I’m sure I’m being stupid but…..

[MtB]

6 hours ago, Midnight said:

Everyone thinks they can. The number of worn and leaking gate mitres suggests they can't. There are people on this forum who have complained when I've opened the second gate for them 🙄 

 

As a single hander I'll only thank you for that if you're going to hang around and close it for me too! 

 

 

[Momac]

16 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Crikey i do this all the time (just open the one lock gate).... is this considered bad practice?

Yes

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

7 hours ago, Midnight said:

Everyone thinks they can. The number of worn and leaking gate mitres suggests they can't. There are people on this forum who have complained when I've opened the second gate for them 🙄 

there are probably some who still manage to hit the gates
 

Last year I went down Stockton locks and had a volunteer lockie helping,
without having to discuss anything we had a good system going which involved opening just one gate,

got down in no time,

 

mind, boat’s only 48’ so very easy to manoeuvre out of a lock 

 

and that reminds me,

shared locks at calcutt with the bloke who does the helm courses, we used one gate,

which I’ve done many a time with others

 

so I think in all it’s widely practised to use a single gate. 

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Goliath

[Rob-M]

I'll generally only use one gate on wide locks as most of them Mrs-M is not able to cross the gates due to a dodgy knee.  This has included when sharing wide locks when the other boat only has two on board so one crew is setting ahead and the other working the current lock.  Often the closed gate will start opening by the water movement, then I have to get off to go and close it if I can't close it from the boat.

[ditchcrawler]

18 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Crikey i do this all the time (just open the one lock gate).... is this considered bad practice?

Only by some

[MumHunOnTheCanal]

I did not expect to start such an interesting discussion about using one gate! But it’s been very insightful  thank you x 

[LadyG]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Only by some

It's bad practice if you can't enter without scraping the gate: go very slowly, and be ready to " bend " round that gate, if you know what I mean. Some gates are pretty tight, but if you enter dead slow you can give the throttle a blast to correct the boat.

[IanD]

6 minutes ago, LadyG said:

It's bad practice if you can't enter without scraping the gate: go very slowly, and be ready to " bend " round that gate, if you know what I mean. Some gates are pretty tight, but if you enter dead slow you can give the throttle a blast to correct the boat.

 

The problem is that this is like driving, where everyone thinks they're an above-average driver and nobody admits to being a bad one -- if this was true, there would be far fewer accidents. Or in this case, much less mitre wear... 😉

[Higgs]

On balance, it is probably better to encourage the opening of the second gate. No one is on top form all the time, and there is more need to protect the equipment than protecting the convenience of not opening the second gate for the boater.

 

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

29 minutes ago, LadyG said:

It's bad practice if you can't enter without scraping the gate: go very slowly, and be ready to " bend " round that gate, if you know what I mean. Some gates are pretty tight, but if you enter dead slow you can give the throttle a blast to correct the boat.

I wouldn’t instruct ditchcrawler how to handle a boat, 😃

I expect he knows what he’s doing,

whether he chooses to use just one gate or no,

ditchcrawler does more locks over a year than many of us will do in a couple of year,

..or some in a life time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, Higgs said:

On balance, it is probably better to encourage the opening of the second gate. No one is on top form all the time, and there is more need to protect the equipment than protecting the convenience of not opening the second gate for the boater.

 

 

if you’ve enough crew then fair enough, yes,

 

and don’t forget there are plenty of locks without landings,

which means a lone boater has to put the boat in gear against the gates while they work the lock

 

[dmr]

16 minutes ago, Higgs said:

On balance, it is probably better to encourage the opening of the second gate. No one is on top form all the time, and there is more need to protect the equipment than protecting the convenience of not opening the second gate for the boater.

 

 

 

I think it now down to all of us to put in some effort to help to look after the canal system, even if this slows us down a bit.

The very obvious damage to many bottom gates proves that some boaters either just can't be bothered to open both gates, or think they can get through one gate when they can't.  And even those who can get through one gate will have accidents from time to time 😀.

If you have crew then you don't have to open the second gate all the way, just a foot or two should do.

Many inexperienced boaters, including hirers, go through one gate because this is now seen as the norm, so we all need to set a better example.

 

[Higgs]

5 minutes ago, Goliath said:

if you’ve enough crew then fair enough, yes,

 

and don’t forget there are plenty of locks without landings,

which means a lone boater has to put the boat in gear against the gates while they work the lock

 

 

If the reality is that it is unavoidable, fair enough. It must go with the territory, but otherwise, a single handler just has more to do. Takes a bit longer.

 

 

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

11 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

I think it now down to all of us to put in some effort to help to look after the canal system, even if this slows us down a bit.

The very obvious damage to many bottom gates proves that some boaters either just can't be bothered to open both gates, or think they can get through one gate when they can't.  And even those who can get through one gate will have accidents from time to time 😀.

If you have crew then you don't have to open the second gate all the way, just a foot or two should do.

Many inexperienced boaters, including hirers, go through one gate because this is now seen as the norm, so we all need to set a better example.

 

Not going to happen though is it,

especially while you got lazy fat blokes like me,

 

...perhaps the exercise will do me good 

 

just tiring enough just doing the maths of how many times I’d have to walk around the lock if I used both gates 

Possibly 4 times around the lock if I never used the boat to scoot from side to side,

Compared to 0,

 

now multiply that on just a 10 lock flight...

