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Harecastle Tunnel


archie57

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3 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

They were having an adventure. Much more character building than vegging  out in front of the telly, or playing games on a console. Sometimes adventures go wrong. They won't make a mistake on their call out time again, so have learnt something. No one hurt. The local HART crew get some exercise. OK, officially they shouldn't have been there. The same goes for most urban exploration sites, which can be fascinating places to see. A victimless naughty act.

 

I'm involved with a cave rescue team. The media always want a condemnation quote from us when someone gets rescued to spice up the article and give their readers a self rightousness fix. They never get it. Happy to help when things go wrong. You'll note that there was no such condemnatory quotes from the services involved in the Sentinel articles. Just factual stuff.

 

Jen

Stop being sensible and understanding, it limits the rant potential  :)

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34 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

It won't happen again.

Harecastle now only available 4 days a week for 4 hours by appointment only.

Another of C&RT's close downs. Disgusting.

How long before we have no canals in the UK?

I wonder what lame excuse they will use for this latest "restriction"?

I would imagine there isn't much demand at the moment, Maybe it would be better to have two men sitting there for 8 hours a day just in case a boat turns up

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After reading the second article, to be honest I don't think they did anything heinousy wrong. No, they shouldn't have been in the tunnel at midnight, but life without adventure would be deadfully boring. They took sensible precautions, arranged a check-in system with their mates, and their mates did the right thing and called the emergency services when they failed to check in. A massive inconvenience to all who attended - but no different from SAR action being triggered for aircraft who forget to close their flight plan or solo walkers who forget to call their friend when they get to the pub. Better this way round than three dead corpses being discovered in the morning...

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54 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

.... Harecastle now only available 4 days a week for 4 hours by appointment only. Another of C&RT's close downs. Disgusting. ..I wonder what lame excuse they will use for this latest "restriction"?

37 minutes ago, Rumsky said:

Because the canals have only just been reopened after lockdown and aren't yet back to full operational capacity? ...

The accursed virus has reduced the available people to monitor the tunnel, (and to do lots of other thing)s. As I understand it, all volunteers have been stood down for the moment. Currently only liveaboards are allowed on boats overnight, so demand for the tunnel is likely to be reduced. The question for C&RT management is how the canals will be returning to normality - or what will serve for normality for this year.

 

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Got some more info about this incident from Derek one of the tunnel keepers. The idiot with the Kayak has been caught before trying to enter the tunnel after being told not to and got a warning about his behaviour, He and his mates will be getting a visit from CaRT for a mega  b*ll*cking. Sounds like a "it doesn't apply to me" type of idiot.

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  • 3 months later...
On 04/06/2020 at 18:01, Alway Swilby said:

Maybe they went in at the north end where there is only a car park type barrier and paddled all the way to the south end to be confronted by the closed door. Perhaps then the kayak was to long to then turn round. Or maybe they just thought the the rule about not going in the tunnel in un-powered craft didn't apply to them. A bit like covid-19 rules don't apply to everyone either!

We are moored at the south end at the moment, first in the queue for the morning and the doors are wide open but there is a floating barrier and a swing barrier

smallDSCF4367.jpg

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5 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Isn't that the end they went in, its where the rescue services we in according to the original report on here

 

I think you have misunderstood Brian.  The rescue boat is locked in one end of the tunnel mouth every night to stop the local youths playing with it.  

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  • 4 months later...

The Harecastle Tunnel is currently closed as its rescue craft is in need of attention, and no boats may pass thru the tunnel unless such a craft is in attendance. The rescue boat (which looks very scrappy and uncared for) is being repaired by Stoke Boats of Longport. The problem has been fixed and the boat is being blacked up ready for relaunching, but despite a surveyor having condemned the boat as having a paper-thin base plate, the CRT have apparently refused to take the opportunity for a new base plate! Goodness knows what will happen if the rescue boat should spring a leak and sink while in the middle of the tunnel!

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12 minutes ago, Trevor Lyons said:

The Harecastle Tunnel is currently closed as its rescue craft is in need of attention, and no boats may pass thru the tunnel unless such a craft is in attendance. The rescue boat (which looks very scrappy and uncared for) is being repaired by Stoke Boats of Longport. The problem has been fixed and the boat is being blacked up ready for relaunching, but despite a surveyor having condemned the boat as having a paper-thin base plate, the CRT have apparently refused to take the opportunity for a new base plate! Goodness knows what will happen if the rescue boat should spring a leak and sink while in the middle of the tunnel!

A well trained effective rescue team will leap into action and rescue the crew.

After the fire service has done its work, C&RT will take a minimum of 6 weeks to remove the sunken hull.

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6 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

A well trained effective rescue team will leap into action and rescue the crew.

After the fire service has done its work, C&RT will take a minimum of 6 weeks to remove the sunken hull.

The tunnel will then be closed to all traffic (there being no rescue boat) for three years while they commission a new one.

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I have just re-read the newspaper report and note that it was penned by "Matt Simpson" who is described as "Senior Live Reporter" - an interesting job title . . .

 

One has to wonder if the role means that he only reports on persons over a certain age that are still living or if this branch of the media also employ dead reporters which, I guess would be less expensive - unless they need to factor in preservation costs . . .

 
  • Haha 1
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