that the propeller sucks to itself from one side or the other of the curve. Steering the barge straight ahead is like other boats and a little change of direction from one side to the other with the helm is the same as with other boats but when moving away from the quay side or into the quay side one has to look at the direction of the stream of water that is pushing the aft end of the hull to understand how to navigate to and from the side of the channel.

 

The skipper and instructor at Swan Canal Cruises gave us a simple tip to remember in order to steer the barges, “ point the handle of the tiller in the direction you want the aft end of the boat to go”. The bow will swing in the opposite direction. Going backwards or going aft in slow astern, one steers by changing to forwards and correcting the direction of the barge. One checks the swing of the bow, then run gently in astern again and continually correct the course by running the propeller forwards to steer. As it takes some time before the heavy barge changes from forwards to astern, the barge will continue to drift aft while you have the propeller running forwards for the correction of the direction.

 

On entering the jaw of the lock, aim along one side of the barge and concentrate on only that side. On Rosalind 60ft with Swan Canal Cruises, I stand with my foot on the gunwale and sight along the length of the hull. The aft end, where my foot is, has to be in line with the line of the brickwork of the locks side and I aim to run the barge as straight in as possible. Therefore I often run the barge back into the middle of the canal to allow room to straighten the barge up for its entry into the lock. As you enter the jaw of the lock keep your front end of the gunwale tight up to the lock side, with no or very little gap and as you enter the lock realise you have possible only one or two inches between you and the wall. Keep the motor in forward gear until you have got over two thirds of the way in as you will have to keep steering free of the sides until you stop. Happy barging from Swan Canal Cruises.