Extreme narrowboating

[dor]

Recently came across this link.

 

Quite an entertaining read!

 

http://www.willerup.com/boat/bath.html

[Bernie]

OUCH!

[David Schweizer]

Recently came across this link.

 

Quite an entertaining read!

 

http://www.willerup.com/boat/bath.html

The section of the Avon below Bath is notorious for flooding over the winter, but not usually during the summer. However we did have a particularly wet spring that year, and the Environment Agency got a lot of stick in the press for closing the floodgates above Bath and, opening them below Bath in order to prevent flooding in the City. The net result was that the City didn't flood but either side of it experienced the worst floods in living memory. We were walking in three feet of water upstream in Bradford on Avon, which means the water was about 15ft higher than normal, but as long as they were nice and dry in Bath thats OK.

 

Needless to say The EA denied everything, but it hasn't happened again. Oh by the way, guess where the EA headquarters are. Yes in Bath, what a coincidence.

Edited November 22, 2005 by David Schweizer

[Gary Peacock]

Quite openly I aren't a boater but surely this kind of thing is plainly dangerous.

 

A couple of weeks ago one night with the river in flood we surprised to hear engine noises out of the dark a narrowboat with no lights appeared making very slow headway upstream!

With the river in flood here boats go under or over the boom and down the weir.

 

Well maybe they were or were not doing something wrong but definitely looked risky to me.

[Carrie]

I have to laugh. This, by coincidence was the very first site I read on narrowboating. I was horrified!

Luckily I had some lovely experiences on boats after that and understood that being dragged along a river in full flood and being bashed against bridges, is NOT the norm!

[DHutch]

Man, thats crasy!!

Edited November 23, 2005 by dhutch

[Stephen Sugg]

"Front of the barge and a bit of the bridge"

 

doesn't look like a barge to me.........

[ChrisPy]

and to think that Saltford Marina said that a mooring might become available - but for a widebeam it would not be in the 'pond' but moored up on the river bank. Now I know why the pub and marina building is perched on top of a 10ft high embankment.

[matisok]

I was the captain on the good ship that day (and it's me who wrote the report). I still get sweaty palms reading the report and thinking back on that weekend. I'm into all sorts of adrenalin pumping activities (see elsewhere on that http://willerup.com site), but "Extreme Narrowboating" beats it all! It was extremely lucky though, that we did fit under that "industrial looking bridge", since it'd been really ugly if the water had been a couple inches higher. Pfeww.

Edited November 23, 2005 by matisok

[Gary Peacock]

A boat broke loose from our wharf about 6 years ago in a flood it was forced under the boom on the weir by the flow of the river then sunk a mile down stream when it didn't fit under a bridge.

 

Fortunately no one was on board at the time, if there had of been they would be dead without question you don't get out of the river here when it's in flood the banks are far too high and flow too fast.

 

Narrowboating is safe most of the time so we are told but not always.

[Alistair]

These people are clearly crazy .

 

I find that the easiest way to go down a river in flood is stern first.

 

That way the boat is still pointing into the current and still has steerage:

 

Let's say the current is 6 knots north to south.

Point the boat facing north with the engine pushing forwards at maybe 1/3 throttle - say two knots' worth of thrust.

 

Hey presto: travelling backwards at up to four knots and still in control.

 

Hope this helps...

[ChrisPy]

These people are clearly crazy .

 

I find that the easiest way to go down a river in flood is stern first.

 

That way the boat is still pointing into the current and still has steerage:

 

Let's say the current is 6 knots north to south.

Point the boat facing north with the engine pushing forwards at maybe 1/3 throttle - say two knots' worth of thrust.

 

Hey presto: travelling backwards at up to four knots and still in control.

 

Hope this helps...

and it is easy to manouevre from one side of the river to the other - what is commonly known as a ferry glide.

[Alistair]

and it is easy to manouevre from one side of the river to the other - what is commonly known as a ferry glide.

 

Quite right, Chris. Facing into the current also makes mooring easier - just tie the bow on and the stern will glide gracefully to the bank.

 

All you need to do then is make sure your bow line is suitably sturdy, or even get a chain: this has saved me many sleepless nights when moored on the Thames in flood in the centre of Oxford ...

[David Schweizer]

These people are clearly crazy .

