March of the Widebeams

[Victor Vectis]

Ooooooh yes please.

 

Some pics would be lovely!

[RLWP]

19 hours ago, davidg said:

So, widebeams in inappropriate places part 256:

 

Below Shop Lock, Stockton, won’t go through the flat topped concrete bridge. Anyone who’s hung around there long enough knows the bridge comes in below water level; many have tried to go through breasted despite being warned but they knew better. Oh, how we laughed.

 

Usual mayhem with the pound above dropped off two feet, boats lying at angles on the bottom, water over the offside coping in the pound down to Jones’. Boat still below the bridge awaiting CRT engineer taking a look. And that’s before they try and get through the Blue Lias bridge.

 

Just stop it.

Hotel boat by any chance?

 

Richard

[davidg]

Don't know. I would guess not looking at it. Still tied on the towpath below the bridge this morning.

[roland elsdon]

Remembering the american evangelical college and the breasted boats with pleasure. Never ever heard mormons utter such profanities, and we did mention it first but of course they knew best...

[GRLMK38]

4 hours ago, davidg said:

Don't know. I would guess not looking at it. Still tied on the towpath below the bridge this morning.

I heard there is a CRT team there today removing the coping stones from the towpath to make the gap wider.  Can anybody confirm this?

 

The boat is called "ABSUMUS". 

 

Meanwhile, nobody from CRT is available to repair the Bascote Staircase which is now closed until further notice due to a broken cill.

[RLWP]

5 hours ago, davidg said:

Don't know. I would guess not looking at it. Still tied on the towpath below the bridge this morning.

OK. The last widebeam I saw stuck there was a hotel boat, wedged firmly in the silt in the bridge hole

 

Richard

[ditchcrawler]

On 22/06/2019 at 09:14, Victor Vectis said:

Ooooooh yes please.

 

Some pics would be lovely!

From Facebook

 so it may not be visible to all

 

[David Mack]

13 hours ago, GRLMK38 said:

I heard there is a CRT team there today removing the coping stones from the towpath to make the gap wider. 

And are they going to move on to Lock 16 on the K&A when they've finished?

[Alan de Enfield]

8 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

From Facebook

 so it may not be visible to all

 

 

That looks like one of those "Thames Night Soil" barges that has had a lid welded on.

There is nothing 'boaty' about that - Awful !!!!!

[roland elsdon]

How did it get there? Unless dropped in in warwick? Not unless someone has been sneaking around narrowing bridges after its north south passage. If it gets up stockton its then got the road bridge, which i got stuck in with our pair in 1987 and had to be dragged out with a landrover.

However tools are available localy. Gas axe and scrap lorry..

And its not the coping as I recall.

[haggis]

If it is true that CRT are "widening" the access under the bridge to let this boat through I find it unbelievable . That is not the only narrow bridge on that canal and will they do the same every time the boat gets stuck?  Why did they not insist that the boat reverse back and get craned out where it was craned in? . Does the boat belong to some one "high up" in CRT perhaps? 

 

Haggis

[David Mack]

12 minutes ago, haggis said:

If it is true that CRT are "widening" the access under the bridge to let this boat through I find it unbelievable . That is not the only narrow bridge on that canal and will they do the same every time the boat gets stuck?  Why did they not insist that the boat reverse back and get craned out where it was craned in? . Does the boat belong to some one "high up" in CRT perhaps? 

 

Haggis

 Exactly my point. Someone has craned in a too-wide new boat at Warwick and CRT are running around widening bridges. But when CRT rebuilt the wingwalls to Lock 16 on the K&A, so that a boat which had previously passed through several times got stuck, CRT blamed the boat owner.

[Rob-M]

The owners should be told to sort it out with the builder of the boat that dropped it in at Warwick and should have known it wouldn't fit along the canal.

[Chris Williams]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

CRT are running around widening bridges.

This situation needs sorting out legally, or it will keep happening.  Your licence fee is paying for this nonsense.

[davidg]

2 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

How did it get there? Unless dropped in in warwick? Not unless someone has been sneaking around narrowing bridges after its north south passage. If it gets up stockton its then got the road bridge, which i got stuck in with our pair in 1987 and had to be dragged out with a landrover.

However tools are available localy. Gas axe and scrap lorry..

And its not the coping as I recall.

Correct Roland, Unless things have changed when pairs got stuck here there was ample width at the waterline, it's down below where the bridgehole was tight. The concrete structure above has been on the slide for years and now has steel strapping round the bridge abutments on the towpath side to try and hold it back; whether the towpath wall has moved or not maybe we'll find out. As to how this boat got there, well there is a boatbuilder in Warwick specialising in widebeam boats, there perhaps?

[zenataomm]

I recall The Steam Narrow Boat that now bears the name President becoming a geographical fixture under that bridge along with an FMC butty of the line. 

Many years ago now.

I believe this was during the period that the council governing Dudley was so left wing they only employed one legged, blind, agnostic, female, plumbers regardless of their skills and/or vocational qualifications … from 9.00am - 4.30pm Mon-Fri.

I heard the steam operative in charge of operating President's (or whatever its name really is) motive power was picked up at his house at 9.00am each morning and driven to wherever the boats had been left the previous night.  He was of course driven back home in time to arrive by 4.30 otherwise overtime was due.

 

On this occasion I don't recall Waterways rushing out to remove coping stones etc I think they just left them to sort it out themselves and denied any traditions concerning breasting up boats in a flight.

[OldGoat]

3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

That looks like one of those "Thames Night Soil" barges that has had a lid welded on.

There is nothing 'boaty' about that - Awful !!!!!

Well it's a bit prettier than a stretched narrowboat....

[MtB]

The vandalised coping stones. Zoom into see. 

 

 

[Keeping Up]

Utterly disgraceful!!! Desecration of our heritage!!! I hope CRT are going to reinstate it.

 

I remember getting stuck there once, attempting to go through breasted after breaking down (Our rudder fell off) and we got a third of the way through that bridge before we stopped. Many other boats assisting and a lot of people hauling, to no effect; eventually we borrowed a Tirfor from WFB and winched ourselves back by using a sturdy tree as a fixed point. 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Keeping Up
Smelling mistooks

[Mike Todd]

On 01/05/2018 at 13:13, Naughty Cal said:

It does help if you are not embarrassed by it's looks every time you step on it though 

So now we know why you moved!

[davidg]

5 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

From Facebook

 so it may not be visible to all

 

That would be in the "Moored like a ****" group on Facebook I assume.

[frangar]

1 hour ago, davidg said:

That would be in the "Moored like a ****" group on Facebook I assume.

Apparently they are getting CRT to remove bits of bridge so they can move this monstrosity.....going to be fun if they want to bring it through Braunston next weekend.......think they might find themselves even more unpopular......that boat is one of the most unsuitable things I have seen on the GU.

[roland elsdon]

So we pay money for crt to repair things, then an oversized thing is put on the canal, we pay to allow it to navigate by destroying the infrastructure and then we pay again for it to be reinstated, so crt get 800 odd quid for a licence, assuming its not on a temporary one.

crt your business model stinks.

[Chris Williams]

Who owns this thing??  Or is that a CRT secret.

[dmr]

I am encouraged by CRTs efforts here. I have always wanted to do the Ribble link and Lancaster canal but as we are almost 71 feet long I saw the Rufford arm as an insurmountable obstacle, but now I realise that I can simply place myself in the top lock and ask CRT to come and sort it out for me, a bit of hacking away at the cill and a slight adjustment of the gates should sort me out. .

 

.............Dave