Boat untethered overnight - Stone

[Elmo]

Hello everyone! 

Scary wake up this morning, woke up to find us drifting along the canal. 
 

No idea who, but someone decided to unmoor us overnight. Left our chains in the armco at the original mooring ropes still attached. Not the greatest of wake ups! 
 

This was before bridge 96a going into Stone near the winding hole. 

 

[pedlar]

Comes with the job.

Has done for many years.

[Momac]

 

I understand some boaters will think it is acceptable to untie a boat if they think it is not moored appropriately (eg too close to a lock, water point or winding hole).

On the other hand it's not the first time I have heard of a boat being untied this year. Maybe the local village idiots think it's a good prank.

 

 

[Rob-M]

23 minutes ago, Elmo said:

Hello everyone! 

Scary wake up this morning, woke up to find us drifting along the canal. 
 

No idea who, but someone decided to unmoor us overnight. Left our chains in the armco at the original mooring ropes still attached. Not the greatest of wake ups! 
 

This was before bridge 96a going into Stone near the winding hole. 

 

Were your ropes tied back to your boat so they would have had to climb onboard to untie...?

 

We usually moor opposite the Fuller's yard if above Stone.

[Elmo]

11 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Were your ropes tied back to your boat so they would have had to climb onboard to untie...?

 

We usually moor opposite the Fuller's yard if above Stone.

They were yep! Loop the rope through the chain and then tie onto the boat. 
 

That where we moored last year! Getting some help from Joe at Fullers soon   

[Alan de Enfield]

21 minutes ago, Elmo said:

They were yep! Loop the rope through the chain and then tie onto the boat. 

 

But if you were moored (say) starboard side to , did you take the mooring lines over the boat and tie off on the port side (meaning the baddies had to get onto and across the boat to untie you ?)

[Tonka]

1 hour ago, Elmo said:

Hello everyone! 

Scary wake up this morning, woke up to find us drifting along the canal. 
 

No idea who, but someone decided to unmoor us overnight. Left our chains in the armco at the original mooring ropes still attached. Not the greatest of wake ups! 
 

This was before bridge 96a going into Stone near the winding hole. 

 

What's scary about it. 

Your not going to go anywhere

I would agree with you if you were on a river moored opposite the top side of a weir in flood conditions and got set adrift.

[Elmo]

26 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

But if you were moored (say) starboard side to , did you take the mooring lines over the boat and tie off on the port side (meaning the baddies had to get onto and across the boat to untie you ?)

It is now! Thank you for the tip! The front T is near impossible to reach from the tow path so they’d have to come aboard to undo that one 

[mrsmelly]

Happens a lot. A very regular occurrence in Banbury. When moored in places like York or on the Trent etc we always used chains and padlocks as a just in case. 

[magnetman]

3mm long link stainless chain is a good backup. 

 

Easy to open an end link into a round with pliers and a screw driver so the rest can be put through it then shackle the free end right to the Boat somewhere. 

 

It's only 280kg breaking strain but as a backup it will work. 

It's nice and light and easy to deploy much more convenient and subtle than ordinary chain.

 

Get the DIN rated stuff for strength.

 

 

 

https://www.gsproducts.co.uk/3mm-stainless-steel-long-link-chain/

Edited December 8, 2025 by magnetman

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Elmo said:

Hello everyone! 

Scary wake up this morning, woke up to find us drifting along the canal. 
 

No idea who, but someone decided to unmoor us overnight. Left our chains in the armco at the original mooring ropes still attached. Not the greatest of wake ups! 
 

This was before bridge 96a going into Stone near the winding hole. 

 

I have only had that happen once at Runcorn 

[dmr]

You can get a bit of trouble anywhere. A few years ago the new sports centre at Stone had all its windows smashed. We have had stuff stolen from the boat in some very posh places. 

[magnetman]

7 minutes ago, dmr said:

. We have had stuff stolen from the boat in some very posh places. 

It's probably Labour taxes meaning middle class people have to steal to still afford to shop in Waitrose and buy little Billy the organic muesli he needs to thrive.

[mrsmelly]

11 minutes ago, dmr said:

You can get a bit of trouble anywhere. A few years ago the new sports centre at Stone had all its windows smashed. We have had stuff stolen from the boat in some very posh places. 

Yep. We were stoned three times only in over 3o years aboard, traveling hither an thither and two of those times were entering Thrupp ont toxford. 

[b00ke23]

40 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Yep. We were stoned three times only in over 3o years aboard, traveling hither an thither and two of those times were entering Thrupp ont toxford. 

 

Glad you managed to give up the weed eventually! 😂

[MtB]

Indeed. I know several boaters who get stoned every night. 

 

 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Yep. We were stoned three times only in over 3o years aboard, traveling hither an thither and two of those times were entering Thrupp ont toxford. 

Circa 1982 I got shot by an airgun while passing through the Goscote Hall estate, Walsall, on the Wyrley & Essington Canal. As I was single handed at the time (and long before mobile phones) there wasn't much I could do but keep going. Airgun pellets sting, even through thick jeans.

Passed through the area again more recently. Completely different. The dense council housing and the grim somewhat threatening environment of the 80s has been replaced by modern housing, with much landscaping, and the whole area felt as safe as anywhere else.

[Stroudwater1]

Wasn’t it at Stone where the guy had an Elsan contents poured over the boat from a bridge? 
 

We must have been lucky as getting untied at night has never happened to us yet.

 

We sometimes use cable ties around the lines. There are good reusable ones that are fast to undo but look like they aren’t. 

[Arthur Marshall]

If they can't untie them they'll cut them. It happens because a fair proportion of humanity are fools. Mine got cut a few years back in between a couple of the  locks just north of the Harecastle, woke up bumping about in a lock - presumably they'd shoved that open too. At least they hadn't let the water out, that could have been a bit tricky.

 

[bizzard]

A good wheeze to stop the boat drifting away is to just tie a heavy weight to the end of your centre rope and chuck it over on the opposite side so that if your main ropes are let go you won't drift far. 

[Mike Tee]

^^^ I've often used one of my 56lb ballast weights for this, particularly if the bank is very soft with the chance of a pin coming out.

[matty40s]

2 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Yep. We were stoned three times only in over 3o years aboard, traveling hither an thither and two of those times were entering Thrupp ont toxford. 

Shouldnt have smoked then...🤗

56 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

 

We sometimes use cable ties around the lines. There are good reusable ones that are fast to undo but look like they aren’t. 

The cable ties are a good idea, but when we arrived in central Brum on OF for the 2015 BCN challenge with the Kiwis in board...the only available moorings left at Alberts Garden Moorings were about 60 feet long...several boats had large gaps. 

So we(I) moved the Bearwood Boster about 10 feet along, carefully loosening the cable ties unhooking the lines and carefully redoing everything on the next bollard along.

I did admit moving them, and they hadnt noticed moving.🙂

[Peugeot 106]

Hi Elmo how’s the smoking engine? Did you find out what the problem was?

[Elmo]

12 minutes ago, Peugeot 106 said:

Hi Elmo how’s the smoking engine? Did you find out what the problem was?

Hey Peugeot, we’re now at the point it won’t even turn over. It clicks and tries but not successful. Got an engineer coming on Wednesday:). 

[Peugeot 106]

Oh well good luck let us know how you get on