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Fantastic Volockies


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12 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Very good. This is what volockies should be doing, not forcing themselves on people who would prefer to DIY.

 

 

^^^^This^^^^

 

Good on them!

 

 

They should also be doing a bit of what the Thames lockies did. Some gardening, mowing the grass, digging the borders and planting seasonal flowers, keeping the black and white paintwork well maintained and the place looking generally spick and span.  

 

That is honestly what I imagined they would be doing when I first heard of the plan for volunteer lock keepers. Keep the locks neat and tidy.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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16 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I had a really pleasant pair at Bosley last week. Same problem, my back was giving my gyp but I had to get down. One closed the gates for me and ran me down while the other walked on and set the next lock. Great help. 

Yes they’re good

helped me down a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Don’t forget volunteer season on the locks ends this weekend. 

 

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1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

Exactly what I reckon they should do, become a volunteer service you can request rather than imposed on boaters.

Absolutely, and I could never consider it’s truly a service for boaters unless it worked on that basis.

 

I happened to arrive at the bottom of the Tardebigge flight this morning about two minutes before the volockies mentioned above. In my case I’d just completed a single handed downhill transit that began at 1400 yesterday and involved filling all but 3 or 4 of the locks from empty and the only volockie I saw was one cycling home along the towpath having finished at about the same time I arrived yesterday.

 

Back in August when I headed out I had good help by a couple of volockies from around halfway to the second from top lock. Interestingly one of them chose to volunteer at Tardebigge despite living in Warwick because he felt the Hatton volockies - where he’d previously worked - had got too big for their boots. The Tardebigge volunteers are much improved - my first experiences of them were painful - but it’s still too random to be relied upon by those who want assistance.

 

I’ve just completed a six day journey comprising 102 locks - 77 of them single handed - and I’ve been given help on precisely 5 of them, the upper flight at Atherstone when I had assistance with me anyway. That’s about the same number as I’ve had help from actual CRT employees and from gongoozlers and way less than from other boaters, hirers and private.

 

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
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55 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I had a really pleasant pair at Bosley last week. Same problem, my back was giving my gyp but I had to get down. One closed the gates for me and ran me down while the other walked on and set the next lock. Great help. 

None there when I went up single handed a few weeks ago, on a Sunday. Its a hard flight on your own, with no lock landings below the lock, very shallow water with rocks at most of the marked lock moorings, footbridges below the locks making it difficult to bowhaul in, twin top gates to open and close. I could have done with some help!

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13 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I had a really pleasant pair at Bosley last week. Same problem, my back was giving my gyp but I had to get down. One closed the gates for me and ran me down while the other walked on and set the next lock. Great help. 

 

Yes, they have much improved at Bosley since the early days, when they didn't stray from the top lock.

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12 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

I’ve just completed a six day journey comprising 102 locks - 77 of them single handed

 

Your choice, your responsibility. I can't see any cause for complaint. 

12 hours ago, David Mack said:

None there when I went up single handed a few weeks ago, on a Sunday. Its a hard flight on your own  ....  I could have done with some help!

 

Your choice, your responsibility. I can't see any cause for complaint.

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7 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Your choice, your responsibility. I can't see any cause for complaint. 

Of course. I’d be happy if there were no volockies anywhere.
 

It’s the fact that they do exist but are too random to be by relied upon by those who want that I was pointing out.

 

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
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12 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

< snip > because he felt the Hatton volockies - where he’d previously worked - had got too big for their boots. < snip >

On the other hand I had a very positive experience there the other week.

 

I was single handing but sharing with another boat.

What started as the usual chat at the bottom lock had turned, by Lock 5, into a full and frank exchange of opinion, culminating with him shouting "And I suppose you want to stay in the EU"

Well, I thought, the flag on the back of the boat might be a bit of a giveaway.

"You go on alone" he shouted "We're tying up here"

 

My heart sank at the prospect of working the rest of the flight solo.

I worked the next lock by myself but at the one after that a vlockie appeared and he stayed with me all the way up, setting ahead and working the lock exactly as I would have.

 

Top man!

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9 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

On the other hand I had a very positive experience there the other week.

 

I was single handing but sharing with another boat.

What started as the usual chat at the bottom lock had turned, by Lock 5, into a full and frank exchange of opinion, culminating with him shouting "And I suppose you want to stay in the EU"

Well, I thought, the flag on the back of the boat might be a bit of a giveaway.

"You go on alone" he shouted "We're tying up here"

 

My heart sank at the prospect of working the rest of the flight solo.

I worked the next lock by myself but at the one after that a vlockie appeared and he stayed with me all the way up, setting ahead and working the lock exactly as I would have.

 

Top man!

I don’t recall seeing a volockie at Hatton in any of my three recent transits.

 

Sometimes you’ve just got to keep your views to yourself ??

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As a single handed boater I’m more than happy to do everything myself . If I get any help I see that as a bonus .

I certainly don’t expect volockies  at every flight to be there at my beck and call.

But on this occasion I was in dire need of their help. And I was very grateful for it. I can’t praise the lads who helped me highly enough . 

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1 hour ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Yes, that was my point. Why should anyone expect to rely on the attendance of a volocky, least of all a single-hander?

Because the scheme exists and is funded by boat licence payers and the taxpayer. To me therefore it follows that it should provide a defined and useful service for which there is a demand. As it operates currently it seems the benefits from CRTs perspective are principally for their own political ends.

