'Banging the gates' open...??!!

[PhilR]

Some newer. boaters have probably heard stories/watched videos of how it was (allegedly) done in the *old days* .......... take it with a pinch of salt.

 

There is a massive difference between nudging and ramming lock gates.

[David Mack]

I wonder if he drives his car out of the garage in the same way!

[Alan Saunders]

Time and again I have had to point out to people that they or their children are "Ahem, the wrong side of the balance beam and will be pushed into the cut when the gates open".

 

OK, I sometimes nudge the gates carefully but only if I am sure it will not inconvenience anyone! On the evidence as given, this boat is a menace to life and limb as well as our fragile canal structures.

 

I hit a top gate once, winding a hire boat (at Alverchurch?). Engine screaming brought out all the gongoozlers, maybe I had failed to engage reverse? I saw the gate jump and feared the worst. In the event, only a red face.

[Matthew Dowson]

As Del Boy would've said: "what a plonker"! Gently does it, with the backlog of maintenance, reduced numbers of staff I'm seeing more and more broken paddles etc on the L&LC this summer than previously has been the case. We need to take care with this pre-industrialtransport system, after all its over 200 years old.

[Tam & Di]

As Del Boy would've said: "what a plonker"! Gently does it, with the backlog of maintenance, reduced numbers of staff I'm seeing more and more broken paddles etc on the L&LC this summer than previously has been the case. We need to take care with this pre-industrialtransport system, after all its over 200 years old.

 

I think you'll find the gates are all a bit younger than that.

[Serenity Malc]

Yello,

 

Given the amount of time, effort and money that has gone into restoring and resurrecting our canal system over the past few decades, it does make me wonder how anyone would treat the lock gates with such utter disrespect !!

 

It's mostly simple laziness of the part of the boater ... it may have been acceptable to help the gates open in the days of working boats who had to meet a deadline for delivery, but I always thought leisure boats were perfect for taking thing easy on and enjoying the countryside.

 

Just plain dangerous and totally disrespectful of the waterways we all enjoy so much.

 

Malc.

[matty40s]

I do seem to remember a boat on the River Wey about 2 years ago turning a lock into a flash lock when it hit a gate and it came off (the Wey lock gates are not as strong as the main network).

I wonder if it was the same chap.

 

I have only ever had to hit a gate hard on one occasion, going up camden. The middle lock would not fill, there was more going out of the bottom than coming in to the top. I drained it and resat the lower gates in case there was an obstruction. Still would not completely fill. After 1/2 hour, got a group of tourists against one gate and pushed one gate on full revs. Still no joy. So started to bounce it, eventuall enough water came in through the paddles and central rush to open it.

I reported it to BW the next day.

[stickleback]

Which lock has the volunteer lock keeper? We never saw any!

 

We saw a couple of volunteers o the Hatton locks. Very helpful!

 

Twas not an elderly couple, she working the lock and poor on her pins was it? Saw a couple who worked locks just as you describe on the Oxford at Napton a month or so ago. I really thought someone was going to get hurt as he charged the bottom gates. Think the boat we saw came from the Wey if memory serves me.

 

Saw an elderly couple on the Stratford canal, she working the locks, and he gave the gates a real thump. I couldn't help thinking it was no wonder some of the locks were such hard work, if thumping them like that is a regular occurrence. Can't do the pivots any good at all, surely?

[jonathanA]

Perhaps the lazy get should let his wife helm and then he could work the locks and there would be no need to bang the gates.

 

presumably sooner or later the repeated impacts are going to cause damage to his craft and hit him in the wallet but probably he won't connect the two things...

[carlt]

presumably sooner or later the repeated impacts are going to cause damage to his craft

A split weld could sink the boat in minutes.

 

He'd probably blame CRT though and sue them.

[bowten]

I have used this method to help my wife open the gates,take a run at the gates with as much momentum as is possible then when only a few yards from the gates put into reverse and slow down.The wash from the front of the boat helps (usually) to open the gates(usually).

Edited October 4, 2012 by bowten

[bizzard]

In my opinion the worst type of boat that could cause serious damage to gate mitres are the boats with that horrid wide knuckle ''ledge'' thing that wraps half way up around the bows. If i have to share a lock with one of them i make sure it goes in first as i've had quite serious gouges and paint damage done to my stern end gunnels, ''horrid things''. If gate forcing is done with one of these boats i should imagine that quite a nasty groove into the gates mitres would be caused.

[tafelberg]

I think with all the cuts and lack of funding perhaps doing anything more than being nice and gentle with the gates is the best plan. We might have done it for hundreds of years. But we didn't have CART and a big breach to pay for.

[Serenity Malc]

Yello,

 

Totally agree with you Tafelberg .... anything else is wanton vandalism.

 

 

Malc.

[Matthew Dowson]

I think you'll find the gates are all a bit younger than that.

And they'll last longer if we treat them well.

[Giggetty]

Well you learn something every day.

 

Even though we spent well over 18 months on the water we never intentionally used the boat to open gates let alone ram them, I simply assumed that you shouldn't. I always pulled over to the mooring and let Lynn get off and wait ill they opened then entered the lock, same with exiting, I even used to hold the boat back when in he lock so no to hit the gates front on.

 

We must have been excellent boaters

 

If she sees this she'll go mad

Ramming the gates is potentially self-defeating. If they are knocked off the pintles or the collars are stretched the lock becomes useless until a CRT crane comes along to hoist them back in again, That could take a day or two. Didn't this happen somewhere earlier in the year?

Edited October 5, 2012 by Giggetty

[mayalld]

Comingup to a lock, if I can see it's empty I stop the boat just as it reaches the gate, then go to tickover and gently iopen the gate. As a single hander it saves a lot of efforet, mooring going to an opening the gate, returning to the boat and entering the lock. I see nothing wrong with this, but the operative word is "gentle". There have been no end of stoppages over the years because boats have hit and dislodged the gates, resulting in boaters stuck, crane hire and staff time. The guy was an idiot.

 

Whilst there is little that you can do in the way of gentle pushing (or even vigorous pushing provided you start in contact with the gate) that will damage a TOP gate, it is extremely unwise to do it on a bottom gate, for two main reasons;

 

1) If you push a bottom gate, without somebody on the lockside, you are rarely able to be certain that the sweep of the beams is clear of bystanders. You have created a potentially dangerous situation.

2) Once the gates open, and as you carry on into the lock, your rubbing strakes will rub against the mitre post, and cause wear. That wear will be below the water line as the lock fills and will cause the lock to leak.

 

As an aside, pushing lock gates with a boat to open them is an offence under the BW Byelaws (Byelaw 25a), carrying a £100 fine.

[John V]

 

 

As an aside, pushing lock gates with a boat to open them is an offence under the BW Byelaws (Byelaw 25a), carrying a £100 fine.

 

Only excuse I know of for that procedure is (or was 20 odd years ago) a gate on the river Stort just below Harlow that had an incredibly short ballance arm that needed a tug-o-war team to open