 

I

I suppose it is easy to say that they were crazy, but the conditions really did change very rapidly that night. A friend of mine was moored just above Satlford lock that day. About 2am in the morning he was awakened by the noise of the river, and found that his front mooring had broken away and that the stern was almost under the water. In order to save his boat he dropped the anchor over the side and then cut the stern line. Unfortunately the anchor took a while to grip , by which time the back end of his boat was balancing over the weir, and that is where he stayed all night,. By morning things had calmed a bit and with some assistance they managed to refloat the boat, and head back to Bathe and the K&A canal, but they were unable to retrieve his Anchor, so he had to cut that line as well.

 

We are not talking about a nutter here, but a very mild mannered man who would never take chances with safety. To this day we are convinced that the real villains of the night were the Environment Agency who released the flood water without any concern for the boats moored below the floodgates.

[Carrie]

and it is easy to manouevre from one side of the river to the other - what is commonly known as a ferry glide.

 

Ha! My boat-handling instructor told me about this but I understood he said 'FAIRY glide'!!! Thought it was supposed to be a very elegant, graceful thing!

 

(..now without wings)

[matisok]

It would have been a lot safer to do that stern thing you guys are talking about. I didn't know that this technique existed thanks. I'm also glad to hear that it _was_ a particularly desperate day conditions wise. At the time I thought it was all just part of the fun of narrowboating!

 

I have no idea about the speed we were doing, but it was really really fast. I had to run with quite a lot of throttle to be able to stear downstream. As it turns out it all worked pretty well mind you, and it sure was a festive ride. It was also quite exciting to get the boat moored up here and there. I'm glad we didn't end over that weir thing like the Captain on Saltford Lock.

 

Yoor!

Edited November 24, 2005 by matisok

[Cris P]

I was moored outside the Riverside Inn at Kelston Lock at the time (I've since moved along a bit), and it was crazy for a while. I got some photos which I occasionally use to frighten people with. Kelston Lock was completely submerged, and the pub was under water. Good thing we rose above it all, really.

[ChrisPy]

Ha! My boat-handling instructor told me about this but I understood he said 'FAIRY glide'!!! Thought it was supposed to be a very elegant, graceful thing!

 

(..now without wings)

I'll bet that's what you thought .............. troublemaker

[Carrie]

: .............. troublemaker

 

Moi?!!?

[dor]

and it is easy to manouevre from one side of the river to the other - what is commonly known as a ferry glide.

 

Interesting term:

 

when in spain recently visiting a friend he took us across a small car ferry that consisted of a couple of boat hulls with decking in between, large enough to take a couple of cars.

 

It had no motive power, but had ropes connected to an aerial wire stretched across the river. He could then move across the river either way by controlling a (large)rudder on one of the hulls.

 

Is this the origin of the "ferry glide"?

[DHutch]

And im right in saying "ferry gliding" and "crabing" are the same thing.

- Going accross the flow at an angle that means you end up traveling perpendicular to the flow. (becuase you aiming upsteam, to counter act the affect of the current pushing you down the river)

 

 

Daniel

[rog guiver]

I am told this was a standard procedure to transit through Reading when the Kennet was in flood.

 

Turning the boat around at County Lock ready for the traffic light section and that turn under the low bridge......

Edited November 28, 2005 by rog guiver

[Alastair]

Not all boats steer best with their bow into the current - mine is a right pig, liable to snap to one side or the other really easily.

 

Floods - well, I can handle those - I traded up in engine size, one winter on the ouse with a lister sr2 was enough for me.

 

Fog is a bigger problem here. I was coming back the other night, and the freezing fog was so bad, I couldn't see anything past the bow at all. Had to steer by the silhouettes of the trees to either side. Lucky the fog was only about 10 feet deep, or I'd have had to just drop anchor and wait it out. I was sweating buckets by the time I got home, it was not fun.

[Keeping Up]

Recently came across this link.

 

Quite an entertaining read!

 

http://www.willerup.com/boat/bath.html

It seems the same stretch of water has claimed two more victims (see article on Narrowboatworld).

 

Not good news for Bath City Boat Trips, so soon after last year's capsize of the Swan

[DHutch]

http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources/Swan_.pdf

Interesting artical that.