waiting at locks

[sueb]

Why do boaters wait in the lock when the gates are opened? They seem to take an age before they get their brains in gear and move out.

Sue

Started doing locks again and getting infuriated.

[journeyperson]

Why do boaters wait in the lock when the gates are opened? They seem to take an age before they get their brains in gear and move out.

Sue

Started doing locks again and getting infuriated.

 

Sometimes people seem to be oblivious to what's going on around them. More than once I've had to shout when the crew start to shut the gates after the boat has left the lock. We did encounter one boat which stayed in the lock with the gates open whilst they had a long discussion about something, poring over the Nicholsons. Most of the time everybody is helpful and considerate.

[Hairy-Neil]

I've known it when the steerer has to wait for express permission before moving off. Like they're not able to see for themselves that the gates are open.....

[romarni123]

And they do it so you come out first and go to the side and they can then have a straight run at the next lock

[journeyperson]

And they do it so you come out first and go to the side and they can then have a straight run at the next lock

 

Do you mean when there is a short pound? There is an etiquette about that, the boat with the open pound on their right usually moves into it so that you pass on the right side.

[sueb]

Do you mean when there is a short pound? There is an etiquette about that, the boat with the open pound on their right usually moves into it so that you pass on the right side.

I never knew that! Today we were doing wide locks with the boats brested up. There is nowhere to go if the boats in the lock in front stay there.

Sue

[journeyperson]

I never knew that! Today we were doing wide locks with the boats brested up. There is nowhere to go if the boats in the lock in front stay there.

Sue

 

Hmmmm! The only place I regularly find this situation is Hurleston and that's the drill there.

 

Having said that, my boat is 40ft and if the boat I'm passing is much longer I will go into the pound and pass on the wrong side to save them struggling.

Edited April 1, 2010 by journeyperson

[romarni123]

I never knew that! Today we were doing wide locks with the boats brested up. There is nowhere to go if the boats in the lock in front stay there.

Sue

Nor me

[steelaway]

Why do boaters wait in the lock when the gates are opened? They seem to take an age before they get their brains in gear and move out.

Sue

Started doing locks again and getting infuriated.

 

 

 

'Calm down dear'

 

But I know what you mean! It infuriates me as well -

I now try and be patient at locks - honestly - but last year a young couple really had me seathing.

After I had waited quite a while for a boat to come out of a lock - I couldn't see into the lock but I knew there was one in there.

This lad appeared slowly PULLING the bloody boat out the lock, threading the rope around the lock gate and clambered down onto the towpath and jokeing said 'I like the exercise'.

Then pulls it up directly in front of me and blocking me in.

Now we have to wait for his dolly drip girlfriend to pick her way down to the towpath with her camera and high heels!

 

Its almost as bad as the women at supermarket checkouts who look totally suprised when the girl asks for money!

Then they fumble around looking for their purse as in shock - Have they stood there for minutes never expecting having to pay for the grocery's??

 

Alex

[saltysplash]

I never knew that! Today we were doing wide locks with the boats brested up. There is nowhere to go if the boats in the lock in front stay there.

Sue

 

Maybe they didnt realise you were brested up and was sitting in the lock wondering why neither of you were moving, it is easier to sit in the lock and wait for the traffic ahead to start coming towards you especially in windy conditions or if the pound is a bit low

[Guest]

Didn't realise there was such a rush...

[romarni123]

When we first started boating some guy told me there was a 15 min rule at locks where we had to wait to see if a boat came along to use the lock. GIT

[Nickhlx]

When we first started boating some guy told me there was a 15 min rule at locks where we had to wait to see if a boat came along to use the lock. GIT

 

 

 

Nick

[alan_fincher]

Why do boaters wait in the lock when the gates are opened? They seem to take an age before they get their brains in gear and move out.

Sue

Started doing locks again and getting infuriated.

I think you have answered this many times in other threads.....

 

You claim that the steering is usually done by the men-folk, and the paddle winding and gate pushing by the women-folk,

 

Some may claim that the delay is because of the very slow rate at which the male brain can process thoughts like "the gates are open - I can go now", but in my experience the delay is far more likely to be that he is waiting for the woman to complete the fairly lengthy conversation she has just struck up with a total stranger

[magpie patrick]

When we first started boating some guy told me there was a 15 min rule at locks where we had to wait to see if a boat came along to use the lock. GIT

 

 

At braunston in dry summers there was a rule that you had to wait thirty minutes to see if another boat turned up, there were signs saying so. In practice you never would have to wait that long unless it was early morning or late evening

[Keeping Up]

At braunston in dry summers there was a rule that you had to wait thirty minutes to see if another boat turned up, there were signs saying so. In practice you never would have to wait that long unless it was early morning or late evening

Not just at Braunston

[Mrs Tawny Owl]

If we are in a flight and there is a boat in the next lock we usually wait in the lock till the other gates start to open, then we start to move as they come out.

 

Especially if it is windy staying in the locks means we don't move about, and if we pass the other boat both under way then we both have steering and more control.

 

Obviously if there is a boat in the pound waiting to come in we will come straight out, but if no one else is about we stay in the lock till we can get into the next one, it just makes handling the boat simpler.

 

The last time Richard just didn't notice the gates were open and kept us waiting was because he was on the boat locking down with us reseating their tiller and putting the collar on top back as well as possible with his trusty tool kit. They had broken it the previous day and were having real trouble steering.

 

It was surprisingly frustrating on the bank, but there were no other boats about so we didn't hold anyone else up, and the boat he was mending certainly didn't mind!

