Anti Anglo-Welsh Rant

[Cruising Mike]

I wonder if Middlewich junction would benefit from some large sized curved mirrors they use on roads with blind corners.

[cuthound]

I wonder if Middlewich junction would benefit from some large sized curved mirrors they use on roads with blind corners.

No, in the height of summer with queues from both north & south, it needs traffic lights!

 

Great place to gongoozle though, I have seen irate boaters almost come to blows over who should go next

[haggis]

The pound on the bend between two of the locks can be interesting! last time we were there we ended up with 4 boats jockeying for position there. We were going up but the boats coming down wouldn't wait and insisted on locking all 3 boats down because "they were travelling together" . Diamond something boats, I recall. A guy on one of the boats had been boating before so he was directing all three on what to do - like all come down the top lock even though there was nowhere for them to go. It was like playing draughts with boats :-)

 

haggis

[Cruising Mike]

Middlewich Junction is clearly a busy place since it's effectively the join of 2 popular cruising rings. It doesnt help when two of the 3 locks on the junction are partially blocked by bridges either!.

[Emerald Fox]

I have noticed that it's usually the man driving (er... 'steering' for pedants) and the woman doing the lock wheeling. As in a car, usually the man driving, woman in passenger seat. Don't believe me? Stop on the towpath/by the side of a road and count. I'll bet you 5 Drachmas I'm right.

Same with us - my girlfriend says she likes to do the locks. Well.... yes... that's because she's used to doing it and it's 'safe'. She's scared to drive the boat. I have got her driving it now, and going through narrow bits such as bridge holes & lift bridges, but she is struck with terror at the thought of driving it into a lock. I'm trying to let her get more confidence and drive more, though when we're in a hurry (??!!) we drop into the familiar routine.

Passing rows of boats, especially when they're on both sides, means I have to steer if she insists - no point arguing about that with her. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid bumping into other boats if the wind or current shoves you over.

We have seen others bash into bridges and lock corners at shocking speeds (the scratches and bits knocked off and scrapes along the bridge roof = evidence), and I have pointed out we can't be any worse, especially as we slow right down at such spots.

Looking at the bow of a boat should give you an idea what kind of driver they are...? Lots of dents and scratches = unskillful/wrong attitude? Same with a car - if someone tells you they're a great driver, check out their front nearside wheel rim for damage! (the 'kerb seeker').

Yes, let's see more women driving boats!

[Black Ibis]

Dave and I both work the locks. He jumps off the boat as soon as it's in the lock and back on when the lock's ready. If there's a flight of locks I go ahead to set the next one and leave him to it. It is a bit irritating when I'm walking down the towpath with my windlass and someone says "he's making you do all the work then" when Dave is single handing the boat through locks that I've merely set for him.

THIS! There's no such thing as "all the hard work" the way we work locks, it's hard work for both of us, as the steerer is also leaping on and off, closing gates and doing their share of winding paddles.

[nicknorman]

So presumably this is why there are relatively few same sex couples on the waterways - they can never work out who should drive and who should do the locks?

[cuthound]

Mrs Hound used to steer boat whilst I did the locks until the early 90's. Then she had a scare going up Hillmorton bottom lock, when the crew of the boat coming down rattled open the paddles well before I had finished closing the bottom gate. Predictably the boat rushed back in the lock, the bottom gate slammed shut and then the boat was sucked violently forward. Despite me remonstrating with the "helpers" and trying to calm her by pointing out nothing serious occurred, she has steadfastly refused to steer a boat in a lock since.

 

It is a pity because I love doing locks, and now only get the opportunity rarely.

[Emerald Fox]

Never interfere with someone else's lock, unless asked. It's the height of stupidity.

[MHS]

Never interfere with someone else's lock, unless asked. It's the height of stupidity.

Even if as per Haggis's quote, 3 hire boats travelling together insist on refilling an empty lock an extra 2 times, while you're waiting to go up, and there is no room for their boats in the pound??

 

Edit to say that a polite word or two would be needed, I'm not suggesting fisticuffs!!

Edited February 25, 2015 by MHS

[haggis]

Even if as per Haggis's quote, 3 hire boats travelling together insist on refilling an empty lock an extra 2 times, while you're waiting to go up, and there is no room for their boats in the pound??

 

Edit to say that a polite word or two would be needed, I'm not suggesting fisticuffs!!

I did try to suggest to them that the 3rd boat should perhaps wait above the lock but the guy who had boated before "knew what he was doing" and the others did what he said. I thought the best way to let him see that his advice wasn't perhaps the best was to let the situation develop :-).

 

haggis

[Emerald Fox]

Even if as per Haggis's quote, 3 hire boats travelling together insist on refilling an empty lock an extra 2 times, while you're waiting to go up, and there is no room for their boats in the pound??

 

Yes, it can be a hard game guessing what's more stupid than other stupidity.

I'm a bit puzzled by Haggis's remarks, but wasn't there to see it for myself - what was their objection to your boat rising in the lock whilst they filled it 2 times? When the 3rd boat of theirs has come down, the lock needs re-filling for you to go up, which is surely a waste of water and one of the cardinal sins of the canals.

