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TonyDunkley

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  1. Leaving aside any considerations as to the extent of the MNC and, post 1971, the attendant registration requirement on a river navigation, BWB/C&RT's authority to charge an access/connection fee has to be ultimately dependent on the PRN of the waterway in question having been extinguished under the 1968 Transport Act. It follows, therefore, that they have no authority so to do in respect of any of the River Waterways listed in Schedule 1 to the 1971 BW Act.
  2. As far as I'm aware, it is that simple. The marina entrance is in fact situated just inside Loughborough Cut, which is part of what was built as the Leicester Navigation. The important word there is "Navigation", as opposed to "Canal", and being a 'navigation' [ie. a river made navigable by way of canal sections/lock cuts] it escaped the extinguishing of the Public Right of Navigation [PRN] under the 1968 Transport Act - something acknowledged by BWB/C&RT in not demanding that pleasure craft using it must take out a standard Pleasure Boat Licence.
  3. Without wanting to defend or condemn QMP, or the people who ran it, if non-payment of C&RT's Network Access Agreement fees was a significant factor in QMP's demise, then it does beg the question of why C&RT were charging NAA fees at Pilling's Lock Marina when every other marina connected to a C&RT controlled river navigation is exempted from them ?
  4. I don't think you've understood my #109 correctly. The requirement to contact the VTS from Gainsborough Bridge down no longer applies for purely practical, common sense reasons. With no shipping now going any further up the Trent than Gunness Wharf, calling the VTS to tell them that you're somewhere on the river between Keadby Bridge and Gainsborough Bridge is utterly pointless - unless you happen to be coming downriver and about to pass under Keadby Bridge just when inbound ships for Keadby and/or Gunness will be rounding-up and dropping onto the wharves - ie. normally shortly before Keadby HW, but, if they're late on the tide, then possibly for a very short while after local HW.
  5. The extract from the ABP Byelaws that Alan has quoted was written in and published back in the days when there was still shipping running up to Gainsborough - coasters to Spillers, topside of Gainsborough Bridge, and to the Gainsborough wharves, and Beckingham Wharf, lowside of the bridge. The requirement to contact Spurn VTS no longer applies, either coming out into the Trent at Keadby for Stockwith, Gainsborough, Torksey or Cromwell, or from Gainsborough down to Keadby, if arriving at Keadby at least half an hour after the ebb is away. If you're aiming to get to Keadby at or before local HW then a call to the VTS from somewhere Derrythorpe dolphins and Keadby Bridge is advisable due to the possibility of coinciding with the arrival of shipping inbound for the Keadby or Gunness wharves.
  6. Further upriver than that, Alan. The boundary line for ABP's jurisdiction is the South side of Gainsborough Road Bridge, although I don't know of anyone ever being prosecuted under that Byelaw in the 27 years since it came into force, and I wish I had a quid for every occasion I've offended against it. The corresponding boundary line for the Ouse is 100 yards lowside of Hook (Goole) Railway Bridge. ABP did briefly display some signs that they might consider taking action against offenders in 2015, after C&RT sent a single manned narrowboat on it's way out of Naburn Lock for Selby on a big Spring ebb and with 4'-5' of fresh coming down. The poor sod in charge of it was nearly decapitated as his boat ran Cawood Bridge, clearing it only by a matter of inches. He was then unable to round-up to get into Selby Lock due to the rate of the ebb, and was carried downriver to end up grounded and dried out on the big sandbank between Boothferry and Hospital Island. Had he not ended up there and had been carried down on past Howden and under Hook Bridge into ABP's waters then they may well have taken some action.
  7. Yes, . . . and in fact C&RT do not, and cannot, issue any such thing, . . . they have no powers so to do. What they do pass off as a 'Rivers only Licence' is in truth a Pleasure Boat Certificate [PBC], formerly known in BWB days as a 'River Registration'.
  8. Up until sometime in, from memory, the mid 1980's, there was a two storey (standby generator and all hydraulic pumps in the downstairs) control tower at Nether identical to the one still at Town Lock. It stood on the other side of the lock, directly opposite the garden shed job that's there now, and was quite a bit closer to the edge of the lockside. When standing in the tower there was a clear view of anything passing through the bottom gates. Having made the somewhat strange decision to dispense with the original control tower and substituting the shed, I'm fairly sure that BW installed a biggish convex mirror on a post by the top gates making it possible to see between the bottom gates and down into the chamber from it - is it still there ?
