Lift Bridge Etiquette

[andybarrett1]

Only been boating 12 years so really not sure of the etiquette at lift bridges !

 

assume three boats are going under same lift bridge in a convoy. They don't know each other. Suggest the Llangollen as a setting 

 

Who would open and who would close ?

 

I know what I would do,  But having being challenged by a 5min hire Boater now I am not so sure....Asking for a freind ??

 

Andy 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by andybarrett1
Typo

[Keeping Up]

I would say the first boat opens it and the third boat closes it. I've always done it that way on the Llangollen.

[Rob-M]

I tend to wave the other boats through and then close it once they are through although it can depend on where abouts we are, how far we want to go and what else is round the corner.

[mrsmelly]

As above. If I am lead boat and opening/lifting I wait until all others pass thro then close, board and set off again. Simples.

[Arthur Marshall]

I'm with KeepinUp. As I'm solo, I can't open it and wave others through  so I shout to the one behind ask if they're ok closing it. Up to them to arrange with anyone else.

Electric ones I heve to close to get my key back.

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, andybarrett1 said:

Only been boating 12 years so really not sure of the etiquette at lift bridges !

 

assume three boats are going under same lift bridge in a convoy. They don't know each other. Suggest the Llangollen as a setting 

 

Who would open and who would close ?

 

I know what I would do,  But having being challenged by a 5min hire Boater now I am not so sure....Asking for a freind ??

 

Andy 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this a genuine question (to which the answer is obvious) or

 

Just another rant against hire boaters?

 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by The Happy Nomad

[john6767]

First boat opens it and goes through, then lets the other two through, then closes bridge.

[Timx]

26 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

Is this a genuine question (to which the answer is obvious) or

 

Just another rant against hire boaters?

 

 

I have seen this scenario pan out a few different ways, from friendly to obnoxious, what has hire boaters got to do with it, ?

i try to do it in a friendly way, in the best way I see at the time. Being nice is the way to do it every time, even if it inconveniences you.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Timx said:

I have seen this scenario pan out a few different ways, from friendly to obnoxious, what has hire boaters got to do with it, ?

i try to do it in a friendly way, in the best way I see at the time. Being nice is the way to do it every time, even if it inconveniences you.

 

Indeed. I have no idea what hire boaters have to do with it either.

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

We open it and wave the others through before closing it, hoping that the boat that is now in the lead does the same thing at the next one, if its Whitchurch you don't have to wait long to find out.

[Hudds Lad]

First time on the Llangollen we received a mouthful of abuse from a boat for not closing a bridge despite the fact we didn’t open it and he was passing under it after us but in the opposite direction. I wished him good day and waved.

 

Usually if we were first there we’d open and let others through, then close behind us, made sense to us as its easier to collect crew once the bridge is back down.

 

We’ve had other boats wave us through. We’ve had boats close the bridge as we approach. We’ve had boats do a mad scramble to get crew and then scarper leaving us to sort it out.

 

Once at Trevor, a hire boat who saw us coming and left the bridge open, got a load of abuse from the local Postie as it slowed him and his van down. We told them not to worry as we passed them and the told the Postie exactly what we thought of him, he seemed put out as he expected us to side with him against the hire boat. We took our time closing the bridge.

[Ex Brummie]

So, where were you in the convoy?

Where was the '5 min hirer'?

What did he berate you about?

We may be able to offer a more constructive answer.

[jetzi]

A couple of people suggest there is an obvious answer, but I see two very different answers here - either first opens, last closes OR first opens and closes. The former seems more "fair" especially as it maintains the order of traffic, but as Arthur points out, you need to keep your key.

 

I do the latter, either because I arrived first or because I'm being waved through. But boating being slow and quiet, if I'm getting through without stopping, I can usually yell an offer to close the bridge. As far as I can remember this has been turned down every time so far. One issue is that I'm singlehanding. Some bridges don't have bollards on the "control" side, so it can be extremely difficult (near impossible) at some bridges to get through alone, and in those cases I'll actually wait for another boater to perform a "same boater opens and closes the bridge", and most of the time people are understanding. The grumps will be grumpy because I'm doing it wrong, regardless of what I'm doing.

 

So I'm genuinely curious, what is the "obvious" or correct answer? Does it change if any of the boaters are single handing?

