Do you remember your First Lock?

[WotEver]

The stop lock at Hawkesbury Junction. I like to start gently

 

Tony

[Madmark62]

1st lock was the top lock at Salterhebble, I had never been on a boat by myself before, so after Evelyn got off to work the paddles etc. I entered the lock and the gates were closed, paddles opened on the bottom gates and I waited, "nothing to this locking business" I thought, too bloody quick was I. Unbeknown to me a dutch barge that had been moored up outside the lock, decided to leave and in doing so it broke the ground paddle leaving me in a lock that never emptied. After a while it became obvious even to a numpty like me that something was wrong. Just then one of the owners from the boats moored below came up to see why the bottom pound was flooding and he worked out the problem. So a passing kid was despatched down to the guillotine lock to fetch the BW man. He arrived and after a lot of pushing and shoving they managed to open the bottom gates enough to get me out. The lock was then closed for a while until the paddle was repaired.

 

My first lock definitely was a special occasion.

[Billw]

My first lock was on the Severn. i managed not to hit the gates.

[Keeping Up]

No

 

A simple answer to the original question.

 

I know which lock it was (Leighton Buzzard, Town Lock)

I know when it was (Easter 1969)

I know which boat it was (Pandora from Wyvern Shipping)

I even know the names of the other people on the boat.

 

I can't remember the lock at all. But after more than 40 years, 4 out of 5 ain't bad.

[Catrin]

No

 

A simple answer to the original question.

 

I know which lock it was (Leighton Buzzard, Town Lock)

I know when it was (Easter 1969)

I know which boat it was (Pandora from Wyvern Shipping)

I even know the names of the other people on the boat.

 

I can't remember the lock at all. But after more than 40 years, 4 out of 5 ain't bad.

 

Snap - well, almost

I don't remember the lock - I was fourteen

It was (Leighton Buzzard, Town Lock)

It was (Easter 1969)

It was (Olive from Wyvern Shipping)

I even know the names of the other people on the boat.

Allan, perhaps we first met more than forty years ago?

Cath

[alan_fincher]

Snap - well, almost

I don't remember the lock - I was fourteen

It was (Leighton Buzzard, Town Lock)

It was (Easter 1969)

It was (Olive from Wyvern Shipping)

I even know the names of the other people on the boat.

Allan, perhaps we first met more than forty years ago?

Cath

Well there is one big difference.....

 

Despite the fact that Pandora was probably almost new, and Olive's hull was well over 30 years old, you had (by a mile) the better boat!

 

Pandora - I still shudder when I think of it's handling characteristics!.....

 

I'll add mine....

 

This is first official working of a boat ourselves through a lock - I'd helped may others through before we first hired.....

 

August 1970

Broadwater Lock, Berkhamsted, Grand Union

"Jenny Rose"

Brand new, 36 foot or 37 foot Springer, hired by Red Rose Cruisers.

Distinguishing feature: Powered by two diabolical Johnson outboards, about 5.5 HP each, with no locks to stop them rising triumphantly out the water as you tried to select reverse.

 

Given our first boating holiday, it's surprising we went on to buy our own boat!

[Keeping Up]

Snap - well, almost

I don't remember the lock - I was fourteen

It was (Leighton Buzzard, Town Lock)

It was (Easter 1969)

It was (Olive from Wyvern Shipping)

I even know the names of the other people on the boat.

Allan, perhaps we first met more than forty years ago?

Cath

We may well have done - but I'm certain we never shared a boat then

[pete.i]

On Sunday we helped an apprehensive crew of a narrowboat through their first lock - quietly and slowly (there were no other boats about). Surely everyone remembers their first lock? It was great being a part of that crew's story.

 

I can remember my first lock. As a teenager, boating with my parents, having read up on what to do at locks before we collected our hired narrowboat (first boat with a tiller). We must have been delayed on our journey because we arrived at the bottom lock of the Llangollen in deep dusk, it was cold, windy, with drizzle in the air. Oh joy. Dad and I worked the lock, but I don't remember the details - only of him wearing a black overcoat and getting more up-tight about what we were doing.

 

But, nevertheless, married and many years later, a boat owner and still a boating nut.

 

Christine

 

 

Hi Christine

 

That would have been me and the missus (crew?) yep okay we were a crew I suppose but very inexperienced and, yes, very very apprehensive. I would like to thank you and John for your help and advice. It was very much appreciated.

 

Actually you do not know half of the full story LOL so I shall begin. This is long so don't read if you don't like long posts.

 

The boat (Keb) is based at Selby Boatyard (yes that's right the expensive one but it's convenient for us) and thus far we hadn't actually been off the canal or even spent more than a day on board. We have taken it down to Haddersley a few times but that's about it. We decided that Saturday was going to be the day that we sailed down to Haddersley and spend our first night on the boat. We got to Haddersly about 4 PM and had a bite to eat and then settled down to our first night on board.

