W&B canal Sunk Boat

[max's son]

Worcester canal boat stuck in Gregory Mills top lock | Worcester News

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

The day before it was jammed in the lock with videos of them trying to move it levering the sides with a plank, next its on the bottom

[Hudds Lad]

2 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

The day before it was jammed in the lock with videos of them trying to move it levering the sides with a plank, next its on the bottom

I lost track of the thread, did they ever determine if it was fenders or a slightly fatter boat in a slightly thinner lock?

[ditchcrawler]

2 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

I lost track of the thread, did they ever determine if it was fenders or a slightly fatter boat in a slightly thinner lock?

I dont know, and the camera angle I couldn't see

[IanD]

29 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I dont know, and the camera angle I couldn't see

Looking at the photos the boat is significantly narrower than the lock.

 

So unless there was a brick out of place/sticking out and the boat fouled on that (or a big chunk of debris), fenders seem the most likely cause -- I saw exactly that happen to a boat coming up Foxton locks and they were lucky not to meet a similar fate... 😞 

 

(but that was a boat coming up and the boat at Worcester was going down -- something strange going on...)

Edited March 26 by IanD

[Rob-M]

Anyone know how it ended up sunk, half out the bottom gates, did it get jammed leaving the lock and the lock start refilling behind them...?

[Stilllearning]

Did perhaps someone try to flush it out by opening top paddles?

[Rob-M]

8 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

Did perhaps someone try to flush it out by opening top paddles?

That was what I was wondering, I've done it myself where I've tried to flush a boat out but it doesn't move and the water level in the lock starts rising. Fortunately I was watching the levels so closed the paddles.

[IanD]

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/24211362.happening-worcester-stuck-canal-boat/

 

It is believed that the boat first became stuck on Saturday at the Gregory Mills top lock, before succumbing to the water on Sunday afternoon.

 

According to the engineers the boat was not sitting level in the water when it passed through the lock. 

 

This resulted in the front baseplate getting stuck on the side wall of the lock as it was travelling from the top lock to the bottom lock. 

 

The boat then started to cant over before taking on water. 

 

 

[photo] The front of the boat laying on what appears to be a motorbike (Image: Daniel Kelly)

Edited March 26 by IanD

[Mike Todd]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

Looking at the photos the boat is significantly narrower than the lock.

 

So unless there was a brick out of place/sticking out and the boat fouled on that (or a big chunk of debris), fenders seem the most likely cause -- I saw exactly that happen to a boat coming up Foxton locks and they were lucky not to meet a similar fate... 😞 

 

(but that was a boat coming up and the boat at Worcester was going down -- something strange going on...)

Could equally be a piece of debris just below the surface that jams in (DAMHIK! - it's scary)) but that does not tell us why it sank.

[Tonka]

did they attend to the weedhatch in the lock and forget to put the lid back on. Which could explain their sinking on way out

[ditchcrawler]

They were well stuck, half out of the lock in the first video I saw

[Hudds Lad]

2 hours ago, IanD said:

fenders seem the most likely cause -- I saw exactly that happen to a boat coming up Foxton locks and they were lucky not to meet a similar fate... 😞

Met one coming down the Cheshire locks who'd hung in the lock as they emptied it on those rubber tube fenders. Passing walker told us there was a boat stuck two locks further down and by the time we got there they had got free by cutting them off and apart with a breadknife then refilling the lock until it bobbed free. They were sat on the lock landing having a little rest, the lady of the boat was quite upset and the gentleman was red in the face and covered in lock slime, said they'd been stuck in there for over an hour. We don't cruise with any on, but after that we made sure part of our setting off routine was double-checking we'd not left any fenders attached.

[IanD]

5 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

They were well stuck, half out of the lock in the first video I saw

Maybe on the alleged motorbike in the photo?

[gatekrash]

One of the guys off our marina passed him earlier that afternoon before it happened and says he definitely didn't have his fenders down, he stopped to chat to him for a while.

 

The fb posts from earlier on say they tried to flush out from the top. 

[ditchcrawler]

This was a comment on the newspaper report when someone asked how it happened 

 

No, there are earlier photos of the boat firmly wedged. This can happen because a brick has protruded from the lock wall over time or a ridge in the wall has developed at a particular height. It appears the owners tried the quite sensible remedy of opening the above paddles slightly and flushing the boat out the lock, but it remained wedged or caught on something so the extra water flooded the boat. It's always sad to see anyone's home and possessions get severely damaged like this, shame on those who think it's funny.

[IanD]

Just now, gatekrash said:

One of the guys off our marina passed him earlier that afternoon before it happened and says he definitely didn't have his fenders down, he stopped to chat to him for a while.

 

The fb posts from earlier on say they tried to flush out from the top. 

I can see lots of ways the boat could have got jammed, but it's difficult to understand why it ended up sunk the following day...

[gatekrash]

Photo from earlier whilst they were trying to free it

 

[IanD]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

This was a comment on the newspaper report when someone asked how it happened 

 

No, there are earlier photos of the boat firmly wedged. This can happen because a brick has protruded from the lock wall over time or a ridge in the wall has developed at a particular height. It appears the owners tried the quite sensible remedy of opening the above paddles slightly and flushing the boat out the lock, but it remained wedged or caught on something so the extra water flooded the boat. It's always sad to see anyone's home and possessions get severely damaged like this, shame on those who think it's funny.

