Trent & Mersey locks

[junior]

Put your bow fender against the gate and go for it. The boat can't get slammed into the gate if it's already on it. Keep an eye on the bow to make sure it doesn't get snagged. Done these locks hundreds of times and never had an issue.

[ditchcrawler]

15 minutes ago, junior said:

Put your bow fender against the gate and go for it. The boat can't get slammed into the gate if it's already on it. Keep an eye on the bow to make sure it doesn't get snagged. Done these locks hundreds of times and never had an issue.

Thats why my fender always looks a mess

[Captain Pegg]

I’ve made it to the summit of the T&M from Great Haywood. The forward pull isn’t like it is on some T&M locks as @Arthur Marshall observed.

 

If you can stay back then you won’t get pulled forward but on those where you start forward you can get pulled up to the cill but not violently.

From Stone top the locks have two ground paddles and no gate paddles but it does vary again toward the top of Stoke locks.

 

At Meaford no. 2 I was on the cill and just after drawing the second paddle noted a loosely attached piece of metal from the cill baffle (the thing that protects the cill masonry from damage) sitting on top of my bow fender. One paddle was wound down as fast as possible (you can’t easily drop a ground paddle) and as I crossed to lower the other I noted the bow fender had pushed the metal piece aside. Panic over, but don’t be blasé about that sort of thing. If a problem occurs it happens  very quickly and lowering two paddles when single handing takes more time than you’d wish. That’s why with a 35’ boat I’m not keen on riding the cill. There’s generally no need to put the boat in contact with anything.

Unlike @Goliath I’m not a fan of T&M locks. Blooming great awkward broad locks at the eastern end, followed by poxy little narrow locks with 4’ fall, daft tail bridges you can’t stop in and gates that won’t stay shut, and then the really deep locks climbing up to the summit.

 

The Cheshire locks are possibly the best of the lot but I have to confess I’ve never ascended them, only descended them. Water resources permitting that’ll change by late summer.

 

I’ve still to find a better narrow lock than numbers 5 to 57 on the Worcester & Birmingham.

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Ace 👍 

It’s all good fun though. 
Bet you’ve enjoyed every moment. 
Boating for yourself rather than delivering someone else’s boat has to be more pleasurable?

 

But yeah, I love all (well most) of them locks because it’s just so lovely along there. 
 

 

 

 

[TheBiscuits]

31 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

I’ve still to find a better narrow lock than numbers 5 to 57 on the Worcester & Birmingham.

 

Hall Green

 

 

[Captain Pegg]

Just now, TheBiscuits said:

 

Hall Green

 

 

That’s not a lock…

 

Will be there tomorrow for the first time in 25 years

[jam]

I like the Cheshire locks, going uphill they can be quite fierce for the unwary but nudging the cill works well (water leakage permitting). After a trip to Stone now on the downhill run to Middlewich and it is a pleasure.

[Dave123]

On 05/06/2023 at 13:02, TheBiscuits said:

 

Slide the stem up the plate on the gate.  The water movement holds the boat in place, just make sure you are touching before opening paddles and most importantly there's nothing sticking out of the plate!

But that won't work in the deeper locks (which these mostly are). The bow would initially be sliding up the cill not the gate, and as it got high enough it would jump forwards and bang into the gate

[Mike Todd]

34 minutes ago, Dave123 said:

But that won't work in the deeper locks (which these mostly are). The bow would initially be sliding up the cill not the gate, and as it got high enough it would jump forwards and bang into the gate

As most bows are at a slope, not vertical, the boat moves forward slowly at the stage, rarely will it bang into the gate on this account.

[Captain Pegg]

1 hour ago, Dave123 said:

But that won't work in the deeper locks (which these mostly are). The bow would initially be sliding up the cill not the gate, and as it got high enough it would jump forwards and bang into the gate

With my boat it will gradually ride over the top of the cill and on to the gate. That’s not the bit that worries me. I find riding the cill to be the worrying bit. That’s mostly particular to the deeper locks. Once the bow is against the plate on the lock gate itself it’s OK but the cill (or baffle that protects it) seems to have plenty of stuff on which a bow fender can catch. That’s maybe an issue because I have a boat that has very low freeboard but it’s important for everyone to work out the risks for their own boat rather than follow some glib statement about how it should be done.

 

So stick with what you’re comfortable with.

[ditchcrawler]

This is an interesting little read Aardvarks and Maffi's Boat: I learned about boating from this (narrowboater.blogspot.com)

[Captain Pegg]

22 hours ago, Goliath said:

Ace 👍 

It’s all good fun though. 
Bet you’ve enjoyed every moment. 
Boating for yourself rather than delivering someone else’s boat has to be more pleasurable?

 

But yeah, I love all (well most) of them locks because it’s just so lovely along there. 
 

 

 

 

Yes, it’s all degrees of goodness. But it was really good to take my own boat somewhere me and it had never been in combination before. Next week I’ll be on totally new water for me.

 

But given I’ve got to find a way back south in late summer and the Cheshire locks are my preferred route it was very disappointing that three times in the space of six locks when ascending Stone and Meaford flights I had a totally empty chamber in the lock in front of me turned by an oncoming boater.

 

The first was a private boat (maybe a share boat) with two vintage couples aboard. I saw a person look ahead at me while I was at Stone bottom and I thought it was crew of the boat that had the bottom paddles drawn at the time. But it turned out to be a crew member of the boat behind them who closed the gates and refilled the lock after they’d left. I’d arrived at the lock landing, secured my boat and walked up to the lock to find then closing the top gate behind their boat. Clearly a wrong call on their behalf and I let them know although we all departed on our ways amicably. I had lots of time but none of us will have lots of water shortly.

 

Then a single hander did the same at Meaford 3. He arrived when I was already in lock 4 and filled the lock on half a paddle and was still above it when I arrived at the lock having again secured my boat on the lock landing.

 

A lady sat on the bench said to me “You’ll be a while, he hasn’t got a clue”. She wasn’t wrong. I helped him thorough and didn’t mention that he shouldn’t have turned the lock.

 

Then a pair of couples on a hire boat turned lock 1 behind an exiting boat as I was exiting lock 2. They apologised without being prompted by me so I let that go, not least because they were clearly foreign visitors.

I know the predominant cause of water shortages in this area lies with CRT but boaters can and should do more to use what is available wisely.

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Captain Pegg