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Hire Boats have priority!!!


matty40s

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12 hours ago, nicknorman said:

However, the threatened “act of vandalism” resulted in the volockie backing down, which goes to show that he knew perfectly well he was on dodgy ground and making it up.

This is the point really. With amateur volockies, some are great and some are on a power trip, and typically incompetent with it. It is just pot luck which sort you get. It shouldn’t be like that!

I agree. Tis much like councilors or commitee members etc etc. They are often nosey jobsworths. Often I find the people who want to be in such positions are precisely the ones who shouldnt be!!

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14 hours ago, matty40s said:

... There is no difference to a family having 2 weeks off on holiday who have to get back to their marina on their own boat and go home back to work than a family having 2 weeks on a hire boat and having to get back....

Agreed. What's needed is a bit of common sense: ideally volockies would talk to everyone in the queue and ascertain if they have any sort of deadline that would be in jeopardy if they don't get through today.  Some hire boats may need a quick passage; but others may have time to spare to get back to base. Working boats may or may not need to get through today.  CCers may be happy to moor up overnight. ... 

 

But then of course they might have to ask some boaters to let others 'overtake' in the queue.  I suspect that some have found that trying that only brings them further grief, so they find it easier to invent a simple rule that probably  works for 90% of the time.

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1 hour ago, Cheese said:

Agreed. What's needed is a bit of common sense: ideally volockies would talk to everyone in the queue and ascertain if they have any sort of deadline that would be in jeopardy if they don't get through today.  Some hire boats may need a quick passage; but others may have time to spare to get back to base. Working boats may or may not need to get through today.  CCers may be happy to moor up overnight. ... 

 

But then of course they might have to ask some boaters to let others 'overtake' in the queue.  I suspect that some have found that trying that only brings them further grief, so they find it easier to invent a simple rule that probably  works for 90% of the time.

 

The only time I have experienced that was many years ago when I was at the back of the queue waiting to go through Thames Lock at Brentford. The Lock Keeper walked up the queue speaking to every boat until he reached me. Apparently there was a single boat at the head of the queue, but all the waiting boats wanted to go through in their pre-arranged pairs, so I was invited to the front of the queue to accompany the other single boat to wait for the lock to be opened. I reckon that probably saved me a couple of hours waiting, and the incoming tide helped push me up the Tames to Teddington.

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I can't comment on velockies as I've hardly met any on the L&L. 

I'm appalled if hire boats were given priority at Bank Newton... think they would have found it hard to give them priority with my boat blocking the lock entrance. 

 

I'd have hoped some common sense and negotiation would have taken place. We'd have probably been happy to Moor up for day or so if talked to but less likely to respond positively if facing an unjustifiable hireboat have priority bugger everyone else situation...

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1 hour ago, David Schweizer said:

 

The only time I have experienced that was many years ago when I was at the back of the queue waiting to go through Thames Lock at Brentford. The Lock Keeper walked up the queue speaking to every boat until he reached me. Apparently there was a single boat at the head of the queue, but all the waiting boats wanted to go through in their pre-arranged pairs, so I was invited to the front of the queue to accompany the other single boat to wait for the lock to be opened. I reckon that probably saved me a couple of hours waiting, and the incoming tide helped push me up the Tames to Teddington.

We had it when we took NC to the Caledonian. There was a large queue of hire boats, commercial boats and private boats waiting to go through the flight at Fort Augustus. We had told the lockies that we were quite happy to wait until the next morning when all of the boats had gone through and settled on the boat doing a bit of boat and people watching. The queue of boats grew every larger and we got a knock on the boat to say they could squeeze us in at the back of the lock as they had a nice NC sized gap next to a hotel boat and behind a couple of other hire boats.

 

This caused uproar with the boats that had been in the queue in front of us as we had "queue jumped" They didn't seem to appreciate that we could fit in the gap and they couldn't :rolleyes:

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See 11.2 of the latest licence T&Cs https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/refresh/media/original/43839-general-terms-and-conditions-for-boat-licenses-june-2021.pdf

 

This has changed slightly from the clause in the old version https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/5962.pdf  page 24

 

This is not something that CRT have slipped in, see the 2008 version https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/3054.pdf page 23

 

IMG_0700.PNG

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A few years ago I was going up Hatton, both of us in out late 60's and boss with a half working arm. Two vollies walked down past us and said they would help us. No they helped a hire boat who had 4 able bodies people, the kids being about 17 or 18. We stopped at the top and asked why? to be told they had to prioratise helping hire boat who didn't know what to do. Speaking to the crew of the other boat in the pub that evening, they had been hiring twice a year for twenty years, with a few years off when the kids were babies. They had done more locks and miles by a long way, so much for not knowing what to do.

