Beginner’s Guide to Narrowboating

Welcome to our beginner’s guide to narrowboating! We cover all the essentials, from setting off and steering your narrowboat to mooring up and fixing a tangled propeller. We always provide comprehensive boat operation and safety training before you launch, but for those looking to familiarise themselves with the basics before arrival, here’s everything you need to know about operating a narrowboat.

How to set off on a narrowboat

Start the engine and keep it in neutral. If it’s first thing in the morning, allow 3-5 minutes for it to warm up before you move off.
Ensuring the driver is ready at the controls, the crew member should step off the narrowboat, keeping hold of the centre line in case the boat starts to drift.
The crew will then untie the front (bow) and back (stern) mooring ropes from the bank. Coil them and stow them out of the way. Make sure your ropes can’t trail in the water and get caught in the propeller. Bring aboard the mooring stakes, chains and hammer.
Because the boat steers from the back, you can’t drive away from the bank as you would drive a car away from the kerb. Instead, the crew member should check the area is clear of boat traffic then push the front of the boat away from the bank, while holding the centre line. In shallow water, push the back of the boat out first, then reverse away until there’s room to straighten up.
Walk down to the back and climb aboard. If you give the back a little push as you climb in, you will ensure that your propeller is in deep water before setting off.
When the boat’s straight, go into forward gear and accelerate gently to cruising speed.

How to steer a narrowboat

Steering a narrowboat can be a little counterintuitive to begin with. Pushing the tiller to the right will make the boat steer to the left, and vice versa. The back of the boat will go in the same direction as the tiller is pushed, whereas the front goes in the opposite direction. Don’t be alarmed if your narrowboat takes a few seconds to respond – it’s heavy, and it pivots from about halfway along its length.

Unless there’s another boat coming towards you, steer down the middle where the canal is deepest. When passing another narrowboat, keep to the right, unlike on our roads. You should pass fellow boaters ‘port-to-port’ (left side to left side).

Most of our routes remain on the Grand Union Canal for the duration, where the maximum speed is 4mph (a brisk walking pace). When passing moored boats, anglers, and other waterway users, reduce your speed to about 1mph or tickover.

How to turn a narrowboat

Turning a holiday boat requires a lot of space and usually requires a winding hole or a turning point. A winding hole is a widening of the canal where a boat can turn, usually a large notch cut into the side of the canal. These are marked on your map and are often miles apart, so ensure you plan ahead.

How to turn a narrowboat using a winding hole:

Drive your boat slowly into the notch so it comes to rest gently with the front touching the bank.
Keeping your tiller in the same position (pointing towards the bank), gently engage forward gear. The boat will pivot against the bank.
Once the side of your boat is close to the bank, you can reverse. Take your boat back a long way out of the winding hole, and when clear, drive forwards and back the way you came.

How to moor up a narrowboat

This is a beginner’s guide to a foolproof method of mooring up a narrowboat.

Approach the bank very slowly at a shallow angle (30 degrees) and aim to bring the narrowboat to a complete stop as the bow touches the bank. A burst of reverse gear can help you stop, before returning to neutral.
To bring the back end in, turn the tiller towards the bank and give a 3-second burst of forward gear, before returning to neutral.
One of your crew can then step off, holding the centre line to help pull the boat in.

How to tie up a narrowboat

Our experienced boat handling trainers will teach you how to tie up your narrowboat before you set off. However, if you want to get some practice in before you go, the two essential narrowboat knots we recommend are the ‘round turn two half hitches’ and the ‘cleat hitch’. When tying up your narrowboat, always remember to run the ropes at 45 degrees from your boat and be careful not to obstruct the towpath.

How to free a tangled propeller

A narrowboat propeller sometimes gets tangled in weed or rope as you are cruising. If your boat loses power, or you notice the wash at the back of your boat is uneven, you may have something tangled in the propeller that you’ll need to remove. In autumn, it’s common for fallen leaves to clog up the propeller and slow you down.

You can untangle your propeller without having to dig into the weedhatch. To do this, put your boat into reverse and give it a few short blasts of power. Then continue forward and check whether the wash now comes straight out of the back of the boat with no foam, and your speed is unimpeded. If so, you have successfully freed a tangle propeller.

How to refill your narrowboat with water

We provide you with a full water tank before setting off from Union Wharf; however, depending on the number of people on board and how much water you use, this may need refilling after a few days. If you need to refill your water, look on the map for the tap symbol to identify a nearby standpoint. These are found frequently throughout our southern routes.

Using the water filler key (onboard), open the water filler cap – this is usually located at the very front of the boat and is labelled. Fit the hosepipe (onboard) onto the tap at the filling station, and place the other end of the hosepipe into the water tank.

Allow the water to fill right to the brim of the tank. If the tank is nearly empty, this can take as long as an hour, so pop the kettle on and take a break while it fills.