max length

[justmeuk]

Just been having a chat to my old dear.. and it came up about the max length a nb can be to fit though all the locks

[Beaker]

57ft - ish?

[GoodGurl]

some locks up north are 57ft but you can get a 60ft boat in them at an angle.

[ditchcrawler]

And some are about 40 ft.

[furnessvale]

57ft - ish?

I believe the shortest broad locks are 57' 6" but if you are prepared to fiddle about with a narrowboat eg going diagonal or squeezing behind a closed gate, a nb can be around 60ft.

 

There starts the real debate. I'll get my popcorn.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[tom_c]

40' ish if you want to go through every lock

[alan_fincher]

some locks up north are 57ft but you can get a 60ft boat in them at an angle.

 

 

I believe the shortest broad locks are 57' 6" but if you are prepared to fiddle about with a narrowboat eg going diagonal or squeezing behind a closed gate, a nb can be around 60ft.

 

There starts the real debate. I'll get my popcorn.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

 

We just done the Calder & Hebble, which I think probably has some of the shortest locks on those Northern canals.

 

Whilst people do go above 57' or 58' with some fiddling, believe me it can be a lot of fiddling, and the state of some of the gates and paddles will more or less guarantee that you will be fighting against filling one end or the other of the boat with water.

 

I was immensely grateful we are only 50 feet, and I felt that once you go over about 55 feet, you are always going to be risking the waterspouts.

 

People are being a bit perverse by mentioning 40 feet, as it applies, I think, to just one lock on a very remote and rarely visited waterway. It is the 57' (60 foot at a pinch) thing that affects far more regularly visited canals.

[ditchcrawler]

 

 

 

 

People are being a bit perverse by mentioning 40 feet, as it applies, I think, to just one lock on a very remote and rarely visited waterway. It is the 57' (60 foot at a pinch) thing that affects far more regularly visited canals.

That's because the lock is short. If it was longer more boats would go through it.

[Beaker]

I believe the shortest broad locks are 57' 6" but if you are prepared to fiddle about with a narrowboat eg going diagonal or squeezing behind a closed gate, a nb can be around 60ft.

 

There starts the real debate. I'll get my popcorn.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

 

Which is why I added the "ish".

[b0atman]

so where is this 40ft lock ?

[RLWP]

 

 

People are being a bit perverse by mentioning 40 feet, as it applies, I think, to just one lock on a very remote and rarely visited waterway. It is the 57' (60 foot at a pinch) thing that affects far more regularly visited canals.

 

Well, the 40' lock is on a part of the waterways we can't get to, takes too long to get to

 

And so are the 57' 6" locks - so the shortest lock for us is 70'

 

And there's the futility of the question. Where's the shortest lock on the bits I can boat on is a better question, as long as you know roughly where you are going to boat

 

Richard

so where is this 40ft lock ?

 

In a 700 foot door

 

Richard

 

Somewhere in the fens or drains, I think

[Paul C]

To be fair, he did ask what the shortest out of "all" the locks was - which is technically correct to say 40'. But since the majority of the network is about 71'6", and a significant minority 57-60' depending on if you want to do locks either showered in canal water or backwards or on your own or with your arse twitching because you're about an inch and a half from cilling the boat, etc.

[FadeToScarlet]

so where is this 40ft lock ?

Top of Brandon Creek.

 

Only you can get a 48' boat through it- diagonally, with the stem over the cill, and coming down backwards- and you'd probably get 50' in if you unbolted the tiller so you could get the counter under the gate walkways.

[David Mack]

Top of Brandon Creek.

 

Only you can get a 48' boat through it- diagonally, with the stem over the cill, and coming down backwards- and you'd probably get 50' in if you unbolted the tiller so you could get the counter under the gate walkways.

How long is Lode End lock?

[Paul C]

Aren't there some locks which are (bizarrely) about 5' wide? Thus your go-anywhere boat is going to be 5'x40' or something?

[MtB]

I seem to remember seeing a lock that was only about 12" long once, in a hire boat office where the punters were given their crash courses on how to work them.

 

Or it might have been in a museum...

 

MtB

[FadeToScarlet]

How long is Lode End lock?

54' I think.

Aren't there some locks which are (bizarrely) about 5' wide? Thus your go-anywhere boat is going to be 5'x40' or something?

For rowing skiffs, I think.

[nine9feet]

How long is Lode End lock?

 

54' I think.

 

 

According to IWA at this page : https://www.waterways.org.uk/waterways/canals_rivers/middle_level_navigations/middle_level_navigations Lodes End is 68ft and "Welches Dam Lock (currently closed awaiting funding for major repairs) along the Forty Foot Drain limits navigation to boats under 47ft (14.3m)."

 

Brandon Lock is actually 40ft 6ins :-)

[David Mack]

Aren't there some locks which are (bizarrely) about 5' wide? Thus your go-anywhere boat is going to be 5'x40' or something?

Teddington Skiff Lock. 49'6" x 5'10".

[Tacet]

To be fair, he did ask what the shortest out of "all" the locks was - which is technically correct to say 40'. But since the majority of the network is about 71'6", and a significant minority 57-60' depending on if you want to do locks either showered in canal water or backwards or on your own or with your arse twitching because you're about an inch and a half from cilling the boat, etc.

 

Old Bedford sluice adjacent to Salters Lode on Middle Levels/Great Ouse can (could) be worked as a lock - and is only about 25ft, I seem to recall, in that case. And yes, I have been through it.

 

More generally, even inf a 57ft boat it is a fiddle in some northern locks and some wriggling (and re-ordering of boats, if sharing) will be required. No doubt longer boats can squeeze in with increasing difficulties.

[Keeping Up]

How long is Reach Lode Sluice? I know we couldn't fit, and reversed out hurriedly when I saw the warning notice that the guillotine would descend again automatically after 15 minutes.

 

Brandon was always going to be impossible, I could only get two thirds of the boat in before it stopped!

[alan_fincher]

Teddington Skiff Lock. 49'6" x 5'10".

 

Yes but fortunately a much wider / longer one is available there as well, (well two, in fact), so the size of that one is less of a problem!

[nb Innisfree]

We decided on 60' because we needed as much space as poss but still have the ability to do the Calder & Hebble and was prepared to struggle a bit as we would rarely do that canal.

 

As it turned out we never did the C&H due to unforseen circumstances.

[Pluto]

To be fair, he did ask what the shortest out of "all" the locks was - which is technically correct to say 40'. But since the majority of the network is about 71'6", and a significant minority 57-60' depending on if you want to do locks either showered in canal water or backwards or on your own or with your arse twitching because you're about an inch and a half from cilling the boat, etc.

Actually, only about 1200 miles of narrow canal were built, compared to over 2000 miles of wide canals/navigations, so narrow canals are actually in the minority.

[David Mack]

 

Yes but fortunately a much wider / longer one is available there as well, (well two, in fact), so the size of that one is less of a problem!

Indeed. You could in theory take a boat 650' x 24'9" through Teddington if you really wanted to!