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Northampton Arm, Grand Union Canal - 17/4/18


gbclive

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11 minutes ago, mark99 said:

wind, current, nonchalence or all three <plus an audience> and it's a reminder that no matter how good we think we are we ain't.

Spot on Mark.

The seeds were sown earlier at a couple of historic bridges which had fairly narrow arches, which we approached downstream at an angle, with moderate flow and quite strong cross currents and which had obstructed exits.

These I “aced” or rather I got away with by the skin of my teeth, perhaps by an inch or two, due largely to luck.

I was still preening myself when reality caught up ?

 

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2 minutes ago, Big Tom Wide Girth Warrior said:

Ahoy there shipmates!

 

I shall be sailing this Nav next month - has someone sorted this obstruction yet or will I need to ram it out the way!?!

 

Cheers, W G Warrior

 

You may need a narrowgirth:)

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6 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

You may need a narrowgirth:)

Given he's called Big Tom and he's planning to go to (or maybe come from) Northampton I assume it's him that is wide girth not the boat. I hope so for his sake.

 

Must admit I was intrigued as to his profile name as it comes up as "Big Tom Wide Girth Wa..." on my screen.

 

JP

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1 minute ago, Captain Pegg said:

Given he's called Big Tom and he's planning to go to (or maybe come from) Northampton I assume it's him that is wide girth not the boat. I hope so for his sake.

 

Must admit I was intrigued as to his profile name as it comes up as "Big Tom Wide Girth Wa..." on my screen.

 

JP

Oh. I thought big Tom might be his boat name:)

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28 minutes ago, Big Tom Wide Girth Warrior said:

Ahoy there shipmates!

 

I shall be sailing this Nav next month - has someone sorted this obstruction yet or will I need to ram it out the way!?!

 

Cheers, W G Warrior

 

Hi BTWGW ?

The thread did wander about a bit afterwards, but post #21 reported that all was OK with the bridge deck and balance beams lifted out of the way.

Enjoy the arm if you fit (your boat that is?)

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Thanks kindly for the info, glad the nav is back up and running - can’t wait to sail deep inside the stock bruerne tunnel 

 

out if interest, I see a large section of locks between Northampton and stoke brurne, how long does a lock normally take to navigate?

 

I love having two vessels in my lock at once so that will save some time I guess

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15 minutes ago, Big Tom Wide Girth Warrior said:

 

I love having two vessels in my lock at once so that will save some time I guess

Not down/up the Northampton arm it won't, unless your boat and the accompanying one is very short. 

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1 hour ago, Big Tom Wide Girth Warrior said:

Thanks kindly for the info, glad the nav is back up and running - can’t wait to sail deep inside the stock bruerne tunnel 

 

out if interest, I see a large section of locks between Northampton and stoke brurne, how long does a lock normally take to navigate?

 

I love having two vessels in my lock at once so that will save some time I guess

The Northampton Arm has 17 narrow locks, five spread out then the top 12 are all close together. If you are doing it with yourself plus one crew member to help, and assuming a reasonable level of experience, about four locks per hour would be a comfortable pace. With more crew and working efficiently, eight locks per hour might be possible, but if you're single handed allow more time. In hot weather like this you might wish to leave it until the evening (but allowing enough time to finish before sunset); I did the Northampton Arm on a hot afternoon once as lock crew and it was tough going.

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1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

Not down/up the Northampton arm it won't, unless your boat and the accompanying one is very short. 

I don't think "she" was taking about boats. On reflection I will stick with my initial assumption regarding his/her gender. Just another joker.

 

 

Edited by Captain Pegg
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Thanks for the info Peter X - very useful. There will be two of us.

 

Captain Peg, I explicitly was talking about locks and I can’t imagine what other meaning you could quite be insinuating - perhaps you’d care to share with the analworld forum members!??

 

I’ve bought the canal and river trust key, as I was told I’d need it - but as far as I can make out they are all windlass locks, or so you need to unlock them before you can operate them?

 

Cheers, W G Warrior 

Canalworld*

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3 hours ago, Peter X said:

The Northampton Arm has 17 narrow locks, five spread out then the top 12 are all close together. If you are doing it with yourself plus one crew member to help, and assuming a reasonable level of experience, about four locks per hour would be a comfortable pace. With more crew and working efficiently, eight locks per hour might be possible, but if you're single handed allow more time. In hot weather like this you might wish to leave it until the evening (but allowing enough time to finish before sunset); I did the Northampton Arm on a hot afternoon once as lock crew and it was tough going.

Lack of water will be more of a problem, some pounds have more leaks than a goverment department. The flight requires water run down the flight every morning to refill the pounds that have drained overnight. So don't plan on a early start.

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19 hours ago, Big Tom Wide Girth Warrior said:

...

I’ve bought the canal and river trust key, as I was told I’d need it - but as far as I can make out they are all windlass locks, or so you need to unlock them before you can operate them?

...

To clear up any confusion, you need:

A normal windlass (sometimes called a lock key) to operate the Northampton Arm locks, and the GU locks etc. Best to have two, one each for you and your crew.

A CRT key (aka British Waterways key or just BW key), which looks much like a typical Chubb house door lock key. This is to access various facilities all over the system such as water points/toilets/showers, and is also needed to use some locks, but not the ones you're meeting first.

In some parts of the system, notably around Birmingham and in the north and not near you I think, you'll need an anti-vandal key to  to unlock the paddle gear to use some locks (often at the top of a flight); it comes with a little square hole in the end. Best get one, sooner or later you'll need it.

 

And a key for the River Nene locks, known as an Abloy key. But I think you're coming from there so you'll already have one?

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