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Hatton flight


umpire111

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11 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Hang around at the bottom and wait for a Kates Boats?

You will probably not get one on a Tuesday!

 

If you are on your own just use the gates and paddles on the towpath side.  We find that most of the time it is easier on your own to be honest, too many don’t pull their weight.

  • Greenie 4
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7 minutes ago, umpire111 said:

When came past them all boats moored up and premises closed

 

According to the availability checker on their web site they opened on the 16th April, was it before that?

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12 minutes ago, BWM said:

The volunteers on the flight are very helpful and attentive, so i wouldn't worry if you end up on your own.

But you may have done most of the flight of going up before finding one as they tend to hang around the top by the welcome station.

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2 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

But you may have done most of the flight of going up before finding one as they tend to hang around the top by the welcome station.

My experience has been that if more than one is available (most of the time), one stays at either end of the flight. They have a tea room at the bottom too.

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1 hour ago, BWM said:

The volunteers on the flight are very helpful and attentive, so i wouldn't worry if you end up on your own.

A very different experience to ours.  Only ever seen them near the top of the flight, and even then they are not very interested in helping much.

 

1 hour ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

According to the availability checker on their web site they opened on the 16th April, was it before that?

Generally the Warwick base is weekly hire, with Friday and Saturday turnaround I think. A short break from Warwick does not make sense, their short break boats go from the Stockton base.  So any boats from Kate in Warwick this week will be well up the flight by now.

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Reminds me of the time on our share boat about to do Hatton for the first time. We moored overnight at the top of the flight and next morning we waited a couple of hours for a lock buddie but no boats came. So we resigned ourselves to doing the flight alone. Just as we were entering the top lock we spotted an ABC hireboat heading our way. On board were six burley firefighters on their annual canal boat holiday. We wizzed down the flight in about 2 hours.

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Our very first experience with locks were the Hatton flight!  We hired a boat out of Kates Boats for the week and did the Warwick ring clockwise in 2017. We met a lovely chap sat at the bottom of the flight waiting a few days for his friends to help him with the flight. He agreed to help us if we took him up, He was a solo boater and we had two strapping lads on lock duty! He gave us so much advice and was lovely to us - gave us so much more info than the frankly useless tuition by a chap from Kate Boats.

 

Never really knew his name but we seem in hindsight to think he may have been called Keith for some reason?  His boat was grey and i don't recall a name on it, Would be lovely to know if he really was called Keith - anyone recognise the boat (on the left below??). He said we were a bit of a shambles, but by the time we reached the top we looked quite professional!

 

 

keith.jpg

Edited by robtheplod
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Our first encounter with Hatton was in 1969, on a Wyvern Shipping hire-boat. After climbing 19 of them we found there was a stoppage because of a broken paddle so we had to turn around and go all the way back down again!

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I’ve been through Hatton in one direction or the other for each of the past four years and can’t recall getting any assistance from volockies. The most recent transit was last October starting at 1400 going uphill and they were long gone before I got to the thick of the flight.

 

A couple of years ago I was ascending Tardebigge with two good volockies assisting and one of them happened to mention he was from Warwick and originally volunteered at Hatton but choose to go further afield because he thought they were somewhat up themselves at Hatton.

Edited by Captain Pegg
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Going up or down Hatton with another boat, I find the best way is to rope the two boats together then you only need one steerer and it's quicker between locks. Same at Stockton.

Some folk worry about it until they try it.

Can't do that on Caen Hill on the K&A though as the gates are too narrow.

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6 hours ago, dixi188 said:

Going up or down Hatton with another boat, I find the best way is to rope the two boats together then you only need one steerer and it's quicker between locks. Same at Stockton.

Some folk worry about it until they try it.

Can't do that on Caen Hill on the K&A though as the gates are too narrow.

??

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8 hours ago, matty40s said:

There is one lock half way down that is too narrow for 2 boats to enter, descend and exit together.

Thats what the Volockie told me, but I forgot which one he said and with a hire boat alongside did the lot

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