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Celebrity Five go Barging


Flyboy

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Did anyone see Celebrity 5 go Barging Episode 4  on Channel 5 tonight ?  The celebs. had 2 boats, one being a narrowboat. They went through a staircase lock with a difference. The middle gates were left open to fill 2 chambers at once and the resulting tsunami was most impressive and looked b****y dangerous. It looked to me like they were operating it like a flash lock. These locks are manned so it must be the normal method of operation. The French certainly do things differently.

https://www.my5.tv/celebrity-5-go-barging/season-1/episode-4-2-2-3-2

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It was certainly a lot of water coming into the lock, which is why they need to be properly secured! Just taking the rope around the bollard at the top of the lock and then expecting to hold it the boat with the rope while standing on the bow was asking for trouble. Tony Christie should have taken a couple of turns around the bow cleat on the boat. Someone should have told him. You often see people lose control in some of the side fill Thames locks because they're doing the same thing. There's no way you're going to hold the boat against the force of water unless you take a turn around a cleat on the boat. When I'm doing those Thames side fill locks single handed I just tie up bow and stern and let the boat drift out as the lock fills. It's not going anywhere.

This was going into Portishead marina - but the lock has floating pontoons so you just tie up and that's it. You certainly don't want to be standing on the bow holding the end of a rope!

22 Portishead lock.jpg

23 Portishead lock.jpg

P1000912.JPG

Edited by blackrose
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4 minutes ago, MHS said:

It would also have been wise to closed the bow doors when going up locks. It would have kept their carpets dry!!

And how many hire boats do you see each summer with the doors open. I saw a charity Narrowboat returning from an IWA National filling the front of the boat by opening gate paddles and front doors wide open.  

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Just now, ditchcrawler said:

And how many hire boats do you see each summer with the doors open. I saw a charity Narrowboat returning from an IWA National filling the front of the boat by opening gate paddles and front doors wide open.  

Exactly, it could make the difference between getting the bow cockpit wet and sinking the boat. 

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Taking the piss is all very well, but I don't think any of them realised quite how dangerous it was. If more water had entered the bow the boat could have sunk with him inside, or he could have easily been knocked off the bow by that impact. Then nobody would have been laughing.

 

Edited by blackrose
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Just now, MHS said:

We feel that the lock keepers were also at fault. They were cutting corners to get the boats through before their planned industrial action. 

Yes, the lock keepers let the water in much too quickly - it was ridiculous. But a properly secured boat can cope with a lot more water than that. 

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13 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Taking the piss is all very well, but I don't think any of them realised quite how dangerous it was. If more water had entered the bow the boat could have sunk with him inside, or he could have easily been knocked off the bow by that impact. Then nobody would have been laughing.

 

Sorry I did not see the narrow boat episode I thought the thread was about the one In France and smashed window...

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18 minutes ago, brassedoff said:

Sorry I did not see the narrow boat episode I thought the thread was about the one In France and smashed window...

The thread is about the one in France and the narrowboat was on the last episode shown tonight

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I too watched it and thought that someone should have told Tony Christie to give the rope a turn round the bow cleat to help him control it. He was always going to struggle against such a flow of water. Thames lock keepers are always good at watching to see the boats are all secure before they fill a lock, especially as quite often there's a real mixture of boats in there, some of them with very inexperienced crews.

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25 minutes ago, Peter X said:

Thames lock keepers are always good at watching to see the boats are all secure before they fill a lock, especially as quite often there's a real mixture of boats in there, some of them with very inexperienced crews.

most of the thames lockies are quite good at judging peoples experience quite quickly, helping those that need it and leaving others to just get on with it.

the only exception I can think of was the one that insisted all boats had 3 turns of rope around the bollards and then couldn't understand why everyones lines locked up as the boats went down in the lock, the only ones that didn't jam up were mine because I went back to my usual 1 1/2 as soon as he looked away

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Without a doubt this was a serious "near miss" incident; TC could easily have been thrown off the boat and injured, the boat was close to being swamped, and potentially the plastic cruisers could have been damaged by the impact of the narrowboat. 

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10 hours ago, Flyboy said:

Did anyone see Celebrity 5 go Barging Episode 4  on Channel 5 tonight ?  The celebs. had 2 boats, one being a narrowboat. They went through a staircase lock with a difference. The middle gates were left open to fill 2 chambers at once and the resulting tsunami was most impressive and looked b****y dangerous. It looked to me like they were operating it like a flash lock. These locks are manned so it must be the normal method of operation. The French certainly do things differently.

https://www.my5.tv/celebrity-5-go-barging/season-1/episode-4-2-2-3-2

 

I though this was standard, this is us going through Castelnaudray 30 years ago!

 

102 Canal Du Midi  Castelnaudray 9th September 1988.jpg

Edited by Tim Lewis
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10 hours ago, Flyboy said:

Did anyone see Celebrity 5 go Barging Episode 4  on Channel 5 tonight ?  The celebs. had 2 boats, one being a narrowboat. They went through a staircase lock with a difference. The middle gates were left open to fill 2 chambers at once and the resulting tsunami was most impressive and looked b****y dangerous. It looked to me like they were operating it like a flash lock. These locks are manned so it must be the normal method of operation. The French certainly do things differently.

https://www.my5.tv/celebrity-5-go-barging/season-1/episode-4-2-2-3-2

It is certainly exhilarating - we went through it on a hire narrowboat a few years ago. There was a sense of danger for the first few seconds only - perhaps more in the anticipation than in the experience - but after that it was just rather exciting.

I can't remember how the boat was secured; my memory is that the lock keepers took front and rear ropes from us.

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5 minutes ago, Athy said:

It is certainly exhilarating - we went through it on a hire narrowboat a few years ago. There was a sense of danger for the first few seconds only - perhaps more in the anticipation than in the experience - but after that it was just rather exciting.

I can't remember how the boat was secured; my memory is that the lock keepers took front and rear ropes from us.

Why the heck would you hire a bloomin narrowboat in that location? :huh:

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8 hours ago, Peter X said:

I too watched it and thought that someone should have told Tony Christie to give the rope a turn round the bow cleat to help him control it. He was always going to struggle against such a flow of water. Thames lock keepers are always good at watching to see the boats are all secure before they fill a lock, especially as quite often there's a real mixture of boats in there, some of them with very inexperienced crews.

Yes, most Thames lock keepers are fine but increasingly the locks will be on self-service.

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45 minutes ago, Tim Lewis said:

 

I though this was standard, this is us going through Castelnaudray 30 years ago!

 

102 Canal Du Midi  Castelnaudray 9th September 1988.jpg

Yes, so the flow was not the real issue. As long as boats are properly secured they will be fine.

42 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

The other thing that I don't like to see is wrapping the rope around a hand, Tessa had hers wrapped around her hand and there was a few shouts of wrap it round your hand.

Yes, it should have been wrapped around the bow cleat.

17 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Why the heck would you hire a bloomin narrowboat in that location? :huh:

They seemed to think it was more traditional?

3 minutes ago, Chas78 said:

Personally i think the whole lock thing was made more dramatic than it really was for the camera and being the last episode an all just my personal opinion of course :glare:

I personally think that losing control of a boat in a big set of locks like that is fairly dramatic. 

Edited by blackrose
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17 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Why the heck would you hire a bloomin narrowboat in that location? :huh:

Because I think that hire company is/was a subsidiary of a long established British hire fleet who do things the British way re fuel costs rather than a (I think) German conglomerate who rook users for fuel by engine hours whether you have filled up part way or not.

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