Although moving at slow speed a 60 foot boat can soon have a novice steerer well confused. The important things to remember are :-

Narrowboats are big heavy things, they may be moving slowly, but have great inertia. DO NOT try to stop one by getting yourself between a moving boat and the bank, you are very likely to be crushed.

The boat will take a short time to react to your actions, stopping in particular  seems to take forever. A common mistake is to initially steer in the right direction, nothing happens, so you steer the opposite way, when all of a sudden the boat starts to react to the first movement. Problem is of course, by now you've been steering the wrong way, so the boat veers off in the wrong direction, this can go on until the inevitable collision or call for help from someone else happens.

Narrowboats pivot around a point about one third of the way along the boat's length. So a 60 foot boat will pivot about 20 feet from the back. Sometimes this can be useful, and sometimes not. If you get all of the boat alongside the bank no amount of steering will get it off, you'll have to give the front a push or reverse out into the channel then try again.

The golden rule with all boaty things is do it slowly, if you're careful it's possible to get a boat into a lock without touching the sides on the way in, or to bring the boat to within inches of the bank so you can step ashore instead of leap.

All reputable hire companies will spend a short time on the boat with you when you set off to help get the hang of steering, coming into the bank and normally your first lock too. If in doubt ask before you set off. Where we moor we frequently see a well know boat company's boats moored after their first day watching the 'How to do locks' video - after they have already done several of the biggest and wide locks on the system. We are often told that this is all the instruction they get.

Special note must be made on that wonderful game...... going backwards (or astern if you wish to be boaty about it). In order to steer there must be a flow of water past the rudder faster than that of the surrounding water. When going forwards the water flows around the boat's hull, through the propeller and is pushed past the rudder, which then  imparts the necessary change of direction. When you go backwards however  the flow of water is not so directional and to compound this the propeller tries it's best to push water straight along the length of the hull. The simplest way is to use reverse to go backwards, but use short bursts of forwards to bring the back of the boat round to the direction you would like it to go, then return to reverse in the hope the boat will continue to go the way you've just tried to set it for.

Good theory, but your main enemy unless you know how to use it is 'Paddlewheel effect'. For a short time after the prop starts to rotate it produces sideways movement, which way depends on which way the prop is turning. If the prop is right handed, i.e. it turns clockwise to produce forward motion, the back of the boat will be pulled to the right as you start in forwards, or the left in reverse. This only works for a short time, so repeated bursts are called for. If you can make this work it is a useful tool.

A relatively modern 'toy' on some boats is a 'bow thruster', which is a small propeller, mounted sideways in the front of the boat, driven by an electric or hydraulic motor. This can move the front of the boat either way at the flick of a switch. Very useful if you're on your own but not often found on hire boats, and there's many a private boater too proud of their skill to fit one to their own boats too.