Jump to content

The Best Volockies


Captain Pegg

Featured Posts

Ascending Cape top lock today I was informed by a hirer waiting to descend that there were six volockies on Hatton today. However other than one that passed me on his way home and didn’t offer any assistance I didn’t see one of them on ascending the flight between 1415 and 1815.

 

Luckily though I did meet a family on a half term holiday enjoying an afternoon walk along the canal after a visit to Edgehill and a pub lunch. I encountered them a couple of locks or so below half way and they assisted me up to the bridge by the Hatton offices where the visitor car park is. The two young lads were so keen to open up ahead and close up behind, leaving the paddles to me. It meant I only had to do the last four in darkness rather than at least twice that number.
 

That’s perfect volunteer lock working, lots of enthusiasm to help and not a windlass between them. Made my day, particularly as of the 35 wide locks I worked single handed today, I shared not a single one with another boat.

 

JP

 

 

Edited by Captain Pegg
  • Greenie 2
  • Horror 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, matty40s said:

I knew you had it in you, cant believe you didnt attempt Lapworth as well...

 

Had to catch up. Was slow going after leaving Stowe Hill because, well, Buckby always is. Then on Sunday morning I got roped into helping a guy hand start his ‘Lister’ that turned out to be an immaculate air cooled Petter twin that was basically the value of the boat. In turn I roped Steve Priest - who happened to be moored between us - into helping on the basis he would know what he was doing. Then I had to help the same guy through Braunston tunnel because he had no head light - and dropped both his hand torch and his glasses in the cut - and then down Braunston locks. Then later in the day the engine went ‘clunk’ below Calcutt locks and started smoking profusely. Well known engine man with too many middle names (formerly??) of this forum met me at Warwickshire Fly yesterday and declared it was only amateur smoke and it was fit to continue until proper investigations could take place.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Had to catch up. Was slow going after leaving Stowe Hill because, well, Buckby always is. Then on Sunday morning I got roped into helping a guy hand start his ‘Lister’ that turned out to be an immaculate air cooled Petter twin that was basically the value of the boat. In turn I roped Steve Priest - who happened to be moored between us - into helping on the basis he would know what he was doing. Then I had to help the same guy through Braunston tunnel because he had no head light - and dropped both his hand torch and his glasses in the cut - and then down Braunston locks. Then later in the day the engine went ‘clunk’ below Calcutt locks and started smoking profusely. Well known engine man with too many middle names (formerly??) of this forum met me at Warwickshire Fly yesterday and declared it was only amateur smoke and it was fit to continue until proper investigations could take place.

I think we were moored just behind that guy on Saturday night/Sunday morning when you came to his rescue. He'd just bought the boat with 5 friends as a project - they were meant to be moving it towards Bath but his mates had dropped out one by one leaving him solo having never driven a boat and an engine he couldn't start - he wasn't loving the boating life at the time!

He was certainly pleased to meet you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, cornishdave said:

I think we were moored just behind that guy on Saturday night/Sunday morning when you came to his rescue. He'd just bought the boat with 5 friends as a project - they were meant to be moving it towards Bath but his mates had dropped out one by one leaving him solo having never driven a boat and an engine he couldn't start - he wasn't loving the boating life at the time!

He was certainly pleased to meet you

Aha, yes, we had a brief chat after the engine finally started.

I got a slightly different story; that he was moving it for a friend who had bought it but had then had a car crash and was unable to move it. He did say a couple of things that didn’t quite ring true with that story. Your version is more plausible but I did get the feeling that maybe he was the owner himself. I wonder if he’d been told he’d get a hard time off folk if he admitted he was planning to be a K&A liveaboard. Anyway for my troubles I got bought a huge bacon and egg baguette and mug of tea at the Gongoozlers Rest cafe boat at Braunston.


The ABC hire boat that sank in Buckby locks was moored overnight at the end of our line of boats immediately through the bridge hole. I was surprised how early they had set off, particularly as they didn’t head for Braunston. I knew they had wanted to go through the tunnel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Had to catch up. Was slow going after leaving Stowe Hill because, well, Buckby always is. Then on Sunday morning I got roped into helping a guy hand start his ‘Lister’ that turned out to be an immaculate air cooled Petter twin that was basically the value of the boat. 

Wondered how he would get on the next day when the engine was cold again. 

Got flagged down as I was passing him just past Gayton (Saturday morning) and started it for the chap. Told me he had bought the boat the night before, basically for the engine and was on his way to Bath so presume it was same chap.

 

Edited by PaulJ
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, PaulJ said:

Wondered how he would get on the next day when the engine was cold again. 

Got flagged down as I was passing him just past Gayton (Saturday morning) and started it for the chap. Told me he had bought the boat the night before, basically for the engine and was on his way to Bath so presume it was same chap.

 

Definitely the same fella. Told me he’d come from the Nene. You don’t think he’d nicked it do you? ?

 

Steve Priest (of Brinklow Boats) watched him turn the starting handle while I did the decompressors in the direction suggested. It didn’t fire first time but Steve thought he detected something when I returned the decompression lever to vertical and slightly over centred it.

 

Hence next time we tried the other way - toward the fuel pumps - and it fired easily. That’s the opposite way to the levers sit on my Petter to be fair though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Definitely the same fella. Told me he’d come from the Nene. You don’t think he’d nicked it do you? ?

 

Steve Priest (of Brinklow Boats) watched him turn the starting handle while I did the decompressors in the direction suggested. It didn’t fire first time but Steve thought he detected something when I returned the decompression lever to vertical and slightly over centred it.

 

Hence next time we tried the other way - toward the fuel pumps - and it fired easily. That’s the opposite way to the levers sit on my Petter to be fair though.

Thats what I noticed- decompresser lever seemed a bit fussy in its position though it ran and started easily on one if put in the right position. Loved the 'remote' hand start.

Hope it wasnt nicked ?- he did say the old owner was with him night before showing him how to start it  (he had videoded it on his phone but that still didnt help) 

Nice fella anyhow with a great sense of humour considering he was knackered and still had a boat he couldnt start. Was so grateful Id started it he threatened 'he could kiss me'.

Told him if he did I would switch the engine back off and refuse to start it again ?

 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.