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NB on weir at Ditchford, R. Nene

the grinch

By the grinch
in General Boating

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RLWP Veteran II

RLWP

Posted
Posted

So I guess the NB is still stuck where it was this time yesterday... For some reason I expected there to be more of a rush to get it out. I would have thought it'll be happily collecting more and more debris until the river if effectively dammed? That can't be helpful.

 

It will be too difficult until the river drops a bit, and dangerous too

 

Richard

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gazza Veteran

gazza

Posted
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from a post on FB it would appear that the boat is now half submerged and there is damage to the stern end steelwork.

as said previously the only way to start a winching recovery is to stop the flow temporarily but also a big pump is going to be needed as well. until the flow reduces its going to difficult to get one on site.

the other thing i find incredible is the arrival of yet another narrowboat!! why is there no sign or preventative methodd being employed at the lock above?

 

I had a look on the way home from work, it's now on the bottom, bows blocking the lock, there are 2 narrowboats and a cruiser at ditchford, god knows why these boats are not at the relative safety of wellingborough embankment. I would post a pic but don't know how to get pic off HTC phone to here.

 

Lots of folks scratching heads and sucking teeth. Flow has dropped off but river is still Brown and angry looking.

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Tuscan Veteran

Tuscan

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I had a look on the way home from work, it's now on the bottom, bows blocking the lock, there are 2 narrowboats and a cruiser at ditchford, god knows why these boats are not at the relative safety of wellingborough embankment. I would post a pic but don't know how to get pic off HTC phone to here.

 

Lots of folks scratching heads and sucking teeth. Flow has dropped off but river is still Brown and angry looking.

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of rain expected Sunday which will make things hairy.

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gazza Veteran

gazza

Posted
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Lots of rain expected Sunday which will make things hairy.

 

Yup, up and down like a whores draws at the moment. Ea have a fairly good river level web page, googling EA river nene levels will reveal all. The ones to look at are dodford, weedon, kislingbury, Brampton and Northampton barage. High levels/risk of flooding at these locations mean we suffer downstream , in general we get flood water 24-36 hours later at mncc titchmarsh mill.

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Duchess Omnium Contributor

Duchess Omnium

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This is so sad to see. I keep thinkinghow I would feel if that were my boat...

 

When I first got Pangolin -- and I was a total newbie -- I took a river trip I definitely shouldn't have.

 

I set out on the Cherwell with the boards just under red when we left and the water rising, because I had a visitor from overseas and he was only going to be around one day, and he really, really wanted a boat trip and I had promised.... It was only a little river, and the danger probably wasn't so great, but I was a new boater, and it taught me a lesson. I dropped my friend, the only crew, with a bow rope at Shipton Weir Lock coming downstream where the Cherwell meets the Oxford Canal. I brought the boat in too steeply, my friend was ashore, and the current took me, so that I was headed stern first down the non navigable part of the river... My instinct, when in trouble, is to slow down, which didn't help at all. Eventually I gave it all the throttle it had, the bow rope held, and I brought the boat back in. Once in the lock we had more to contend with -- the water was so high I hit the bridge I normally clear, and the force of the river was so strong it took my friend and a passerby to open the gate. We got to Thrupp much too late for the pub lunch we'd planned, and very much in need of a drink. In the end it was a small incident, really, not like the awful mess these people were faced with, but even so I had nightmares for more than a year,

 

And I learned a lot. This autumn I had two sets of visitors I had promised trips on the Thames (I have been through all the locks on the Thames the last two summers, and taken the boat to London and back and Lechlade and back twice, so I now have some experience with the river). Even though I had promised, and they had flown all the way across the Atlantic to go on the river, I said "no". The river was just running too fast, and we changed our trips both times and went up the canal instead.

 

Okay, it wasn't so exciting... But you can have too much excitement!

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

Posted
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Interesting advice from the EA. 'Sign up for our Strong Stream' text, phone or email service'. The reporter says the boater HAD signed up for it but received nothing. I signed up for Strong Stream on the the Thames text alerts too but I never receive any.

 

Not sure how they help though. I found all I needed to do was look in the river to see the strong stream on my recent hairy trip from Reading up to Oxford.

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

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I get regular texts from the EA ref the Nene and SSA.

 

Point being, I don't envisage a text from the EA preventing the accident. Given these boaters judged conditions suitable for cruising, I doubt a text would have made them abandon their trip.

 

I saw the red boards on the Thames locks and still made my trip, for example. I judged my boating ability to be good enough to deal with conditions, and I was almost right too!

 

Mike

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luctor et emergo Veteran II

luctor et emergo

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Posted

:smiley_offtopic:

 

I wonder how many boats are lost this way in France?

 

I was interested to see a number of unguarded weirs on La Sarth including this one, nothing more than a (pretty small) notice to alert you.

 

 

 

 

Non of the weirs between Bath and Hanham are protected either. And I can only think of one boat getting stuck on one, in recent years (Keynsham).

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Jeanie920 Contributor

Jeanie920Donate to Canal World

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Point being, I don't envisage a text from the EA preventing the accident. Given these boaters judged conditions suitable for cruising, I doubt a text would have made them abandon their trip.

 

I saw the red boards on the Thames locks and still made my trip, for example. I judged my boating ability to be good enough to deal with conditions, and I was almost right too!

 

Mike

 

 

The couple were interviewed on Anglia TV last night. They said they thought they had signed up for the warnings but the EA said they hadnt.

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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

Posted
Posted (edited)

Not necessarily. The trouble with any weir protection is that once the boat is sideways across the stream, the current acting on the submerged portion of the hull trys to roll the boat over.

 

Seen it happen on several occasions with all different types of boat

 

Not necessarily indeed, that's why I said this type or weir protection "may" prevent a boat going over a weir. I've seen it too, and with vertical pilings (providing they are spaced closely enough), the boat is held firmly against the pilings. It could roll of course, but the boat I saw didn't and it was a fast red board flow on the Thames.

Edited by blackrose
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