Are Canal Boats Difficult To Drive?
Narrowboats are fairly straightforward to drive but they take a little practice to master. Accidents are rare and even with minimal training, a combination of common sense, care and caution should carry you through your holiday without any problems. The speed limit on the canals is 4mph. This may sound slow, but if you’re driving a 70ft narrowboat with 8 people and all their baggage on board there’s a good deal of momentum involved, so care is required. How Do You Control A Canal Boat? Most canal boats are steered using a tiller at the rear of the boat. Steering from the back may sound unusual but it has the advantage that you can not only see ahead, you can also see what your boat is doing! If you want to steer to the left you push the tiller to the right. Things take a few seconds to happen, not instantaneously like driving a car, so you have to plan ahead. You need to concentrate and practice so you have the boat moving in a straight line, not lots of curves from one bank to the oth