 

so not only time I’m saving but so much energy,

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Goliath

[dmr]

22 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Not going to happen though is it,

especially while you got lazy fat blokes like me,

 

...perhaps the exercise will do me good 

 

just tiring enough just doing the maths of how many times I’d have to walk around the lock if I used both gates 

Possibly 4 times around the lock if I never used the boat to scoot from side to side,

Compared to 0,

 

now multiply that on just a 10 lock flight...

 

so not only time I’m saving but so much energy,

 

Have you got fat? send us a picture 😀

I suspect you just push both gates open with your boat anyway 😀.

I agree, many single handers wont do it, but on the locks with a bridge right at the bottom gates then that would not be too much effort.

If half of boaters used both gates then that would be half the wear so I think using both gates should be the norm and then a few boaters can choose to only use one gate.

Coming down the Rochdale with another boat we found that many bottom gates would not open fully so used power and momentum to squeeze out of the locks so likely caused much more wear than you ever do.

[Higgs]

The recent work carried out on Stenson's (T&M) deep lock left the double gates springy and they would not close completely until water was let in. Is that normal, until some bedding in has taken place?

 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Higgs

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

1 minute ago, dmr said:

Have you got fat? send us a picture 😀

I suspect you just push both gates open with your boat anyway 😀.

I agree, many single handers wont do it, but on the locks with a bridge right at the bottom gates then that would not be too much effort.

If half of boaters used both gates then that would be half the wear so I think using both gates should be the norm and then a few boaters can choose to only use one gate.

Coming down the Rochdale with another boat we found that many bottom gates would not open fully so used power and momentum to squeeze out of the locks so likely caused much more wear than you ever do.

the problem with pushing both gates open on a fat lock is I then have two gates to shut,

and that involves walking around,

so if I am to push them open there is a knack to pushing just the one,

 

yes, I’ve thought about boats pushing out from behind gates that won’t fully open,

happens on narrow locks too,

it must add to wear/tear

 

yes, more fat on me than on a Tamworth pig

[dmr]

27 minutes ago, Goliath said:

the problem with pushing both gates open on a fat lock is I then have two gates to shut,

and that involves walking around,

so if I am to push them open there is a knack to pushing just the one,

 

yes, I’ve thought about boats pushing out from behind gates that won’t fully open,

happens on narrow locks too,

it must add to wear/tear

 

yes, more fat on me than on a Tamworth pig

 

Beer and age are a wicked combination but both are unavoidable.

33 minutes ago, Higgs said:

The recent work carried out on Stenson's (T&M) deep lock left the double gates springy and they would not close completely until water was let in. Is that normal, until some bedding in has taken place?

 

 

dunno   some gates always want to swing open but are not springy, I think its when they are hung at not quite the correct angle, and that does not get better over time.

[TheBiscuits]

1 hour ago, Higgs said:

it is probably better to encourage the opening of the second gate.

 

A roll of razor wire down the outside of the tailgates would mean everyone would open both ....

[Jon57]

1 hour ago, Goliath said:

Not going to happen though is it,

especially while you got lazy fat blokes like me,

 

...perhaps the exercise will do me good 

 

just tiring enough just doing the maths of how many times I’d have to walk around the lock if I used both gates 

Possibly 4 times around the lock if I never used the boat to scoot from side to side,

Compared to 0,

 

now multiply that on just a 10 lock flight...

 

so not only time I’m saving but so much energy,

 

And all that shoe leather. 😁

[LadyG]

3 hours ago, dmr said:

 

I think it now down to all of us to put in some effort to help to look after the canal system, even if this slows us down a bit.

The very obvious damage to many bottom gates proves that some boaters either just can't be bothered to open both gates, or think they can get through one gate when they can't.  And even those who can get through one gate will have accidents from time to time 😀.

If you have crew then you don't have to open the second gate all the way, just a foot or two should do.

Many inexperienced boaters, including hirers, go through one gate because this is now seen as the norm, so we all need to set a better example.

 

If I'm supposed to set an example, what I'll do is ask the examplee to open the second gate for me, job done 😄

[Jon57]

9 minutes ago, LadyG said:

If I'm supposed to set an example, what I'll do is ask the examplee to open the second gate for me, job done 😄

Should always open a door (gate) for a lady. But slam it on the way out 😁

[Ewan123]

4 hours ago, MumHunOnTheCanal said:

I did not expect to start such an interesting discussion about using one gate! But it’s been very insightful  thank you x 

You'll start interesting discussions with even the most innocuous of questions here and if you're lucky they might even relate to the question asked!

[Machpoint005]

4 hours ago, MumHunOnTheCanal said:

I did not expect to start such an interesting discussion about using one gate! But it’s been very insightful  thank you x 

 

It just goes to show that the only stupid question is the one you don't ask. 

 

 

[Midnight]

In practice you only need to open the second gate a few degrees. That can be done by standing over the mitres and slow donkey kicking the far gate.

Note to single handers who  don't wish to close both gates. No mitres were ever damaged by leaving one gate open a fraction but using a boat pole does the job.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

👍 I do a mixture of that too,

 

and a partially opened paddle will gently shut an half open gate