NB on weir at Ditchford, R. Nene

[i love my narrowboat]

The EA and RCR were here at 0730 this am and have made several attempts to refloat the boat today.

They opened the weir gates to let the water out. They started to pump out the boat, I told the RCR chief engineer, that the hull is split and was met with a 'NO it isn't' I actually have photos of the water coming through the split. So thought 'oh well get on with it' and said no more.

They then moved the barriers off the boat 3 hours after they started recovery as it was holding the boat down. They then started pumping it out again. The whole time I watched this I could see that the water was not going down at the back of the boat. After more than 6 hours of faffing about they have left it. therefore the lock is still out of use.

And the boat is still in the same position as it was Friday morning.

About Anglia were here and I said to them it will not be refloated today, the cameraman said 'of course it will,I will have a small bet with you' 50p! he said he was waiting for it to 'pop' up. I laughed and said you will be here a long time. Anyway he went off without paying me :-)

[PaddingtonBear]

Any idea how the hull 'split'? nothing likely to have caused it as far as I can see or perhaps it was in a poor state and the weight of water caused it to deform.

[i love my narrowboat]

No, we were just looking at it Thursday and could see a split of approx 12" with water coming through it, it looks like welded seam to me, not an expert so don't take my word for that :-)

 

I will put a photo on gallery, I don't know how to upload it on here.

[oarfish]

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.

 

 

Doesn't seem like the sort of problem that is solved by technology. We were a little more foolhardy going up the Thames on red at the same time as Mike B, as it was our 4th whole week of river boating. We walked ahead to check the route every other day, waiting for the flow to return to something like when we came down. We got lucky not to make idiots of ourselves I think, lock was pretty tricky due to someone moored on the landing. We had a couple of days water left, the bog was full and we had no heating so decided to risk it.. Maybe they had made a similar call and it didn't pay off, poor sods.

[Tam & Di]

Doesn't seem like the sort of problem that is solved by technology. We were a little more foolhardy going up the Thames on red at the same time as Mike B, as it was our 4th whole week of river boating. We walked ahead to check the route every other day, waiting for the flow to return to something like when we came down. We got lucky not to make idiots of ourselves I think, lock was pretty tricky due to someone moored on the landing. We had a couple of days water left, the bog was full and we had no heating so decided to risk it.. Maybe they had made a similar call and it didn't pay off, poor sods.

 

Except that going upstream is infinitely less dangerous than going down as they were.

[boathunter]

Perhaps someone can explain why the gates weren't set like this and an atempt made to pump the small amount of water out on the first day, rather than waiting until it was wrecked and full up. There must be a good reason.

 

[nb Innisfree]

Except that going upstream is infinitely less dangerous than going down as they were.

Untill the engine fails, then you're just a passenger.

[ditchcrawler]

Perhaps someone can explain why the gates weren't set like this and an atempt made to pump the small amount of water out on the first day, rather than waiting until it was wrecked and full up. There must be a good reason.

 

Maybe they didnt want to flood half of Northamptonshire and had to adjust water levels elsewhere first

[oarfish]

Untill the engine fails, then you're just a passenger.

 

 

I had some visions of pinwheeling down past folly bridge sinking rowboats, not going near a river again until I have an anchor.

[ditch paddler]

Maybe they didnt want to flood half of Northamptonshire and had to adjust water levels elsewhere first

I went for a look today to see how RCR where going to rescue this boat and i am sure there is no split in the hull as at one point after several hours of pumping (with a small pump no where near man enough for the job) the boat did start to rock and appeared if they kept going would start to rise. But RCR seemed to stop pumping at this point,they closed the sluice and expected the boat to 'pop' up whilst they pulled it with two Landrovers, when actually all that happened was as the sluice was closed and the river level returned to its level the boat was submerged and just filled with water once again. In my opinion RCR did not have the correct size pump or the knowledge to deal with this in a proffessional way and should be embarrassed with the poor result of this attempted salvage.

Edited November 4, 2012 by ditch paddler

[tree]

such a sorry site, the only blessing being that no-one was hurt. I hope that they are insured and it wont put them off boating in the future.

 

I once had a scary time on the trent in the late '80's and it put me off rivers for a very long time.

 

I am very wary of them now and I had to ask my good friends,ilovemynbarrowboat, to move my boat for me, and that was when the Nene was calm.

[the grinch]

RCR should be sacked in my opinion. ill prepared in the extreme I could have got that afloat in about 3 -4 hours!the secret to sucess is have more pump power than water pouring in. the amount of entry points need to be absolute minimum and then pump like theres no tomorrow.

 

been involved with the recovery of several boats over the years including a workboat with a dropdown front door!! that took 2½ hours to raise the biggest problem was getting the door watertight without resorting to a swim!!

[Starcoaster]

I don't really understand a lot of the logistics of what has gone on here or how the fact the boat now seems to be almost under is down to (or not down to) How RCR tried to rescue it.

 

But I do have to say that when this all began, the fact that one of RCR's first actions was to take photos of the boat in this state and post it on their FB page for the marketing value behind it when it's not their boat and they were called out to help, seemed to me to be rather mercenary and slightly distasteful.

Had the pics been posted as the 'before' shots after a successful rescue (which it now seems clear isn't going to happen) that would have been rather different.

Just my personal opinion.

Edited November 4, 2012 by Starcoaster

[Guest]

My thoughts too.

