Northern Canals

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Its Jonathan's he bought it from castleford area, its been back to Castleford for blacking same time as myself 

 

So to get to Castleford in the first place it was either craned in there or it came via. the Trent via the S&K and Thorne?

 

So that's two 70 footers we know about that have passed Thorne lock?

[Alway Swilby]

6 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

So to get to Castleford in the first place it was either craned in there or it came via. the Trent via the S&K and Thorne?

 

So that's two 70 footers we know about that have passed Thorne lock?

Could have come off the Ouse at Goole or Selby.

[PD1964]

5 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

Could have come off the Ouse at Goole or Selby.

And here’s me thinking he knew the area. Not really worth worrying about, lots of big locks for him to get around the area, without having to go corner to corner.

Edited March 4, 2023 by PD1964

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

Could have come off the Ouse at Goole or Selby.

 

Very true. But less likely given the safer route.

 

But we still have one boat that came through Thorne despite your earlier assertions the lock keepers laughed at the notion.

 

A 70ft  boat I have personally seen and a boat confirmed by its owner it made the transit.

 

We can safely ignore the contribution from PD as I'm not sure he gets much further than Sheffield, assuming he actually has a boat which I'm not entirely convinced about.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by M_JG

[PD1964]

25 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

Very true. But less likely given the safer route.

 

But we still have one boat that came through Thorne despite your earlier assertions the lock keepers laughed at the notion.

 

A 70ft  boat I have personally seen and a boat confirmed by its owner it made the transit.

 

We can safely ignore the contribution from PD as I'm not sure he gets much further than Sheffield, assuming he actually has a boat which I'm not entirely convinced about.

 

 

Probably more likely as CaRT lengths from their site are nowhere near 70ft, so I doubt he would of got in at Keadby.

  I’ve had a boat for the last 14 years as you have been told many times, I travel they system and move boats for people. I even passed you at Sprotborough. I’m afraid it’s you that’s boatless after you decided it wasn’t for you as you couldn’t justify the expense.

See below for CaRTs length for the S&K.

It’s all irrelevant anyway as the OP’s boat is 72ft.

Edited March 4, 2023 by PD1964

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:

I have heard this before but having been through there in my 58' boat I find it difficult to picture how. I asked the lock keeper how 70' foot boats fit through and he laughed!

 

Why do you think that somebody who has actually done it would lie?

 

We can safely ignore PD's dimmension post as crt are notoriously conservative about their published dimensions

 

If he realy was so experienced he would know this.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by M_JG

[peterboat]

9 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

Why do you think that somebody who has actually done it would lie?

 

We can safely ignore PD's dimmension post as crt are notoriously conservative about their published dimensions

 

If he realy was so experienced he would know this.

 

 

The lock gates at Thorne work independently in each side so with a bit of a shuffle tim said it was done. My boat at 57 has plenty of room in there seems more than the 5 foot quoted

[PD1964]

10 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

Why do you think that somebody who has actually done it would lie?

 

We can safely ignore PD's dimmension post as crt are notoriously conservative about their published dimensions

 

If he realy was so experienced he would know this.

 

 

I do know it, but I also know CaRT lock keepers when manning a lock, you have to book passage through, as in Keadby will not let a boat longer then their stated lock length through.

[Guest]

35 minutes ago, peterboat said:

The lock gates at Thorne work independently in each side so with a bit of a shuffle tim said it was done. My boat at 57 has plenty of room in there seems more than the 5 foot quoted

 

Indeed. And first time we did Thorne the gate operation foxed me, but then after about five mins all became clear.

 

I guess PD's assertion means he actually is calling Tim a liar, but then what else can we expect from him. Having met Tim and not the Poison Dwarf my money is on Tim.

 

Rather than the lock keepers, which must be a new phenomena given we never passed through Thorne with lock keeper assistance.

 

Lol

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by M_JG

[PD1964]

8 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

Indeed. And first time we did Thorne the gate operation foxed me, but then after about five mins all became clear.

 

I guess PD's assertion means he actually is calling Tim a liar, but then what else can we expect from him. Having met Tim and not the Poison Dwarf my money is on Tim.

 

 

The lock’s often manned quite regularly with Volunteers. Maybe you should go and ask the lock keepers and see what reaction you get, as others have done when passing through.

 I honestly don’t know why you come on here, as you don’t offer any real advice which is current and when your put right, like telling you 70ft boats could use Goole & Selby, you start being contentious gordding for arguments, same as the majority of Threads you go on. Why not just stick to Caravan Forums where your knowledge could be helpful and informative and your posts more constructive?

Edited March 4, 2023 by PD1964

[mrsmelly]

9 hours ago, PD1964 said:

The lock’s often manned quite regularly with Volunteers. Maybe you should go and ask the lock keepers and see what reaction you get, as others have done when passing through.

