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Appendices
- Trip Reports 2007.
Training
Day Report - 'Knots & Ropes/Straps
& Lines', Stoke Bruerne Museum,
Saturday 28th May 2007. Report
by Roger Hutchinson
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Nick's
'Demo Table'
(pic: Dave Davies)
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Until
this attending this course there
was never a danger of a boat drifting
free due to the knots tying up
my mooring lines. I always ‘over
engineered’ the tying up
but as a result spent far more
time unpicking the knots. Nick
Wolf’s instruction
on ‘knots’ was a bit
of a revelation and it really
felt like I was learning the very
best way to be efficient in the
use of rope - the culmination
of 200 years of boating practice
refined.
Presented as a basic course we
spent the morning being shown
and practicing on Nick’s
wonderful wooden teaching aids
of versions of stud, T stud, mooring
ring and a bollard. The atmosphere
was light hearted as even experienced
boaters fumbled and stumbled to
their eventual realisation of
the right way to do it
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Being
such a lovely day, we practiced
throwing lines over bollards and
to each other outside and at every
stage Nick made sure we knew we
had learnt the lesson and ticked
the box. We finished of the rope
handlingby everyone tying up NB
Sculptor, conveniently moored
up by the Museum.
The day finished with a rope splicing
exercise where we each given a short
length and Nick demonstrated
how to splice an eye at one end
and a rope end at the other. As
the teaching aids were minimal at
this point Nick had to
demonstrate the technique over and
over again on a one-to-one basis,
until we all twigged the skill.
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Personally,
it was an uphill struggle for a
good 30 minutes so when I had a
passable eye after a third attempt
I was quite pleased in my endeavours
as was everyone else! We all left
clutching our little pieces of frayed
rope all feeling like it had been
a useful and productive day. On
arriving home later, the dog was
very excited as he thought I had
bought him a new lead!
Over the last year Nick
has quietly been putting together
a training course that covers every
aspect of operating working boats
that comes with an individual booklet
that marks your progress through
all the information, skills and
techniques until you can be considered
a competent member of crew or 'steerer'.
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‘On
the job training’ is a fine
idea in theory but this is very
dependant on the time spent on
the boats, personalities and crew
dynamics for it to be achieved.
At best it can be haphazard, at
worst non existent – except
for the experience in opening
and closing lock gates!
The regulations for commercial
carrying on the waterways and
Health and Safety are becoming
much tighter and as a Trust and
a commercial carrying company
we need to comply with them. But
this aspect of increasing bureaucratic
pressure is nothing to another
aspect what could happen if ignorance,
incompetence and injudicious risk-taking
by Trust members causes danger
to life and property in the operation
of our pair. These two negative
aspects of boating are easily
overcome by attending these stimulating
and convivial training sessions
that will build a pride in yourself
and your comprehensive skills
as you ply the waterways.
Roger
Hutchinson.
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The
Narrow Boat Trust is a charity registered
in England under number: 288243
The
Registered Office of the Narrow Boat Trust
is at:
23 Redway Drive, TWICKENHAM TW2 7NT
email:
webmaster@narrowboattrust.org
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