Caen Hill bully trauma

[Bubbs]

So

 

We are new boat owners, and thought we were doing the right thing, waiting for another boat that was a lock behind us in foxhangers, in order to go up the flight together.

 

It was a hire boat with 4 fit men on it. A hill

 

granted we were only 2 so having extra hands would be helpful. they wanted to have lunch first, so we also waited an additional 20 minutes for them to eat lunch. I thought i was being courteous.... little did i know we should of just left 30 mins earlier and done it our selves. and reverse set the locks for them in doing so.

 

1 man who was wearing pink shorts had an enormous chip on his shoulder.

 

about 10 locks in, pinkpants stormed up to me at the helm in the lock and started shouting profanities at me. F this and C this, I'm a rude B. and that they are going the rest alone with out us, and that we HAD to wait there for them to go.

 

preceding this.

HIS partner had twice opened the top paddle before the lower gates were shut, and the second time he did it my husband shouted at him to shut the paddles. shouting mainly because he was standing on top of a diesel engine, and there was gushing water everywhere, and our boat, OUR boat not a hire boat which wasted even in the lock was being buffeted and push back out.

 

also preceding this, my husband had run around to help with the top gates at one point leaving the lower gate open and unprepared for the next person. with full intention of going back down and shutting them as the next lock was filling up. but Mr pink pants once again shouted at me that my stupid husband didn't know he should just stay with his gate and man his gate.

 

Pinkpants had barked orders at me and my husband the whole time, and of which we mostly obeyed despite HIS attitude. after all he had been canal boating once 15 years ago.

 

 

his yelling at me half way up the momentous flight reduced me to tears, and frankly ruined my second weekend as a new live aboard boat owner. I didn't have the guts nor thought it would be useful to retaliate to such a bully.

 

Bully because he did not have the guts to say one single thing to my husband, and only wanted to pick on me. when my husband asked him if he had a problem to say something to him, he didn't say a single thing. i wanted to throw his windlass in the lock...

 

hindsight i wish I had have said a lot of things. but oh well. bygones be bygones

 

anyways look out for them, they are on the Kennet and Avon in a green/red/yellow ABC leisure boat from hilperton marina. one old angry man wearing pink shorts and 3 others following his bulling orders.

 

 

 

[peterboat]

What an axxe you get them in all walks of life and then they come on the canals for a holiday and ruin our peaceful life. I have no doubt he meet up with someone who will put both him and his clout handle in the cut sooner rather than later

Ps welcome to the forum and enjoy your boating life

 

Peter

[b0atman]

there are prats in all walks of life just forget about him .Pink Pants what's that about ?

[Nightwatch]

Hello welcome to the forum.

As above, you get sort of moron in all walks of life. Sorry you got one do early in your boating life.

 

Have you recently bought your boat from ABNB? If so, you have a nice boat. If you didn't I'm sure you have a nice boat.

 

Martyn

[Bubbs]

there are prats in all walks of life just forget about him .Pink Pants what's that about ?

 

he was literally wearing pink pants. (I'm Australian and just realised that pants mean undies...)

 

He was literally wearing pink shorts.

[Flyboy]

So

 

We are new boat owners, and thought we were doing the right thing, waiting for another boat that was a lock behind us in foxhangers, in order to go up the flight together.

 

It was a hire boat with 4 fit men on it. A hill

 

granted we were only 2 so having extra hands would be helpful. they wanted to have lunch first, so we also waited an additional 20 minutes for them to eat lunch. I thought i was being courteous.... little did i know we should of just left 30 mins earlier and done it our selves. and reverse set the locks for them in doing so.

 

1 man who was wearing pink shorts had an enormous chip on his shoulder.

 

about 10 locks in, pinkpants stormed up to me at the helm in the lock and started shouting profanities at me. F this and C this, I'm a rude B. and that they are going the rest alone with out us, and that we HAD to wait there for them to go.

 

preceding this.

HIS partner had twice opened the top paddle before the lower gates were shut, and the second time he did it my husband shouted at him to shut the paddles. shouting mainly because he was standing on top of a diesel engine, and there was gushing water everywhere, and our boat, OUR boat not a hire boat which wasted even in the lock was being buffeted and push back out.

 

also preceding this, my husband had run around to help with the top gates at one point leaving the lower gate open and unprepared for the next person. with full intention of going back down and shutting them as the next lock was filling up. but Mr pink pants once again shouted at me that my stupid husband didn't know he should just stay with his gate and man his gate.

 

Pinkpants had barked orders at me and my husband the whole time, and of which we mostly obeyed despite HIS attitude. after all he had been canal boating once 15 years ago.

 

 

his yelling at me half way up the momentous flight reduced me to tears, and frankly ruined my second weekend as a new live aboard boat owner. I didn't have the guts nor thought it would be useful to retaliate to such a bully.