 I honestly don’t know why you come on here, as you don’t offer any real advice which is current and when your put right, like telling you 70ft boats could use Goole & Selby, you start being contentious gordding for arguments, same as the majority of Threads you go on. Why not just stick to Caravan Forums where your knowledge could be helpful and informative and your posts more constructive?

Again sonny you are calling me a liar. You have zero idea about the system, I wouldnt let you deliver a 20 foot grp cruiser.

[Alway Swilby]

10 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

Why do you think that somebody who has actually done it would lie?

 

We can safely ignore PD's dimmension post as crt are notoriously conservative about their published dimensions

 

If he realy was so experienced he would know this.

 

 

I'm certainly not suggesting that Tim is lying. I've met Tim a couple of times at St Pancras Cruising Club events an if he says he's taken a 70 footer through Thorne Lock then I'm sure he did. It is just that when entering that lock in my 58 footer I thought "How do you get a 70 footer through here?". There was a lock keeper there and I asked him and all he did was laugh. He didn't say you couldn't, he just laughed without answering the question. I'd like to see how it is done, thats all.

And another thing, since the new lock gates were installed at Thorne last winter can you still operate each gate independantly?

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, Alway Swilby said:

I'm certainly not suggesting that Tim is lying. I've met Tim a couple of times at St Pancras Cruising Club events an if he says he's taken a 70 footer through Thorne Lock then I'm sure he did. It is just that when entering that lock in my 58 footer I thought "How do you get a 70 footer through here?". There was a lock keeper there and I asked him and all he did was laugh. He didn't say you couldn't, he just laughed without answering the question. I'd like to see how it is done, thats all.

Different Tim 😃 I am the better looking one. As Martin has already said, he met me at Lemonroyd on my 70 foot Hudson, I didnt crane it in. The funny thing is we intended going round Trent end but a lockie on the Trent said give Thorne a try he had heard a 70 footer had been through. So IN AT KEADBY lots of space and risk it. I knew I could turn at Thorne so up we went, the gates are independent which was why it was possible, I had another experienced forum member onboard with me and we were chuffed it went through. I then sold it to another forum member who brought it back through, I explained to him how to do it and told him to go down backwards which he did, its now in London, he still lives on it with his kids, he has mentioned all this on the forum b4. For some inexplicable reason a certain poster on here with a little boat cant accept the facts.

[peterboat]

10 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

Indeed. And first time we did Thorne the gate operation foxed me, but then after about five mins all became clear.

 

I guess PD's assertion means he actually is calling Tim a liar, but then what else can we expect from him. Having met Tim and not the Poison Dwarf my money is on Tim.

 

Rather than the lock keepers, which must be a new phenomena given we never passed through Thorne with lock keeper assistance.

 

Lol

 

 

Often there is a guy on there with slight Downs syndrome, he is a volunteer, really helpful especially if single handed, we had a beer together last year he really seems to enjoy helping people 

13 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

I'm certainly not suggesting that Tim is lying. I've met Tim a couple of times at St Pancras Cruising Club events an if he says he's taken a 70 footer through Thorne Lock then I'm sure he did. It is just that when entering that lock in my 58 footer I thought "How do you get a 70 footer through here?". There was a lock keeper there and I asked him and all he did was laugh. He didn't say you couldn't, he just laughed without answering the question. I'd like to see how it is done, thats all.

And another thing, since the new lock gates were installed at Thorne last winter can you still operate each gate independantly?

Yes you can operate them independently 

[PD1964]

36 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Again sonny you are calling me a liar. You have zero idea about the system, I wouldnt let you deliver a 20 foot grp cruiser.

How am I calling you a liar? As others say ask the lock keepers and they laugh? How do you know what experience I have, how do I know what experience you have? 
 You keep saying you went down backwards as I said there’s no need as it’s a deep Cill lock, so obviously you don’t know everything, just like myself and everyone on here there’s always more to learn on the canals. Just because you say you did a few years in the Navy and lived on a boat a while doesn’t make you an expert and everyone else incompetent on a boat.

Edited March 4, 2023 by PD1964

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, PD1964 said:

How am I calling you a liar? As others say ask the lock keepers and they laugh? How do you know what experience I have, how do I know what experience you have? 
 You keep saying you went down backwards as I said there’s no need as it’s a deep Cill lock, so obviously you don’t know everything, just like myself and everyone on here there’s always more to learn on the canals.

I know its a deep cill lock. However as much of the bumff also states a max length way under 70 feet, we decided that a safe bet with a fairly deep draughted boat was to go down backwards to avoid any danger, you know it makes sense!!