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If you find yourself gridlocked when driving to work, I suggest you get out your car and walk to the head of the queue.

Upon arrival announce you are in a Hertz Renta Car and fully intend to to drive up the outside and assume your rightful place as the next in line.

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Wasn't it Adrian who campaigned for a system where the more you paid the higher up the lock queue you should go, if you paid enough then you never had to queue at locks. If you ran on the cheap you could wait a couple of days at Watford.

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12 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Wasn't it Adrian who campaigned for a system where the more you paid the higher up the lock queue you should go, if you paid enough then you never had to queue at locks. If you ran on the cheap you could wait a couple of days at Watford.

 

Adrian?

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On 14/06/2021 at 09:04, Big Bob W said:

I agree.

Frustrates me when you look at the boat at the front of the queue and no-one from it at the lockside.  

I frequently lose my partner as she disappears up the flight with her windless!  

Could someone please explain to me why it is usually the women doing the hard work and the men just cruising in and out of the locks ? ! ?

I have never understood it at all. My wife pilots the boat in usually ever since she was pregnant and we thought it inadvisable for her to be exerting herself too much, it was that trip which gave her the confidence. She's very good at it too, in some ways better than me because she has more patience.

We just had a week on the Oxford and there were some gates and paddles (esp the top paddles) which I, as a 6ft 11 stone bloke, was really struggling with even with my "4 hole windlass". How women are expected to shift them I do not know. The worst was Somerton deep lock but there were others including some where the top gate was leaking so much water through that it was making it difficult to open the bottom gates even with the paddles open....

Edited by Justin Smith
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12 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

Could someone please explain to me why it is usually the women doing the hard work and the men just cruising in and out of the locks ? ! ?

I have never understood it at all. My wife pilots the boat in usually ever since she was pregnant and we thought it inadvisable for her to be exerting herself too much, it was that trip which gave her the confidence. She's very good at it too, in some ways better than me because she has more patience.

We just had a week on the Oxford and there were some gates and paddles (esp the top paddles) which I, as a 6ft 11 stone bloke, was really struggling with even with my "4 hole windlass". How women are expected to shift them I do not know. The worst was Somerton deep lock but there were others including some where the top gate was leaking so much water through that it was making it difficult to open the bottom gates even with the paddles open....

The most obvious two reasons are that the woman can't or won't drive the boat or the man won't let her. I've seen numerous examples of both.

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14 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

Could someone please explain to me why it is usually the women doing the hard work and the men just cruising in and out of the locks ? ! ?

I have never understood it at all. My wife pilots the boat in usually ever since she was pregnant and we thought it inadvisable for her to be exerting herself too much, it was that trip which gave her the confidence. She's very good at it too, in some ways better than me because she has more patience.

We just had a week on the Oxford and there were some gates and paddles (esp the top paddles) which I, as a 6ft 11 stone bloke, was really struggling with even with my "4 hole windlass". How women are expected to shift them I do not know. The worst was Somerton deep lock but there were others including some where the top gate was leaking so much water through that it was making it difficult to open the bottom gates even with the paddles open....

My wife prefers to work the locks but if a paddle or gate is too difficult for her I get off the boat, if I'm not already off helping, and assist.

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32 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

Could someone please explain to me why it is usually the women doing the hard work and the men just cruising in and out of the locks ? ! ?

I have never understood it at all.

I have never noticed it at all. How did you get that impression?

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37 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

Could someone please explain to me why it is usually the women doing the hard work and the men just cruising in and out of the locks ? ! ?

I have never understood it at all. My wife pilots the boat in usually ever since she was pregnant and we thought it inadvisable for her to be exerting herself too much, it was that trip which gave her the confidence. She's very good at it too, in some ways better than me because she has more patience.

We just had a week on the Oxford and there were some gates and paddles (esp the top paddles) which I, as a 6ft 11 stone bloke, was really struggling with even with my "4 hole windlass". How women are expected to shift them I do not know. The worst was Somerton deep lock but there were others including some where the top gate was leaking so much water through that it was making it difficult to open the bottom gates even with the paddles open....

In answer to the first line in your post.

I can’t!

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