Bizarre stuff around props

[rubblequeen]

We had part of a cratch cover round the prop. Which made me fed up with careless/uncaring/rubbish dumping other narrow boaters who should know better. Until I discovered the door section from our cratch cover was missing!!! HWSRA was meant to take them down to be cleaned - not do it in the canal. This when the fight should have begun but as I always lose didn't bother.

[canaldrifter]

IIRC it's a four blade and a three blade prop, contra-rotating and sharing the same shaft. There's a lot of mind-boggling engineering on Phylis's boat

 

Richard

 

There's a lot of mind-boggling logic too.

 

Tone

 

An eight foot long artificial Christmas tree in the middle lock on the Hertford Unino!

 

I take it it was after Christmas that you found it, so it wasn't useful? Was the fairy still on top. Did you need to do fairy mouth to mouth?

 

We also picked up a pair of trousers with belt attached on the Chesterfield below Worksop. It makes you wonder what the bloke was doing and how he got home.

 

I've also had (twice) dog poo in carrier bags around the prop. Why don't they just throw the poo in without the bags? It is biodegradable.

 

(Oh no! I might have started Dave Mayall off again!)

 

Tone

[The Anonymous Bard]

We also picked up a pair of trousers with belt attached on the Chesterfield below Worksop. It makes you wonder what the bloke was doing and how he got home.

 

 

Tone

 

I reckon he's been a busy bloke or it is a very local problem... we often have a walk through Shireoaks Marina on the Chesterfield and along the cut and often see discarded items of both ladies & gents underwear, amongst other things.

 

Fishnet tights on one occasion right in the middle of the towpath, boxer shorts on (numerous) occasions and i've lost count of the amount of single training shoes we've come across.

 

Some things will always be better for remaining unexplained...

[canaldrifter]

Thankfully condoms are too small to get wound round a prop....

 

(Edit- well, mine are anyway.... )

 

You do see them floating about in locks though.

 

Tone

Edited October 29, 2010 by canaldrifter

[tillergirl]

a bob the builder hat on an exceptionally stretchy piece of elastic - on the Chesterfield this year

[steve hayes]

The usual selection of detrious finds it way around our prop some of the highlights were

• A Handbag
  
• A Complete set of womens clothing including one shoe (over a weeks cruise)
  
• Shared a sprung matress with a boat going the other way near Walsall
  

 

A friend of ours got a Lycra cycling? suit around the prop shaft which melted and stopped the engine. It took three of about two hours to cut it off. Shame the cyclist was still in it

Edited October 29, 2010 by steve hayes

[Paul Evans]

Shared a sprung matress with a boat going the other way near Walsall

 

I am trying to imagine the consequences of two boats passing and being stopped by the same mattress at the same time. We need a movie.

Edited October 29, 2010 by Paul Evans

[steve hayes]

Well all I can say it was different as we both ground to a halt.

Deep joy trying to get it off the prop took ages. I bought a pair of bolt cutters for future use, luckily so far they have stayed in the locker thats blown it, better make sure they are stilll there

[dave moore]

Hi all

A caveat...if you're over sensitive, please skip this. I never want another "Ultimate bladeful"...never, ever.

In Easter 1986 I was on the Caldon with a 30' Brumtug. Older members will recall them, a mini working boat with a sheeted up "hold" in front of a boatman's cabin and basic galley/shower. Midweek, after a series of problems and awful weather I decided to wind and head home to Brum. On the Wednesday morning we were at the top lock of the Bedford St staircase on the outskirts of Stoke, Gail (then my fiancee) steering, when the engine, a small Nanni diesel, cut out in the top lock.

"Ah..." I said, "a bladeful". I proceeded to remove the stern deck (you could on those boats), lift the weed hatch and investigate with the short shaft. I found something large and semi soft and assumed a mattress. We bow hauled the boat through and tied up below the bottom lock, where I attacked the "matress" with gusto for a minute....only to pull up the back of a human head. I thought it may have been a dummy, until bubbles rose....

