Another silly question from a newb!

[Kris]

Im sorry about this, it will only take a one sentence answer!

 

Is a lock key what you would use to open the 'valves' on a lock, and where would you find these keys!?

 

I tried a search on here but it just told me where every word 'key' and 'lock' was in nearly every post!

 

Sorry again... silly I know.

 

Kris

[allybsc]

Im sorry about this, it will only take a one sentence answer!

 

Is a lock key what you would use to open the 'valves' on a lock, and where would you find these keys!?

 

I tried a search on here but it just told me where every word 'key' and 'lock' was in nearly every post!

 

Sorry again... silly I know.

 

Kris

 

A windlass is what you need to search for, it is a wrench for turning the gear that opens the paddles to allow the water to fill or drain from a lock, ours came with the boat but you can buy them at a chandlers.

Edited March 28, 2007 by allybsc

[KenK]

Hi Kris,

No such thing as silly questions, silly answers are a different matter. In addition to the windlass, some locks generally in urban areas require a handcuff key, there are other names, which you need to use before you can use the windlass to raise / lower the paddles. Looks like a small T handle with a square hole in the end. Finally don't forget the BW Yale key which unlocks just about everything else. They are all available from your friendly chandler.

 

Enjoy your boating.

 

Ken

[RichardH]

Just to confuse things - there are a few old sea dogs out on't cut who call a windless a 'lock key'

[Guest]

. . . a handcuff key . . . Looks like a small T handle with a square hole in the end.

Kris

If you know tools, it's a "box spanner", specifically sized to open the "handcuff" mechanism that's sometimes put in place on locks to thawt urban vandals. The mechanism prevents the windlass being used to open the paddles until you unlock it with the "handcuff key/box spanner".

As said already - buy one from BW or possibly (?) a good chandlers.

[Hairy-Neil]

... some locks generally in urban areas require a handcuff key, there are other names.

 

Was originally called an anti-vandal key till BW's PR team put the spin on it.....

 

And just to confuse matters, some paddle gear locks are released with the Watermate key, AKA the sanitary station key...

[Mad Mac]

Sorry to hi-jack this thread, but i note that the tidal lock on the river Douglas "Tarleton Lock" requires a padlock key, is this the sanitation key available from the chandlers?

 

Don

[Guest]

Sorry to hi-jack this thread, but i note that the tidal lock on the river Douglas "Tarleton Lock" requires a padlock key, is this the sanitation key available from the chandlers?

 

Don

I will take a guess that only the lock keeper can operate this lock, but repeat it is a guess.

[Guest st170dw]

Just to confuse things - there are a few old sea dogs out on't cut who call a windless a 'lock key'

 

Is that the same as a paddle handle?

[Machpoint005]

Apologies for backing up to the original topic ... lock key, or windlass ... my passionately anti-boating daughter (maybe she is just passionately anti-sad-dad) always refers to it as a 'stick'. Wonderful what an expensive education can do for a girl!

[tony collins]

Was originally called an anti-vandal key till BW's PR team put the spin on it.....

 

And just to confuse matters, some paddle gear locks are released with the Watermate key, AKA the sanitary station key...

 

Yeah! Like the Erewash Canal! Handcuff or anti-vandal key all the way up untill you get to the last lock and then you need a BW key. It was just the thing I needed, arriving in the dark, p***ing down, following a delay at Cotmanhay (having been shot at).

Just to cap it all, my wife allowed the windlass or lock key to spin off the shaft, cracking her a nasty one across the wrist and ergo being nominated helm for the rest of the trip.

 

Tony

[Guest st170dw]

My most prized waterways posession is a lock key given to me by Larry who was the lock keeper at Old Ford Lock on the Regents Canal about 15 years ago.

 

He always referred to a lock key as a paddle handle and he had a particularly nice one with a neoprene sleeve on the handle. I used to visit at lunch times when I worked at a nearby Hospital and I enjoyed assisting with the locks (in a suit!) and hearing about the days when he used to drive the tow tractors on the towpath.

 

When he retired I was at the lock as usual and enjoyed the presentations and speeches.

 

Once it was all over Larry took me to one side and gave me his favourite 'paddlehandle' saying that was the first part of my narrowboat and I had earned it.

 

Great Days