Sheffield to Anderton on Rallentando

[IanD]

8 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

What about a plank though?

 

I have a telescopic 6' long aluminium ramp intended for getting big dogs into cars, much more stable and secure than a plank so SWMBO is happy, rated to 140kgs, and folds down to fit into a cupboard at the stern next to the beer barrels... 😉

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PetSafe-Happy-Ride-Compact-Telescoping/dp/B082QBB8NY/

Edited October 13, 2023 by IanD

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

fair enough,

I’ve hardly used mine either

But it’s been invaluable on the odd occasion when I have needed it. 
 

I’ve probably used it most for closing lock gates. 
 

 

ah, 

a plank 😃

now I’ve very very very rarely used mine to the point of why have one,

but I know when I get rid of it I’ll need it,

 

 

 

Yes, I think we used ours a handful of times in 5/6 years but it was indispensable when we did actually need it.

1 minute ago, IanD said:

 

I have a telescopic 6' long aluminium ramp intended for getting big dogs into cars, much more stable and secure than a plank so SWMBO is happy, rated to 130kgs, and folds down to fit into a cupboard...

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PetSafe-Happy-Ride-Compact-Telescoping/dp/B082QBB8NY/

 

Neat, we toyed with similar as using our plank occasionally became a bit of a circus act. 

 

 

[Midnight]

1 minute ago, M_JG said:

 

Yes, I think we used ours a handful of times in 5/6 years but it was indispensable when we did actually need it.

I use mine when descending the short Calder & Hebble locks. The boat's too long to open our side gate if two boats are in. So I push across until I clear the mitre then open the gate.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

4 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

I have a telescopic 6' long aluminium ramp intended for getting big dogs into cars, much more stable and secure than a plank so SWMBO is happy, rated to 140kgs, and folds down to fit into a cupboard at the stern next to the beer barrels... 😉

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PetSafe-Happy-Ride-Compact-Telescoping/dp/B082QBB8NY/

great,

can use it to roll beer aboard,

I can’t argue with that. 

4 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

Yes, I think we used ours a handful of times in 5/6 years but it was indispensable when we did actually need it.

 
absolutely,

it hurt last year when I had to buy a new one for £50 or so, 

but money well spent. 

[Guest]

Of course on a boat like Rallentando that ramp should realy be electricaly operated emergeging from the cabin under remote control a bit like a Thunderbird with lots of beeps and lights as it touches down on the towpath.

 

Edited October 13, 2023 by M_JG

[IanD]

9 minutes ago, Midnight said:

I use mine when descending the short Calder & Hebble locks. The boat's too long to open our side gate if two boats are in. So I push across until I clear the mitre then open the gate.

I used the Schilling rudder to push the stern across -- with it hard over the wash comes out at right-angles and the boat only moves sideways, not forwards...

5 minutes ago, M_JG said:

Of course on a boat like Rallentando that ramp should realy be electricaly operated emergeging from the cabin under remote control a bit like a Thunderbird with lots of beeps and lights as it touches down on the towpath.

 

 

Maybe I'll suggest to Ricky that he offers this as an extra-cost option, like the electrically lifting/lowering dinette table... 😉

 

(and no I didn't -- nearly 2 grand to replace a tube leg and a couple of catches? )

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

2 minutes ago, IanD said:

I used the Schilling rudder to push the stern across -- with it hard over the wash comes out at right-angles and the boat only moves sideways, not forwards...

there might be another reason why you can’t go forward in a lock. 
 

[IanD]

1 minute ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

there might be another reason why you can’t go forward in a lock. 
 

Duh...

 

What I meant is that it generates sideways thrust a lot more effectively than a flat plate rudder, in spite of being smaller. Great for doing doughnuts... 😉

[Paul C]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

 

I don't see the point of pushing on past the Rose, Littleborough-Rose and Rose-Piccadilly are both similar time/effort -- and relatively easy days like today, not marathons like yesterday.

 

No I haven't got a pole/shaft and don't intend to get one, I've hardly used one in years and if I do need to push the boat sideways (the most common use for a pole) I have other ways of doing that at both ends of the boat which can push considerably harder than a boater on a pole... 😉

 

The only time I've ever actually needed a pole is when we got stuck on an underwater obstruction. Going against all advice, and with dusk approaching in a somewhat remote stretch of canal, we abused the pole and levered the boat off the underwater obstruction combined with rocking too. The pole survived, the boat was free. Never actually done "normal" pole stuff with it though.

 

Does your prop/rudder combination "squat"? (I am going to guess - yes - it obeys the laws of physics) in which case, its a somewhat rhetorical question, and in the similar situation above, you'd have been stuck until morning (no amount of power forwards or backwards got us unstuck, the more power, the more squat and we were more stuck, not less). Also I guess, a pole is handy for depth-gauging  - in the above, we were able to 'survey' the water around the boat to see where the underwater obstruction lay, and where deeper water was. But a broom or mop or similar, would have done the job there.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

I used the Schilling rudder to push the stern across -- with it hard over the wash comes out at right-angles and the boat only moves sideways, not forwards...

 

Maybe I'll suggest to Ricky that he offers this as an extra-cost option, like the electrically lifting/lowering dinette table... 😉

 

(and no I didn't -- nearly 2 grand to replace a tube leg and a couple of catches? )

 

Not lost your Yorkshire roots I see.

 

You see such silliness in caravans and motorhomes too, which eventually invariably go wrong.

[Victor Vectis]

2 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

 Which makes me wonder, have you not yet got a pole/shaft?

Oooer, matron.

 

That's a very personal question.

