The need for a safety ladder

[Theo]

This at 1300 today I used the safety ladder to enable a woman overboard to get out of the Great Ouse. She had fallen in while mooring her cruiser at the Pike and Eel. She hung on the fender of the cruiser until the man who hires the little outboard hire boats got to her in one of his little outboard hire boats. At that point he could not get her out of the water so he towed her over to us when I shouted that we had a ladder. She clambered aboard, had a hot shower and a cup of tea and went of with a stiff leg but otherwise unhurt.

 

I have been getting a bit lax about deploying the ladder at every mooring. This reminds me to take the two minutes to do it. That accident could have happened to me on my own.

 

The previous one was when an elderly lady fell of the back of her narrow boat also on the Great Ouse, but this time at St. Neots. Again, our ladder saved her from having to be hoisted out with a rope under her arms (Ouch!)

[Neil Walker]

It's the getting out that hurts, I was inspired by the Olympic divers the other day and back flipped in but it was the crawling out that damaged the ribs. . . Wise words

[bigcol]

I also have a ladder, tied to a back cleat,and has been used by others,and myself.

I always wondered why canal/river boat builders don't incorperate one in, new design

I know boats have a step at the stern, but it's too high up to be of use for us oldies.

And yes I appreciate that most canals are only a mtr deep.

 

Col

[Slim]

Mentioned this before but worth repeating.

 

I've got a plastic 'rope' ladder (flat plastic rungs) rolled up and secured to a mooring dolly to one side of my stern fender. It's kept rolled up with a single ball ended bungy. It's about 1.5 m long and when deployed it easily reaches the bed of the canal. Never used in anger but well worth the £15 or so it cost from Midland Chandlers.

 

 

Frank

[MtB]

Mentioned this before but worth repeating.

 

I've got a plastic 'rope' ladder (flat plastic rungs) rolled up and secured to a mooring dolly to one side of my stern fender. It's kept rolled up with a single ball ended bungy. It's about 1.5 m long and when deployed it easily reaches the bed of the canal. Never used in anger but well worth the £15 or so it cost from Midland Chandlers.

 

 

Frank

 

 

This really puzzles me. I can imagine it being bloody difficult to get out when there is piling along both sides of the cut but when there isn't, it seems odd that peeps find it so difficult to get out onto the bank. Agreed climbing up the back of the boat will be difficult but is it really impossible to get out onto the bank?

 

Here on the K&A where there is virtually no piling I met a boater the other day who told me he had fallen in from his boat on (its home mooring) and spent seven hours in the cut before someone arrived and lifted him out. Sad but I find this hard to believe as there was just rough scrub down to the waterline everwhere. I'm sure I could have clambered out easily almost anywhere. He looked reasonably fit too so maybe I just don't think I understand the problem perhaps...

[haggis]

Mike, wet clothes weigh a lot more than dry ones and the act of falling in probably introduces a level of shock which will make it difficult to function normally. I know when I did a back flip off a top gate on the Wolverhampton 21 I was absolutely no help when my husband hauled me out. To be fair though, it was a concrete edge and probably over a foot above water height. A long way to haul yourself up with the weight of wet clothes. and I was still clutching my windlass and anti vandal key :-)

 

haggis

[Tam & Di]

Mentioned this before but worth repeating.

 

I've got a plastic 'rope' ladder (flat plastic rungs) rolled up and secured to a mooring dolly to one side of my stern fender. It's kept rolled up with a single ball ended bungy. It's about 1.5 m long and when deployed it easily reaches the bed of the canal. Never used in anger but well worth the £15 or so it cost from Midland Chandlers.

 

 

Frank

 

And I suspect it was answered before too. Have you ever tried climbing up a rope ladder? Does it even sink when you unroll it? If you try this I think you will find yourself less confident about its usefulness. You really do need something rigid that protrudes down at least a metre for someone to get their foot onto for it to be any real help, especially if the person in the water is no longer fully compos mentis from shock or hurting themselves.

 

Tam

Edited August 28, 2016 by Tam & Di

[MtB]

Mike, wet clothes weigh a lot more than dry ones and the act of falling in probably introduces a level of shock which will make it difficult to function normally. I know when I did a back flip off a top gate on the Wolverhampton 21 I was absolutely no help when my husband hauled me out. To be fair though, it was a concrete edge and probably over a foot above water height. A long way to haul yourself up with the weight of wet clothes. and I was still clutching my windlass and anti vandal key :-)

 

haggis

 

 

Yes I fully understand when there is a solid edge made of piling or concrete extending a foot or more above the water level. I was talking about when there is just a natural bank covered in natural flora growth i.e. butterbur, stinging nettles etc....

