Napton - avoiding the flight on Wednesday???

[WotEver]

3 hours ago, Athy said:

I find that I'm notified if, for example, someone replies to one of my posts, even if they don't append the @.

Yes indeed. But as I wasn’t replying to one of your posts, merely referring to you in passing, I included the @ to draw your attention to that mention. 

[Westyman]

Dunno - just taken us 2h50 to get down the 9. Pretty busy with loads moored or winding at the bottom. 

[Jennifer McM]

6 hours ago, Athy said:

Blimey, was it 'Cyan'? 

Ha ha.... you're obviously having a laugh Athy ?

 

We set off at 8:30 am from Fenny, and have just arrived about 2 pm at the bottom. We got behind a hire boat that kept grounding his boat ?

 

What a glorious (but challenging) cruise the summit is! Thoroughly enjoyed it. It was rather busy, think there was only one lock where we didn't meet anyone. CRT are busy at Lock 9 digging holes for testing I think. Lockie was at the bottom lock.

 

 

[Athy]

8 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

Ha ha.... you're obviously having a laugh Athy ?

 

 

 

What a glorious (but challenging) cruise the summit is!

 

Larf? MOI??

Yes, your opinion of the six miles of summit pound absolutely concurs with mine - it's probably my favourite bit of waterway, scenic and mostly remote from civilisation. I always insist on steering along that stretch (Mrs. Athy doesn't seem to mind), so that I can sling Trojan round the bends like a 45-foot 4 m.p.h. sports car.

[roland elsdon]

4mph ? No way, stationary in the tunnel at fenny again, and 2 mph rest of way. Anything over tickover big waves. Came out of napton bottom lock picked up, and waddled on to moorings. Blade full of plastic ,reeds ,  black bin liner nappies and other stuff, now returned where it belongs. Love the summit, napton to the left right in front and behind, but boy is  it slow again. Remember it after John forth dredged it you flew..

[Tunnelman51]

4 hours ago, Athy said:

Larf? MOI??

Yes, your opinion of the six miles of summit pound absolutely concurs with mine - it's probably my favourite bit of waterway, scenic and mostly remote from civilisation. I always insist on steering along that stretch (Mrs. Athy doesn't seem to mind), so that I can sling Trojan round the bends like a 45-foot 4 m.p.h. sports car.

I hope I never meet you on that hairpin bit by Stoneton Moat Farm !!

[Athy]

27 minutes ago, Tunnelman51 said:

I hope I never meet you on that hairpin bit by Stoneton Moat Farm !!

Likewise! I've occasionally encountered other boats coming round those dramatic bends but I haven't hit one yet.

[Dr Bob]

We came down the flight this afternoon and it was deserted. Only passed two boats going up. Most of the locks we had to close the bottom gates ( my job cause Mrs Bob won't jump across them). Took us 8.5 hours from Cropredy to the Napton winding hole which included a half hour stop on the way up the locks from cropredy while the crt ran some water down into the low pounds. Like Athy said, great fun doing the sports car bit round the bends and never went aground once!

Good to meet Roland and then Jennifer McM at the bottom.

The engineers at lock 9 said they were taking sample of 'rock' from various points around the lock to see how extensive the work needed is. Sounds like 3 incidents in the last 2 weeks of stuck boats. One, two weeks ago, involved a boat stuck overnight as the emergency crew couldn't budge it in the evening....and then it needed a few hours in the morning to free it. It looks like this may be a job they will do sooner rather than later (rebuild a wall....or two). How long would that take?????

[ditchcrawler]

4 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

 . Remember it after John forth dredged it you flew..

Now there is a name from the past

[Peter X]

I came across Richard Parry briefly at Rickmansworth on Sunday and took the opportunity to mention lock 9 at Napton. I wasn't on the crew when the NBT went down there (twice) last year, but I heard Nuneaton got stuck once and needed help from a CRT boat to get through. It's listed in the winter maintenance schedule to have some serious rebuilding done in Nov/Dec, but I don't know whether some temporary fix might get done before then:

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/13038/lock-9-napton-oxford-canal

[Dr Bob]

9 hours ago, Peter X said:

I came across Richard Parry briefly at Rickmansworth on Sunday and took the opportunity to mention lock 9 at Napton. I wasn't on the crew when the NBT went down there (twice) last year, but I heard Nuneaton got stuck once and needed help from a CRT boat to get through. It's listed in the winter maintenance schedule to have some serious rebuilding done in Nov/Dec, but I don't know whether some temporary fix might get done before then:

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/13038/lock-9-napton-oxford-canal

Thanks for that info Peter. I'd not seen that.

