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More volockie hassle


nicknorman

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1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

 

 

As you say the problem is there are volunteers who are fine with setting ahead or closing up behind and there are others who want full control. Not knowing what you are going to get doesn't help so I now think it is better too say no help required.

I had one like that of Farmers Bridge flight, he had every lock below open for me to go straight in.

1 hour ago, Tonka said:

The Atherstone lot hardly go further then the top lock in my experience 

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Don't know about insurance but reading the CRT site on Volunteer Lock Keepers, it clearly states that their task is to assist.  "These days our volunteer lock keepers help us to look after our beautiful waterways, assist boaters, welcome visitors and maintain our historic locks."  Nothing said about taking control!

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33 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Running into one little Hitler does not in itself mean that the principal of volunteer lockkepers is bad. If that were the case then we'd have no police, no teachers, no managers, etc. 

 

You may not like them but then what do you do on rivers like the Thames which have traditionally had lockkepers? Perhaps you just avoid such waterways.

 

What you've described sounds a bit like a battle of egos to me. Of course as skipper ultimately you should be in charge, but why either of you wish to get into such a conflict in the first place I don't really understand.

 

Personally I'm happy to relinquish control on locks on the Thames because with a big lock full of boats somebody has to take charge and that has to be the lockkeeper. Even if I'm in a smaller lock on my own which a volocky is working I'm perfectly comfortable for them to direct me as long as what they're doing is safe and they ask for my signal before opening paddles, etc. I'm glad for the help.

 

If it were me in your position I'd have "appeased" Hitler and let him have his way. It's just one lock after all and then you could have continued with all the other diy locks on your journey. 

 

Don't sweat the small stuff. Think of your blood pressure. Life's too short for this sort of petty nonsense. 


I think you are conflating two different things. Under certain circumstances where organisation is required, such as thames locks with 10 boats to get into 1 lock, I have absolutely no problem with being instructed by lock keepers, voluntary or not. Without them, it can be mayhem!

 

But that is quite different from normal practice on a flight of narrow locks where one boat goes up, one goes down and  nothing much needs organising. Problems only arise when someone such as this volockie tries to make things hapoen differently from normal, eg by making us wait for absolutely no good reason.

 

Of course it in itself isn’t the end of the world, but I feel that (a minority of) volockies are a creeping menace and if we tacitly condone their bad behaviour, it will only get worse.

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1 minute ago, Cas446 said:

You have his photo, you will probably be able to identify him from a quick search of the local parish councillor or community speed watch pages.


I am sure you are right!

 

But as it turns out I didn’t need to send the photo to the supervisor at Hatton, he knew who it was from the description, the roster and description of the other innocent volockies.

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13 minutes ago, nicknorman said:


I think you are conflating two different things. Under certain circumstances where organisation is required, such as thames locks with 10 boats to get into 1 lock, I have absolutely no problem with being instructed by lock keepers, voluntary or not. Without them, it can be mayhem!

 

But that is quite different from normal practice on a flight of narrow locks where one boat goes up, one goes down and  nothing much needs organising. Problems only arise when someone such as this volockie tries to make things hapoen differently from normal, eg by making us wait for absolutely no good reason.

 

Of course it in itself isn’t the end of the world, but I feel that (a minority of) volockies are a creeping menace and if we tacitly condone their bad behaviour, it will only get worse.

I reckon this sort of thing is enough to stop some people bothering to take the boat out. 

 

Arguably that is a Good Thing but it might just be that the people that are put off are those who are very enthusiastic about the whole canal thing and understand it and get pissed off by clueless idiots.

 

I personally hate being helped at locks. I have refused polite offers to assist on numerous occasions because I really like doing the whole lock and associated boat manoovers myself. That's the whole point of going on a canal boat !! It is often better to single hand everything as it all gets done faster without anyone running around and no communication agro. Some people really don't know how it works. 

 

Some boaters may view the locks as a sort of barrier but there are other views and if you physically can't do the locks then maybe think about another hobby ? 

 

Anyway I don't boat on the cut any more probably never will and am lucky enough to have done a lot of canal boating before the invention of volockies. Self operated locks with one or two boats do not need lock keepers. Adding volunteers is simply accelerating the dumbing down and idiotisation of people. 

 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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15 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Please please, let's get it right: principles should be at every lock but principals will be at a desk.

Or as I was taught "The principal is your pal" as a way to remember which is which.

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3 minutes ago, frangar said:

You haven’t been through kirkstall then….

 

Not for many years no, used to have a boat moored by bramley fall park... it used to be really nice there, guessing not so much now tho....

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4 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

 

Not for many years no, used to have a boat moored by bramley fall park... it used to be really nice there, guessing not so much now tho....

It’s the only lock I’ve done with a lockie and a sia registered door man…..

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2 hours ago, Unicorn Stampede said:

To be honest I wouldn't be chuffed if after a heated conversation let's call it, you came back with a phone trying to take my picture...

