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Showing results for tags 'scaff board'.
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The recent tragedy in the dry dock in Salford has got me thinking about planks. I have two friends (both fit, working age, experienced boaters) who have injured themselves quite badly falling between their boats and the bank, one badly twisted her knee and the other broke a couple of ribs. I have thought for a long time that the old scaff board, which appears to be pretty much narrowboaters standard, is really a bit inadequate, especially taking into account the time and money people invest in getting other aspects of their boats "just so". I have a 6 foot plank made out of two old scaff boards covered with chicken wire which I use when on canal, but when we first moved onto our river mooring we were just using a single 13 foot scaff board. That was until the floods last year, at the point when the river was almost the same height as the bank (so the plank was supported only at the very ends, one on the gunwhale one on the ground) it snapped while my girlfriend was crossing it. Thankfully this happened when she was over the ground as opposed to the gap between the boat and the bank so she just landed on her feet on the ground, but I shudder to think what would have happened if she had been over the water at the time. I have since build a much more sturdy 10 foot plank, which is not only two boards wide but also has a third board down the middle underneath as reinforcement. I have also put chocks (for want of a better word) on it that prevent it slipping off the gunwhale and have a (removable) paving slab at the bank end to prevent it floating when the land floods (caused some problems last year). Also, for anyone that's interested, I've had great success fixing bits of tread cut from old mountain bike tyres to the underside of both planks with fencing staples, the knobbles on the tyres are deep enough that the staples can't scratch the paint. I know it doesn't look like it matters in the picture but please bear in mind that that is Pheobe's bad side, her other side is much smarter. So what do others use?
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