Anyone ever had this happen?

[Boatgypsy]

As a boater with a fair few years experience, I was presented with a new one today.

 

Whilst locking up through Penkridge on the Staffs Worcs canal I was carefully opening the first paddle and crossing over to open the second, when I saw to my horror that my front deck was under six inches of water and a huge water spout was pouring water up over the side of the gunnel. I rushed back and closed the paddle, but not before quite a lot of water had entered the cabin around the door and my water tank had been filled through the vent pipe.

 

I took stock and tried to figure out what had happened. I'm pretty sure the boat had not become hung up on anything, but what I did notice was that there seemed to be an inordinately large amount of air in the water.

 

I think that, for whatever reason, this paddle had sucked a large amount of air down with it, the force of the air coming up was pushing water up and over my gunnel at the same time as the highly aerated water was causing the front of the boat to settle much lower than normal.

 

It's the first time this has ever happened to me, and it's not my first time through this flight. The gates do look new, so maybe there have been alterations. It's got me puzzled anyway.

[Tim Doran]

As a boater with a fair few years experience, I was presented with a new one today.

 

Whilst locking up through Penkridge on the Staffs Worcs canal I was carefully opening the first paddle and crossing over to open the second, when I saw to my horror that my front deck was under six inches of water and a huge water spout was pouring water up over the side of the gunnel. I rushed back and closed the paddle, but not before quite a lot of water had entered the cabin around the door and my water tank had been filled through the vent pipe.

 

I took stock and tried to figure out what had happened. I'm pretty sure the boat had not become hung up on anything, but what I did notice was that there seemed to be an inordinately large amount of air in the water.

 

I think that, for whatever reason, this paddle had sucked a large amount of air down with it, the force of the air coming up was pushing water up and over my gunnel at the same time as the highly aerated water was causing the front of the boat to settle much lower than normal.

 

It's the first time this has ever happened to me, and it's not my first time through this flight. The gates do look new, so maybe there have been alterations. It's got me puzzled anyway.

 

That does sound strange. I hope it did not damage the boat too much.

 

As a white water kayaker I can vouch for the lack of boyancy I have in aerated water. It is a bit like landing in foam.

 

Tim

[greywolf]

saw a science program where they sank a boat at sea using bubbles