CRT training vlockies today, wrongly

[agg221]

On 27/07/2022 at 09:43, davem399 said:

And I saw a Harnser on the Llangollen the other week and called out “Hallo Brian”.  Wrong Harnser, as it turned out.

 

On 27/07/2022 at 13:37, ditchcrawler said:

There are 5 of us, was it the Hudson one

 

Are you the one in early GUCCC colours with the cutweb symbol on the bow?

 

Alec

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, agg221 said:

 

Are you the one in early GUCCC colours with the cutweb symbol on the bow?

 

Alec

That's me

[agg221]

23 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

That's me

In that case, we passed you on Saturday morning - we were heading North on the SU up towards Chester.

Alec

[ditchcrawler]

20 hours ago, agg221 said:

 

Are you the one in early GUCCC colours with the cutweb symbol on the bow?

 

Alec

Were you one one of the boats waiting above lock 12 with the busted paddle that took for ages to fill?

 

[ditchcrawler]

I just lifted this from Facebook

 

"After the top lock there was a boat bailing out buckets and buckets of water from his boat. Apparently, whilst in the lock, the volunteer lock keeper and the owner were chatting and hadn’t notice that the front button had got trapped on the front gate. This caused the boat to tip up and was about 30 seconds from being sunk completely! When the owner and the vlockie realised paddles were closed and other ones opened in order to stop more water entering the boat. Lucky man!"

[frangar]

Just now, ditchcrawler said:

I just lifted this from Facebook

 

"After the top lock there was a boat bailing out buckets and buckets of water from his boat. Apparently, whilst in the lock, the volunteer lock keeper and the owner were chatting and hadn’t notice that the front button had got trapped on the front gate. This caused the boat to tip up and was about 30 seconds from being sunk completely! When the owner and the vlockie realised paddles were closed and other ones opened in order to stop more water entering the boat. Lucky man!"

Which lock are we on about in this case?? 

[Arthur Marshall]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

I just lifted this from Facebook

 

"After the top lock there was a boat bailing out buckets and buckets of water from his boat. Apparently, whilst in the lock, the volunteer lock keeper and the owner were chatting and hadn’t notice that the front button had got trapped on the front gate. This caused the boat to tip up and was about 30 seconds from being sunk completely! When the owner and the vlockie realised paddles were closed and other ones opened in order to stop more water entering the boat. Lucky man!"

Owner's responsibility to watch his boat.  I wonder if he'd left it in gear  riding the gate...

[agg221]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Were you one one of the boats waiting above lock 12 with the busted paddle that took for ages to fill?

 

No, we saved that pleasure until the Monday, although we were lucky there wasn't a queue at Beeston stone lock which also only had one top paddle operational on a broad lock so was pretty slow.

 

Memory is slightly hazy, but we passed you in the opposite direction somewhere between 11am and midday I would think, somewhere between Barbridge and Calveley. It was a clear stretch with no moored boats so we were both moving at a reasonable speed (as much as one ever does).

 

Alec

[Wanderer Vagabond]

53 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Owner's responsibility to watch his boat.  I wonder if he'd left it in gear  riding the gate...

Totally agree and would add that it is also a good idea to deliberately weaken at least one link in the chain holding the button so that it breaks rather than drag the boat down, a hacksaw cut halfway through the link normally does the job.

 

I got my own front button caught on a cross-member in the Chester Staircase because a crew member on the hire boat we were travelling up with was a bit too enthusiastic in opening the paddles and the boat got sucked forward. The weakened link did it's job perfectly.

[roland elsdon]

In the past I have had issues with the volunteers at Hatton, resulting in a standoff with them. If there is a leave alone list we are near the top.

Today we set up early with a lovely dutch couple who worked smoothly with our pattern.

Coming down was a volunteer and a single hander , the boat owner happily singing the praises of the volunteer who had taken him al the way beyond halfway bridge.

Later we met 3 more volunteers assisting two single handers ( one with injured crew, the other apparently mid 80s.)

The volunteers worked perfectly with us, accepting our rapid progress ( two lockwheelers on bikes), and checking before pulling paddles.

Apparently two had been called in for the booked assisted passage.

 

So today a great improvement on the conflicts of the past.

They still dont understand the Ham Baker paddle gear though.

[ditchcrawler]

13 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

 So today a great improvement on the conflicts of the past.

They still dont understand the Ham Baker paddle gear though.

That is because the CRT personnel who train them don't understand it

[Iain_S]

It's also because of lack of maintenance. Some of them DO crash down if the "C" clip is knocked off and the paddle left to its own devices.

[MtB]

24 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

It's also because of lack of maintenance. Some of them DO crash down if the "C" clip is knocked off and the paddle left to its own devices.

 

 

Yes I've found this too. It is unwise to let them fall as the odd one flies down! Usually crashes down onto a missing rubber bump stop, too. 

 

Others when let go simply stay up and have to be encouraged down, but most just wind down nicely and smoothly under gravity. One cannot rely on this though.