We had found the remains of a local lad of 18 who had gone missing after a boozy end of term party. Recovery neccessitated the use of the local BW drydock on the junction of the Caldon and T&M canals.

6 months later and 2 days after our wedding we attended the inquest in Stoke. I regard it as one of the lowest emotional points I've had. I had to give most unpleasant details to the coroner in front of the lad's parents. Not an experience I want to undergo ever again.

I've had dead dogs, gas piping and detestable orange safety fecing around Resolute's blades since then, but I'm hoping never to repeat that one

Dave

[ditchcrawler]

Well all I can say it was different as we both ground to a halt.

Deep joy trying to get it off the prop took ages. I bought a pair of bolt cutters for future use, luckily so far they have stayed in the locker thats blown it, better make sure they are stilll there

They where last time I looked.

[Phil Ambrose]

IIRC it's a four blade and a three blade prop, contra-rotating and sharing the same shaft. There's a lot of mind-boggling engineering on Phylis's boat

 

Richard

 

And so eliminating prop walk, I like it.

 

Phil

[Phil Ambrose]

On a different tack, I got the prize for the luckiest escape from a rope around the prop last year on the Wey: wound it on whilst stopping alongside a boat to drop off coal. Got one of our more trusting members to pull on it with strict instructions to let go if needs be, applied reverse for a fraction of a second and wound it straight off again.

 

At least you owned up to getting a rope around the prop, unlike the guy who cruise past us, ignored our warning shouts and proceeded to moor stern on at the pub opposite our mooring.

The result was as expected, he managed to moor and proceeded to tell all and sundry that he was unlucky enough to "pick Up" a rope floating in the river untill it was pointed out to him that the other end of the rope was firmly attached to one of his stern cleats. Being on a river it meant he had to call out "The Diver", this caused even more hilarity because the diver is about 5ft tall and about 6ft in diameter his suit has to be correspondingly big, this coupled with the fact he is a real"character" it all made for a amusing aftrnoon.

 

Phil

[Teadaemon]

At least you owned up to getting a rope around the prop, unlike the guy who cruise past us, ignored our warning shouts and proceeded to moor stern on at the pub opposite our mooring.

The result was as expected, he managed to moor and proceeded to tell all and sundry that he was unlucky enough to "pick Up" a rope floating in the river untill it was pointed out to him that the other end of the rope was firmly attached to one of his stern cleats. Being on a river it meant he had to call out "The Diver", this caused even more hilarity because the diver is about 5ft tall and about 6ft in diameter his suit has to be correspondingly big, this coupled with the fact he is a real"character" it all made for a amusing aftrnoon.

 

Phil

 

I hope he'd ticked the box for diver insurance. (Although if he'd hired from us, there's no box to tick, as it's inclusive (although it may, in certain circumstances be me in a borrowed drysuit)).

[canaldrifter]

 

I've had dead dogs, gas piping and detestable orange safety fecing around Resolute's blades since then, but I'm hoping never to repeat that one

Dave

 

That must have been an awful traumatic experience.

 

We burst an inflated dead sheep once jammed behind lock gates on the LLangollen. The stink was terrible, but that is nothing compared.

 

It may be apocryphal, but a story was going round on the lower GU some twenty years ago that a boat going through a lock picked up a dog lead on its prop. When they pulled it up, they found a German Shepherd attached to one end, and the owner attached by his wrist to the other.

 

Tone

[Doorman]

A man's fleece coat just as we passed Andrew Denny's narrow boat Granny Buttons in Stone. Convinced it was him sabotaging our journey as we'd previously had words on his site. It was only after posting the event on here, did one of the forum members inform me that the texture of the coat, is very similar to that of rotting flesh!

 

I reckon he's been a busy bloke or it is a very local problem... we often have a walk through Shireoaks Marina on the Chesterfield and along the cut and often see discarded items of both ladies & gents underwear, amongst other things.

 

Fishnet tights on one occasion right in the middle of the towpath, boxer shorts on (numerous) occasions and i've lost count of the amount of single training shoes we've come across.Some things will always be better for remaining unexplained...