 

It has rather backfired if it was a marketing exercise too unless it was one about

 

- 'How not to rescue a sunken narrowboat'

[Tuscan]

I don't really understand a lot of the logistics of what has gone on here or how the fact the boat now seems to be almost under is down to (or not down to) How RCR tried to rescue it.

 

But I do have to say that when this all began, the fact that one of RCR's first actions was to take photos of the boat in this state and post it on their FB page for the marketing value behind it when it's not their boat and they were called out to help, seemed to me to be rather mercenary and slightly distasteful.

Had the pics been posted as the 'before' shots after a successful rescue (which it now seems clear isn't going to happen) that would have been rather different.

Just my personal opinion.

 

 

 

Before and after with the owners permission maybe.

[the grinch]

exactly Star this will be a PR disaster for them. shout after the job not before is the moral of the story.

 

I suspect that the way this will pan out is that a wait for levels settle will ensue then a rapid lowering of that area will then enable a quick pump out and refloat, but how they plan to keep it afloat remains to be seen as from the photos it looks likely that there is in fact a split seam under the counter.

[ditch paddler]

RCR should be sacked in my opinion. ill prepared in the extreme I could have got that afloat in about 3 -4 hours!the secret to sucess is have more pump power than water pouring in. the amount of entry points need to be absolute minimum and then pump like theres no tomorrow.

 

been involved with the recovery of several boats over the years including a workboat with a dropdown front door!! that took 2½ hours to raise the biggest problem was getting the door watertight without resorting to a swim!!

I couldn't agree more i could not believe what i was seeing a decent size pump would have got it floating no problem i am sure, but a half measure pump topped by a desperate tow from 2 Landrovers really did demonstrate a severe lack of experience, despite the chief engineer stating he had delt with this type of situation many times.

[the grinch]

in his dreams maybe! you can count the incidents on the rivers with 1 hand so i doubt they have dealt with many, Foxton Boats on the otherhand have done a fair few over the years!

[bizzard]

I presume they made sure the back door was closed first. Is this the sort of job that RCR are expected to do though? and know how to do. Perhaps not. I don't think they've got access to and fly about in Chinook heavy lift helicopters, aka Thunderbirds.

Might need floatation bags now and or at least a diver to make sure doors are closed ect and dam, seal off the stern deck before pumping again. And then a couple of seriously powerful pumps.

[Starcoaster]

RCR seemed to think they were competent and able... A pull-quote from their FB page where they posted the picture:

 

Crew are safely on land and now our rescue team have the task of getting the boat out of this predicament...having attended over 20 similar situations, and not having lost one yet, as bad as this looks there is a good chance we will save it.

Edited November 4, 2012 by Starcoaster

[boathunter]

They didn't though did they? They sunk it by pulling the stern off the bank without pumping out enough water first. In my humble opinion they underestimted the job, but went for it anyway. I'd be pretty upset if that was my boat.

Edited November 4, 2012 by boathunter

[nbfiresprite]

Personal i like to know the timeline of EA's involvement in this mess. I believe this set of sluices are

remotely controlled. Yet the sluices were left open all night. Even if manually controlled someone

could have been there within an hour. As it was some time before the boat started to sink.

 

Closing the sluices for short while would not cause flooding, just a increase in flow over the weir

1/2 mile upstream. With the sluices open, the flow over the weir is reduced which give a misleading

state of the river downstream. It's not until you pass under the bridge that you can see the lock and

sluice channel. Even a red warning light linked to the sluices would give advance warning.

 

As for the strong stream warning Mobile phone coverage is a mix of poor and no signal at all,

for most of the length of the Nene, And may well be the reason why Peter and Marion did not

get the phone call or text from the EA. I am signed up to the same service, Yet did not get the text until

later that evening, Even today many rural areas have poor coverage.

 

EA claiming that the couple were not signed up for service, may well just be diverting tactic, to cover up

they own poor management of the warning system and that they may have lost the details. Even now in

2012 it is not possible to sign up to this service online.

 

Even now on the stoppage page, there is no mention of Ditchford Lock.

[nb Innisfree]

It's so easy to misunderstand and underestimate the hydraulic forces involved in this sort of situation, as the boat started to drift and swing across the opening it wiuld have been quite gentle but as soon as tthe boats superstructure was brought to a halt by the boom the rest of the boat would have presented a wide surface area to the river fkow which would have had enough hydraulic energy to force the hull that was under the waterline, forward, with the effect of capsizing it and forming a sort of temporary weir at which point the forces would have multiplied. To get an idea just try slowly replacing the plug in a bathfull of water.

 

No chance once things are set in motion, it really does serve to show how dangerous rivers can be.Which engineer was it who said something on the lines of a river was a raging giant that if laid on its back in the form of a canal would become docile. We have just got to remember those docile canals are a world away from sometimes raging giants and different rules apply.

[PaddingtonBear]

I bet a pound to a pinch of s*** that the insurance company will try and avoid paying out due to the responsibility of the owners to mitigate their losses and this can hardly be the case as they were boating in unsafe conditions. It is lucky that RCR have made such a pigs ear of the situation as it is likely that their insurance might be liable although as is often the case the only winners will be the lawyers. The Ducks and I know just what a bastard a strong stream and the Nene can be and we just about got away with it, :unsure: but we had a proper deep drafted boat and a proper engine.

[pophops]

The TV reporter seems to pronounce the river Nene as "nen". Is this correct? I've always thought it was pronounced the way it's spelt.