Kentish Town Lock

[AJLintern]

When on our first canal holiday on the Oxford a few years ago, we got to our first 'down' lock (Marston Doles maybe?) I walked up with my Mum to show her the boat ahead of us negotiating it. Seemingly it was also their first time going down a lock (same hire fleet as us) and they promptly stuck it on the cill as we watched! Much shouting from the guy steering got the paddles down quickly but luckily it slid off before things got too scary.

So that was a good demonstration to my Mum of how not to do it!

[Hairy-Neil]

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Lock ladders were installed to allow a flounderer to escape the lock. It's a bonus that they are of use for navigation...

[MartinClark]

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....

 

You seem to have the impression, Daniel, that having warning signs will actually prevent people from doing something! No matter how many signs there are, some people will either not see the signs or be so distracted by talking, etc. that they will just not notice what their boat is doing.

 

Almost every lock now has the poorly worded "Keep boat forward of cill marker" sign on the head gate beams and yet the cillings continue apparently unabated. But before we marvel at the ineffectiveness of these signs, we should realise that the signs are not there for the benefit of boaters, but to cover BW's back should anyone attempt to seek damages from them after an incident!

[AJLintern]

Maybe boat builders should fit a big roller to the rear of the skeg

[debbifiggy]

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.

 

Add to that combination fantastic weather and relaxing with a few beers, larking about with your mates and there is a potential for disaster.

 

Hope all gets sorted out and the boat put right. Hope the insurance people pay out.

D

[alan_fincher]

Lock ladders were installed to allow a flounderer to escape the lock. It's a bonus that they are of use for navigation...

That's no reason to render the ones on the central islands between the former paired London locks bloody dangerous though, is it ?

 

They are already protected by handrails on two sides, and surely with safety railing cutting off the lock to the public, they are not supposed to have crossed the gates and be there anyway, are they ?

[magpie patrick]

You seem to have the impression, Daniel, that having warning signs will actually prevent people from doing something!

 

I agree totally, One architect I know reckons the only way a sign saying "No pedestrians past this point" will be 100% effective is to make the sign so big it's an obstruction and you can't walk past it

[RichardN]

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.

 

That looks like the bottom lock so the one that does not need a key to get in nor do I remember there being any fencing which stops you going down steps.

[ditchcrawler]

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.

That is probably the bottom line, People always want to chat when your in a lock which causes distractions.

[Lady Muck]

That looks like the bottom lock so the one that does not need a key to get in nor do I remember there being any fencing which stops you going down steps.

 

I would welcome a proper fence at that lock tbh. We came through that lock last month - only eight (very, very, p*ssed) people sitting on the bottom gates balance beams.

As I filled the lock at the other end (it was set against us) I had to constantly stop these people from raising the paddles at the other end on the sly. They thought it was hilarious. I was a bit annoyed as it took us half an hour to get through there. Lots of distraction, meaning it could be very unsafe if you are inexperienced or easily distracted. You spend all of your time asking people to get off the balance beams /stop raising the paddles and not enough time watching what your boat is doing.

 

The other two locks are a lot easier to work (IMO) since they fenced them off. I'm not usually one for fencing bits of our canal off, but I think Camden is a special case. (Probably because it is full of special cases LOL!

Edited October 4, 2011 by Lady Muck

[RichardN]

I would welcome a proper fence at that lock tbh. We came through that lock last month - only eight (very, very, p*ssed) people sitting on the bottom gates balance beams.

As I filled the lock at the other end (it was set against us) I had to constantly stop these people from raising the paddles at the other end on the sly. They thought it was hilarious. I was a bit annoyed as it took us half an hour to get through there. Lots of distraction, meaning it could be very unsafe if you are inexperienced or easily distracted. You spend all of your time asking people to get off the balance beams /stop raising the paddles and not enough time watching what your boat is doing.

 

The other two locks are a lot easier to work (IMO) since they fenced them off. I'm not usually one for fencing bits of our canal off, but I think Camden is a special case. (Probably because it is full of special cases LOL!