I really don't think you should do diving off the gates on the 21. I hope you are ok.

[haggis]

 

 

I really don't think you should do diving off the gates on the 21. I hope you are ok.

 

Thank you, yes I was fine, several hours later. I wasn't even practising for the Olympics :-) . It happened a couple of years ago and I survived but it was not a pleasant experience. I sure read up about the symptoms of Weils disease soon after and worried at the least hint of anything being "not quite right". We haven't done that flight since :-)

 

haggis

[Theo]

I have clambered out of the Nene at Oundle a few years when I threw our little terrier, Holly, in as I was carrying her down a boarding plank in the dark. I hadn't realised that it was frosty. It was on a soft bank but muddy and slippery. A ladder would have been easier.

 

The boat of the elderly lady at St Neots was moored against the floating pontoons. She couldn't hoist herself up the nine inches onto the pontoons. This afternoon's spectacular involved getting the lady into a little fully buoyant (looked as if in was made of expanded polystyrene) boat whose gunwale was not very many inches above the water. The top of the landing stage was 18" above the water surface. Her boat's gunwale was some 2' above the water.

 

I believe that rope ladders are next door to useless. This was the first test for the aluminium ladder that I bought at Crick some years ago. Since the "I nearly drowned" topic it has been my intention to rig whenever we moor up for the night. Just in case.

 

Nick

[Theo]

Here is a link to my post in the other topic, showing the arrangement that I use. The wet lady said that she could easily get her foot on to the bottom rung and the ladder was completely stable.

[MtB]

Here is a link to my post in the other topic, showing the arrangement that I use. The wet lady said that she could easily get her foot on to the bottom rung and the ladder was completely stable.

 

Were your ladder not there, do you really and honestly think a person in the cut would be unable to scramble out on the opposite bank?

 

Even so, yes the ladder looks very easy to use.

[Theo]

 

Were your ladder not there, do you really and honestly think a person in the cut would be unable to scramble out on the opposite bank?

 

Even so, yes the ladder looks very easy to use.

 

What you didn't realise is that this photo was taken across one of the narrow inlets towards the edge of Loch Ness which, as you know, is the deepest inland body of water in Scotland, if not the UK or possibibibibibly the world and that the person who is just about to fall in carnt swim.

 

N

[Jerra]

 

What you didn't realise is that this photo was taken across one of the narrow inlets towards the edge of Loch Ness which, as you know, is the deepest inland body of water in Scotland, if not the UK or possibibibibibly the world and that the person who is just about to fall in carnt swim.

 

N

Because the Loch is deep it doesn't follow that the inlet would be. I say would be because I have never seen land as flat as that round Loch Ness

[MtB]

 

What you didn't realise is that this photo was taken across one of the narrow inlets towards the edge of Loch Ness which, as you know, is the deepest inland body of water in Scotland, if not the UK or possibibibibibly the world and that the person who is just about to fall in carnt swim.

 

N

 

 

I still think there is a load of hysterical paranoia expressed on here about how difficult it is to get out should one fall in.

 

The common factor in all the anecdotes of people having difficulty getting out is a hard vertical edge to the bank, e.g. piling or a concrete edge substantially higher than water level. Where there is a 'natural' bank e.g. in your photo I maintain getting out isn't going to be much of a problem.

[Theo]

Because the Loch is deep it doesn't follow that the inlet would be. I say would be because I have never seen land as flat as that round Loch Ness

 

My camera has been known to distort the perspective.

 

Cameras, like some people, can lie, you know.

[Theo]

 

 

I still think there is a load of hysterical paranoia expressed on here about how difficult it is to get out should one fall in.

 

The common factor in all the anecdotes of people having difficulty getting out is a hard vertical edge to the bank, e.g. piling or a concrete edge substantially higher than water level. Where there is a 'natural' bank e.g. in your photo I maintain getting out isn't going to be much of a problem.

 

On some canals like much of the GU there is piling on both sides. On many canals there is piling on the towpath side but I could easily get out on the not towpath side. The conundrum that would present itself if I were to get out on the towpath side is how I would get back to my boat. The gravitationally challenge among us may have difficulty getting out of even the lowest of piled banks.

 

Anyway. I have decided to pay the price of my hysteria, paranoia (If that is indeed a problem in this case) and certainly my obsessive compulsion and continue to waste time putting out the ladder and seeing it change from being nice and shiny to dull and a bit muddy with occasional added weeds. Such are the vicissitudes of boating. Ah me!