  9. Apart from the possibility of some modifications to the rails forard of the wheelhouse, I would expect a substantially built craft such as that to survive a squeeze with the sort of force the relatively feeble hydraulics now fitted to the Trent locks can exert, Alan. However, it would be a very different story should the same treatment be applied to something like a lightly constructed, GRP canal/river cruiser.
  10. The "real danger", as you put it, in a strong, steel built boat getting 'nipped' between the gates would be unlikely to be to the boat itself but would/could well be manifested in the form of psychological damage to those onboard. Gates, and particularly gates of a size such as those on the lower Trent locks, closing onto and trapping a boat must rank among the most terrifying experiences that anyone aboard that pleasure boat could be subjected to, and could for that alone have serious and lasting consequences. Yet more "real danger", likely to result in structural damage, would/could arise if the trapped boat happened to be one of the many flimsily constructed GRP vessels now frequenting our waterways.
  11. Your assumption is incorrect. The hydraulics currently fitted to the lower Trent locks are in fact rather feeble in comparison with the Vickers equipment that was installed when the locks first began to be converted from hand operation and mechanized in the late fifties and early sixties. Not only are the maximum operating pressure relief valves set at lower values than the Vickers systems, and the rams of a smaller diameter, but as the gates swing toward the fully closed position the horizontal angle between the gate and the centre axis of the rams decreases significantly, reducing the operating lever (rotating moment, or 'pushing' force) on both the gates. The old Vickers hydraulics would open the gates against a 6 - 9 inch difference in water levels - the stuff that's fitted nowadays only barely copes with the water levels equalized ! As for sacking the lad who was on duty at the time of this incident - not only would such a course of action be unnecessarily harsh, but it would also be somewhat negative and counter productive. Whoever was taken on and/or trained to replace this young man would NOT have the benefit of first hand experience of an incident such as this - something which you can be sure that he will not ever wish to repeat. Unnerving as the incident would have been for Alan, it will have had the positive effect of making the instigator of it that much more careful to ensure that it never happens again. Nb. There is no "River Licence" - the Public Right of Navigation [PRN] on all of the C&RT controlled river navigations precludes the need for any such thing. The meaningless piece of paper that C&RT misrepresent and sell to boaters as a 'Rivers only Licence', is in fact simply a certificate of registration.
  12. Thanks, Alan, but it might turn out to be only a very brief and illusory return ! Tony Dunkley - with a space separating christian and surname - is in fact still ''banned'' from posting on, or even viewing, this Forum. The new member who replied to your thread earlier is a completely different TonyDunkley - with no space separating christian name and surname.
  13. Your best method for reporting this would be direct contact with the Waterway Manager at Newark, Alan. If you call C&RT's switchboard and ask to be put through to Sean McGinley you will find yourself talking to a real rarity amongst C&RT management, . . an intelligent, conscientious, helpful and thoroughly decent man who will deal with the matter in the best possible and positive manner, including appropriate and fair treatment for the lad who was on duty at the time. This is not the first time a pleasure boat has just escaped being 'nipped' in the bottom gates at Nether Lock. I recall in late Summer of 1962 a relief lock keeper called Billy Barker in a hurry to turn the lock round for the next downgate traffic (BWB's 'Frank Rayner' with two dumbs on), forgetting that there was a pleasure boat sharing the lock with 'Bilsdale, one of Harker's petrol boats returning light from Colwick to Hull, and closing the gates on the pleasure boat as it followed the tanker out of the lock.
  14. Does the smoke persist when the engine is up to full working temperature, and have you taken it out for a good, longish run, or are you just running it up in neutral ? There are several things you really should check for before condemning the injectors, . . such as, the cleanliness and condition of the fuel supply and filters, and the 'Thermostart' fuel valve for leaks, correct engine operating temperature, sticking valves and/or incorrectly adjusted valve clearances, and alignment of injection pump timing marks.
  15. The white smoke is mostly vaporized, but unburnt, fuel with possibly some steam in the mix as well, and we need a bit more info. for a diagnosis of the likely cause of it. Is it, or has it recently become more difficult to start? Does it lose/use coolant? Is it running on all four cylinders throughout the governed speed range?
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