Gangplank

[Bob Chamberlain]

I have a new scaffold board that I thought would make a decent gang plank and would be grateful for any thoughts on length and what best to treat it with to weatherproof it.  I wondered about fixing thin strips of hardwood across it rather than a dead smooth surface?  What do people think please?

[BEngo]

Paint is a waste of time.  Give it several coats of clear Ronseal wood preserver, or similar.  Not the fence/shed paint stuff.   The wood preserver soaks in swiftly and will hold rot at bay if you put another coat on annually.

 

Make a hole in one (or both) end (and treat the inside of the hole as above) so you can secure it against blowing or floating away when in use.  Strips of hardwood across the plank are a good idea, especially if you have a pet that needs a bit of help. Screw them on and seal the joints to the plank so water won't get in.

Length: as long as is safe with your largest mate on it whilst supported at the ends.

Support it on the roof so there is space under it.  That will save your roof paint and the plank.

 

N

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rebotco]

Or stick on strips of roofing felt instead of wood.  Lighter and no screw holes needed.

[ditchcrawler]

Cant remember the last time I used my plank, probably on the K&A

[Rob-M]

Ours is stood in the garage at home, been there probably for three years.

[cheesegas]

Mines an old scaffold board I found in a skip. Every year it gets a coat of cheap wood preserver and it’s fine. I recommend making a hole near the end for a bit of rope, and stapling rubber mat to the bottom at one end so the boats movement doesn’t rub the paint off. 
 

Its about 6ft long, perfect for the Thames, gets used a lot when we’re on it!

[MtB]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Cant remember the last time I used my plank, probably on the K&A

 

Yep. K&A use it constant, and on the Thames if mooring 'wild'. 

 

Nowhere else. 

 

Isn't scaffold board preservation-treated anyway? 

 

I'd do nothing to it other than sand/plane off the splinters, then get another one after ten years.

[Ronaldo47]

The boats we used to hire in the 1970's usually came with two gangplanks, one long, one short. The towpaths were often in a bad state then, and when a collapsed towpath edge meant it was not possible to get close enough to the towpath to step off,  the long one could be cantilevered over the water on the towpath side by lodging the canal-side end under the inwardly-directed lip that ran around the rear deck on the boats we hired, allowing an intrepid crew member to "walk the gangplank" over the water to the tow path to secure the mooring ropes, after which the gangplank could be deployed conventionally.

 

The towpaths are generally in much better condition now, and the last time we used a gangplank was more than a decade ago to allow my son to walk down it into the shallows on the non-towpath side to return a lamb that had fallen in and had managed to swim to the piled  towpath side.  These days we usually find Armco piling to moor against.

Edited October 29, 2022 by Ronaldo47
typos

[Mike Todd]

17 hours ago, Rob-M said:

 

 

19 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Cant remember the last time I used my plank, probably on the K&A

Recently a few times on the Lancaster.

[Tigerr]

Essential on the K&A, and the Thames in a few places, but otherwise we barely used it in 12 years cruising the system. but when you need it -  you really do need it!

However - really good tips - a hole to put a pin through on the bank is a good idea. It's crap waking p to find its in the water 10 yards away.

As is nailing old mountain bike tyres round the ends and up the first foot - this both grips the boat and stops the plank from scraping the paint off.

Mind you after a few years and one spouse falling off we invested in a ladder with a surfaced side and that was much more stable. It only takes a slight wobble to tip you into the cut on a dark winter night. I think 'Miracle Products 'do them.

The downside of a scaffold plank is that after a few years of non-use, when you come to use it it, it turns out to have rotted. I know this from experience. 

[MaryP]

On 29/10/2022 at 18:15, ditchcrawler said:

Cant remember the last time I used my plank, probably on the K&A

Yes, me too!

[MtB]

9 minutes ago, MaryP said:

Yes, me too!

 

I used mine constantly when I CCed on the K&A. Wore it out in fact. Gangplanks, like mooring lines and batteries are best regarded as boating consumables. 

 

Like Tigger I drilled a 40mm hole in the bank end and knocked a (K&A sized) mooring pin in to fix it there, and at the boat end, another hole with a loop of blue twine and a shackle to fix the inboard end onto the boat. This way, the gangplank held the boat off the bank at a fixed distance so my mooring stakes and lines could work properly up against rough banks in the absence of piling. If I set the gangplank up at a 45 degree angle it worked as a spring. 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by MtB
Add a bit.

[Mike Todd]

I was thinking about this topic as I was waking a stretch of the K&A earlier today. Here, almost all of the boats needed a plank as they were well away from the bank even at the nearest point. However, I wondered how many folk contemplating cruising a canal with shallow edges  think about the walk along the plank - especially when carrying heavy shopping or a full cassette? Some I saw would be a distinct challenge to the unsteady!

[Jen-in-Wellies]

A waste of roof space, that could be used for other things, like solar panels. You don't need a gangplank, if you have a long shaft.

Either used as a balance pole to walk a mooring rope,

By William England - Scan from Ian Jeffrey: An American Journey – The Photography of William England. Prestel Verlag. Munich, London, New York 1999, ISBN 3-7913-2158-7, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85938999

 

Or by learning the Frisian art of Fierljeppen.

 

 

 

[MtB]

3 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Or by learning the Frisian art of Fierljeppen.

 

 

That's how I normally get off the boat on the K&A, but I still haven't managed it carrying a full cassette.