Anyone passing Barrowford Locks?

[nicknorman]

1 minute ago, Chagall said:

No thanks for the girls?  ...or is that one step too far. 🙄

Well to be fair I think “guys” is not gender specific these days. Probably a nasty Americanism but it is what it is!

Guys and girls were never really equivalent even before it became unisex, since guys implies men, whereas girls implies  …  girls! I’m sure any feminist would have something to say (complain) about that.

[Briss]

I taught in a girls' school for several years.... they hated being called girls and referred themselves collectively as guys. I referred to them as "ladies" and they were perfectly happy with that.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Briss

[haggis]

Nothing to add!

Edited January 2, 2022 by haggis
A bit of nonsense!

[Chagall]

2 minutes ago, haggis said:

Now don.t be greedy, Chagall. I think this is probably the first time I have seen any thanks extended publicly to anyone on the forum, even although it had a caveat that it wasn't the right type of help 🙂 . The ladies thanks will probably come later  

I doubt it. 

[TheBiscuits]

3 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Well to be fair I think “guys” is not gender specific these days.

 

Occam's Razor would suggest that those who turned up in person to help might actually have all been male ...

[Chagall]

Just now, TheBiscuits said:

 

Occam's Razor would suggest that those who turned up in person to help might actually have all been male ...

No, not all of them were. 

[LadyG]

I have a mental image of a worm climbing over a safety razor, but I think I'd better try Google. 

 

PS Chagall and The Biscuits et al  are all correct, further explanation not considered essential.

"Parsimony according to Occam"

Edited January 2, 2022 by LadyG

[nicknorman]

7 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Occam's Razor would suggest that those who turned up in person to help might actually have all been male ...

I didn’t read it as “turned up in person”, I read it as “offered written assistance via the forum”. But I could well be wrong!

Edited January 2, 2022 by nicknorman

[LadyG]

4 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

I didn’t read it as “turned up in person”, I read it as “offered written assistance via the forum”. But I could well be wrong!

I am very prone to word parsimony, which gets me in to a lot of trouble on here, sometimes it is meant as humour, sometimes not. 😜

[Mike Todd]

2 hours ago, bizzard said:

Lady G could with a bit of patience and plenty of bits of bread  perhaps train and instruct gaggles and fleets of swans, Canada geese, ducks, coots and moor hens to tow her to the boat yard by rigging them all , towingwith string, spaced out, keeping their distance so they don't squabble . Swans are the most likely to give trouble being of an aggressive, arrogant nature and might try to drown the smaller towers, but after all once trained they are the most powerful and should exert the most pull, whereas the Coots and moorhens without webbed feet won't contribute very much pull at all but I'm sure they'll try hard and be the most friendly towards the other birds. Although the , Swans and Canada geese are the most powerful but might fight each other, seriousely, requiring very stern reprimanding by Lady G.  It might be the best plan not to employ those two at all, but to concentrate entirely with engaging hundreds of the smaller water birds instead.

   To keep them all towing strongly Lady G would need a catapult to fire bits of bread ahead of them all to keep them all towing in the right direction. 

But will the recoil force offset anything that the birds are contributing?

[bizzard]

2 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

But will the recoil force offset anything that the birds are contributing?

Good point. I think if she runs forwad on the roof whilst catapulting the bits of bread the recoil force would be negated.

[frangar]

I hate to be the one to point it out but if you dont have steerage now you are unlikely to have much steerage with a tow from a passing boat unless you are really lucky and the skipper has a fair amount of towing experience. One of the advantages of a tunnel is that the boat can pretty much guide itself through...especially a high tunnel with low risk of cabin side contact...just take it steady and guide with a boat pole where you can. Even towing on cross straps through a tunnel can mean steerage is very limited especially with a motor boat rudder....there is a reason that butty rudders are a different shape.

 

Personally Id just be going for it with a boat pole and a board to act as an improvised tiller.

[TheBiscuits]

3 minutes ago, frangar said:

Even towing on cross straps through a tunnel can mean steerage is very limited especially with a motor boat rudder

 

Why would you be trying to steer the towed boat if it's on cross straps?  That's what the straps being crossed is for ...