 

Bully because he did not have the guts to say one single thing to my husband, and only wanted to pick on me. when my husband asked him if he had a problem to say something to him, he didn't say a single thing. i wanted to throw his windlass in the lock...

 

hindsight i wish I had have said a lot of things. but oh well. bygones be bygones

 

anyways look out for them, they are on the Kennet and Avon in a green/red/yellow ABC leisure boat from hilperton marina. one old angry man wearing pink shorts and 3 others following his bulling orders.

 

 

 

Report it to the hire boat company. If you feel that the locks were being abused by opening paddles before the gates are closed, I think you should report this to C&RT or the lock keeper supervising the Caen Hill flight.

[mango]

There are some unpleasant people in this world. Last year I had a guy shouting offensive comments at me for leaving a lock gate open. He then got off his boat and closed the gate, oblivious to the approaching boat.

 

Just put the incident behind you. It's never worth being aggressive with aggressive people because you have just descended to their level.

[Slim]

Don't let it worry you. For every unpleasent one you meet there are dozens if not hundreds of pleasent ones. As a single hander I find myself helped far more than if I had a crew. So far this year I've encountered ONE person who was unpleasant. Everyone else has ranged from being polite to fantastic. In particular don't let it cause you to be "anti hirer" Yes, some are inexperienced and make mistakes but all seem happy and keen to help.

 

Frank

[madcat]

It's fairly rare to meet a nasty person most boaters are fine but some are a bit reserved/shy till you know them better. Hire boaters are usually great fun and a good share for wide locks .

 

Sorry you met a Pratt so soon in your boating journey .

 

All the best with your new boat , have fun .

 

Cheers madcat

[RLWP]

We were lucky on one occasion. We approached a lock only to have it turned right in front of us 'because we were only a hire boat' (we aren't a hire boat).

 

That left a very nasty taste in the mouth and a black cloud hovered over the crew right until a lovely woman popped up from under the bridge, windlass in hand and said 'Hello, isn't it a lovely day!'

 

And it was indeed a lovely day, and she made a huge difference just by being sunny and happy. I shall always remember her

 

Pink pants - we met a fisherman on the northern BCN wearing grey underpants* with pink trim. I think you had a lucky escape

 

Richard

 

*Y fronts, for the curious

[b0atman]

he was literally wearing pink pants. (I'm Australian and just realised that pants mean undies...)

 

He was literally wearing pink shorts.

The quirks of English language mean that you where right as pants can be used to describe trousers or shorts usually of a light weight fabric (but not always) .

It would seem that wearing pink shorts he is desperately trying to come to terms with his feminine side maybe on the advice of his anger management advisor .

[churchward]

Welcome to the forum. I hope you will stick around we could use some new blood and thoughts.

 

I am sorry you have had an upsetting bad experience as lock sharing can be fun and usually is, shooting the breeze with some temporary new found friends.

 

It has happened to us too even though we are experienced boaters. I won't bore everyone with the details as it was quite a while ago now but after waiting for someone to come and share the lock we had the misfortune to share with some very rude and alcohol fuelled individuals. Annoying of course but after some food in a nice mooring spot the annoyance soon subsided.

 

In the end it isn't you at fault it is them, don't let it spoil your day.

[Bubbs]

The quirks of English language mean that you where right as pants can be used to describe trousers or shorts usually of a light weight fabric (but not always) .

It would seem that wearing pink shorts he is desperately trying to come to terms with his feminine side maybe on the advice of his anger management advisor .

 

they were 4 men on a boat.....

i have no problem with that.

I have LOADS of gay friends, been to same sex weddings ect...

but i suspect that he THOUGHT that i had a problem with that. (chip on his shoulder)

 

Report it to the hire boat company. If you feel that the locks were being abused by opening paddles before the gates are closed, I think you should report this to C&RT or the lock keeper supervising the Caen Hill flight.

 

I have emailed the hire boat company.

the whole paddle open thing was not abuse, just absent mindedness/beginerness, and we had no problem about that, we just wanted it reciftied before there was no water left in the pond

 

 

thanks for the advice, definatly putting it behind us, I think the few pints at the black horse helped and we met some lovely ppl who had us in their boat for dinner that night too! Im loving the social aspect, and agree that MOST hire boats are super lovely people wanting to experience the loveliness that is most on the canals.

 

I am just weary of 75 year old, gay men with chips on their shoulders... in pink shorts...

Welcome to the forum. I hope you will stick around we could use some new blood and thoughts.

 

I am sorry you have had an upsetting bad experience as lock sharing can be fun and usually is, shooting the breeze with some temporary new found friends.