 

I have done quite a bit of work to the inside of the boat and one of the things that I have done is replace the plywood that formed the bulkhead between the bow section and the cabin. It is below the front doors and had partially rotted. The original piece was only about an eighth of an inch thick. I have replaced that with a piece marine ply that is an inch thick. Anyway, the front double bed is made up from the L shaped seating area in the cabin. There is a board stored behind the back cushion to support the mattress. That board is now 1 and 7\8ths of an inch too long and therefore does not sit on the support. I didn't even think about that when I replaced the old bit of plywood and it wasn't until we made up the bed that I realised it wasn't fitting. We are old enough to be stuck in our ways so my wife took the, very, insecure side of the bed as that is the side she normally sleeps on. Needless to say she didn't sleep very much because her side of the bed collapsed once or twice. My side was okay though.

 

Well we made it through the night. We awoke early to the loud, but appreciated, quacking of a duck. We had breakfast and I decided to try out the shower area, another first. Now Keb is only a 30 footer with 4 berths so the shower come tiolet area is not very big. In fact it's tiny. I have also put a small towel radiator in there so cutting what little room there is even more. To take a shower it means lifting the porta potti to the door end of the very small space and showering. Well, to be honest, that went quite well I had a shower and even managed to dry myself off in the shower area. We had decided the night before that if the weather was nice we were going to take Keb up the River Aire to Beale Lock. The day was bright but a little breezy to say the least. I was very reluctant to go out on to the flowing river for the first time. The River Aire is also (to me anyway) a very wide river. I had all sorts of stuff going through my mind such as what happens if the 30 year old engine packs up. Would the 30 year old engine have enough power to go against the current. Would the anchor hold should we need it etc etc. We eventually decided that there was no point in thinking about it. If we didn't do it now we never would. Well when we came out of the Haddersly lock gates, which were open so we didn't need to do them, it was blowing a hooligan on the river. I very nearly turned back, the only thing that stopped me was the thought of putting Keb broadside to the current, so off we went. All was going well, the boat made good headway, actually surprising headway to me. Keb seems to be quite slow on the Selby canal but reading posts on here that would seem to be because the Selby canal is not very deep. Out on the river she veritably flew along and that was against the current but with the wind. I did have a helm cover up (big mistake but I will come to that in a minute) and the wind was to our back, even so I was surprised at the progress we were making and even more surprised at the bow wave. Anyway we progressed upriver and I was getting more and more relaxed. We got up to where the West Haddersley Water Ski Club were camped out and passed their jettys by without mishap and gave a couple of cheery waves to the skiers. As we approached the bend, A right hander, just above the skier's camp I noticed a narrow boat coming the other way. As I have said the Aire is quite a wide river, even so I was in the middle so I pulled over to the right a bit to let the boat pass. Pootling along behind was a small cruiser and he was over slightly further towards me so I pulled over a little bit more. At this point I am going to say, and I do mean it, that what happened next was entirely my own fault but with extenuating circumstances. A gust of wind caught my helm cover and blew Keb toward the bank. The next thing I knew we were stuck fast on a sand spit listing, quite alarmingly I thought being uptop, to port. A few choice, unrepeatable, words were said by me. I pulled the canopy down, I am not sure why as the damage was done but I did anyway, and went below to assess the situation. Looking over the starboard side of the boat I could see that the water was only a few inches deep and a couple of yards to the shore. I had been given a mobile number by one of the guys that owns a cruiser moored just behind me at Selby Boatyard. He knew that we were going up the river for the first time and told us that if we got into trouble to ring him and he would come and rescue us. I am also a member of river and Canal Rescue. I could not for the life of me find that damn mobile number. So Arthur and Infinity you got off lightly but thanks for the thought and the concern. I decided against Canal and River Rescue as it was a Sunday and even if they did come out it would probably be hours before they got to me. Whilst we were stuck there one of the skier guys came past at a huge rate of knots. The boat rocked quite violently but didn't come off. The guys in the skiers boat just carried on past me and around the bend out of sight. A few more expleteives were utterd at the fact that they didn't stop and help but I thought that if they had rocked the boat maybe I could do the same. I got on to the gunells and started to try to rock the boat. It did not budge a centimeter. Okay, thought I. the water isn't very deep lets wade and try pushing from the water. Absolutely no movement what so ever. I had tried to lever the boat off using the pole, no go there. So I tried getting the pole under the boat from the water, nothing, not an iota of movement. Oh well, I thought, I had better start hiking back to the skiers along the bank to see if I could get some help. I waded back to Keb and got my shoes and socks, waded back to the bank and put them on. With that the skier boat that had passed fifteen minutes earlier came back. He must have realised that we were in trouble and he stopped. I explained what had happened and he said no problem. He said they get lots of boats stuck here, most a lot bigger than mine. Mine would be no problem to pull off. I clambered back on board and chucked him a line. He revved up and off we popped. I would just like to say at this point that I am extremely grateful to those guys. I have tried to find an email or a telephone number for the club but have had no luck so far. So if anyone has any contact details for the West Haddersley Water Ski Club I would be most grateful. If I don't get any contacts I will go down there personally to thank them and buy them a pint.

