Escape from flooded mooring on the Soar

[Alway Swilby]

This took place on 6th December. The chap was stranded on the Soar between Kegworth Flood Lock and Ratcliffe Lock. The speed that the river rose took him by surprise. He had been moored on piling with over two feet of piling above the water line. The next morning his boat was floating over the towpath so he had to do something. Here is a 360 degree video of his escape to a safer mooring. https://youtu.be/Bc9S9V2AHoI  You can drag the cursor around the screen to get the 360 degree view.

 

[Rickent]

Brown trousers for sure.

[matty40s]

He was very lucky, madness not to be near or even IN a lock when the Soar goes like that.

Last boat that moored where he did during a flood spent several years stuck up in the trees by the wier that almost took PinkHatMans front end.

 

[Rickent]

It's been interesting on our bit of the Soar this week, that's for sure.

[matty40s]

More to come yet!!

 

...but you are a underwater towpath cycling expert so know how to deal with the Soar.

[Rickent]

7 hours ago, matty40s said:

More to come yet!!

 

...but you are a underwater towpath cycling expert so know how to deal with the Soar.

Absolutely, years of practice.🙂

[blackrose]

You certainly want to be moored up safely well before the river you're on starts to flood and knowing what is and isn't a safe mooring is part of that. I don't know about the Soar but most rivers are more treacherous before they actually flood. Once a river bursts its banks it's generally a bit more benign in terms of current & flow than it was leading up to the flood. I think you can see that in the video - the flow doesn't seem too bad and I've been out on my boat in worse than that. Once the flood subsides the flow will again increase as the river "channels" within its restricted banks. 

 

By the way, that's the first time I've ever seen a 360 degree interactive video. I've no idea what sort of equipment is required to make it, but clearly despite what he says about almost sinking, the boater in the video must have been reasonably relaxed in order to focus some of his attention on shooting a video rather than concentrating fully on getting his boat out of trouble.

Edited December 8, 2023 by blackrose

[TheBiscuits]

1 hour ago, blackrose said:

By the way, that's the first time I've ever seen a 360 degree interactive video. I've no idea what sort of equipment is required to make it, but clearly despite what he says about almost sinking, the boater in the video must have been reasonably relaxed in order to focus some of his attention on shooting a video rather than concentrating fully on getting his boat out of trouble.

 

Two fisheye lenses on a tripod.  I've not watched the video in question, but if it's the usual kit it's just a case of set it up and hit record - no user intervention required until stopping recording.

 

 

[mykaskin]

And now I know why boat insurance is so expensive... so many mistakes he was very lucky not to end up needing to be rescued by the not very well trained rescue workers (fire brigade?) - don't they teach them about boats?

[sigsegv]

I've run into Elektra on a handful of occasions, most recently on the Peak Forest this summer. It's a very well kitted-out boat, with both bow and stern thrusters so it's certainly a boat that would be able to handle the situation, and the helmsman (sorry, don't know his name) seems very capable if, in this situation, maybe not the best judge of risk to go on the Soar in these conditions..... Very fortunate that such a capable boat was in that situation, not sure I'd've been so comfortable with it

Edited December 8, 2023 by sigsegv

[Peanut]

You can see him using the bow thruster in the video.

[matty40s]

1 hour ago, sigsegv said:

 It's a very well kitted-out boat, with both bow and stern thrusters so it's certainly a boat that would be able to handle the situation, and the helmsman (sorry, don't know his name) seems very capable if, in this situation, maybe not the best judge of risk to go on the Soar in these conditions..... Very fortunate that such a capable boat was in that situation, not sure I'd've been so comfortable with it

I'm sorry, but NO, you should not be attempting to navigate, especially backwards in those circumstances on the Soar, he was very lucky, and the river wasnt in full flood.....everything around there including the towpath under the A453 bridge disappears when it does. 

[Kiwidad]

Matty speaks from experience having overstayed for weeks in a lock at Sileby 😎

[dixi188]

Why did they moor using the centre rope? I would have thought that as soon as the boat was near the bank under the bridge, the bow line would have been best.

[Stilllearning]

17 hours ago, mykaskin said:

And now I know why boat insurance is so expensive... so many mistakes he was very lucky not to end up needing to be rescued by the not very well trained rescue workers (fire brigade?) - don't they teach them about boats?

