Well there had to be a first time!

[casper ghost]

I'm knackered tonight. fenced three sides of a large garden for a mate today. what a mug..

 

I need a fence too

[soldthehouse]

I need a fence too

Not for any dodgy goods I hope..

[wrigglefingers]

I've thrown people in the canal before...

 

Hmm! Could be the man for the job then, Casp.

 

On second thoughts, maybe get to know her before you throw her in and then drink her mild? Don't think the outcome would be nice otherwise .....

[Smelly]

But I was only about 3 the first time I fell in...

 

If you were drunk enough to see the funny side please never ask me for a reference.

[casper ghost]

I was rowing across a lake with my daughter last weekend, we were racing a radio control boat .. When we reached the bank my daughter hoped out and as she did her end of the boat slid up the bank, my end went under the water and hit the bottom, I got rather wet

[wrigglefingers]

I was rowing across a lake with my daughter last weekend, we were racing a radio control boat .. When we reached the bank my daughter hoped out and as she did her end of the boat slid up the bank, my end went under the water and hit the bottom, I got rather wet

 

Did she do the outwardly very concerned but secretly laughing in the inside business?

[Barry]

Like a scene from a movie - couldn't have been scripted better

 

:lol:

[The Toad in the Hole]

I stepped backwards off my boat at Autherley locks a couple of years ago. Stood in brown water up to my belly and watched the boat bimble away on tickover with the dog at the tiller. Hauled onto the bank, got mocked by other boaters and jumped back on. Dog hadn't noticed a thing. fair enough. It was 3 locks later that my wife noticed I was stood in a humongous pool of water and steaming slightly.

[Teakbank12]

Does a wet leg count as falling in?

 

I get a wet leg sometimes when going for a P in the bushes

 

You are only practising falling in at this stage, wait till October onwards till the waters a little colder for the full effects.

[J R]

Saw a deep-drafted tug style boat last year moored a couple of feet from the bank and he'd cut a hole in his plank and dropped it over the dolly on the stern. Neat idea.

 

We have a hole drilled in one end of the plank that you can secure to the bank with a mooring spike. The other end of the plank on the boat has a piece of old carpet fixed under it to help prevent the paintwork getting scratched as the boat always moves a bit with passing narrowboats. Works well.

 

Since we have now started the speeding hireboat season, having got fed up with the pins being ripped out and getting bent, went off and got three 3' rebar (the stuff used to reinforce concrete) spikes that have cured the problem. They don't get ben either.

 

There are few things worse than falling in coming back from the pub except loosing ones footing going to the pub!

[Keeping Up]

... problem is as folk pass in other boats ... the boat rocks around and the plank moves.

When you're on board it's always a good idea to pull the plank in so that the other end is not resting on the bank, then it doesn't matter how much the boat moves.

 

But don't forget what you have done. Years ago one of our crew decided to go ashore to use the towpath hedge in the middle of the night. He got half way to the bank before his weight was enough to counterbalance the plank which then flipped over, deposited him in the cut and hit him on the head as he sat in the muddy water. We all came out and had a good laugh - and he said the one good thing was he really didn't need to use the hedge now!

[casper ghost]

Did she do the outwardly very concerned but secretly laughing in the inside business?

 

No, she and my brother both laughed like mad at me .. I had to borrow some clothes for the rest of the day and they were too baggy on me..

[me2u]

Nope, has to be the full 'baptism' - happened to me twice, first on the Upper Thames at Tadpole bridge and the second time on the mooring changing a gas bottle.

 

Leo.

Years ago I was told that some working boatmen would refer to "falling in" as "taking a look". I also have "taken a look" twice. Once whilst trying to impress a bunch of american tourists on the Claydon flight, Oxford canal and secondly in a remote Nene lock on a wet,cold & windy day with no audience. Keep dry !!

Mike.

[OldGoldy]

Narrowboats don't have coamings as a rule, except around the gas locker, or perhaps on a roof hatch. The sticky up bits around the decks on a 'trad' style boat are known as cants. At the front, the edge of the hull where you'd be likely to have a plank at the cockpit, would be the gunnel.

Yes, you're right - however, mine has coaming as that is what the cabin superstructure is screwed to/through and it continues all around the cruiser deck ensuring that rainwater stays out of the deck/engine 'ole!

 

 

This is how it looked in 1992 just before I bought it, but it does look a little better nowadays. The coaming is actually in the process of being replaced and the section just above the air exhaust (and the opposite side) will have pieces of scrubbed oak as cants/nonslip step

[windy miller]

Saw a deep-drafted tug style boat last year moored a couple of feet from the bank and he'd cut a hole in his plank and dropped it over the dolly on the stern. Neat idea.

And I've just remembered - the other end of his plank had a smaller hole drilled in it and and was held to the bank with a mooring pin, a kind of rigid mooring that no speeding boats could shift!

 

I'm off to fetch my drill.

[Chertsey]

Warrior's plank had a 1" hole drilled at each end. You could put a pin through the bankside one and a short length of rope through the other that could be dropped over the dolly - on Warrior these are at the front as well as the back. I use the past tense as the plank is now sadly rotten and awaiting replacement. Also having one each end means it doesn't matter which way round you deploy it.

[Lewis 53]

Only two sorts of boaters. Those that have fallen in and those that are going to fall in!

[bag 'o' bones]

Only two sorts of boaters. Those that have fallen in and those that are going to fall in!

 

According to some my 'fall in' was not official. You have to be fully submerged to qualify allegedly.

[Mick and Maggie]

Only two sorts of boaters. Those that have fallen in and those that are going to fall in!

 

I think there is also a third kind "Those who annoy me and are about to be thrown in"

 

Picture the scene.....

 

It's February 2010, a thin film of ice is just forming on the canal surface. We have just arrived at Hillmorton locks and we are about to moor up for the night. SWMBO says, "I don't like the look of the tow path just here, lets move a little further along." As she begins to pole the bow away from the edge, the pole slips, I hear her shout. When I look, her hands are on the edge, her feet on the gunwale, looks a bit like a small bridge, however, the front is slowly drifting out. I scoot along the gunwale and arrive in time to see her hands slip on the bankside. She performs a perfect faceplant into the mud followed by a belly flop into the cut.

 

The camera, had just been packed away.

 

Hot shower, tea and sympathy....

[onthecut]

Took my first dip on the K&A -- deep bit near Newbury. Walking along gunnel; trod on picked-up cylindrical fender -- inspecting underside of boat before anyone blinked ! Stood up and found the sky was still made of 100% water !

 

Second time on the Llangollen. Mooring in a hurry due to proximity of closing time and somebody must have moved the bank backwards away from the boat -- straight down between the two.

 

Mike.

[casper ghost]

My brother was walking along the towpath, near Llangollen, after visiting the pub, so it was dark. He was texting me and said the phone light was in his face. The towpath curved to the left but he walked straight on