Speed Dating

Ratcliffe Wharf, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

Took my boat 'Shrimp' for a trip up the canal again today. It was gloriously hot and, as is surprisingly often the case on such a well used canal, remarkably quiet most of the way from Garstang to Ratcliffe Wharf.
As I travelled up the canal I came across a number of moored boats and, in accordance with BW's (and presumably their occupants') wishes, I slowed right down as I passed them, to 'tickover' speed. As I have such an addiction to gadgets, I have fitted Shrimp with a Navman Fishfinder which has a built in log, and which gives a speed readout on the screen. So I know that Shrimp is moving at 1.9mph (exactly) at tickover. I also know when I am travelling at 3mph (which I do most of the time), and what 4mph feels like.
Rather annoying then to have someone flapping his arms at me in alarm as I approached a moored boat at less than 3 mph, fully intending to slow to my 'tickover' speed as I passed. I asked him how fast he thought I was going but he was too busy telling his companions how reckless I was and buttoning up his oilskins as the wall of water that was my three inch wash slammed against the bank, to answer me.
Strangely enough, I had a similar experience in the car the other morning on my way to work, when a cyclist pulled into the middle of the road and waved his arms at me as I got near to him. Thinking he could see an accident or a broken down badger that was invisible to me I slowed down, only to discover that he was just taking the opportunity to make me slow down for the sake of it. Incredulous I gave him a wide berth and accelerated to my previous breakneck 40 mph.
I digress.
It struck me that we are getting a bit pathetic about boat speeds on the canal. For a start, there's the speed limit.
4 mph.
'A brisk walking pace' .
I wound Shrimp up to 4mph this afternoon and watched the bank flash past way faster than I am capable of walking at. I have to say that it was also way faster than I would normally travel at on a canal, so even my most 'inconsiderate anti social madcap' speed is well below the actual limit. Imagine the arm flapping that 4mph would produce.
But even if I do make a bit of wash (at 3.3 mph), so what? I'm not talking about three feet of breaking water topping the towpath, but more of a large ripple following me along. It might actually make other boats rock slightly, but I always thought boats were supposed to be able to withstand a certain amount of rocking.
When I had a boat on the Norfolk Broads in the early nineties, the speed limits were reduced from 7 mph to 6 mph following a study which demonstrated that bank erosion in sensitive areas was reduced significantly at the lower speed. I appreciate that canals are narrower and shallower and therefore the effects of boat speed are magnified but even so, are the margins of the canals of Britain being washed away by boats travelling at 4 mph?
I suspect that the limit is as much to do with reducing the risk of collision as anything else. After all, the packet boats that operated on the canal from 1833 to 1846 travelled the 55 miles from Kendal to Preston in ten hours. They were 76 feet long and pulled by galloping horses. And even my innumerate brain can see that is an average speed of 5.5 mph. Which means they must have travelled much faster than that at times.
I wouldn't dream of advocating tearing up and down the canal at full throttle, I'm not even suggesting that there is anything wrong with being considerate towards other canal users.
But, and this is what is really worrying me, if we are all going to start telling each other to slow down even when we're well within the speed limit, there won't be any need for speed cameras.
And I was so looking forward to seeing those on the towpath.