Reverse Ferrying (15ft open boat)

[Guest]

It took me a lot of practice to get to grips with this for my 4*. During training, I was told to get my thighs up against the center thwart so as to get the boat stern light. Well, assuming that 5* is more of the same but on bigger water, I'm not convinced that this is good enough.
Think about it. . . . . no matter how much you jam your thighs under the center thwart and lean forward, you cannot do anything more than trim the boat neutrally at best, even with a dry bag lobbed well forward. The center thwart is the point of balance. If more than half your body weight is not forward of this, the boat will be stern heavy.
What's the answer? Well, it's obvious. . . . . . get rid of the center thwart and you can slide about and trim the boat to your hearts content.
Anybody tried this ? Any Coaches or experienced bods out there who know if I'll get a bollocking for this at 5* level ?

[Ken Hughes]

Dear .......well you do not give your name!,

If you remove the yolk you remore a significant amount of the intergral strength of the boat for advanced water.

You do not need to reverse ferry in a traditional canoe because in an eddy you can turn arounf in the boat. However, you will need to check the speed of the boat and set it across the current to position yourself appropriately.

If you do have to make a radical setting move; anticipate it by reading the water and jump OVER the yolk. This will lighten the upstream [stern, although there is no stern if you can turn around in the boat] end. It will also allow you to carve radical eddy turns.

Techniques which are difficult tend to be those which we do not practice because we feel more gratified by performing those which make us look better. Repitition is the mother of all learning, so practicing setting will make you better.

Good coaching can accelerate your development, but poor coaching can convince you that you cannot ever achieve the standard! Get some good coaching and become the boater you have always dreamed of. Where do you live; and I will try and recommend someone.

Ken

[Andy (verygrubby)]

Thanks Ken

Sorry, forgot my name originally. I'm based in Chepstow, S.Wales.
I like the radical leaping over the thwart bit. . . . hadn't thought of that.

Surely, for 5* won't you be expected to reverse ferry, not just turn around in the boat ??

And another thing. . . . . . . ferrying forward or reverse, properly perpendicular to the current, can be impossible on some very fast water, even at grade 2. I find that, if the eddy is long enough, I have to paddle hard up the eddy, break-in on an increasing ferry angle and carve what can best be discribed as a shallow arc across to the other side. If the very fast water is much more than 10 metres wide I'll still end up a little downstream. Technically, if you cannot hold your position in the flow by paddling hard directly upstream, should you wish to do so, the flow seems to be too great to ferry directly across. I cannot see how the resultant forces of ferry angle, water speed and paddle power can leave you anywhere but downstream after a ferrying manoeuvre. Is this arcing sort of manoeuvre acceptable at 5* ?

I have generally found that, probably due to incompetence, that I only make reverse ferry moves when avoiding standing waves that suddenly reveal a sticky-uppy boulder immediately in front with not much water cover. My visual early warning system picks this up without fail at about 8m in front. . . . . . . just enough time to do something about it !

Standing upright on the bow deck plate increases the early warning range considerably, but produces other insurmountable problems which usually ends up involving a swim line . . . . . . . . . . .

[choiredog]

You can remove the centre thwart/yoke, but in order to retain strength you really have to rebuild the boat as a solo only. In this way you can put in 2 thwarts, maybe just over a third of the way in from eack end, thus giving you a fairly big 'cockpit' to work in.
Jumping over the yoke does work, but I reckon that if you are in water that requires such extreme boat trimming then jumping thwarts seems like something you would rather not do (twice, since when you have your position to run the fall, you will want to move back again. Jumping about in these conditions is a bit iffy, especially when loaded for a multiday trip.
But, yes, it can be done.

[rob cowley]

I sympathise with your back ferry problems. my mad river intrigue has v - shaped ends that act like a keelson and consequently it's a bugger to back ferry. I tend not to want to jump around for the reasons mentioned above. As a result I have adopted a slightly different paddling style that gets me by in most situations. I find slowing the boat is not a problem so I combine this with draw / pry strokes. I don't understand why but for some reason this seems to work better than the standard back ferry technique - illogical as it is. Also I tend to do more manoeuvres under forward power but make more use of eddies than I would have done previously.

All this said, sometimes you just have to back ferry and I'm afraid there is no substitute for extreme bow heavy trim. I use a heavy bag in the bow and major forward leaning to avoid having to jump over the yoke. I don't think I could manage without the yoke as carrying the boat single handed is too important an asset to miss out on.

hope this helps

[Ken Hughes]

Is there a bow and a stern in a traditional open canoe? If you turn round does the front and back, or upstream and downstream, end not change over?

Ken

[Andy (verygrubby)]

Yes ! There must be ! My 15ft Royalex MRC Horizon is advertised as having an 'assymetric' hull. From the Yoke it is ever so slightly narrower towards the stern. My original question still stands - Am I going to get told off for leaping over the thwart and changing ends so to speak, so that I can continue with forward ferry strokes ?