This theme touches one of my longstanding concerns - I have the pleasure of 'driving' an old Northwich when I get the time. She has a Lister 'H' 2 cylinder ?2litre? air-cooled engine which starts first kick in all temperatures. However, whenever I suggest to those that run the boat we turn down the tickover to help maintain control when slowing down for bridge holes, blind corners, locks, turns and the like, I get head shaking but no clear answer as to why I appear to be asking the wrong question. As a trained scientist this perplexes me and I need to understand this better - especially as I have driven another Listered Northwich which used to imitate an old steam engine burning bad coal if the the throttle was reduced enough and would eventually stall if you didn't open her up a bit..
Even in a heavy ?30 tons trad boat, it's hard to keep a line or make a correction when in neutral, and I have ended up in trouble as a result of going too fast at tick-over, even tho' I have developed the technique of slowing early, going in and out of gear to gain steerage only as needed, etc. Any comments, advice will be gratefully received, as it bothers me that I don't feel more in control. - a bit like driving a classic sports car like the Morgan as I did today for the first time in 40 years!! Tony [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