Sometimes things can be confusing, and we all make mistakes, so we have to pause and wonder at occasions like this. These are the times when it's best to scurry away to your cabin for 10 minutes and have a wee dram and read something... and when you come back out hopefully they've gone.

Our first narrowboat trip June 2013, just before bottom of the Lapworth flight going down (by the shop) a 'lock voluntary helper' said we could pull over on the right in the big basin if we wanted to go to the shop, so we did, just a 15 minute stop. We were not close to the lock, and there was no-one else around - but then a boat came from the south and Captain Old Fossil Fartypants starts yelling at us that we're moored where boats tie up to wait for the lock. Does it really matter, no-one else around and immense space anyway... so COFF puts full revs on and smashes into the lock corner, which in my opinion rests my case Your Honour.

[haggis]

Emerald Fox, The situation at Middlewich developed as follows :-

 

We (going up) approached an empty lock out of which a boat had just emerged

When I walked up I saw a boat in the next pound waiting to come down.

When we started opening top paddles, another boat emerged from the next lock up, having turned the lock after their friend (who was waiting to go into "our" lock when we emerged), had left it.

This put 2 boats in the pound waiting to come down.

As we worked the lock , I glanced round the corner and saw the lock being turned and a boat waiting to go in. I went up and suggested that they might like to wait till we came up in the lock as the pound was getting a bit congested. "No, he (who has boated before) told us to turn the lock as we are all travelling together".

When our boat was ready to come out of the lock, the boat which had turned the next lock was about to emerge .

This put 4 boats in a very short pound which has a 90% bend in it.

I did say to the person who seemed to be directing the 3 hire boats that his advice had caused a bit of a traffic jam but he said that as they were travelling together, they had to come down the locks.

In casual conversation, I discovered that all 3 boats were mooring up in Middlewich for the evening so they didn't have much further to go.

To be fair, a broken paddle did contribute to the situation but a bit of common sense would have prevented it.

It was fun though :-)

 

haggis

[Emerald Fox]

Aha! You must have seen this sort of thing before but when we were in Cropredy last June this situation occurred - boats moored on one side with here & there a space, boats queueing for lock to go up, just before the lock and no room remaining between the last boat waiting and the first moored boat. With the boats moored on the side this gave 'one lane'.

Another boat arriving on the scene, instead of pulling into a suitable hidey-hole and sending someone up on foot to investigate, comes steaming up only to realise there's nowhere to go - and now they're blocking the free lane, so the boat coming down is trapped.

Well, boating is for fun, so you can only laugh and scratch your head.

That's one reason why I like to be off very early in the morning, and drive late in the evening and at night, you have the canal to yourself.

We left Fenny Compton (southern Oxford) at 5am last June, and no-one caught up with us until after Claydon Locks, this means we did the 'Fenny Tunnel' alone - it was very narrow and I wonder if 2 boats can pass there? Or should we send someone ahead when we do it next time (then it'll be lunchtime)...

[Athy]

we did the 'Fenny Tunnel' alone - it was very narrow and I wonder if 2 boats can pass there? Or should we send someone ahead when we do it next time (then it'll be lunchtime)...

As far as I know, only a couple of hundred yards at the lower end of the "tunnel" are single-track; above there, it'seither wider throughout or has passing places.

 

Below the lock at Cropredy is a happy hunting ground for students of traffic jams, thanks to such de luxe features as the narrow bit where a (lift?) bridge used to be, the two boats on offside home moorings and - the real clincher for the connoisseur - the bit immediately above the town bridge which is JUST too narrow for three boats abreast. Oh what fun we had...

Edited February 25, 2015 by Athy

[madcat]

That pound by the dry dock is interesting , I've been in a boat scrum there when a local hire firm pinched my lock and turned it to drop a hire boat down . Amazes me they want to mix with an empty GU boat in a small pound. The guy with the small GRP cruiser who was waiting to go down the lock after I left it was somewhat perturbed.

 

Avoid when busy is a good plan but not always an option .

[furnessvale]

That pound by the dry dock is interesting , I've been in a boat scrum there when a local hire firm pinched my lock and turned it to drop a hire boat down . Amazes me they want to mix with an empty GU boat in a small pound. The guy with the small GRP cruiser who was waiting to go down the lock after I left it was somewhat perturbed.

 

Avoid when busy is a good plan but not always an option .

I always smile when they do that against Badger but I really enjoyed it when they tried the same against Alton.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[X Alan W]

It's been nicknamed that for a long time as far as i know and, as Tim stated, the original name is the Cheshire Locks. It's between Middilewich and Kidsgrove where the T&T also meets the Maccy to be more specific!

I boated both commercially & hotel boating from 1958 to72 & at that time it was always referred to as the Cheshire locks by all the boaters i came in contact with, I cannot ever recall it being called by any other name

[Cruising Mike]

Its pretty clear here we have a fair number of different topics here. but i suppose this is the 'Rant' thread!

[madcat]

It's all part of the fun Mike