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Kennet & Avon Canal Fobney Lock Sunken Boat


nine9feet

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Just received notice.

 

Extract :

Notice Alert

Kennet & Avon Canal
Starts At: Lock 105, Fobney Lock
Ends At: Lock 105, Fobney Lock

Tuesday 9 August 2016 16:15 until further notice

Type: Navigation Restriction
Reason: Boat damage

Original message:

Fobney lock 105 is closed until further notice due to a sunken craft.

You can view this notice and its map online here:
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/9094/fobney-lock-105

 

Sad.

 

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That's a very big lock , dimensions wise . How did a boat sink in it .? .Bunny .

 

Well back end caught on the cill is clearly the most common cause at most canal lock sinkings, but other reasons are of course possible.

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Just received notice.

 

Extract :

Notice Alert

Kennet & Avon Canal

Starts At: Lock 105, Fobney Lock

Ends At: Lock 105, Fobney Lock

Tuesday 9 August 2016 16:15 until further notice

Type: Navigation Restriction

Reason: Boat damage

Original message:

Fobney lock 105 is closed until further notice due to a sunken craft.

You can view this notice and its map online here:

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/9094/fobney-lock-105

 

Sad.

 

Hopefully not the same boat!

 

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/reading-river-chaos-after-narrowboat-11720205#ICID=FB-Read-main

 

Tim

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I can't tell if it's the same boat, but I saw a Facebook picture showing the boat sunk in fobney lock had been heading uphill and looked like it was caught too close to the gate sluices. Didn't seem to be hung up. They are very powerful on this lock! Very sad regardless! (Not sure if posting the Facebook link is allowed?)

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I winded there last week, (that's not me) The current there is fairly strong even at this time of year. If you don't turn fast enough it'll have you. Mind you, he doesn't look very stuck. Pretty sure he was moored behind me last nite. If you can't make out the name , it says......nah, I wouldn't do that. Grandad would be upset.

Bunny is right though, Fobney lock is huge. Got to be 100ft long, well over 16ft wide.

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I can't tell if it's the same boat, but I saw a Facebook picture showing the boat sunk in fobney lock had been heading uphill and looked like it was caught too close to the gate sluices. Didn't seem to be hung up. They are very powerful on this lock! Very sad regardless! (Not sure if posting the Facebook link is allowed?)

 

'Powerful' isn't really the right word.

 

The gate sluices are about five feet above the low water level IIRC, and unbaffled so an 18" square jet of water pours out of each of them if you open fully before the water level submerges them. Perfectly capable of sinking a NB in about 30 seconds if the bow gets under it.

 

'Nemesis Lock', we used to call it.

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I'd appreciate a Facebook link - I can rarely find these things when mentioned - especially if you don't know what group it was posted in

https://m.facebook.com/groups/178384468913736?view=permalink&id=1074353972650110

 

This is the link. It's from the K&A boaters fb page.

Why do they not put baffles on these sluices? In fact I have often wondered why gate only sluices were used, is it just that they are cheaper to construct than ground paddles?

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13895185_10154028624294565_4552005941044

 

Very sad photo.

 

Puts the size of this lock into perspective doesn't it!


Why do they not put baffles on these sluices? In fact I have often wondered why gate only sluices were used, is it just that they are cheaper to construct than ground paddles?

 

 

Gate paddles must be FAR cheaper to construct that ground sluices. The more puzzling thing is why build such an enormous lock there when the locks up and down stream from it are 'normal' sized. Suggests budget was not a restraint...


In addition one needs to fully open the gate paddles and avoid the jets of water, in order to fill this lock in any less than 20 minutes.

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I seem to recall being told gate paddles were something to do with it being a river navigation too, but can't remember exactly why? The Wey navigation also has some fierce gate paddles. You'd think if it was to save money more canals would have gone for gate paddles when running out of money (eg the Oxford below Banbury? )

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It's to do with them all (mostly?) being turf locks originally. Not much more than a pit in the ground with gates at each end. Nowhere to put ground sluices.

The brick locks & the steel shuttering locks are all comparatively recent, (70s or 80s I'd guess) It was probably cheaper & easier to keep the gate paddle system.

A few of the locks were kept at the larger dimensions of the old locks, most were rebuilt to a more normal size. (70 x 14 ish).

At Burghfield and Towney, you can see the remains of the old turf locks just downstream of the new ones.