 

Good point. I suppose we have been lucky, the only issue we have had there was with ignorant boaters who turned the lock and did not close a downstream paddle properly before filling the lock. Could (and does) happen anywhere. I have not seen goths or drink Poles there in the same numbers as in previous years but then I understand enough polish so the drunk Poles always made me laugh.

[Lady Muck]

I have seen everything going on at that lock. One year our dog got attacked by a pack of dogs belonging to some drunks passed out by that lock. Another year I had to move some punks (who were eating cold baked beans from a tin) directly from under the balance beam. Another time a dozen girls boarded our boat. Then a couple of teens at third base, edging towards fourth base sprawled across the top beams.

 

All at that lock. It's not that we're scared or anything (as many of you know my partner has community boated in Camden since he could see over the roof to steer), it's just that I appreciate how distracting it all can be.

[Mick_B]

Is this Andante as owned by Peter?

 

[Laurie Booth]

Is this Andante as owned by Peter?

 

Likes living dangerously.

[Chertsey]

Doesn't look like it. 'My' Andante is a 32' R&D with recessed panels, now renamed Saxon (so that proves that renaming a boat is unlucky, sooner or later)

[bizzard]

Quite an easy one to set right,probably some shuttering ply around the front well. Hauled over with 3 or so Turfing winches chained to lockside bollards,a pump to pump water out from the bow end at the same time as the locks gently filled to prevent water surging aft and water spoiling anymore of the interior of the boat,i hope the salvagers did this. bizzard.

[Speedwheel]

Interesting.....

 

"As it was the owners fault, British Waterways have confirmed that he will have to cover the cost of the removal of his boat, stressing that he should not be using the lock in the dark as stated in its handbook."

 

http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/leatest/3659-problems-lifting-the-sunken-boat

[Chertsey]

Hmm, it may well have been the owner's fault but I don't see what the fact it was dark has to do with it. Most people who cill boats manage to do it in daylight and no one suggests it's any less their fault. Granted the boaters' handbook says: 'Cruising at night can be dangerous. Moor up before it gets dark and avoid using locks at night. Cruising after dark is not permitted by hire

boat companies.' but this is only a recommendation, not a byelaw.

[blackrose]

Maybe boat builders should fit a big roller to the rear of the skeg

 

Or a bendable rubber skeg?

[Nine of Hearts]

Or a bendable rubber skeg?

 

I did once posit this as a anti-cilling rudder design, but Duncan Banatyne threatened to break my arms.

 

[luctor et emergo]

Your tiller is pointing the wrong way...

[Nine of Hearts]

Your tiller is pointing the wrong way...

 

Quoi? It's pointing forwards. Which way do you think it should be pointing? Perhaps this was Duncan's problem...

[alan_fincher]

I did once posit this as a anti-cilling rudder design, but Duncan Banatyne threatened to break my arms.

 

It would also slice any hazardous pizza that anybody had managed to drop in, and which was laying on the bottom, into pieces small enough to avoid a prop-foul.

 

I think Duncan was wrong not to back it, given its obviously multi functional design.

[alan_fincher]

Interesting.....

 

"As it was the owners fault, British Waterways have confirmed that he will have to cover the cost of the removal of his boat, stressing that he should not be using the lock in the dark as stated in its handbook."

 

http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/leatest/3659-problems-lifting-the-sunken-boat

More classic NBW journalism, then !

 

However, from Del's photograph it can be seen that the bottom gate paddle is fully wound up—that surely should have been immediately closed.

 

No possibility then that the paddle is up (and gates part open) as part of operations to try and refloat the stricken boat !?!

[adam1uk]

More classic NBW journalism, then !

 

What about this sentence:

 

Andrew West, its owner told that he was travelling late at night in the dark when the stern became stuck on the cill as the lock was being emptied, and blames the lack of lighting and that there were drunks milling about, and that the boat had drifted backwards and was going down before he realised what was happening.

 

No one who calls themselves a journalist should write sentences of those proportions. And no one who calls themselves an editor should let it be published.