Edited August 29, 2021 by jetzi

[MtB]

If only my bote would fit through Lock 1....

[Hudds Lad]

8 minutes ago, MtB said:

If only my bote would fit through Lock 1....

Even now its fixed?

[MtB]

4 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Even now its fixed?

 

My bote or the lock??

 

 

[dmr]

its not easy, I've had this dilemma on the run into Liverpool where a lot of boats travel in convoy.

I've lifted the bridge and am happy to wait whilst the others go through, but what do you do if you have stragglers who are not keeping up or even trying to keep up and you can see a huge traffic jam building up and starting to tail back onto the main road???? at some stage you just have to close the bridge in front of a boat.

[Hudds Lad]

5 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

My bote or the lock??

 

 

The lock. Didn’t they give it extra girth the other year?

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

The lock. Didn’t they give it extra girth the other year?

 

I heard a rumour they planned to, then it got cancelled.

[tree monkey]

5 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

 

Once at Trevor, a hire boat who saw us coming and left the bridge open, got a load of abuse from the local Postie as it slowed him and his van down. We told them not to worry as we passed them and the told the Postie exactly what we thought of him, he seemed put out as he expected us to side with him against the hire boat. We took our time closing the bridge.

 it's not uncommon for that bridge to cause issues, long queues of boats often hold up locals, residents, posties etc, often the bridge will be left up by the last boat as well.

[Ange]

6 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I heard a rumour they planned to, then it got cancelled.

Hey Mikey B, how many botes you got nowadays? Last time we met you had three

[Rob-M]

6 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I heard a rumour they planned to, then it got cancelled.

It was rebuilt, I heard Nick Wolfe on Aldgate went up to Llangollen a month ago.

6 hours ago, dmr said:

its not easy, I've had this dilemma on the run into Liverpool where a lot of boats travel in convoy.

I've lifted the bridge and am happy to wait whilst the others go through, but what do you do if you have stragglers who are not keeping up or even trying to keep up and you can see a huge traffic jam building up and starting to tail back onto the main road???? at some stage you just have to close the bridge in front of a boat.

This is when you sometimes need to change the usual practice of first through opens and closes as the situation can mean you need to close the bridge to let the traffic through.

[andybarrett1]

In answer to some questions I was 3rd boat in the convoy .....The Hire was the one that opened said bridge first then later on asking as to why we haven't closed it   (There was NO handover at all) We even thought it might already be up . .... When we explained (politely) as we all do. That normally him who opens it closes it ...As that's how I was tought ....He went of on one shouting that that was utter nonesense if he had to do that, he would be waiting all day ....Then jumped back on board and made off into the distance. Leaving his crew apologising. We walked back to close said  bridge ....

 

Yes the one at Tevor 😁👍

[Jerra]

We normally open and close.  Particularly if in convoy as that would mean the boats had caught us up and so we would want them "off our tail".

 

As mentioned above, in electric bridges there is no choice.

[jetzi]

2 hours ago, Rob-M said:

This is when you sometimes need to change the usual practice of first through opens and closes as the situation can mean you need to close the bridge to let the traffic through.

 

What I've done in that situation is signalled to the boaters to slow down, closed the bridge to ease the road traffic, then reopened the bridge for the rest of the boats, then closed it. Definitely seems unfair on the person opening the bridge.

 

But I have rarely seen more than two or three boats travelling at a time, so I'm not sure it is reeally an issue.

 

4 minutes ago, andybarrett1 said:

In answer to some questions I was 3rd boat in the convoy .....The Hire was the one that opened said bridge first then later on asking as to why we haven't closed it   (There was NO handover at all) We even thought it might already be up . .... When we explained (politely) as we all do. That normally him who opens it closes it

Trying to imagine, but if I came to a bridge that was open where a boat ahead of me had opened it and just left, I think I might think the bridge was either broken (stuck open)/a normally open farm bridge, or that the bridge operator was out of sight somewhere. Unless there was clearly road traffic building up and no one operating the bridge I might well not think to stop and close it.

 

No, I think that leaving a bridge (or a lock for that matter) in a half-finished state can't be condoned as general practice. When you open a bridge you're responsible for closing it unless you specifically have handed it over to the next user in a state favourable to them.