Kentish Town Lock

[DaveP]

Posting on facebook with photo from this arvo

 

Linky thing

[the grinch]

big poly sheet and slowly refill, i'd reckon it would refloat, just need to keep enough water out of the front well.

[Chertsey]

I have been following this with interest as tnat boat used to be my Andante (and prior to that belonged to another forum member who I hope will post as he is on the spot). I heard this morning that the fire brigade flooded it in their efforts to refloat; it had been ok up til then. Cilling a thirty two foot boat in an eighty foot lock takes some doing!

 

Interestingly also there was nothing on Waterscape about the atoppage even though the canal was closed all day. I thought it was a wind up when I was first told.

[alan_fincher]

I'm really curious from that one picture why it is now fully front end under, and on a much bigger slope.

 

Clearly it is nowhere like on the bottom of the lock, so is something being used to hold it up.

 

Is it, (for instance) tied off to the fromt of the other boat in the lock, to help keep it up.

 

I really can't work it out.

 

It also seems to have at least a long shaft layed along the gunwale on the visible side. Unlikely that was laid there before the incident, so I wonder how it got there. I have seen poles crash off the roof if a boat tips enough, but it has tipped the other way......

[MartinClark]

Here is an earlier photo. Also on Facebook, so don't know how many of you can view it...

[Linky]

[Laurie Booth]

Here is an earlier photo. Also on Facebook, so don't know how many of you can view it...

[Linky]

I'm a bit confused. The boat is going uphill, how did it catch on the cill?

[MartinClark]

I'm a bit confused. The boat is going uphill, how did it catch on the cill?

 

Both photos show the bow nearer the camera and the tiller visible near the gate. The boat was going downhill and presumably was too far back and got the stern caught on the cill as the lock emptied.

[alan_fincher]

Here is an earlier photo. Also on Facebook, so don't know how many of you can view it...

[Linky]

I certainly can't see it.

[Laurie Booth]

Both photos show the bow nearer the camera and the tiller visible near the gate. The boat was going downhill and presumably was too far back and got the stern caught on the cill as the lock emptied.

The thing that was/is confusing me is the other boat in the lock that is going up?

[alan_fincher]

The thing that was/is confusing me is the other boat in the lock that is going up?

Added later, presumably, when trying to salvage the situation ?

 

The water level is presumably about normal for the pound below. The gates are opened, and it doesn't appear to have been lowered.

 

As it is some way to the next lock, I imagine doing that would be difficult, and if they needed to, they would be far more likely to put in stop planks at the lower end of this lock, and then use big pumps.

 

Shame they got rid of the duplicated locks, or this needn't have resulted in a stoppage! (Yes, I know there was a claimed rationale in turning those other locks into weirs, to reduce a dependency on lock keepers, so only joking!....)

[Athy]

I am saddened by the caption beneath the photo of the obviously stricken boat: "Two people like this". What sort of vultures can they be?

[africanqueen]

I hope everyone was ok. We were out on the boat yesterday and passed many people coming back from Camden having been turned around.

 

I can't find anything in the local papers about it at all.

 

Poor bastards.

[Laurie Booth]

I am saddened by the caption beneath the photo of the obviously stricken boat: "Two people like this". What sort of vultures can they be?

I think you'll find they like the posting, not the boat in trouble.

[MartinClark]

I think you'll find they like the posting, not the boat in trouble.

 

Yes. Think of it as a sort of "Thank you for posting this" button. Sometimes the simplistic word "Like" can be rather inappropriate.

[Laurie Booth]

Yes. Think of it as a sort of "Thank you for posting this" button. Sometimes the simplistic word "Like" can be rather inappropriate.

I agree

[MartinClark]

I agree

 

MartinClark likes this.

[JohnO]

Here is an earlier photo. Also on Facebook, so don't know how many of you can view it...

[Linky]

Looked more like an Earthquake

© M.T. Major

[Chertsey]

My poor little Andante. She was looking so smart too. Anyone know how the salvage operation's going?

Edited October 3, 2011 by Chertsey

[alan_fincher]

Well I guess it must be resting on the bottom, but I'd seriously expect the front end to be further under than that with ahull that doesn't have particularly deep sides.

 

There's normally at least 5 foot of water in an empty lock like that, and to me it doesn't look like it is in that great a depth.

 

I must be wrong, I guess!

 

EDITED TO ADD:

 

Stoppage notice......

 

Stoppage: Between Kentish Town Lock and Hampstead Road Lock

 

03 - 03 Oct 2011

 

Associated Regional Office: London Waterways

 

The Regent’s canal is closed for navigation between Kentish Town Lock and Hampstead Road Lock. Traffic on the canal is suspended until late this afternoon, thus around 15:00ish while salvage operations take place.

 

(Enquiries: 020 7985 7200)

Edited October 3, 2011 by alan_fincher

[sueb]

It would really be useful if BW had put the 'beware of the cill' signs on the correct end of the locks

Sue

[Chertsey]

M.T. Major, can you tell us more? (As it's your Facebook photo posted above but I can't cope with Facebook...)

[blackrose]

It would really be useful if BW had put the 'beware of the cill' signs on the correct end of the locks

Sue

 

I'd have thought a sign at either end would be useful. If you're about to let water out of the lock at the downhill end it might just remind you to check your boat is forward of the cill before you start.

[DHutch]

It would really be useful if BW had put the 'beware of the cill' signs on the correct end of the locks

Sue

I actually think they should have, rather than just two, put eight cilly signs on every lock. That way there would have been on on both sides of all four gates this making it totally impossible for people to do the possible....

 

No, in all honesty, it must be awful for both the current and past owners. But sadly it is a fact of life that risk exists, and sometimes things go wrong. The only saving grace is that nobody was hurt, and that once floated, emptied, and dried, the majority of the boat will be perfectly salvageable, and the rest most likely covered by insurance.

 

 

Daniel

[Chertsey]

To be honest I think that if people are new to it they have so much to think and panic about they are not likely to take in, let alone understand, the signs. Those are big scary locks and there would have been massive crowds there too acting as a distraction.

[alan_fincher]

To be honest I think that if people are new to it they have so much to think and panic about they are not likely to take in, let alone understand, the signs. Those are big scary locks and there would have been massive crowds there too acting as a distraction.

In my view a passage through those locks is often in no way helped by all the dangerous "safety" measures that BW have put in place to protect the public from themselves, but which make the locks far harder to work by boaters, particularly if single handed.

 

That lock for instance features.......

 

1) Fencing along the side, which I seem to recall actually stop you being able to even get down the steps at the bottom. in some cases you need a BW key just to get to the lock at all.

 

2) Plates across the top of the recess for the lock ladders, (at least on the non towpath side) that make it nigh impossible to climb them safely.

 

As Sarah says, these are often not the easiest locks to work, even without the distractions, which can be plentiful.

 

My personal view has always been that the "keep of cill" signs are totally pointless and useless, but I know it is a much argued point! However I don't perceive that cilling incidents have got any less, although I doubt there is any public access to data that tells us one way or another.