How to deal with reeds and when and how often are they cleared

[SLC]

Given the issues with weeds on the Northampton Arm this morning, 27 July 2023, we were wondering what is the best equipment / tools to have on board for dealing with the issues? Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

One poor woman said she had short arms so did not have to bend down to hack out the reeds but more serious suggestions would be appreciated!

[magnetman]

Good solid boathook with the inside of the crook part filed down to make a blade. Lean over the side of the boat or work from the bank and hoick out the weeds. 

 

This is what the boatmen of ye olde days of yore did. I'll put a picture up of an example hook in a minute. 

 

 

Weed hatch is a red herring. Well these days with polymeric materials it is useful but if it is only vegetation then you do it without the weed hatch. 

[Tracy D'arth]

Shrug it off in reverse.

 

If you are collecting too much you need to sharpen your propeller so it cut them up. 

[magnetman]

 

 

This sort of thing 

 

2 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Shrug it off in reverse.

 

If you are collecting too much you need to sharpen your propeller so it cut them up. 

Chucking back is a way to remove light fouling. It means putting it in reverse for an instant to allow the stuff to fall off then back in forward. A lot of people seem to think it means revving up in reverse but this has the opposite effect. 

[SLC]

Love your footer Tracy. Too many people are over sensitive or read things that were never intended. One of the boats at least was trying to do this but it did not help that a boat has been moored up for at least a week between locks 14 and 15 so passage through the centre of the canal is not really possible.

[Alan de Enfield]

23 minutes ago, SLC said:

One poor woman said she had short arms so did not have to bend down to hack out the reeds but more serious suggestions would be appreciated!

 

 

Are you meaning how to clear a fouled prop, or are you meaning clearing reed growth from the canal itself ?

[magnetman]

What about a really tall person with short arms? I don't see how arm length would mean you ' did not have to bend down' unless you know about leg and torso length. 

 

 

 

Also a little unsure as to why poverty would come into it 'One poor woman...'

[SLC]

Alan. To be honest I am not sure how to approach or navigate the GU here in Northampton. Certainly one boater was doing something at the front but on the other boat someone with long arms was exploring the inner sanctum of the weed hatch using a tool of some description. The latter was stood still.

Are 2 tools required, a short on for use in the weed hatch and a longer one for prodding at a distance?

[magnetman]

The weedhatch tool may have been Bargee Bills prop cleaner. 

Not sure if these are produced any more but one could buy them at one stage. 

google image search result 

 

Interesting personal defence weapon as well although I find the cordless chainsaw a little more menacing and easier to manoover. 

[MtB]

6 minutes ago, SLC said:

Alan. To be honest I am not sure how to approach or navigate the GU here in Northampton. Certainly one boater was doing something at the front but on the other boat someone with long arms was exploring the inner sanctum of the weed hatch using a tool of some description. The latter was stood still.

Are 2 tools required, a short on for use in the weed hatch and a longer one for prodding at a distance?

 

Why not just cruise in the areas of the water without thick reeds? 

 

Or is there so little moving traffic on the GU nowadays that the canal is choked with them all across? 

 

 

[SLC]

The ponds look clear but they are regularly emptied. But on the Arm beyond lock 14, the weeds are down the middle and I would imagine the sides present a real risk of grounding. It has got really worse during the past week or so.

[magnetman]

Northampton is a terrible dump.

[PaulJ]

24 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Why not just cruise in the areas of the water without thick reeds? 

 

Or is there so little moving traffic on the GU nowadays that the canal is choked with them all across? 

 

 

It's the Northampton Arm. Can be a bit of a buggar down the bottom end. 

People cruise in areas of water without thick reeds by avoiding it 😀

[BEngo]

No boats = clear water= weed growth.

The answer to weed is boat movement, before the growth season starts.  That makes the water turbid and there is not enough light for the weed to become a problem.

 

Once you are in it my tactic is sprint and drift.  Get some momentum, accepting a build up of weed on the bats, then knock it into neutral and drift.  This shifts most of the weed from the bats. Once you have slowed to about half speed into reverse at tickover ( shifts more weed) then  immediately back into ahead and wind it on again.  Rinse and repeat till you get wherever.

 

Eventually you will need a rake out, but IME  much  less often than trying to power through weed.

 

N

[blackrose]

3 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Shrug it off in reverse.

 

 

I tend to agree. I never have issues with weeds around the prop. Well they may be wrapped around the shaft but it never seems to affect propulsion and if it did I'd just clear it by going into reverse for a few seconds.

 

I'm on the Nene so I don't really understand why others seem to struggle with weeds? If it's a small cruiser with an outboard I could understand but a narrowboat prop with all that torque behind it should be able to cut through weeds.

