Lock Entrance

[Liam]

The bottom lock on the Middlewhich 3 has a weir which is normally okay but it had been raining heavily and it's right across the lock entrance.

 

4 boats went up the lock before me, all friends so we had plenty of fun all laughing at each other. When it was my turn I went for it, and with only having a very slow revving single cylinder engine it took me a while to pick up enough revs and speed to keep a heading. I did, however, manage to get into the lock without touching the sides - all the others did - and one even went in at 45 degrees. What a bang.

Edited April 29, 2005 by Liam

[Webchem]

Any lock is hard if some inconsiderate (and there are many of these) person sees you coming and sets it against you so that you have to wait. Never mind the water wastage.

 

Taking a good look round is always a smart idea.

 

I agree about the Lapworth lock - can be tough.

 

The most entertaining is watching people meet on the Caen Hill, two doubling up meet 2 doubling down. This is especially amusing if the boats are all over 65 foot and with inexperienced crews.

 

Many amusing moments!

 

Jools

Edited April 30, 2005 by Webchem

[jmj]

Not a difficult lock just a fat boat and for some reason he'd gone in stern first

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Maybe he was coming out of the lock

[gralyn]

I would nominate Selby on the Yorkshire Ouse. Like Keadby on the Trent you have to pass the lock and breast the flow of the river to get in.

[mike_modelboater]

been doing some work on the trip boat on the chesterfield

 

and come across a great lock if you like your paintwork, the hollingwood lock.

 

the bywash comes out just below the lock under the lead in bridge, nicely washing the boat against the wall. and just to make it more fun theres metal stop plank rails about a foot away from the bywash to scrape more paint off

 

 

will try and get a picture up int he gallery

[Hairy-Neil]

I would nominate Selby on the Yorkshire Ouse. Like Keadby on the Trent you have to pass the lock and breast the flow of the river to get in.

 

Selby is fun coming out of the lock onto the river too. Most boaters also ignore the swing bridge bylaws and take a run at it. I rememeber once seeing a narrowboat with badly damaged steelwork that had hit the swingbridge.....

 

Entering Eynsham Lock on the higher Thames from downstream can be fun if the river is running strong. There's virtually no lock cut and the river forms a huge eddy current.

[blackrose]

The trickiest lock entrance I've done is from the tidal Thames into Limehouse basin.

 

 

You're coming down the river as the ebb tide is flowing at its fastest approaching a blind bend & watching out for some very fast hydrofoil passenger boats which come up and down. When you're just past the entrance on the other side of the river you turn to port & get swept downstream, turning the bow upstream and then you make your way back up to the entrance.

 

Then you make a second turn into the entrance giving it full throttle to avoid the eddies & counter the current on your stern as the bow goes into the cut. If you turn too early the tide will push you onto the downstream wall.

 

 

(looking upstream from the entrance at low tide)

 

Some more experienced boaters cross the river early and go straight into the entrance, but this reduces control as the tide is going with you which means less water flowing over your rudder, leaving less margin for error, and if you get it wrong you could get smashed onto the downstream wall by the ebbing tide.

 

If you don't fancy this but still want to take your boat under Tower Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament, Millenium Wheel, Battersea Power Station etc, then you can do it the other way round and enter the tideway at Limehouse exiting at Brentford or Teddington. It's much easier, you don't have to cross the river and there are no difficult lock entrances. Just talk to the lockkeepers first - they'll give you a useful booklet, and make sure you carry a decent anchor & chain.

Edited June 24, 2006 by blackrose

[Hairy-Neil]

Another I've just thought of is entering County Lock on the Kennet at Reading going downstream when there is a flow on the river, which means most of the time......not for the feint hearted. Try it with a motor and butty too if you want an exciting life.

[doomed1]

Its laugh out loud but i just think that this isn't really the place to use text speak - spellings are different eg: comumer (missed out S) but text speak can get a wee bit anoying!

 

 

LOL

[MartinClark]

Sam and Doomed1 - LOL means "laughing out loud" and was in use on the internet long before text messaging became popular, so it is incorrect to object to it as "text speak".

 

Anyway, to keep this post on topic, I have a photo of a hire boat making an interesting attempt to get into Alrewas Lock.

 

 

Not in the same white knuckle category as Tarleton, but I have found found it tricky getting between the two sets of narrow staircase locks at Stourport - they are not in line and if you don't get it just right there can be a lot of embarrassing bumping and scraping!

[NB Esk]

Might be the angle the picture's taken from but the guy in Martin's photo looks to be pulling the wrong way (i.e. wedging it tighter).

 

You can see how hard they tried, by the wet mark up the wall...........

[MartinClark]

Might be the angle the picture's taken from but the guy in Martin's photo looks to be pulling the wrong way (i.e. wedging it tighter).

 

They had paused to wait for the other boat to come down through the lock came under the influence of the current flowing from under the bridge.

 

The guy on the bank obviously thought that he was helping to pull the boat towards the lock but, as you say, he was making things worse!

 

I just couldn't resist whipping my camera out.

 

Just like when I saw this boat having a spot of bother staying in a straight line going down the Stourbridge locks!

 

[bottle]

Has anybody noticed the similarity in both photo's..............................................................

..............................................................................

 

Answer: Martin is on scene,mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder?

[nbtafelberg]

LOL

 

makes me laugh - you do realise that it is an offence under BW byelaws for a boat to not have competant crew!

[Sir Nibble]

Just after buying my boat on the Wey, I decided to take a look at the Basingstoke before travelling round to the K&A, so armed with visitors licence I set off for a boat rally. First lock, no bother, loads of people taking money and manning the lock, next lock set against us. Another boat we were lock sharing with went alongside the bank ahead of us and we did likewise. Unfortunately ther was no proper waiting mooring and we were both aground. Much straining on poles later we locked up and made it to the next lock. Once again set against us so learning from the last one the other boat stayed in midstream whilst I moved over to one side and held the boat on a pole. Water comes down from the lock and BINGO! our companion is diagonally across the cut and aground at both ends.

And so it continued, no waiting moorings, and a succession of groundings only made possible by the people put ashore at the beginning of the trip who were walking when they expected to be boating. I did mention to a canal ranger that the lack of waiting moorings made life difficult and he beat down a clump of nettles to reveal a single round topped concrete post and about 6' of straightish bank with maybe 6" of water.

[NB Esk]

makes me laugh - you do realise that it is an offence under BW byelaws for a boat to not have competant crew!

 

MMmmmm........I think it's prob'ly an offence for the boat in the first pic to be making off with the balance beam, strapped to it's side

 

Not supposed to do that.........supposed to find logs an' branches an' stuff..........Ok,ok soz..............

[JohnOnTheWey]

The River WEy has a number of difficult locks

 

[snip]

 

 

Oh and then there is Coxes lock which has a very powerful weir stream accross its front as does Papercourt lock, these require you to blast your way through and then slap it in reverse to have any hope of not smacking the lock gates (70 footers!).

 

[snip]

 

 

Agree about Coxes lock - did it 4 times last weekend. On both the upstream occasions I was lock sharing and the other guys,who went in first, took the left side of the lock (which the weir stream pushes you on to) leaving me to thread the needle into the right of the lock whilst the stream was trying to push me sideways.

On both downstream times, I was sharing again and each time I was given the left side of the lock which meant me exiting straight into the weir stream and then having to try to avoid the roach poles of the anglers who delight in setting up immediately below the lock. Still, I was very grateful for the lock-sharing - quite tiring this single-handedness.

 

John