 

Possible but there looks to be quite a big gap between boat and wall, getting hung up with some debris (motorbike? wood? log?) between boat and wall sounds more likely. Having said that the bows-on photo does look like it's quite a tight fit at the lock exit...

 

Trying to flush the boat out with water is understandable, but how did the water get high enough to sink the boat -- presumably via engine air inlets or similar? Surely this should have been possible to watch out for?

Edited March 26 by IanD

[cheesegas]

Speculating here but maybe coming out of the lock they got wedged sideways on the motorcycle, so they tried to raise the level in the lower pound to lift them off the motorcycle. Turned out they were wedged so tightly that the rising water didn't lift them and ended up downflooding the boat through a vent etc.

[frangar]

22 minutes ago, gatekrash said:

Photo from earlier whilst they were trying to free it

 

Looking at the tide marks on the wing walls and the hull it seems to me that the lower pound was down and the boat could well be sitting on something....if it then wedged and they tried to flush it through or refill the pound it only takes a low vent opening to cause an issue....

 

I have come close on few occasions to sinking my boat but thankfully got away with it mainly due to luck....it doesnt take much for a minor issue to become a big one...a slight distraction or a bad decision.

[ditchcrawler]

27 minutes ago, gatekrash said:

Photo from earlier whilst they were trying to free it

 

From this photo it looks as if the pound below the lock has dropped 6 to9" since the boat started to come out by looking at the water line on the wall and hull

[IanD]

1 hour ago, gatekrash said:

Photo from earlier whilst they were trying to free it

 

That looks like the bows have ridden up on something under the port side as it exited the lock, possibly the motorbike shown in the other photo. This would have lifted the port bows up and tilted the boat over to starboard, jamming it in the lock exit with the top starboard rubbing strake wedged against the wall. If the boat was going ahead when this happened it could have been firmly wedged, and it would be difficult or impossible to free it by levering with the plank as shown.

 

Probably the only way out would be to pull the boat backwards by going astern and hope that this pulled it off the obstruction, but if this had rolled forwards when the boat got on top and lifted the hull up even that might not work. Depending how the rubbing strake is wedged into the bricks, even raising the water level could very well make no difference (or make it worse), the bows will just stick there even if the stern lifts -- and if it doesn't and water floods into the boat, you've got a sunk boat.

 

I suspect the only way out would be to pull the boat backwards with a winch, but they didn't have one and there's probably nothing to attach it to down near boat level anyway -- pulling upwards with a winch attached at lockside would lift the stern and make things even worse.

 

Alternatively put a *big* bow fender on and use another boat in the pound below as a drift <THUMP> to try and knock the boat backwards into the lock -- after getting the water level back up to where it was when the boat got stuck... 😉 

 

43 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

From this photo it looks as if the pound below the lock has dropped 6 to9" since the boat started to come out by looking at the water line on the wall and hull

...which would have wedged it in even more firmly if the port bow was sitting on top of something... 😞 

Edited March 26 by IanD

[Ian Mac]

This lock is a known Pinch point to those of us with historic craft. The tail bay is falling in, a common failure with W&B locks,  many have been rebuilt over the years because of this failure. Once you know what to look for it is quite easy to spot the rebuilds.
It has probably moved to the point where normal boats are now getting stuck. C&RT of course will blame almost anything else rather than there own infrastructure.
Talking of W&B pinch points I believe the top lock at Taribiggee is also moving and has become a tighter pinch point.

The HNBC have been reporting a problem with this lock since 2016! Locks 3 & 10 are also on the move.

[IanD]

13 minutes ago, Ian Mac said:

This lock is a known Pinch point to those of us with historic craft. The tail bay is falling in, a common failure with W&B locks,  many have been rebuilt over the years because of this failure. Once you know what to look for it is quite easy to spot the rebuilds.
It has probably moved to the point where normal boats are now getting stuck. C&RT of course will blame almost anything else rather than there own infrastructure.
Talking of W&B pinch points I believe the top lock at Taribiggee is also moving and has become a tighter pinch point.

The HNBC have been reporting a problem with this lock since 2016! Locks 3 & 10 are also on the move.

 

It looks as if the problem was due to the boat getting stuck on something under the port bow (which is what the account of what happened said), and this then wedged it in the narrow lock tail -- which won't have helped, but it's not really a "normal boat now getting stuck" simply *because* the lock is too narrow, is it? Otherwise there would be multiple reports of this happening with "normal" boats (not wider historic ones...) at this lock.

 

Of course in an ideal world it ought to be fixed, but if it's not normally a problem for most boats I'm sure CART have got more pressing things to do with the money they haven't got than spend a fortune rebuilding a lock (and closing the canal for months). If it gets narrow enough to really be a problem they'll have to do this, like they've done at other locks (e.g. Hurlestone), but I can't see it happening for a one-off accident like this.

 

I'm sure this will (justifiably!) p*ss off historic boat owners whose boats get caught in tighter locks (like this) first, but CART have to prioritise things which cause problems for most boats not a few -- and yes the same could be said for dredging, where deep historic boats drag on the bottom first. But as everyone is well aware there isn't enough money to fix everything properly, so it's all down to priorities, and problems suffered mainly by a few historic boats are going to be well down the list... 😞 

Edited March 26 by IanD