Rochdale Canal leak - Canal is dry.

[Alan de Enfield]

Reported11 hours ago.

 

The owner of a 'pirate boat' has described how his barge has been left stranded after a stretch of canal suddenly emptied for the second time in six months.

Army veteran Dave Marshall, 53, awoke on board his canal boat — known locally as the Manchester Pirate Boat due to its distinctive decoration — puzzled as to why he found himself pushed up against the wall on Wednesday morning. When he peered outside, the reason became immediately apparent; a stretch of the Rochdale Canal beside New Islington Marina had almost completely drained.

It marks the second occasion the canal has emptied in the past six months, raising serious concerns amongst a small community of boat owners at New Islington Marina.

David, a self-confessed eccentric, waded through the shallow waters searching for a wallet his friend had misplaced. He came up empty-handed on the wallet front, but did manage to retrieve two iPhones and a pair of false teeth.

 

He said: "When I woke up I thought 'why the hell am I pinned against the wall?' I looked outside and I could see there was no water again. I was like 'Jesus'. I was supposed to be taking my boat into dry dock to have it pressure-washed, for resin treating and painting." He described the sudden draining of the canal as 'dangerous'. He added: "I've seen three people fall in here. If you fall in this, what are you going to hit and how far are you going to fall?"

 

He and fellow boat owners said last September's sudden draining of the canal was caused by a leak while he attributes the latest incident to a botched repair at a nearby culvert. Boat owners raised concerns back in September that the debris lining the marina bed could puncture the hulls of wide-bottomed vessels.

 

 

The charity, which is responsible for maintaining the canal, pointed to a nationwide water shortage triggered by an exceptionally dry spring and summer the previous year.

Water levels at Islington Marina remained low on Monday afternoon, though no boats had run aground as yet.

[Hudds Lad]

I do love a self-confessed eccentic. "I'm crazy me. Watch, i'll do summat mad in a minute"

[Mike Todd]

I wonder what the boats in the marina are made from if sinking into the usual mixture of bikes and trollies might puncture the bottom.

[billh]

3 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

I wonder what the boats in the marina are made from if sinking into the usual mixture of bikes and trollies might puncture the bottom.

Having seen the bottom of several boats based at New Islington , they tend to be  made of  thin ferrous oxide occasionally  part covered with bitumen.

Those boats  are protected from sinking by the marina being drained, thus saving the owners from expensive repairs😄

[phantom_iv]

Failure of a temporary repair of a culvert according to CRT… does raise the usual questions!

[carlt]

Did the teeth fit?

[Adam]

I can feel a go fund me

[Mike Todd]

20 hours ago, phantom_iv said:

Failure of a temporary repair of a culvert according to CRT… does raise the usual questions!

I think the hope had been to do a quick temp fix now and plan properly later out of season. Turned out that the temp fix needed more doing but it was worth the try.

[Alan de Enfield]

28 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

I think the hope had been to do a quick temp fix now and plan properly later out of season. Turned out that the temp fix needed more doing but it was worth the try.

 

Surely when it leaked 6 months ago that was "out of season" and a repair could have been undertaken with minimum inconvenience.

 

[Mike Todd]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Surely when it leaked 6 months ago that was "out of season" and a repair could have been undertaken with minimum inconvenience.

 

From what I have read it was assessed as a significant repair/reinstatenent task and, I guess, one that would need programming in. Quite often a 'proper job' on a culvert involves negotiations with other landowners which can sometimes be lengthy. If so, then a temp fix seems like a fair attempt at keeping open a canal that has yet to develop it's full potential for moving traffic. As we have seen, the latter number if static boats can be protected by closures.

[David Mack]

4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Surely when it leaked 6 months ago that was "out of season" and a repair could have been undertaken with minimum inconvenience.

 

If the pound in question is full of permanently moored boats, the inconvenience will be much the same whatever the time of year.