😃

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

12 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Oooer, matron.

 

That's a very personal question.

😃

 

matron a good shaft is needed to get up the Curly Wyrley!

[dmr]

I believe the correct historic name is longshaft (vs cabinshaft which we now call boathook), so have you got a long shaft? 😀

 

I've not used my longshaft for a couple of weeks now.

[Victor Vectis]

Just now, dmr said:

I've not used my longshaft for a couple of weeks now.

Same here.

I think it's an age thing.

 

(I'm so old I can remember coal mines in Yorkshire)

[Stroudwater1]

You may be wise to get a long pole Ian. Used it four times in the last 3 years myself.

 

1 To push a dumped boat out of the way on a corner, boat had come untied at the bow and drifted across as a boat passing the other way had just gone by

2 To plumb depths to find optimal mooring near a lift bridge on the Oxford

3 to help a boat stuck on mud then slewed across the canal so we couldn’t pass. They didn’t have one 

4 to steer with from the bow  when we broke down and were pulled backwards by another boat for a few hundred yards 😞

 

I’ve used them in the past for getting tyres clear from gates, levering a mattress away from the boat  as well as pushing off when the level of a river had dropped and we had no  way of pushing off otherwise. It’s  also helped retrieve a bike that came off someone’s roof and retrieve clothes that had blown in.   

Hopefully you won’t regret not having one to gently fend off the good folk of Newton Heath 🤣

[Rob-M]

A long pole is handy for dropping down the bottom gates when leaking very badly and preventing getting a level to open the top gate.

 

And a short shaft for closing bottom gates when exiting a lock.

Edited October 14, 2023 by Rob-M

[IanD]

54 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

You may be wise to get a long pole Ian. Used it four times in the last 3 years myself.

 

1 To push a dumped boat out of the way on a corner, boat had come untied at the bow and drifted across as a boat passing the other way had just gone by

2 To plumb depths to find optimal mooring near a lift bridge on the Oxford

3 to help a boat stuck on mud then slewed across the canal so we couldn’t pass. They didn’t have one 

4 to steer with from the bow  when we broke down and were pulled backwards by another boat for a few hundred yards 😞

 

I’ve used them in the past for getting tyres clear from gates, levering a mattress away from the boat  as well as pushing off when the level of a river had dropped and we had no  way of pushing off otherwise. It’s  also helped retrieve a bike that came off someone’s roof and retrieve clothes that had blown in.   

Hopefully you won’t regret not having one to gently fend off the good folk of Newton Heath 🤣

I'm aware that they can occasionally be useful, but most of the time they're just a lump of wood sitting on the roof getting in the way and warping in the sun and rain. And a boathook can be used for many of the purposes listed -- we used ours yesterday for pulling a metal mesh fencing panel out of the canal after we ran over it... 😞

Edited October 14, 2023 by IanD

[Hudds Lad]

One of these is useful to have, retrieved a nice ladies walking stick that she'd somehow dropped in the cut near Fenny Compton, she and her friends were trying to poke it with long sticks  

 

[Midnight]

34 minutes ago, IanD said:

I'm aware that they can occasionally be useful, but most of the time they're just a lump of wood sitting on the roof getting in the way and warping in the sun and rain. And a boathook can be used for many of the purposes listed -- we used ours yesterday for pulling a metal mesh fencing panel out of the canal after we ran over it... 😞

 

 

Damn! @Jon57 missed that one. Sorry @IanD

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2023 by Midnight

[Jon57]

12 minutes ago, Midnight said:

 

 

Damn! @Jon57 missed that one. Sorry @IanD

 

 

 

 

Must be related to the one we removed from piccadilly basin 🤔. I blame the parents, the breed like rabbits. 🤣

[Tony Brooks]

Boat poles are also useful for keeping the boat off the Shropie shelf and preventing it riding over the bank if you happen to get caught in high water on a river. however, I doubt Ian's boat has suitable handrails to tie them.

[Paul C]

Put simply: a boat pole isn't needed, until its needed.

[Richard T]

One lock on the Soar where you should tie the boat off at the front when going uphill is Barrow Deep otherwise the flow will just drag the bow away and you then get a heel if you are moored on a centre line.. And one where you need a long shaft in the mitre is Ratcliffe especially going downhill when you are trying to fill the lock. Going up hill you can nudge the gates to get a level.

@IanDyour new boat looks good - enjoy it.

[IanD]

Now need some advice -- and please don't come back unhelpfully with " you should have got a cassette toilet"... 😉

 

Level of pumpout tank suddenly shot up ftom 65% to 100%, meaning the gauge calibration is off -- and poking a stick down the pumpout access confirms this. So now need a pumpout ASAP -- we've just left the Rose of Lancaster heading to Piccadilly tonight, as far as I can see New Islington Marina is the only option, unless I'm missing something...

 

And I can't find a contact number for them to ask if they do pumpouts (I expect they do...), and specifically on a Sunday... 😞

Edited October 15, 2023 by IanD

[Jon57]

25 minutes ago, IanD said:

Now need some advice -- and please don't come back unhelpfully with " you should have got a cassette toilet"... 😉

 

Level of pumpout tank suddenly shot up ftom 65% to 100%, meaning the gauge calibration is off -- and poking a stick down the pumpout access confirms this. So now need a pumpout ASAP -- we've just left the Rose of Lancaster heading to Piccadilly tonight, as far as I can see New Islington Marina is the only option, unless I'm missing something...

 

And I can't find a contact number for them to ask if they do pumpouts (I expect they do...), and specifically on a Sunday... 😞