 

Clearly he shouldn't have swung the windlass, by accident or not, but you can't go shoving cameras in people's faces when they don't want you to, regardless of who they work for. 

 

Poor form and the wrong person might remove the phone from your hand without asking...

This rights and wrongs of this particular incident aside using a phone camera to record or photograph someone is becoming almost a default position when faced with some issue that upsets the photographer, it is commonly used as a sort of threat eg.

I will email this to your boss or post on facebook, Twitter and so on.

It can become very tedious. 

 

To be clear I am not saying this was what Nick was doing here and used appropriately can be useful to provide evidence when required 

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1 minute ago, tree monkey said:

This rights and wrongs of this particular incident aside using a phone camera to record or photograph someone is becoming almost a default position when faced with some issue that upsets the photographer, it is commonly used as a sort of threat eg.

I will email this to your boss or post on facebook, Twitter and so on.

It can become very tedious. 

 

To be clear I am not saying this was what Nick was doing here and used appropriately can be useful to provide evidence when required 

Simple answer is that if you aren’t doing wrong then there’s no issue with the footage going public…if however you have something you are guilty of….

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Just now, frangar said:

Simple answer is that if you aren’t doing wrong then there’s no issue with the footage going public…if however you have something you are guilty of….

You miss my point, if during a normal day job you give advice/guidance about an issue that is perfectly appropriate and the response is the video "threat" because you are not giving the answer that they want, it is becoming common and frankly it's tedious and bloody rude.

 

I actually said that where appropriate it can be useful to provide evidence of misdeeds 

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11 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

This rights and wrongs of this particular incident aside using a phone camera to record or photograph someone is becoming almost a default position when faced with some issue that upsets the photographer, it is commonly used as a sort of threat eg.

I will email this to your boss or post on facebook, Twitter and so on.

It can become very tedious. 

 

To be clear I am not saying this was what Nick was doing here and used appropriately can be useful to provide evidence when required 


yes in general I agree with you. I had a weird encounter last year on a Scottish country road. Came up behind a van doing about 40 (60 limit) and on reaching a long straight, I overtook him and carried on at 60. Then came a series of tight bends at which point I saw in my mirror that the van was right up my chuff just a couple of feet away. Having a 280hp car I initially tried to put some distance between us but soon realised that was a bad idea so slowed to a stop. He stopped behind me and we both got out. He berated me for overtaking him because apparently a chip had been thrown up and hit his windscreen. He then went on to say that I had been driving too fast around the corners and he had a dashcam to prove it to the police. Which seemed pretty barking mad because the dash cam would have shown him driving very dangerously close to me. I pointed this out but he didn’t seem to get it! He was obviously intoxicated by the “power” of his new dashcam toy. Eventually I murdered him and buried him by the roadside in a shallow grave, and carried on my merry way.

 

oh and by the way, you will notice that I haven’t posted the volocky’s picture on here. Though it is tempting…

Edited by nicknorman
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1 minute ago, nicknorman said:


 Eventually I murdered him and buried him by the roadside in a shallow grave, and carried on my merry way.

I sympathise and considering what a prat the bloke was it will be our secret, I hope you emptied his wallet

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17 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

This rights and wrongs of this particular incident aside using a phone camera to record or photograph someone is becoming almost a default position when faced with some issue that upsets the photographer, it is commonly used as a sort of threat eg.

I will email this to your boss or post on facebook, Twitter and so on.

It can become very tedious. 

 

To be clear I am not saying this was what Nick was doing here and used appropriately can be useful to provide evidence when required 

 

Social media is sadly full of videos produced by folk who delight in trying to get a rise out of folk in authority or a position of responsibility. Then with a bit of careful editing you can make them look really bad.

 

I believe in some countries such activity is not allowed.

 

(Not saying this applies to Nick)

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Being old and slightly decrepit I do feel a sense of telief when I see a vlockie, and certainly last year they were much more careful about offering help than previously. Haven't actually seen one this year yet.

But there was a jobsworth on the Harecastle a year or three ago who insisted that you weren't allowed through with a stove alight,  damped down or not, even in the middle of winter. One this year told me the same. CRT have confirmed that it's perfectly ok. You get the odd one who just like making his own rules.

Edited by Arthur Marshall
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I sent a complaint in to CRT a few weeks ago as at Fradley the long time volunteers were training new recruits, as the trainee closed the top gate the long time volunteer whacked the paddle up without checking with me first that it was ok.  I called for him to drop the paddle and then went and explained to him that if he is responsible for training new volunteers then he should be training them with the correct procedure which is to check with the person on the boat that they wish to be assisted.

I have sort of given up at Fradley that you get help whether you want it or not but they do seem to have lunch 12:00 - 13:00 and then go home at 14:00 on a weekend so I try to time it when I know they won't be there.

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