 

Is there any evidence of a flashing athletic monopede along that stretch?

[Doorman]

This was due to an angler sitting on the bollard below Kings Langley Deep lock. "You have no right to be boating on our canal in winter," he claimed.

 

Tone

 

Completely off topic I know, but couldn't help laugh at that angler's statement. We once approached Dover Lock on the L&L

canal, looking to moor there for five minutes, awaiting a call from a BW member of staff, advising us whether it was prudent to continue our journey due to low water levels in Wigan.

 

As we approached the mooring bollards, an irate angler, who was fishing right next to a bollard, kicked off about how this was the third time his 'patch' had been disturbed by inconsiderate boaters. As this rather large man was about to blow a safety valve, I remained quiet and simply moored the boat on the next bollard. After getting the all clear from the BW chap, we set off on our journey, only after pushing the throttle near to its limit creating enough turbulence to send his potential catch some distance along the cut!

 

Some fishermen have a strange opinion as to what the canals are primarily used for

[koukouvagia]

 

Some fishermen have a strange opinion as to what the canals are primarily used for

 

That's right - you're not allowed to go up Hatton before 7.00 am.

[Stephen Sugg]

I once cut loads of that orange temporary fencing stuff off of the prop of the Braunston Mill House pub day boat. I was on an LNBP boat and they were stuck and having all sorts of problems. I left my watch on the day boat when i had finished but they tracked me down and posted it back, which was nice.

[Phil Ambrose]

I hope he'd ticked the box for diver insurance. (Although if he'd hired from us, there's no box to tick, as it's inclusive (although it may, in certain circumstances be me in a borrowed drysuit)).

 

The Skipper in question was a prvate owner, a very pompus individual so I reckon it was down to his own wallet, ropes around the prop seem to be quite common on the Broads, I have seen it many times at Horning where we used to be moored, at least once a day during the season I or one of my neighbours would give a boat a shout to warn them, often it can be kids playing about, even seen life ring and heaving line dissappear under the stern and the boat come to an abrupt stop.

Have you thought anymore about the deck chair concession?

 

Phil

Edited October 30, 2010 by Phil Ambrose

[aread2]

An old mooring rope, still tied to the piling I was moored on wrapped around the prop. As I pulled away from the mooring Syncopation lost drive, then came to an abrupt halt. The prop and shaft had been wrenched out of the collet on the centaflex coupling and come to rest against the rudder, bringing the boat to a halt. Luckily it was less than six inches otherwise the shaft would have come clean out of the stern gland and the boat would have sunk. Better still, no damage was done and everything went back together, good as new.

[DeanS]

On my very first trip moving my boat from Sheffield...came down the 12 Tinsley Locks...got to the very bottom and got an old jacket round the prop. Engine overheated and cut out, leaving the boat stuck in the lock. Clutch got jammed, so hydraulic clutch wouldnt disengage, leaving boat stuck in forward motion. Had to call out a "marine specialist", who couldn't help, and after a while I had the feeling he was going to tell me we had to arrange towing back up the 12 locks back to Sheffield. I managed to read the engine manual which said....take our screw B and stick it in where screw A is...(screw B was longer than A). I did that and the clutch disgaged, and off we went. Cant wait to see what I get on our second trip

[The Hunky Dory]

Just up from Brentford on the GU in August, managed to get a full sack of ladies clothing round the prop whilst leaving a lock. Bra, panties, G string and tight jeans. What a treat! I've never been very good at unfastening bras.

[Davidss]

Umm,

How did you know the jeans were tight? :-)

[Peter Reed]

Umm,

How did you know the jeans were tight? :-)

Because they would not go higher than his knees.

The bra fitted, though.

[valencia]

Jeff was fishing off the boat and his line caught on something heavy after a lot of pulling and tugging we both had to pull it in after it snapped his line, it was one of the big traffic cones thrown off the bridge, I swilled it down cut it in half and now have two good strong planters, the top tapered end upside down grows lilies and the big heavy bottom bit has a fushia bush in, both are doing well.