 

Took him 3 of the double locks at Knowle to solve the problem, but it was a nice day

[Laurie Booth]

Why do boaters wait in the lock when the gates are opened? They seem to take an age before they get their brains in gear and move out.

Sue

Started doing locks again and getting infuriated.

I must admit it is frustrating, but the people in the lock might be having problems, so I always keep calm as hurrying them might be the worst thing to do.

[Tiny]

On waiting in lock and not exiting - I have done it when, as the wife opens the gates I find that some impatient plonker is obstructing my exit. On a couple of occasions said plonker has actually dived into the lock before I had left it (on wides) - having been across the exit stopping me leaving. In each case they were actually the blokes from firms who teach hirers how to do it and think they know the lot.

 

On going in the side pound. At Hurleston you do it in two pounds of three going up if one is coming down. Linda there is very good at directing the unknowing in this trick but another chap sometimes on seems to expect more than one boat to queue in the side pound while he sends a group of boats down and vice versa. We told him no way - one up - one down and refused to leave lock 2 until one came through 3 to swap with us (as chummy had 3 ready for us, a boat above in the 3-4 pound and another coming down in 4). You can get two 70' passing here if the timing is right with both leaving, one getting a good shove to get the nose going into the pound while the other heads down the bank just missing its back end leaving the lock. Meanwhile the one in the pound is heading round behind the one along the wall and bending in soon enough to get clean through the gates.

 

Other locks are not as easy. Some on the Stratford have been improved by BW to the point that one has to tuck in down the side pound parallel to the lock while the other passes, then they have to back out to go into the vacated lock. You can see one of these dodgy pounds and how difficult they have made it with their towpath improvements with all the smashed bricks from hits on the towpath side as boats leaving one lock have not enough space for a lot of steerers to turn in to line up on the next.

 

The strangest swap I have ever seen was at pound below the bottom of those 16 locks at Devizes. Here two boats exited the lower lock to swap with boats coming out of the bottom lock of the 16. The pound is long enough for boats to pass left to left in any setup (singled out or not). But a chap coming up in a floating flower garden who we had already exchanged words with as he 'always switched on his engine to run the washing machine from 8 to 11' (It then being 8pm when he had been moored all afternoon alone with us and 5' off our front on a very long 48 hour mooring.) invented a new way. He was sharing with a hire boat and screaming (literally) orders to their crew and his long suffering wife as to what to do.

The two boats coming down singled out and began going to their right but chummy was not having that. He put on power and left the lock side by side with the hire boat then he pealed off far left - screaming at the hire boat to go left and the two coming down to get out of his way. I and the lockworkers from the downcomers watched his performance and, as chummy screamed and screamed - while his face went ever redder one of the workers commented that it was amazing that bloke did not have a heart attack. While chummy ploughed towards the far side the two going down passed the (correctly positioned) hire and headed into the lock. Meanwhile chummy (amazingly not going aground, swung in a huge circuit of the sidepond before ramming the hire boat - by now entering the lock.

The last I heard at this time was chummy berating the hire for getting in his way. Incidently, we saw chummy some days later watering his flower garden - which had so many large pots and planters it was spread over 50 yards of towpath. As chummy was a short chap we wondered how much view he had over this lot when in motion. We have never seen him or his boat/garden since.

 

[Ray T]

I have waited in a lock going down when there is a strong wind blowing, waiting for boat(s) coming up from the lock in front.

 

This means I don't get blown all over the pound. When the other boat(s) coming up exit I do as well.

By doing this both boats get a run at their next lock without having to wait in a blustery area.

Edited April 2, 2010 by Ray T

[antarmike]

Didn't realise there was such a rush...

In my day I liked to get on with it. Remember in the good old days the Guiness boats (A pair, fully loaded) did the trip from London, Park Royal to Birmingham in 37 1/2 hours, They worked fly, but it still represents a little over 3 days of 12 hours each. I realise a lot of gate paddles have been taken out, but when I was boating, this was the sort of jouney times we aimed for. People just don't seem to realise what is possible if you just get on with it.

[blackrose]

Why do boaters wait in the lock when the gates are opened? They seem to take an age before they get their brains in gear and move out.

Sue

Started doing locks again and getting infuriated.

 

I guess it's the same reason that some car drivers are slow to get going at traffic lights when they've turned green, taking an age to get their cars into gear, take the handbrake off and get going. I'm always in gear and ready to go as soon as it turns green and if there's someone in front of me who isn't I do find it frustrating.

 

However, that probably says as much about me becoming easily impatient as them being slow and oblivious, and I'm certainly not going to bring those feelings onto the waterways.

 

The canal helps me to slow down and I can't see the point of choosing one of the slowest forms of transport and then wanting to do it all as quickly as possible.

Edited April 2, 2010 by blackrose

[Edders]

The canal helps me to slow down and I can't see the point of choosing one of the slowest forms of transport and then wanting to do it all as quickly as possible.

 

Spot on!

 

 

Tony.

[hughc]

It isn't a mattter of speed but of working efficiently. In all walks of life there is a right amd wrong way of doing things and the right way brings more satisfaction for you and less frustration for others. Regards, HughC.

[Speedwheel]

It isn't a mattter of speed but of working efficiently. In all walks of life there is a right amd wrong way of doing things and the right way brings more satisfaction for you and less frustration for others. Regards, HughC.

 

Well said. I like to make the greatest amount of progress using the least amount of energy - or at least a happy medium.

 

People who say I come to the canal to slow down is all well and good but it does rather show a certain amount of selfishness and lack of consideration to others.