Yes they do, I watched a crew refloat a sunken wooden boat as a training exercise.

[booke23]

This bit demonstrates nicely why you shouldn't stand within the tiller arc in these situations!

 

 

[Richard T]

He was very lucky to avoid a sinking. Where he has moored under the A453 bridge is not a good place. There are odd baulks of timber bolted to the piling, many of these are missing leaving an array of bolts sticking out ready to catch the side of the boat or for the baseplate to catch on. The owner should have looked at the forecast and moored in a safe place, in the area the only one is above Kegworth Deep lock. But driving along the A6 today I noticed that the river has burst its banks along that reach which is a rare occurence.

He'll be lucky to get to a safer mooring before Christmas with the amount of rain we've had recently.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Richard T

[Wanderer Vagabond]

As many have said he is extremely lucky to have escaped that situation (even though he's still not home and dry). The immediate question that came to my mind was WTF was he doing even being out on the river in those conditions? That rainfall hasn't happened within the last hour so he can't have 'just been caught out'. It doesn't take a genius to work out that if the flow seemed quite slow back on the Trent where it is wider, it is clearly going to speed up a lot once you get on a narrower piece of river to the degree that in a narrowboat you simply wont make any progress against the flow.

 

I have travelled on rivers with that amount of flow, they have all been tidal (Trent,Thames,Ouse etc.) and always with the current/tide and knowing that as the tide turns the flow will ease. On a non-tidal inland waterway casting off under those conditions is just insanity.

[LadyG]

On 09/12/2023 at 13:50, dixi188 said:

Why did they moor using the centre rope? I would have thought that as soon as the boat was near the bank under the bridge, the bow line would have been best.

I assume it was just a quick fix, that's often how I use a Centreline, then do the bow and stern. Not sure how he nearly sank, seemed to be plenty of water! I assume he knows the river and now knows it even better.

 

[matty40s]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

I assume it was just a quick fix, that's often how I use a Centreline, then do the bow and stern. Not sure how he nearly sank, seemed to be plenty of water! I assume he knows the river and now knows it even better.

 

No he doesnt, and where he currently is moored is NOT safe if the river really let's rip.

The area behind him has been compromised as a flood plain as CRT saw fit to dredge the channel and pile the debris along the adjoining field side. Not only does this create a higher flow channel, it also accelerates the flow onto the Ratcliffe lock gates....which will suffer.

[Alway Swilby]

5 minutes ago, matty40s said:

No he doesnt, and where he currently is moored is NOT safe if the river really let's rip.

The area behind him has been compromised as a flood plain as CRT saw fit to dredge the channel and pile the debris along the adjoining field side. Not only does this create a higher flow channel, it also accelerates the flow onto the Ratcliffe lock gates....which will suffer.

Yes. It's not safe. But it's safer than where he was with the bow over the towpath and the stern over the channel. I've been in contact with him on the phone and he realises he's made a mistake by being on the river in the first place. But he is where he is and until the river goes down some he can't really move from there. I've told him to get to Zouch cut just as soon as the river lets him. How is it above Kegworth Deep? Is that a safe place?

[matty40s]

If he can get above Kegworth Deep it is better, however, Kegworth flood lock probably is underwater and locked at present, so not an option yet...

Dryer weather looks likely about a week away.....

The Soar may go down quickly, however, if he turns to go back to Mercia, the Trent may well still be un-navigable.

[Hudds Lad]

I feel cheated, his hat wasn't even pink  

[matty40s]

Well it seems he survived and escaped to India for New Year.

The Soar is within 3" of its 2012 levels today, a stalled weather front has dropped a massive amount of water onto the Nene, Avon and Soar catchment areas overnight....all the fields below Stowe Hill are underwater for the first time in years.

 

Oy, that's MY lock...

 

 

Wide boat being bashed both ends by the wier and millstream...

 

If  you have flood gates you are supposed to install them BEFORE the water covers your car park.. 

[Richard T]

Thanks for posting @matty40s

Thats our boat behind the wide beam Fortunately the boatyard owner has two of the day boats moored elsewhere so we are moored away from the flow from the weirs. We are not planning to visit it in the next few days, it would mean paddling to get there.

The levels were higher about 4 weeks ago as the floods went into the workshop for the first time for about 20years.