[haggis]

2 hours ago, bizzard said:

Lady G could with a bit of patience and plenty of bits of bread  perhaps train and instruct gaggles and fleets of swans, Canada geese, ducks, coots and moor hens to tow her to the boat yard by rigging them all , towingwith string, spaced out, keeping their distance so they don't squabble . Swans are the most likely to give trouble being of an aggressive, arrogant nature and might try to drown the smaller towers, but after all once trained they are the most powerful and should exert the most pull, whereas the Coots and moorhens without webbed feet won't contribute very much pull at all but I'm sure they'll try hard and be the most friendly towards the other birds. Although the , Swans and Canada geese are the most powerful but might fight each other, seriousley, requiring very stern reprimanding by Lady G.  It might be the best plan not to employ those two at all, but to concentrate entirely with engaging hundreds of the smaller water birds instead.

   To keep them all towing strongly Lady G would need a catapult to fire bits of bread ahead of them all to keep them all towing in the right direction. 

Good plan to get the boat going forward but what about steering?  I think you would need another few birds on each side which when food is catapulted outside them will make them pull the boat in the direction you want to go in. I think time will need to be spent cultivating flocks of birds to change direction as you wish them too while others ignore the temptation.

 

haggis.

Edited January 2, 2022 by haggis

[bizzard]

The towing water birds I'm certain would really be everso pleased to get to the other side of the tunnel and have been longing to for ages. With little cardboard blinkers affixed to their eyes and with Lady G's encouragment. ''egging them on'' they'll come paddling merrily boat on tow out the other end, looking at pastures annew in great wonder.

[IanD]

1 minute ago, haggis said:

Good plan to get the boat going forward but what about steering?  I think you would need another few birds on each side which when food is catapulted outside them will make them pull the boat in the direction you want to go in. I think time will need to be sent cultivating flocks of birds to change direction as you wish them too while others ignore the temptation.

 

haggis.

Why not get pigeons to lead them, they use roads and canals to navigate by?

[bizzard]

2 minutes ago, haggis said:

Good plan to get the boat going forward but what about steering?  I think you would need another few birds on each side which when food is catapulted outside them will make them pull the boat in the direction you want to go in. I think time will need to be sent cultivating flocks of birds to change direction as you wish them too while others ignore the temptation.

 

haggis.

Yes. Like little tug boats nudging it about.

[frangar]

Just now, TheBiscuits said:

 

Why would you be trying to steer the towed boat if it's on cross straps?  That's what the straps being crossed is for ...

Even on cross straps I find you sometimes need to kick the back end over of the towed boat....especially in a confined space like a tunnel....say when you are passing an oncoming boat...by "pumping" a butty rudder you can move over....but you can also then cause the motor to kick out...Having said that Isnt it Foulridge we are talking about here...Ive rather lost track...so you dont have oncoming boats to worry about

[TheBiscuits]

1 minute ago, frangar said:

Having said that Isnt it Foulridge we are talking about here...Ive rather lost track...so you dont have oncoming boats to worry about

 

Yep, it's Foulridge so on traffic lights.  If there were any boats moving she might have had a tow by now!

[frangar]

1 minute ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Yep, it's Foulridge so on traffic lights.  If there were any boats moving she might have had a tow by now!

Thought so....so an early or late start just in case you need longer than the lights...or indeed ask CRT if they could lend a Vol to sit at the other end to prevent anything coming the other way.

[bizzard]

Traffic lights!!!!! The towing birds might be colour blind and paddle past and jump a red light. In which case, to stop the boat bits of bread will need to be dropped in the water behind them all as a brake. There's probably floating island clumps of vegitation in that tunnel which the birds might want to visit, to lay eggs and things, Duck eggs are very nice.

[Tracy D'arth]

Foulridge is a smooth bore, no need for steering once the boat is in, it will find its way out.

[TheBiscuits]

1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Foulridge is a smooth bore, no need for steering once the boat is in, it will find its way out.

 

Avoiding the 8" stepped bit where they did the sprayed concrete repair is usually helpful though.

 

What we really need is two very tall forumites who fancy legging a 7' wide boat through a 15' wide tunnel.

[Pluto]

1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Foulridge is a smooth bore, no need for steering once the boat is in, it will find its way out.

Foulridge was always a bonus when I worked my boat single handed as you just let it enter the tunnel and could then go into the cabin to make a brew and something to eat without slowing down. I have also towed boats on the L&LC single-handed without problem, with a bucket tied to a rope fixed to the back of the towed boat, though there were fewer boats on the canal then. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Foulridge is a smooth bore, no need for steering once the boat is in, it will find its way out.

 

From memory its also lined with boards at the waterline. I think its pretty well impossible to hit the tunnel structure itself.