Boat lost over Teddington weir?

[carlt]

A sad story - but I am wondering why the rescue services felt so compelled to pull the boat off the jetty. I know that area well and I would have thought that jetty could easily cope with the loading.

I agree. If all lives were saved and the boat was stable, where it was, perhaps it should have been tied off while a salvage team assessed the viability of retrieving it intact, especially as it had retained buoyancy and could have been beached nearby.

[Guest]

How easy it is to be wise after the event sometimes, and in the absence of all available information at the time...

[carlt]

How easy it is to be wise after the event sometimes, and in the absence of all available information at the time...

Yes and it is easy to avoid such criticism by using words such as "if" "perhaps" and "assessed the viability of".

[Guest]

Yes and it is easy to avoid such criticism by using words such as "if" "perhaps" and "assessed the viability of".

 

[blackrose]

I don't know the circumstances so i will not comment on the incident - save to say i am pleased to say the least, that it was not a tragedy - I do however look in amazement at the number of people still moving about on the Thames. Turning around by bridges seems a fave at the moment, i know of a lost wheelhouse and a steamer having clattered Clifton bridge along as these others. It may look ok but when the stream narrows it really shifts...is it so important to move?

 

Exactly. Eiher some people are unaware of the dangers, or more likely they aren't quite as knowlegeable about river currents and skillful at boat handling as they think. Why would you put a stern line on a pontoon cleat first, when facing upstream in a powerful weir stream for example? A simple mistake? Perhaps...

 

I think I'm ok at handling my boat, but I cross the river everyday on an aluminium dinghy with an outboard and I know how powerful it can get. I saw a nice widebeam coming downstream on Wednesday and it was really shifting. There's no way I'd take my home out on red board. I've been out in fast currents on the tidal Thames and of course there are dangers, but I don't really understand why people deliberately go against EA recommendations not to move? They give that advice for a reason.

 

How easy it is to be wise after the event sometimes, and in the absence of all available information at the time...

 

I disagree. It's really not a case of being wise after the event. The information is all here.

 

http://riverconditions.environment-agency.gov.uk/

 

I moor on the Thames and I look at it anytime there's been significant rainfall. It's a question of planning ahead and accessing the information.

Edited June 15, 2012 by blackrose

[George94]

Very sad, but I doubt if the conditions were much different from what is experienced every day on the tidal Thames where a current of 3 or 4 knots is the norm. A mistake was made in attaching the stern line before the bow, and the line was probably extremely strong and with very little give in it. When it became taut, the snatch load on the transom would have been enormous. Had the line been nylon, which is very stretchy, the boat might well have survived.