 

It has happened to us too even though we are experienced boaters. I won't bore everyone with the details as it was quite a while ago now but after waiting for someone to come and share the lock we had the misfortune to share with some very rude and alcohol fuelled individuals. Annoying of course but after some food in a nice mooring spot the annoyance soon subsided.

 

In the end it isn't you at fault it is them, don't let it spoil your day.

 

thanks!

 

just a shame it wasn't one lock!! but 16!! and very slow moving too with only 2 people!

funny though cause its hard to storm away from someone when you can only go to the next lock, and your boat only moves at 4miles /h

 

kinda reminds me of austin powers...

[Bettie Boo]

Firstly, welcome to the forum

 

Secondly, I knew exactly what you meant by "pants", but then I'm Canadian

 

Thirdly, as others have said the nice, helpful, friendly folks you will find on the cut far out-way the odd nob head you will encounter, we've been fortunate in that in our first year cc'ing we've only had exchanges with about 4 tossers (1 on a Gin Palace, 2 private boat owners and 1 fisherman), so using our averages you shouldn't encounter another tosser for at least 3 months

 

They certainly don't represent the "norm" on the cut, and not worth ruining you day over. Enjoy the rest of your journey

[Arthur Marshall]

And, of course, you were doing the right thing in waiting for them. And the next people you wait for will be fine, like most of us are, even the 75 year old gay ones in pink pants!

[Dave Clinton]

Report it to the hire boat company. If you feel that the locks were being abused by opening paddles before the gates are closed, I think you should report this to C&RT or the lock keeper supervising the Caen Hill flight.

 

This. It is very important that you report it to the hire boat company. There is a concerted campaign, involving the police, to prevent abusive behaviour by hire boat crews on the western kennet and avon, especially stag parties.

 

Post again if you need contact details.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Dave Clinton

[dmr]

There a many men on the canals, both hirers and owners (and even gongoozlers), who have a rather bad attitude toward women, especially women who are competent boaters.

Our favourite is the passer by or hirer who knows almost nothing about boats but when seeing a woman driving one comes over and says "can I give you a bit of advice about how to drive that luv".

 

Another good one, as I work the lock, is the bloke who sees Gillie at the back of our 71 foot lump and says to me "your a brave man trusting her to get that into the lock".. A little while later there is sometimes a rather sheepish "shes done that before hasn't she' to which I reply, "yes but only a few thousand times!"

 

Try to see the funny side.

 

..............Dave

[ditchcrawler]

I feel for you, I find any unpleasantness with other boaters at best spoils my day and often the whole week even if I feel I am totally blameless.

[Morat]

I wonder if he can swim?

[Mike Tee]

I wonder if he can swim?

Depends where the windlass ended up (no pun intended, but I like it!)

[mark99]

Just wearing pink pants would have been enough to bring tears to my eyes.

 

Tears of laughter.

 

Karma will get him.

 

Just think he's stuck in a nasty, unhappy little world all of his own making.

Edited July 7, 2015 by mark99

[Bacchus]

there are prats in all walks of life just forget about him .Pink Pants what's that about ?

 

 

Not sure whether it is related, but the workers/merchant navy in Cowes used to be issued with red trousers, over the years, salt water and sunshine faded them to pink, so the pink was effectively a sign of experience.

 

You now get a particular type of prat who buys pink trousers and goes out sailing, I wonder if this is an overflow from that?

[The Bearwood Boster]

I too get the comments about wimmin steering eg "Husband letting you have a go,he's brave ha ha".Shared wide locks once with a steerer who ignored me but said to Paul," She did that well-didn't hit anything!"Paul took great delight in explaining that I wore glasses as I'm short sighted in one eye but...blind in the other one"Other steerer looked like he needed bike clips & a cork for the rest of the lock flight.And no,I didn't hit anything even though I felt like hitting him at first.

[Machpoint005]

I too get the comments about wimmin steering eg "Husband letting you have a go,he's brave ha ha".Shared wide locks once with a steerer who ignored me but said to Paul," She did that well-didn't hit anything!"Paul took great delight in explaining that I wore glasses as I'm short sighted in one eye but...blind in the other one"Other steerer looked like he needed bike clips & a cork for the rest of the lock flight.And no,I didn't hit anything even though I felt like hitting him at first.

 

I find the best response to that is is to feign a complete lack of understanding of what was said ... "Sorry, you'll have to explain that?".

[haggis]

We came down the flight from the Falkirk wheel to the Kelpies as part of a flotilla on Sunday and we were travelling with a longer narrow boat. I took the boat down as Iain is one of the volunteer lockies on that flight (boaters don't do their own locks up here!) and when I suggested that they could just open one gate and I would go out after the other boat, I heard one lockie say to the other "do you think she will manage that ?". I did, at every lock! It was nice to prove to him that you don't need to be male to handle a boat :-)

 

haggis