 

Okay we are off the sand bank and proceeding again quite merrily up the river. I had considered turning round after the grounding but thought that that's NOT the way to do it. It's still blowing quite hard and I am not quite as realxed as I had been but getting more and more confident. With that Beale Lock comes into view. I do not know if anyone has done that part of the river but the lock landing comes into view first from around the bend THEN THE WIER. Actually the wier did not look too bad although I hope I never see it in flood conditions. Even so my first sight of a weir from the water on a boat was quite daunting. The lock landing is on the left as you approach the lock so I turned left, against the wind and I hadn't put the canopy back up, well in time and crabbed, slightly, on to the landing. No problems here, I came in like a pro. No bumps or scrapes and moored up. We had a cuppa and some dinner and proceeded to analyse the day so far. At that point I had no intention of actually going through the lock as I had never been through a lock before. I intended to wait for another boat to come along and watch him and help if he wanted me to. I noticed someone up on the lock and thinking that they were from the boat moored the other side of the lock I went up to have a chat. It transpires that it was Christine and John who had driven there to get some material for their canal guide that they were in the process of compiling. We had a long chat and John showed me and the crew how to operate the lock. They told me how to loop the center rope over a bollard and to flick it off when I needed to proceed through the lock. I still hadn't actually gone through the lock at this point. Another narrowboat then arrived and moored up behind me. He actually missed the mooring the first time as the wind caught his canopy, it was blowing quite hard, but he just turned round right in front of the wier, through the turbulance (good grief I thought brave man) and moored up. He thought that I was going to go through the lock first but I explained that I wanted to see someone do it first and help out if I could. He was more than willing to explain the procedures to myself and the wife and I locked him through. Now it was my turn. Both Christine and John and the crew of the other boat stayed whilst I and the wife locked through. They all gave us very excellent advice, such as have my center rope up near the helm rather than where I had it, coiled in the middle of the boat, so that I could hand it up to the crew and she could loop it round the bollard and pass it back without me having to clamber along the roof to get it. Pretty damn obvious when you think about it but I hadn't thought about it. We locked through without mishap and moored on the other side. John and Christine carried on with their journey with much thanks from me and the missus. The other crew went off to the pub. I didn't find out their names nor the name of their boat. Actually it didn't have a name as far as I could see. All I could see was a rampant golden lion on the back. I think they were based at Thorne. I would also like to thank them firstly for their understanding at the clown(me) moored blocking the lock and also for all the help they gave us.

 

Right everyone has gone and as I didn't want to proceed further I turned Keb round and headed back to the lock to try on my own. Another boat, a cruiser this time, came down river to the lock. He didn't hang around but I did get chance to speak to him and, I presume, his son and they were happy to let me lock them through so me and the lad did the job. Again thanks to you whoever you are. My turn now. The crew got the lock gates open after refilling the lock after the cruiser went through and in I went. The wife shut the lock gates and closed the panels. I threw her the center rope, now with the coil placed beside me at the helm. She looped it once around the bollard and I allowed the rope to play out as the boat descended. Finally the water had fallen to a level that allowed her to open the lock gates and I went out. She closed the gates and shut the paddles and I picked her up on the landing. We then carried on back to Haddersley. This time I encountered no oncoming boats and I kept well well away from the inside bends shores.

 

So that was our day. As I said it's a long post but I wanted to give my experiences and much more importantly thank everyone who was involved with our first day out off the Selby Canal. Thank you one and all for a fanatastic lot of advice and experience. I know that as seasoned boaters it is all old hat to you but to me it served to reinforce my conviction to carry on boating and not give up. Believe me that DID cross my mind at one point.

 

Cheers and thanks to all.

 

Pete and Doreen. Keb crew.

[david and julie]

Our first lock was the big lock in Middlewich on a hireboat (Gannet) from Anderton, it went reasonably well, which is just as well given that it was a lovely sunny day and all the tables outside the pub were full of people.

 

It didn't go quite so well near Anderton though when we got stuck on a sand bank within the first mile.

[Smelly]

NO DON'T OPEN THE GATE PADDLE!

 

Bosley, 2nd from the bottom.

 

I lost the tip of my index finger on 15 at Marple on the way down.