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

I'm certainly not suggesting that Tim is lying. I've met Tim a couple of times at St Pancras Cruising Club events an if he says he's taken a 70 footer through Thorne Lock then I'm sure he did. It is just that when entering that lock in my 58 footer I thought "How do you get a 70 footer through here?". There was a lock keeper there and I asked him and all he did was laugh. He didn't say you couldn't, he just laughed without answering the question. I'd like to see how it is done, thats all.

And another thing, since the new lock gates were installed at Thorne last winter can you still operate each gate independantly?

 

I would suggest the lock keeper who laughed just isn't aware that it is possible, and of course the stated max. dimensions by CRT mean that they shouldn't really be saying it's doable.

 

As to the gates, yes I believe it's still possible.

[Alway Swilby]

33 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Different Tim 😃 I am the better looking one.

Ah! 😁 The other Tim was on this thread earlier and I got confused. Easily done.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I know its a deep cill lock. However as much of the bumff also states a max length way under 70 feet, we decided that a safe bet with a fairly deep draughted boat was to go down backwards to avoid any danger, you know it makes sense!!

 

Bet you couldn't get the Princess through Thorne though??

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

7 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

As others say ask the lock keepers

 

But they are not REAL lock keepers who have experience, they are just 'locals' who need to have some authority - give them a C&RT sweatshirt and a lifejacket and all of a sudden they are experts in all things 'canal'.

 

Real lock keepers are long gone.

 

Example - at Torksey a lock keeper refused to open the lock until the water level had hit a 'line painted on the outside of the gates. I spoke to him and explained that it was a neap tide and we were at high tide it wouldn't get any higher. It turned out that they do not now have reagular lockies for each lock, anyone can be called in to do the job. He was a volunteer weed & grass cutter who got a call to go and operate the locks' His total training consisted of "do not open the gates until the water covers that line"

 

Example - Coming into Nether lock the hydraulically powered gates started to close on us and we were within inches of being crushed, banged into reverse and just got the bow out as the gates slammed shut.

Called the lockie on the VHF and asked "Why ?" to be told I thought you had come in so I suggested that if he stood on the lock side instead of inside the 'control tower' (which is set so far back you cannot see into the lock) he might be better off. Official complaint to C&RT of a dangerous 'near miss' resulted in an email "we will investigate it" Nothing more heard.

 

Vollockies - get rid of the lot of them. It is safer to self-operate

[PD1964]

18 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

But they are not REAL lock keepers who have experience, they are just 'locals' who need to have some authority - give them a C&RT sweatshirt and a lifejacket and all of a sudden they are experts in all things 'canal'.

 

Real lock keepers are long gone.

 

Example - at Torksey a lock keeper refused to open the lock until the water level had hit a 'line painted on the outside of the gates. I spoke to him and explained that it was a neap tide and we were at high tide it wouldn't get any higher. It turned out that they do not now have reagular lockies for each lock, anyone can be called in to do the job. He was a volunteer weed & grass cutter who got a call to go and operate the locks' His total training consisted of "do not open the gates until the water covers that line"

 

Example - Coming into Nether lock the hydraulically powered gates started to close on us and we were within inches of being crushed, banged into reverse and just got the bow out as the gates slammed shut.

Called the lockie on the VHF and asked "Why ?" to be told I thought you had come in so I suggested that if he stood on the lock side instead of inside the 'control tower' (which is set so far back you cannot see into the lock) he might be better off. Official complaint to C&RT of a dangerous 'near miss' resulted in an email "we will investigate it" Nothing more heard.

 

Vollockies - get rid of the lot of them. It is safer to self-operate

 Not interested with your Vlockie/CaRT bashing stories. The ones that help out at Thorne lock are polite and helpful getting lots of boats through, that’s all that matters.

 

[Alan de Enfield]

8 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

 Not interested with your Vlockie/CaRT bashing stories. The ones that help out at Thorne lock are polite and helpful getting lots of boats through, that’s all that matters.

 

 

Surely 'safely' is more important than speed !

[mrsmelly]

35 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

Bet you couldn't get the Princess through Thorne though??

 

 

No chance lol. Over 80 feet long with a 20ft 4 inch beam. Quite shallow draughted though only just over 3 feet 6 inches and a pig in high winds!!!! Didnt I take you out on it one evening?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

No chance lol. Over 80 feet long with a 20ft 4 inch beam. Quite shallow draughted though only just over 3 feet 6 inches and a pig in high winds!!!! Didnt I take you out on it one evening?

 

No in the end we never managed a trip.

[PD1964]

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

I know its a deep cill lock. However as much of the bumff also states a max length way under 70 feet, we decided that a safe bet with a fairly deep draughted boat was to go down backwards to avoid any danger, you know it makes sense!!

I’m not going to get into a bun fight about this, as I’m sure we have better things to do. Have a good weekend Jack👍

 

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Surely 'safely' is more important than speed !

Who mentioned speed? They get a lot of boats through that’s it, some days more than others.

Edited March 4, 2023 by PD1964