max length

[Kae]

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.

The true downside though is that the narrow stuff connects a lot of the wider stuff.. especially if you want to travel between the north and south.

[billS]

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

 

Doesn't Brandon have a guillotine top gate? All you need to do is open it and let the first third of your boart through, and then close the bottom gates - surely? Just keep the revs up.

[magpie patrick]

 

Doesn't Brandon have a guillotine top gate? All you need to do is open it and let the first third of your boart through, and then close the bottom gates - surely? Just keep the revs up.

 

 

Doing that in reverse to come back down would prove a challenge, although I suppose you just wouldn't bother shutting the bottom gates at all...

[Tacet]

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

 

You should have got there sooner - before the lock was built. It used to be possible to get to Brandon Bridge and beyond, depending on draught.

[billS]

 

 

Doing that in reverse to come back down would prove a challenge, although I suppose you just wouldn't bother shutting the bottom gates at all...

 

Exactly - wind the clock back to flash locks!

[ditchcrawler]

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!

63ft

[Keeping Up]

Definitely, 67 into 63 won't go, not even diagonally!

 

Here we are not going through Brandon

 

[ditchcrawler]

Definitely, 67 into 63 won't go, not even diagonally!

 

Here we are not going through Brandon

 

Must be my memory then, as I measured it last time I was there, but its about two years ago now.

Edit

read it wrong. thought you were saying you got 67 in, not that you couldn't

Edited August 20, 2014 by ditchcrawler

[magpie patrick]

Must be my memory then, as I measured it last time I was there, but its about two years ago now.

Edit

read it wrong. thought you were saying you got 67 in, not that you couldn't

 

I thought you were referring to Reach Lode Sluice being 63 feet, Brandon is under 50 feet long.

[ditchcrawler]

 

I thought you were referring to Reach Lode Sluice being 63 feet, Brandon is under 50 feet long.

I am still reading what I think is being said and not what is actually being said. Sorry

[magpie patrick]

I am still reading what I think is being said and not what is actually being said. Sorry

 

 

" I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”

Alan Greenspan

[ditchcrawler]

 

I am still reading what I think is being said and not what is actually being said. Sorry

 

 

" I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”

Alan Greenspan

 

Something like that.

[FadeToScarlet]

Definitely, 67 into 63 won't go, not even diagonally!

 

Here we are not going through Brandon

 

And here's 48' going through:

 

Doesn't Brandon have a guillotine top gate? All you need to do is open it and let the first third of your boart through, and then close the bottom gates - surely? Just keep the revs up.

It's got interlocks so you can't do that.

[MtB]

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.

 

2000 miles of wide canals/navigations built?

 

Really? or are you including rivers in that?

 

 

MtB

[john_r]

 

 

 

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.

Can anyone say which is this remote waterway and which lock?

Edited August 20, 2014 by john_r

[FadeToScarlet]

Incidentally, we've been finding out some of the limitations of having a 72' boat recently.

 

You have to take all fenders off when doing Minworth and Curdworth- no bow button, and no stern fenders at all- or you can't open and close the gates.

 

You can have a bow button or one stern fender on Farmer's bridge, Ashtead, Perry Barr, Rushall, and Camp Hill

 

You can have a button and one stern fender on Tardebigge and the Staffs and Worcester

 

You can have a bow button and two stern fenders on the Northampton arm.

 

After a lot of time and effort getting our stern fenders to hang "just so", we've not been able to use them for most of the trip!

[nine9feet]

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.

 

 

Can anyone say which is this remote waterway and which lock?

 

Has been mentioned earlier in the thread :-)

 

Remote waterway is Brandon Creek or The Little Ouse, tributary of The Great Ouse (Fenland waterway).

Lock is Brandon Lock which has length of 40ft 6in

 

HTH

[blackrose]

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

 

Now that's what I call logic!

[FadeToScarlet]

Has been mentioned earlier in the thread :-)

 

Remote waterway is Brandon Creek or The Little Ouse, tributary of The Great Ouse (Fenland waterway).

Lock is Brandon Lock which has length of 40ft 6in

 

HTH

It's certainly longer than that, because I've taken a 48' boat through it. Even though it was diagonal, with the stem against the cill, there was a little space behind it, so it must be longer.

[nine9feet]

 

 

 

Has been mentioned earlier in the thread :-)

 

Remote waterway is Brandon Creek or The Little Ouse, tributary of The Great Ouse (Fenland waterway).

Lock is Brandon Lock which has length of 40ft 6in

 

HTH

 

It's certainly longer than that, because I've taken a 48' boat through it. Even though it was diagonal, with the stem against the cill, there was a little space behind it, so it must be longer.

 

OK, I've checked again.

 

The info I was given by EA last summer was : length 12.4m, width 3.7m.

My Andrew Hunter Blair guide "The River Great Ouse and Tributaries" gives : length 12.0m, width 4.0m

Jim Shead gives : length 40ft 4in, width 12ft 0in

The gov.uk site shows for EA (published 1 April 2014) : length 12.4m (40ft 6in). width 3.7m (12ft 1in)

.waterwayroutes.co.uk has : length 39ft 4in

 

Take your pick :-)

 

(Or pick your own dimensions lol)

[ditchcrawler]

 

Now that's what I call logic!

Pity the EA didn't when they refurbished it. They didn't make it longer because longer boats don't use it

[billS]

It's certainly longer than that, because I've taken a 48' boat through it. Even though it was diagonal, with the stem against the cill, there was a little space behind it, so it must be longer.

 

Where did you measure it from? Maybe your significant other was being kind...

[Pluto]

 

2000 miles of wide canals/navigations built?

 

Really? or are you including rivers in that?

 

 

MtB

The figures I worked out about 15 years ago for a report to BW calculating the total navigable mileage built, not including Ireland, were;

 

1952 miles of broad canal

1257 miles of narrow canal

1539 miles of river navigation

 

At its maximum, around 1849, there were 4372 miles of navigable waterway open. By then, closure of waterways had already begun.

[Alway Swilby]

This one is definitely not the shortest lock!

 

[john_r]

 

 

 

Has been mentioned earlier in the thread :-)

 

Remote waterway is Brandon Creek or The Little Ouse, tributary of The Great Ouse (Fenland waterway).

Lock is Brandon Lock which has length of 40ft 6in

 

HTH

 

Oops!

 

Thank you.