Single handing in the wind

[mykaskin]

Exactly what I thought. I met a bloke steering an old working boat on the mars worth flight and he went crashing into the bottom gates, there was roars of laughter and he casually stepped of and explained that's how the old boat people used to do it!!! And I think he believed himself.

 

Darren

 

While it wasn't done normally by crashing into them, it was common practice to put the boat upto the gates if the lock was against. If the lock was for (ready) then the gates would normally already be open anyway, if not then I suspect they were helped open...

 

Unfortunately there is so much leaf litter below the locks these days because all the pleasure boats mess around with lock landings that its hard to stop in time.

 

Mike

[ChimneyChain]

While it wasn't done normally by crashing into them, it was common practice to put the boat upto the gates if the lock was against. If the lock was for (ready) then the gates would normally already be open anyway, if not then I suspect they were helped open...

 

Unfortunately there is so much leaf litter below the locks these days because all the pleasure boats mess around with lock landings that its hard to stop in time.

 

Mike

 

No mike it was definitely a f*** up plus he was going down not up. So tell us what happened at the end did the boat go into the lock or did he have to go and retrieve his boat from of the bank.

 

Darren

[mykaskin]

No mike it was definitely a f*** up plus he was going down not up. So tell us what happened at the end did the boat go into the lock or did he have to go and retrieve his boat from of the bank.

 

Darren

 

He had to climb back on board from the field on the offside. It's also common to ensure that the boat is against the gates going down to ensure that it doesn't get cilled. There should be far less excuse hitting the bottom gates from this direction, but I've done it a few times myself as being such a deep boat to actually stop it bumping along the bottom I keep the stern high in the water and so the propeller ventilates nicely causing little stop! However in the good old days I believe it was common with some boats/engines to strap a motor into a lock as well as the butty.

 

Mike

[Barry]

I was fearing for the top gate handrail too - thought there was a good chance it was going to get ripped off or at least savagely bent - maybe if he had not stopped the boat with the bottom gates that's what would have happened