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Bollards For France


Biggles

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I think Chris was aiming that suggestion mainly at me - and no I haven't heard of them, will look into it.

 

My suggestion to Biggles, for what it's worth, would be to consider bringing the stern rail further inboard, or cutting it short, and putting a pair of chunky bollards roughly where the front of the rail is now, AND putting something on the (suitably reinforced) roof edge just ahead of the steering position. The tipping issue won't be so bad with a wide beam boat, and that is a handy area to have a point of purchase, and it would be difficult to do a proper useable job on the gunwales in that area. If I was going there, I wouldn't really start from here ;)

 

Tim

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  • 7 years later...

At last the boat yard is fitting my bitts for the bows, built to match those on the stern quarter. The port pair are done, and the starboard pair are spot-welded and will be finished tomorrow.

 

Port bitts.jpg

 

 

 

Starboard bitts.jpg

Edited by Trevor Lyons
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It’s good to have two bollards but personally I would have preferred them bit further apart and equal length through pins. I don’t know the size or type of your boat but it’s a different way of working locks on the continent and it is necessary to use ropes every time. The usual technic is to have a noose on the end of the rope and put this over the bollard taking the other end round the bollard thus working from the boat not from the land. Some of the locks are very large but even the smallest are 5m wide so they can throw small boats about a bit.

7D87AB55-D02D-4A41-A0B4-CF5B3D8AAF87.jpeg

ABAAC90F-FBE2-47A0-AA7A-C1BEBFE04696.jpeg

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50 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

It’s good to have two bollards but personally I would have preferred them bit further apart and equal length through pins. I don’t know the size or type of your boat but it’s a different way of working locks on the continent and it is necessary to use ropes every time.

 

Ideally, I would have liked them slightly further apart, but the hull details below the deck precluded that. Anyway, given that the bow deck previously had only a samson post, (see photo) it should make locks a lot easier. In an earlier life, the barge was a trip boat, first on the Ouse and then on Lake Windermere. In that guise, she never needed to negotiate locks and did not need bow bollards.. (The boat is 25 tons and 54' x 11'6". Draft is 3'7").

 

Bow deck.jpg

Edited by Trevor Lyons
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2 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

It’s good to have two bollards but personally I would have preferred them bit further apart and equal length through pins. I don’t know the size or type of your boat but it’s a different way of working locks on the continent and it is necessary to use ropes every time. The usual technic is to have a noose on the end of the rope and put this over the bollard taking the other end round the bollard thus working from the boat not from the land. Some of the locks are very large but even the smallest are 5m wide so they can throw small boats about a bit.

7D87AB55-D02D-4A41-A0B4-CF5B3D8AAF87.jpeg

ABAAC90F-FBE2-47A0-AA7A-C1BEBFE04696.jpeg

1st one is Charleroi but where is the second and if you were descending how did you retrieve the shore end of the rope

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Just now, Phoenix_V said:

1st one is Charleroi but where is the second and if you were descending how did you retrieve the shore end of the rope

I put up the Charleroi picture to show the rope work the second is a 2 rise at Le Guitian (spelling) on the Loire canal. There is a keeper working the lock so he will drop the rope. He lowers a hook to take the rope when you go in.

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4 hours ago, wandering snail said:

We put one of these (not the dog)either side of the bow and were all we ever needed around Europe in our narrowboat.

35763231_10155369100096123_3188347630493106176_n.jpg

 

One bollard on each side at the bow... Just goes to show all the theory about what you need is more about what's ideal to have. In reality you need a reasonable set up but you work with what you've got.

11 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Does anybody know what happened to Biggles?, the originator of this thread. I enjoyed his blogs.

 

Last I heard he was in France somewhere but that might have been 8 or 9 years ago...

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2 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

 

Last I heard he was in France somewhere but that might have been 8 or 9 years ago...

 

Ditto. I remember communicating with him about an ambulance conversion to motorhome he did around that time but nothing since.

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