[bargemast]

 

On some canals like much of the GU there is piling on both sides. On many canals there is piling on the towpath side but I could easily get out on the not towpath side. The conundrum that would present itself if I were to get out on the towpath side is how I would get back to my boat. The gravitationally challenge among us may have difficulty getting out of even the lowest of piled banks.

 

Anyway. I have decided to pay the price of my hysteria, paranoia (If that is indeed a problem in this case) and certainly my obsessive compulsion and continue to waste time putting out the ladder and seeing it change from being nice and shiny to dull and a bit muddy with occasional added weeds. Such are the vicissitudes of boating. Ah me!

 

Better safe then sorry.

 

Peter.

[MtB]

 

On some canals like much of the GU there is piling on both sides. On many canals there is piling on the towpath side but I could easily get out on the not towpath side. The conundrum that would present itself if I were to get out on the towpath side is how I would get back to my boat. The gravitationally challenge among us may have difficulty getting out of even the lowest of piled banks.

 

Anyway. I have decided to pay the price of my hysteria, paranoia (If that is indeed a problem in this case) and certainly my obsessive compulsion and continue to waste time putting out the ladder and seeing it change from being nice and shiny to dull and a bit muddy with occasional added weeds. Such are the vicissitudes of boating. Ah me!

 

Yes totally agree about the risks presented by midlands canals with long stretches of piling both sides.

 

My preferred solution to the problem is to avoid falling in in the first place...

[Horace42]

Generally speaking, with regard to the pros and cons above - having a ladder - of any sort - must be better than having no ladder.

By coincidence of timing of this topic, I have just put one on my boat. I couldn't find a suitable proprietary brand so I made my own.

It is something I have been meaning to do since the time many years ago when my wife fell of the back of the boat.

It was very difficult to pull her back on board - even with plenty of help.

I have fallen in a couple of times - but that was at my home mooring and easy to climb out unaided.

I hope I don't have to use my new ladder in anger.

[Iain_S]

 

What you didn't realise is that this photo was taken across one of the narrow inlets towards the edge of Loch Ness which, as you know, is the deepest inland body of water in Scotland, if not the UK or possibibibibibly the world and that the person who is just about to fall in carnt swim.

 

N

 

Are Scottish Canals allowing narrowboats on the Caledonian Canal now, then??

 

(I'll get my coat before the Public Right of Navigation debate starts)

[bizzard]

I think boaters should grow their finger nails everso long. After a while they should grow into a curved shape and become really tough, like an Eagles talons. Once they're grown to about 3'' long one should easily be able claw their way out and up the bank, just like cats do. To grow good long and strong talons an intake of loads of calcium is needed which might amount to drinking about 12 pints of milk a day. A long talon on an index finger is especially useful for nose picking too.

If you are unable to cultivate and grow talons for some reason, or perhaps you don't like milk then by a couple of meat hooks (the stout hooks with handles on) which are a good substitute for talons and to make sure your grasping a pair of them when you fall in.

[AllanC]

As I am a rubbish swimmer, when I get a boat I think I will find a shallow spot and fall in just to see how hard it really is to get out when fully clothed. I will even have a rescue squad on hand just in case of problems.

I will probably be one of those folks you see wearing a life jacket, but murphy's law dictates that if I fall in, I won't be wearing it at the time.

[Tigerr]

 

 

I still think there is a load of hysterical paranoia expressed on here about how difficult it is to get out should one fall in.

 

The common factor in all the anecdotes of people having difficulty getting out is a hard vertical edge to the bank, e.g. piling or a concrete edge substantially higher than water level. Where there is a 'natural' bank e.g. in your photo I maintain getting out isn't going to be much of a problem.

My lovely wife fell in at Frouds Bridge on K&A in February a few years back. Indeed, vertical piling. She was so cold shockedshe couldn't even shout to let me know. I only found out when I went to see where she was. I couldn't pull her out at all - luckily there was a ladder at the office but by the time I had got it and she managed to get out she was in real trouble - incoherent and losing control of movement. As you say - where there is piling it is a real risk, and don't underestimate the impact of cold shock on physical capability.

Of course if you never moor on piling no problem!

I always have a ladder now - well in between it being nicked by other boaters. Clearly they see its value as they nick it pretty much each year.

[bargemast]

As I am a rubbish swimmer, when I get a boat I think I will find a shallow spot and fall in just to see how hard it really is to get out when fully clothed. I will even have a rescue squad on hand just in case of problems.

I will probably be one of those folks you see wearing a life jacket, but murphy's law dictates that if I fall in, I won't be wearing it at the time.

 

You'll have to do your test in winter when the water is really cold, as your body will react completely different hit by cold.

 

Make sure it's nice and warm Inside your boat, to become a human being again a bit quicker once you've got yourself out.

 

Peter.