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Sunk boat K&A


J R

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that was heart breaking to watch! IS that CRT (Crap Rescue Talents) who did that or someone else? Either way they clearly had not thought through the plan on how to best effect the recovery!!

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The way that boat sunk so astonishingly quickly suggests the bow doors were still propped open as they pulled it off the cill. Gross incompetence indeed. I wonder what else they expected to happen?

 

I suspect the recovery crew were actually so inexperienced with boats they didn't realise there were doors at the front which were open, given the forward end of the cabin appears to have been fully submersed. Either that or they regarded the boat as a total loss already and were just there to get it out with no regard for damage caused in doing it.

 

What was the white steel gantry over the lock there for? I can't imagine any reason for it. maybe it was assembled in an earlier attempt to lift just the bow of the boat but it looks very weedy...

 

 

MtB

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Words fail me when I watch footage of these so called professional teams rescuing boats, be it from a lock, being beached due to floods or other reason. Invariably they end up sinking it first. Yes there are competent recoveries as well, but you would have thought that recovery from a lock because of being stuck on the cill would have been mastered by now.

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Words fail me when I watch footage of these so called professional teams rescuing boats, be it from a lock, being beached due to floods or other reason. Invariably they end up sinking it first. Yes there are competent recoveries as well, but you would have thought that recovery from a lock because of being stuck on the cill would have been mastered by now.

There are, but what's the fun in watching a recovery that goes perfectly?icecream.gif

 

All the ones I've seen that went without a hitch were a matter of boringly standing round while the crane or pumps just got on with doing their job.

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Words fail me when I watch footage of these so called professional teams rescuing boats, be it from a lock, being beached due to floods or other reason. Invariably they end up sinking it first. Yes there are competent recoveries as well, but you would have thought that recovery from a lock because of being stuck on the cill would have been mastered by now.

 

Totally agree. I wonder if there is there is a good business plan in that? Insurance companies presumably pay large sums of money to have narrowboats recovered from sills.

 

I'd imagine this crew were on a fixed price for the job but given they had their Big Crane on site anyway, presumably it wasn't a great deal of extra work lifting it out once sitting tidily and safely on the bottom. Smash out some windows to get the strops through, and out it comes.

 

I'd imagine the hirers were not too popular back at the hire base either, and won't be getting their deposit back...

 

 

MtB

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Indeed. Though it would have been nice of the hirers had been made to watch, or,preferably, help.

 

By now they probably grasp the stupidity of dismissing the pre-hire training they were given. All the personal possessions they took with them on holiday (clothes, laptops, beer, food, car keys possibly) will still be inside the boat and saturated with canal water.

 

I doubt they are too concerned about the boat or they wouldn't have cilled it in the first place.

 

 

MtB

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UK Boat Hire has a compulsory damage waiver that excludes damage caused by lock cills:

 

"Accidental damage waiver excludes damage arising from speeding, contact with a lock sill causing damage to the rudder, skeg or stern gear, TV aerials, chimneys, negligence, malicious or intentional damage to the boat. "

 

It is obvious that the hirer has to pay for damage caused to the rudder, skeg and stern gear and presumably recovery and dry docking the boat to do the repairs, but what about the cost of recovery and refitting of a hire boat that has been sunk? I presume that this is covered by the company's insurance.

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I doubt they are too concerned about the boat or they wouldn't have cilled it in the first place.

 

 

MtB

 

I cilled a boat once.

I was fully aware of the risks and took all precautions.

I was not, however, aware of how to tell that my morse cable had broken in a lock environment.

 

I would have been very unhappy if the boat ad actually sunk and I was subsequently told that it had sunk because I didn't care.

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I cilled a boat once.

I was fully aware of the risks and took all precautions.

I was not, however, aware of how to tell that my morse cable had broken in a lock environment.

 

I would have been very unhappy if the boat ad actually sunk and I was subsequently told that it had sunk because I didn't care.

 

That's interesting. We have a 45' boat, but still make sure its at the front of the lock before opening paddles, when going down a lock. This way the water flow naturally holds the boat at the front of the lock, in idle/neutral. (If the boat isn't at the front of the lock, the paddles don't get raised). No throttle input is necessary. In fact, singlehanders do this all the time, and leave the boat to operate the relevant lock gates and paddles. Furthermore, butties and boats with their engine off, or with a non-working engine, do this too, and have done this for 200 years or more.

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I cilled a boat once.

I was fully aware of the risks and took all precautions.

I was not, however, aware of how to tell that my morse cable had broken in a lock environment.

 

I would have been very unhappy if the boat ad actually sunk and I was subsequently told that it had sunk because I didn't care.

 

So what did you do different from these hirers, that meant your boat was saved while theirs was not?

 

I think I know the answer. You were paying attention and shut the paddles once it became clear there was a problem.

 

But I understand your point, it may have been a mechanical failure - but I bet it wasn't!

 

 

MtB

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That's interesting. We have a 45' boat, but still make sure its at the front of the lock before opening paddles, when going down a lock. This way the water flow naturally holds the boat at the front of the lock, in idle/neutral. (If the boat isn't at the front of the lock, the paddles don't get raised). No throttle input is necessary. In fact, singlehanders do this all the time, and leave the boat to operate the relevant lock gates and paddles. Furthermore, butties and boats with their engine off, or with a non-working engine, do this too, and have done this for 200 years or more.

 

70 foot boat, not a lot of room and a tendency to pull back up to the top gates, but you're right, if we hadn't had a motor the situation wouldn't have arisen. It was using the engine to push us off the top gate that actually drove us back on to it hard..

 

MtB you are correct, I was generally disliked because I insisted that the people operating the paddles/gates stood by them through the whole operation and didn't go off daisy petal counting. I never had problems with folk watching gates/boats after that :)

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Wow. Even more incompetant than this lot !

 

So whereas before the rescue, the water damage would have been limited to the front end of the boat, now it will need a complete refit it before it can be rehired.

 

Methinks it will be an insurance writeoff, and up for sale on boatwrecks.com or similar soon!

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The only thing I can think of is, these factors came into play:

 

- the perilous angle it lay at, meant that it was inherently unstable, so no operations near the boat were allowed on H&S grounds - no possibility of getting someone onto it, or even near it in a dinghy from the bottom gates area, because if it slipped it would have also slipped forwards as well as downwards

- the towpath was simply unsuitable for heavy/large lifting equipment, the best they could do was put a strop on the front of the boat, by lassoing it from the end of a boat hook or similar; and attach it to something like a Land Rover.

- the requirement to clear the navigation was greater than the requirement to 'save' the boat or minimise its damage - the boat may already have been declared a loss, or the insurance firm/hire firm were looking at high daily costs from its boat blocking the navigation, or the boat was relatively old/relatively low value so a refit wouldn't have occurred etc

- the practicalities of draining the pound below, or getting stop planks in just after the lock and pumping out, were not there (fish rescue etc).

 

But, even so the 'rescue' went wrong because one of the factors may have been to avoid (too much) damage to the lock cill. The boat inelegantly sliding its arse over that, was not the best idea there.

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It's not as if it's the first time that a boat has been cilled in Bath though is it? It is, to my knowledge, at least the 4th boat, and the other three didn't end up sunk like that!

 

Following them turning partial immersion into total immersion, how did they get it out?

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I've just showed the wife the facebook clip and she just stood with her hands over her eyes in disbelief.

I think I counted about 20 flourescent jackets standing there watching it sink. I am far from an expert, I'd even say I know very little but there must have been loads of ways better than this to right it!

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