11 Canoeists at EICA

There is a lot of canoe activity on the canal ranging from novice to experts. You will usually see distance markers along the bank which are used for canoe speed trials. Some canoeists are training to Olympic standards. Other groups are complete beginners and will be in supervised groups.

Our barge skippers take particular care in the vicinity of canoes. Barges are far less manoeuvrable than canoes and the standard rule is that canoeists give way to us. We sound the barge horns if we have any doubts that canoeists are aware of our presence.

Barges normally cruise in the centre of the canal. The water is deepest in the centre and that is where we get maximum propulsion from the propeller and best steering control. The canal is so shallow at the canal edge that you will sometimes hear us scrape the bottom! It is about 1.2m deep in the middle of the canal and 0.6m at the edge. Shallow enough to walk to the side!

If we are passing another vessel, the rule is "drive on the right". This is an international rule for navigation on water, strangely enough introduced by the British despite us driving on the left!