"Working" Boat Etiquette.

[alan_fincher]

BW advise us all to close gates and paddles behind us !

 

Common sense should prevail.

 

Southern G U always leave at least one gate open

 

Unless of course there is visible leakage from the gates.

Difficult one this, as I know it's been done to death on many forums, and in many magazines, many times.

 

I fully remember, for example, when it was the norm on the Southern GU to leave gates open - closing gates was usually just a narrow canal thing back then. It came as a surprise to return to boating, and find GU locks are now left with all gates closed, (by most people....).

 

I think the problem with Bargeeboy's comments, of "let common sense prevail", is that it assumes that everybody using a lock is capable of assessing where closing all gates might result in saving water, and where it may not. Obviously if you are on a stretch of canalised river, with water pouring over the gates, it does seem a bit bonkers to shut everything up.

 

But there are so many exceptions. I see Julian repeated his often made comment that it's OK to leave gates open south of Cow Roast, but there are two pounds down towards, and in Berkhamsted that are regularly a foot or more down because of water losses. So actually leaving gates open at the"lower" end of these is almost certainly not a good idea.

 

Pain though it is, I'm converted to the idea that it is a good thing if everybody does what the BW Boater's Handbook tells us we should....

 

Close the gates and lower the paddles before you move on, unless a boat coming from the opposite direction wants to use the lock.

 

(Unless locally posted notices or BW staff advise us otherwise).

 

That said, when we went on the Stort, we were told "you always leave gates open on this river, and indeed everybody seemed to be. So I ignored our own general rule, (and the Boater's Handbook), and left them open. I still felt a bit uneasy... OK it's a river, but so is the Lee, that it flows into, and there everybody left them shut....

 

The problem with this is "How do you know ?". If I'm slogging down some near ditch, and some wise guy says "all locks have to be left empty with a paddle drawn at the bottom", do I trust his apparent local knowledge, or just do what the book tells me to do ?

 

Alan

[carlt]

I've done most of my boating single-handed and an awful lot dragging a tow about, too.

 

When I come to a downhill lock, set against me, with the bottom gates open, I moor up loosely, walk and close the gates, set the lock, open the top gates and take my boat (or boats) into the lock.

Going uphill I'd put the boat into the tail of the lock and go and close the top gates...etc...etc.

 

It has never bothered me whether a lock is set against me, it's all part of boating.

 

I did once run and ask the heavily crewed hire boat, ahead of me, if they'd mind shutting the gates, on a long flight, once. They hadn't bothered shutting a single one. They apologised and sent three of the blokes back to work me through the flight, with beer!

[Denis R]

What do people reckon ? Is it reasonable for the operators of these boats, (which are generally "leisure boats" in the same way as those belonging most of us), to continue the practices of the past. Or should they adhere strictly to the same guidelines as the rest of us ?

My son helps out on a coal/diesel delivery boat from time to time and they always close the gates and paddles as a routine. Getting them to move off the deep channel when loaded "ring 'ole deep" might be a bit more of a challenge mind you....

[bristol & argo]

But, as has been said on another thread, only a handful of such boats are now working for a living, and even those that are seldom have much to justify needing to move around the system faster than other boats.

'faster' is quite relative - from my blast up to Braunston and back i noticed, no-one caught me up, i had two boats pull over and let me past before i even caught up with them, and two boats that pulled away from weedon infront of me i only caught up with at Whilton 'cause they could get round the bends quicker than me.

A bit of the faster is the waterline length and long swims that let the hull go cleaner and therefore quicker through the water but come the shallow or twisty bits i loose out, most of the faster is the lock wheeler! For the majority of the trip i wasn't even able to use all 22hp due to the depth!

I also like to see such boats being worked properly, if it doesn't inconvenience or intimidate other canal users.

 

And there's my dilemma.

 

I've recently seen several unconverted boats working their way through in the "old" ways, which usually involves leaving gates wide open and paddles drawn. But these days the general code, unless there are local reasons why not, is generally "leave everything shut".

 

What do people reckon ? Is it reasonable for the operators of these boats, (which are generally "leisure boats" in the same way as those belonging most of us), to continue the practices of the past. Or should they adhere strictly to the same guidelines as the rest of us ?

 

Alan

With a lock wheeler there is not much excuse for leaving everything open.

When i'm single handed it's different, but i allways close the paddles and try and get one gate to close behind the motor. I have given up with the jumping around to close both gates as most of the time one swings open again when you get about 30m away from the lock!

 

 

I did notice that at the Buckby end people pay attension to the water saving notices about waiting to pair up at locks. Not so down south wher we were held up by slow single boats coming down locks the other way.

 

 

 

 

Simon.