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Just popped down to the lock,spoke to the owner and he said they hit something going in to the lock,bloody great bang and the boat went down by the stern in 90 seconds,

I suspect somethings to do with the prop shaft or the weed hatch.

No sight of the crt or canal rescue bods

Every one got out safely,at least that's a blessing.

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The more puzzling thing is why build such an enormous lock there when the locks up and down stream from it are 'normal' sized. Suggests budget was not a restraint...

 

In addition one needs to fully open the gate paddles and avoid the jets of water, in order to fill this lock in any less than 20 minutes.

The two locks downstream, County and Blake's are oversize as well. It suggests to me that there was some intention of getting larger vessels off the Thames, although as far as I can see there is no industry between Fobney and Southcote that could have made us of them.

Edited by billS
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The owner is off our island and yes a loud bang whoosh water in the boat ,prop shaft failure poss? He is a lovely chap as is his Mrs and having just got over a health issue this was the last thing they needed

Saw the picture on Facebook last night and thought it was them but hoped it wasn't ,very sad .

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Everyone's worst fears I should think - possibly made worse by everyone assuming the made a mistake filling the lock when it was nothing to do with that

 

Kennet Locks were originally very big around 110 feet long and 16 feet wide, as they took large barges off the Thames. Many of the restored locks were rebuilt to more normal dimensions inside the original lock, but Fobney was never "restored" as the first few miles from the Thames never became totally un-navigable

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Very sad, but how could failure of a prop shaft possibly cause a boat to go down in 90 seconds?

 

Even in the event of total failure, with the prop breaking away, and shaft somehow coming out completely, (and I can't see how that could happen), you would still only have a hole maybe 1.5" (or at very most 2") in diameter. Water coming though that would make a boat go down very slowly indeed, at least until any openings in the hull went under.

 

Whatever catastrophic happened here, I can't see that being the explanation.

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Very sad, but how could failure of a prop shaft possibly cause a boat to go down in 90 seconds?

 

Even in the event of total failure, with the prop breaking away, and shaft somehow coming out completely, (and I can't see how that could happen), you would still only have a hole maybe 1.5" (or at very most 2") in diameter. Water coming though that would make a boat go down very slowly indeed, at least until any openings in the hull went under.

 

Whatever catastrophic happened here, I can't see that being the explanation.

 

 

You have clearly never been in a damage control trainer! The amount of water that comes through even a small hole is amazing.

 

I can well believe that a Nb with a 30-50 mm hole at the back would sink by the stern in a perceived couple of minutes.

N

Edited by BEngo
  • Greenie 1
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Difficult to see how this happened. My first thought was that they engaged reverse to stop as they entered the lock, a coupling failed and the prop unscrewed itself backwards, pulling the tail shaft out. But on any normal boat the shaft would hit the rudder before coming out far enough to let any water in.

 

So did the prop catch a submerged log and push it through some thin plating?

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Yeah that's very sad and a shock for the owners. Thankfully they are safe.

 

This is probably why my wife is scared of locks. She is an excellent swimmer (unlike myself) but finds locking very scary in case something goes wrong. When we last hired a boat, she would always wait on dry land till we went through. A very sensible approach when you see events like this.

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Difficult to see how this happened. My first thought was that they engaged reverse to stop as they entered the lock, a coupling failed and the prop unscrewed itself backwards, pulling the tail shaft out. But on any normal boat the shaft would hit the rudder before coming out far enough to let any water in.

 

So did the prop catch a submerged log and push it through some thin plating?

 

Quite possible, I got a nasty shock one evening when I went to do the usual end of day checks and found my badly corroded weed hatch had a hole in it: thankfully, for a variety of reasons, I had not been using much revs and had been strapping the boat to a halt.

 

(Note, why the previous owner had overplated the hull but not replaced the weedhatch is beyond me)

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(Note, why the previous owner had overplated the hull but not replaced the weedhatch is beyond me)

 

Interesting?

Are weed hatches checked as part of the hull survey, and are they blacked at the same time as the hull. ??

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The stoppage notice has been updated to say:

 

Notice updates:
10/08/2016 @ 15:46

Fobney Lock will be re-opening at 8am on Friday 12th August.

 

BUT I'm hearing that the work is now delayed until Monday. Something about CRT bringing in a crane?

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