 

I don't know whether it was the adrenaline or the irony of.the.ride to Stepping Hill hospital on a milk float but I'm still not boating as much as I'd like

[Natalie Graham]

Braunston Bottom Lock, March 1974.

[Evo]

Well. we'd spent years rebuilding the boat, it wasn't finished, but oh well, we need a holiday, so Grandad says load the kids up and lets just go ...next day we set off on the maiden voyage. We stop at the end of Stretton arm at Rose narrowboats Brinklow and fill up..£55....yes The whole tank from empty cost us £55....anyway we are going round Birmingham and back to Braunston so our first lock was Sutton stop. What a bloody palarva that was. Boats everywhere..we had the poles out to turn her ...we bashed into the corner, we had a massive audience and we all felt very self conscious....it was horrible. To this day I cant believe it was such a big deal, but it was.

 

It was a great trip though and I have very fond memories of it. Our Very first holiday in grandads 'new' boat...awesome. Even bollocking down the Thames this year I had a few sad moments remembering old Vic (grandad). It will never be the same without him..a great character. Oh dear, I've been to the pub tonight.

[RLWP]

Hi Christine

 

That would have been me and the missus (crew?)

 

<snip>

 

Pete and Doreen. Keb crew.

 

Thanks for that. What a brilliant description of your adventures, and I'm glad it turned out OK

 

Richard

[Bagpuss]

My first flight of locks was the Wigan flight on a friends big, heavy, Barry Hawkins. We were sharing the locks with a little 20' GRP so I spent most of the flight standing on the roof with a rope trying to stop my friends boat from crushing the little'un. I didn't really learn much about locking there.

 

First lock on Sudan was Spon lane on the old Main line in Birmingham. Smelly was insistent on giving me an intensive training course in controlling the boat, I lost count of how many times we went up and down that short stretch of canal.

[XAlan W]

1955 Trent Lock with a friend in his Home built/DIY 16ft plywood cruiser with a PERKINS 6hp outboard took us around 25mins to restart the engine as the man he bought the motor from came& fitted the motor,started it etc.& came with us to see all was ok, dropped him off as all appeared well but he didn`t tell us about the primer bulb in the fuel line & by the time we had worked out how to get through the lock etc.Say no more

[StephenA]

First ever lock for me was Middlewich Big Lock. We'd hired from Anderton and were told someone would be there to help us through but they didn't show up. We were supposed to be doing the Langollen but when we got to Hurleston we found it was closed so ended up going back and heading up Heartbreak Hill and Bosley and by the end of the holiday we were "experts" ;-)

[journeyperson]

My first ever lock was Dutton Stop Lock in 1963 and it was a bit of an anti-climax because before that I had only been down and back up Mode Wheel Lock on the ship canal on a school trip in 1957.

[Christine]

My first lock (as a passenger on the trip boat) on the Wey & Arun was Baldwins Knob Lock - we had been walking along the towpath when the Skipper slowed down and invited us aboard.

 

My first lock 'proper'was Middlewich Big Lock on NB Willow from Middlewich Boats. Trouble happened straight afterwards when I slipped off the gunnel gettng back on and ended up in the Cut.

[the grinch]

My first lock (as a passenger on the trip boat) on the Wey & Arun was Baldwins Knob Lock - we had been walking along the towpath when the Skipper slowed down and invited us aboard.

 

you have to be careful as a skipper, you never what you might pick up LOL

my first wey and arun lock was Devil's Hole restoration back in the 80's i'm still here!! and guess what i'm working on Baldwin's Knob Lock currently!!

spooky or what!

my first lock and first boated lock was Commercial Road Lock regents canal march 1965!! age 5 days!!

Edited September 8, 2010 by hamsterfan

[mayalld]

 

My first lock 'proper'was Middlewich Big Lock on NB Willow from Middlewich Boats.

 

Where were you for the 3 locks before Big Lock?

[jake_crew]

1972, going north from Wotton Wawen.

 

Not so much the first lock, but the first bridge.

 

It was so narrow, we thought we'd taken a wrong turn and got the wrong channel !!

 

After scraping through it, the first lock (Lowsonford ?) wasn't so much of a surprise.

 

Took us ages to get the hang of the sea toilet tho' .

[Hairy-Neil]

Napton bottom lock, june 1979, under the guidance and watchful eye of Esme Dowling.

[Christine]

Where were you for the 3 locks before Big Lock?

 

 

Big Lock was the first lock that I opened - for the first three, I was down below pouring G&T's - hence the falling in.

[Guest]

Big Lock was the first lock that I opened - for the first three, I was down below pouring G&T's - hence the falling in.

 

That's my kind of boating....

[Naughty Cal]

That's my kind of boating....

 

You bought the wrong boat then