Awful awful locks on gu

[Chertsey]

No, but I tell you what is scary, steering round shallow bends with boats moored on the outside (Ansty for example), now that gets the heart racing - I swear one day I'm going to take someones cabin off if I get the fore-end into someones "picture" window.

 

Mike

 

ps. Ansty is far more scary in the dark!

Yes!!

 

It's not the actual steering into it, it's keeping it in the right place. I am sure that eventually I'll get the hang of handling the boat but not just yet. It's a big bugger and I've never handled one before (oo-er matron), but my chap has so I leave it to him.

Big ones are easiest, there's nowhere they can go. Just keep it forward.

[Tuscan]

Couldn't agree more - even with a much smaller josher I've had a few near misses - especially when the moored boat's a widebeam.

 

 

Totally agree Ansty is a real challenge especially when you meet someone on the bend.

[Chertsey]

Totally agree Ansty is a real challenge especially when you meet someone on the bend.

Think it was here we met Archimedes and Ara coming full pelt the other way. Now they did get through a seven foot gap. I wouldn't moor there if you paid me.

[Tuscan]

Think it was here we met Archimedes and Ara coming full pelt the other way. Now they did get through a seven foot gap. I wouldn't moor there if you paid me.

 

 

For the size of some of the women I've seen on the back of boats 7'. No stop don't go there.....

[David Mack]

No, but I tell you what is scary, steering round shallow bends with boats moored on the outside (Ansty for example), now that gets the heart racing - I swear one day I'm going to take someones cabin off if I get the fore-end into someones "picture" window.

 

Mike

 

ps. Ansty is far more scary in the dark!

 

You mean you get Antsy in Ansty?

[BargeeSpud]

3 weetabix and a half pint of sherry with 2 raw eggs whipped in before you set off. You'll sail through, literally.

.....and it all "sails" out again?

 

[Dyertribe]

Sorry you find my post offensive. My opinions of men who watch women struggle with difficult locks whilst holding on to their tiller would be offensive as well. Just because I didn't say the locks needed fixing doesn't mean that they don't. I hadn't commented on the faults with the canal system. Maybe the system should be able to be worked by the disabled.

Sue

You might see me struggling with a difficult lock while my man is just holding on to the tiller. That'll be because my man has been struggling with the difficult problem of arthritis for the last 20 years... He's 46.

I want us all to enjoy out holiday so if I have to struggle a bit so that he isn't in more pain than normal so be it, however smooth opening locks would be a bonus.

[Ange]

You might see me struggling with a difficult lock while my man is just holding on to the tiller. That'll be because my man has been struggling with the difficult problem of arthritis for the last 20 years... He's 46.

I want us all to enjoy out holiday so if I have to struggle a bit so that he isn't in more pain than normal so be it, however smooth opening locks would be a bonus.

 

Exactly why no one should make snap judgements about other boaters! There may be disabilities that are not apparent to the casual observer.

[sueb]

People make snap judgements about posts and posters on here frequently :- )

[Chris Pink]

"She snapped"

[sueb]

"She snapped"

[Chertsey]

People make snap judgements about posts and posters on here frequently :- )

On here you can only judge a person on their posts. That is the nature of a forum. In effect it is the poster, rather than the person, who is being judged.

 

But anyway, we all make snap judgements all the time. If we had to stop and thoroughly research the facts in every situation, no deceisions would ever be made - and when boating that is really not practical. Sometimes those judgements will be wrong, but moreboften they will be right, because they are based on all our subconscious knowledge and experience of having encountered similar situaions in the past.

[Tuscan]

My love of canals built up over many years is based on a couple of key observations that I then used throughout my working life :

1. Never judge a person by what they look like - its what they do that counts

2. The canal brings together a complete cross section of the UK from wealth, social skills, education etc yet in the vast majority of cases all will help each other, often unasked.

 

So I don't care who does the locks, what they look like , or whether they have a disability, nor do I care whether it's a little fibre glass boat or the latest Dutch barge.

 

Of course when posting I can still be sarcastic or sharp but hey I think that's the case with some of the other posters.

[carlt]

People make snap judgements about posts and posters on here frequently :- )

A bit like people who make snap judgements about women who are working locks?

[Sue1946]

3 weetabix and a half pint of sherry with 2 raw eggs whipped in before you set off. You'll sail through, literally.

 

Good grief Dom!! You've had even more 'Gongoozler Rest' all day brekkies then?

 

(big lol, no smiley available!)

[Lady Muck]

Is it the right time in this thread to post the cartoon I put up on Faceache the other day?

 

[NickF]

First locks I ever worked were the Huddersfield Broad followed by Calder and Hebble. I could barely stand by the end of the day. However, I could open all the gates, on my own, which is more than I can say for Buckby, where I have had to admit defeat, on occasion.

 

edited to say this is not a moan, I know it is largely the combination of big gates and short beams, rather than lack of maintenance, whereas the Yorkshire ones (in 2006) were badly maintained (although that's not a moan either)

 

We're heading for the L&L this summer. Do I need to start extra Weetabix rations now?

 

 

We did Wigan before breakfast this year .... no problems ,... all the pounds full and most of the paddles working fine! We did have an active crew of six at the time though so I guess that makes a difference!

 

The hardest paddles we found on the L and L were the clough paddles but we took advice from elsewhere on CWDF which is to "creep up on them when they're not looking" and got on fine most of the time but take care not to put your back out on them!

 

Nick

[bowten]

I wasn't ageist. Real men come in all ages.

Sue

I don't know why but when reading your posts I always thought you were a man,sorry.

[sueb]

I don't know why but when reading your posts I always thought you were a man,sorry.

Tom Crossley once made that mistake!

[bowten]

Tom Crossley once made that mistake!

[wannabe]

Sorry you find my post offensive. My opinions of men who watch women struggle with difficult locks whilst holding on to their tiller would be offensive as well. Just because I didn't say the locks needed fixing doesn't mean that they don't. I hadn't commented on the faults with the canal system. Maybe the system should be able to be worked by the disabled.

Sue

For the record. My wife insists on doing locks as she hates the "closed in" effect locks give her. She would neither ask nor want me to swap rolls. Be as offensive as you like with me but that is how we work our way through the canal system. Each to their own. No one way is correct in my view.

[Neil Corbett]

We've been up and down the Buckby flight a few times, and whilst they are undoubtedly the hardest on the GU, I'd swap any of 'em for the little lock with the cranked bottom gate beam as you come into Stratford on Avon. I nearly bust a blood vessel on that one this summer.

[fudd]

We have just done the GU from Braunston to London and if you think they are hard you should try The Lea. I noticed the difference straight away. My other half is only 4' 10" and she could do most of them on the GU. but as soon as we got to the manual locks on The Lea I had to take over. Now you can imagine how I felt!!!

Steve P.

[sueb]

We have just done the GU from Braunston to London and if you think they are hard you should try The Lea. I noticed the difference straight away. My other half is only 4' 10" and she could do most of them on the GU. but as soon as we got to the manual locks on The Lea I had to take over. Now you can imagine how I felt!!!

Steve P.

Like a man?

[fudd]

Like a man?

Haha. I asked for that.