 

 

[nicknorman]

The bottom of the Northampton arm was very slow when we traversed it a couple of weeks ago. But mostly due to it being extremely shallow, rather than the weed. Going back up in a week or so, so we shall see…

[SLC]

It is shallow especially at the sides. Sections often low due to blockages and gates left open, also locals open locks to dtain canal for fish. Whatever, it always amazes me how shallow it is, saucer shaped even! It is the long straggly stuff that is causing a problem.

I repeat, traffic along this section appears to be lower than in previous years. Subjective perhaps.

[enigmatic]

4 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Why not just cruise in the areas of the water without thick reeds? 

 

Or is there so little moving traffic on the GU nowadays that the canal is choked with them all across? 

It's the Northampton Arm, it's narrow, ultra shallow, only used by boaters with Gold Licences and the weeds do go all across.

 

I saw three boats on the flight when I was doing it, and thought that was as busy as I've seen it!

 (plus the guy moored between 14 and 15 people are complaining about who did, tbf, check that it was weeds and not depth that was meaning I was struggling to pass him)

 

 

The weeds are mostly soft stuff that can actually be removed with bare hands as well as anything remotely sharp (but also accumulates so slowly and layers itself so putting it into reverse doesn't do much). Your prop still rotates, but sometimes it's better not to have to rev like you're on a river to achieve tickover speed.

Nothing like as bad as the Middle Level last year though..

[nbfiresprite]

On 29/07/2023 at 17:05, SLC said:

It is shallow especially at the sides. Sections often low due to blockages and gates left open, also locals open locks to dtain canal for fish. Whatever, it always amazes me how shallow it is, saucer shaped even! It is the long straggly stuff that is causing a problem.

I repeat, traffic along this section appears to be lower than in previous years. Subjective perhaps.

 

Some of the pounds have been leaking for years on the flight. What puts people off is arriving at the top lock and finding that the flight has a number of empty pounds which have drained through the day due to leaks in the lining. When there was a flight keeper it was not too bad as they run water down to fill the pounds that were draining. Facing a string of empty pounds, people turnround and go elsewhere, unless they have just paid for a EA visiters licence from the Marina, so will spend some hours refilling the flight, something I have had to do myself.

[matty40s]

I always take LOTS of water down with me, once being admonished for getting 6 locks down before CRT arrives for the daily filling. 

Problem is, once you get beyond the motorway, the water disappears somewhere and the bottom end is always a drag.

[Captain Pegg]

Came down the Northampton Arm this afternoon on a 35’ narrowboat with no problems.

 

The longer pounds toward the bottom are narrow, shallow, have prolific reed growth down the sides and plenty of greenery growing from the bed which overall means they are slow going.

 

But they are far from impassible and nowhere near as difficult as I’ve experienced on the Erewash and parts of the BCN. I kicked back the prop a couple of times to check if it was fouled but it made no difference so I concluded it was just disturbance of the flow from the weeds on the bottom. I had no reason no go near the weedhatch. I just selected an amount of revs that gave me tolerable forward momentum without a massively disturbed prop wash and plodded on. Maybe did 2mph for a mile or so. No great problem.

 

Passed four boats heading up the flight, evidently none of whom experienced anything they thought they should warn me about.

[pearley]

On 29/07/2023 at 18:01, enigmatic said:

 

The weeds are mostly soft stuff that can actually be removed with bare hands as well as anything remotely sharp (but also accumulates so slowly and layers itself so putting it into reverse doesn't do much). Your prop still rotates, but sometimes it's better not to have to rev like you're on a river to achieve tickover speed.

 

We went up Burwell Lode of the River Cam a month ago. A boat had just come from the end and presumably cut a lot of the weed back but returning next day we had 8 visits down the weed hatch in the 3 mile length. As you say, putting it in reverse didn't do much. The weed didn't just wrap round the prop but around the tiller stock and up into the tube it sits in.  And then there was the mass of blanket weed that built up at the bow necessitating Jeannette standing in the well deck with the boat hook dragging it off.

 

I might be stupid but going up again September.

[SLC]

But the other day several boats were stuck and they were very frustrated. I suspect they cleared much of the weed! There is a significant amount of floating weed up on the canal bank where it has been removed and it was interesting watching people's efforts. One boater was certainly revving the engine in an attempt to get through but it does appear that far fewer people are using the arm this year than in previous years. Almost daily we walk from lock 14 to lock 1 and during the week there are imho far fewer boats than in previous years which I gather will to some extent keep the weed down.

It looks better now but it did remind me of the canal just after lockdown.

[Cheshire cat]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned. 

We think that the impact of weed is influenced by the shape of your swim and the amount of prop shaft in the water. Our shared boat had a poor swim shape and a prop shaft protruding maybe six inches from the sterntube and used to pick up everything from reeds to builders bags to tracky bottoms. 

 

The current boat simply doesn't.