 

My reference to single handing isn’t actually relevant so we can ignore that bit. The fact was to encounter volockies at just 5 of 102 locks during half term holiday week on canals heavily used by hire boaters shows the random nature of the operation of the scheme.

 

On balance I’d be for scrapping the scheme rather than perpetuating the current arrangements or even worse putting volunteers on even more flights than currently have them which is where I suspect it’s going.

 

If it were a properly organised scheme I might on occasion have reason to make use of it. Why shouldn’t I? That doesn’t mean I believe I should have any expectation of help whether single handed or otherwise under the current arrangements.

 

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
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2 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Yes, that was my point. Why should anyone expect to rely on the attendance of a volocky, least of all a single-hander?

 

Because the supporters of the scheme and CRT are constantly telling us boaters that we should be grateful for their "help"?

 

 

 

 

When in actual fact they are no help at all, except on rare occasions like the OP's. 

 

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Because the supporters of the scheme and CRT are constantly telling us boaters that we should be grateful for their "help"?

When in actual fact they are no help at all, except on rare occasions like the OP's. 

 

I'm afraid, as an old fart with a dodgy back and now a dodgy hip and knee to go with it,  I am always grateful for their help.  And I've never actually run into any of the unhelpful and dogmatic sort.  But, as a more or less constant singlehander, I certainly don't rely on them, or anyone else, and when it gets to the stage that i can't physically do it myself, I'll have to pack it in.  But in the meantime, I'm afraid I'm always happy to see their cheery faces appearing by a lock, and  happy to be told I can stay on the boat while they do all the work - though I always offer to shin up a ladder or get off the boat and do it myself.  And, going down, I get off and help close gates behind me as I go in (especially at Bosley) and wind a paddle up before jumping back on.

The whole point of singlehanding is that you do rely on yourself.  Doesn't mean most of us don't appreciate a rest occasionally.  Some don't, and that's fine too, and the lockies are learning that as well.

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18 hours ago, Keeping Up said:

Last month a vollie at Hillmorton explained to me at length how the locks there had been duplicated so that one set could be used for boats going up and the other for boats going down, so as to eliminate the need for boats to cross over when they met. Hence I invented the word Vollocks!)

Not totally vollocks. The chambers are linked [but have been disused since forever] and, back in the day, were used to transfer water between them, saving 50% volume per movement.  But I wouldn't expect all vollies to know or understand that.

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5 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

I don’t recall seeing a volockie at Hatton in any of my three recent transits.

 

Sometimes you’ve just got to keep your views to yourself ??

We had one back in July; we were working down with a hire boat and said volockie was lock wheeling ahead.  All went well until the hire boat stopped for lunch below ugly bridge and the lock wheeler went back up the flight.  We singled the spaced out last 5?

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2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Because the scheme exists and is funded by boat licence payers and the taxpayer. To me therefore it follows that it should provide a defined and useful service for which there is a demand. As it operates currently it seems the benefits from CRTs perspective are principally for their own political ends.

 

My reference to single handing isn’t actually relevant so we can ignore that bit. The fact was to encounter volockies at just 5 of 102 locks during half term holiday week on canals heavily used by hire boaters shows the random nature of the operation of the scheme.

 

On balance I’d be for scrapping the scheme rather than perpetuating the current arrangements or even worse putting volunteers on even more flights than currently have them which is where I suspect it’s going.

 

If it were a properly organised scheme I might on occasion have reason to make use of it. Why shouldn’t I? That doesn’t mean I believe I should have any expectation of help whether single handed or otherwise under the current arrangements.

 

JP

I’d be quite happy for the scheme to be scrapped, after all it is a pretty new invention and we coped fine for decades (well, centuries really) without it. It does create an element of dumbing down - for example when we were waiting to go up Stenson, a wide beam came down with half a dozen people on it - they just remained on the boat whilst the volockies worked them through. Perhaps I am old fashioned but there doesn’t seem much point in boating if someone else is going to do everything!

 

But then we have Arthur and others who welcome them. I suppose we need to reflect their views and wishes too.

 

the other point is that of course the volockies don’t exist just to lock boats through, nor even to paint fences etc, they are also their to represent CRT to the general public. Raising awareness of who CRT are and what they do us, as I understand it, a requirement of the government funding package.

 

Mind you, with some of the volockies being pretty taciturn and lacking any sort of inter personal skills, one has to wonder how effective that is. For balance, obviously some volockies are great CRT ambassadors. That’s the trouble, there is no consistency.

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7 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Mind you, with some of the volockies being pretty taciturn and lacking any sort of inter personal skills, one has to wonder how effective that is. For balance, obviously some volockies are great CRT ambassadors. That’s the trouble, there is no consistency.

 

Its an interesting point. I get the impression that absolutely anyone applying is gratefully accepted by CRT as a volly and duly dispatched onto the training course, then let loose on the general boating public. 

 

CRT would do better to screen people for good interpersonal skills as an initial qualifier in my opinion. Even if this meant fewer Voillies, a higher standard of volleying would result. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, rustynewbery said:

Not totally vollocks. The chambers are linked [but have been disused since forever] and, back in the day, were used to transfer water between them, saving 50% volume per movement.  But I wouldn't expect all vollies to know or understand that.

Absolutely true, although if that had been the principal reason for creating them it would have been cheaper and more effective simply to have built 3 side ponds.

 

If CRT were genuinely anxious to save water they would restore those paddles to full operation - although I guess they'd have to restrict their operation to collies only because most boaters wouldn't understand how to use them.

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