Yesterday we were talking to one of CRT's engineers while going up Claydon - he was running water down into the low pounds. He said he had been called out to free up a boat that had been trying to go up lock 9 at Napton one evening about 2 weeks ago. They had a CRT tug and tried to drag it back out, and even with a bit of water juggling, it would not budge. The following morning they were all out again and finally managed to shift it by sending a large amount of water down. They thought the skipper had tried to get in the lock and failed, and so had taken a run at it and driven it in hard. The CRT guy also thought the boat had remained at the bottom of the lock for a few days and then tried it again and got stuck again.

Today's closure and tomorrows restriction has apparently been planned for a couple of weeks but was only publicised on Monday morning.......a bit of a cock up in letting boaters know (info recieved from a number of peeps). The crt guy went very quiet when pressed.

Let's hope it stays open until the winter maintenance.

 

[Jennifer McM]

38 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Thanks for that info Peter. I'd not seen that.

Yesterday we were talking to one of CRT's engineers while going up Claydon - he was running water down into the low pounds. He said he had been called out to free up a boat that had been trying to go up lock 9 at Napton one evening about 2 weeks ago. They had a CRT tug and tried to drag it back out, and even with a bit of water juggling, it would not budge. The following morning they were all out again and finally managed to shift it by sending a large amount of water down. They thought the skipper had tried to get in the lock and failed, and so had taken a run at it and driven it in hard. The CRT guy also thought the boat had remained at the bottom of the lock for a few days and then tried it again and got stuck again.

Today's closure and tomorrows restriction has apparently been planned for a couple of weeks but was only publicised on Monday morning.......a bit of a cock up in letting boaters know (info recieved from a number of peeps). The crt guy went very quiet when pressed.

Let's hope it stays open until the winter maintenance.

 

Serious question, wonder if they used washing up liquid at the point where the boat was stuck? It worked like magic when the boats were stuck in Banbury last week - using the liquid almost immediately released the boat after tugging for half an hour. The man from Toolie's said they used to use washing up liquid when the old wooden boats were stuck years ago. 

[Dr Bob]

Yes, the crt man made no mention of washing up liquid. He did say that they lowered the pound between 8 and 9 and the boat just 'hung' in the lock above the water?

Just a little bit of friction can make things difficult, so as you say, maybe they should all carry a bottle.?

[alan_fincher]

4 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Thanks for that info Peter. I'd not seen that.

Yesterday we were talking to one of CRT's engineers while going up Claydon - he was running water down into the low pounds. He said he had been called out to free up a boat that had been trying to go up lock 9 at Napton one evening about 2 weeks ago. They had a CRT tug and tried to drag it back out, and even with a bit of water juggling, it would not budge. The following morning they were all out again and finally managed to shift it by sending a large amount of water down. They thought the skipper had tried to get in the lock and failed, and so had taken a run at it and driven it in hard. The CRT guy also thought the boat had remained at the bottom of the lock for a few days and then tried it again and got stuck again.

Today's closure and tomorrows restriction has apparently been planned for a couple of weeks but was only publicised on Monday morning.......a bit of a cock up in letting boaters know (info recieved from a number of peeps). The crt guy went very quiet when pressed.

Let's hope it stays open until the winter maintenance.

 

Do you happen to know if any of the recently stuck boats were historic ones?

We got jammed in with Flamingo in early April - details here.

There was no chance we could have got through - it didn't even look close to doing so.

I don't think any modern built boat should get stuck though, as it is typical for all to be built at least a couple of inches narrower than working boats like ours were actually built by design.  There was certainly no concept of 6' 10" maximum beam in the 1930s!

4 hours ago, Jennifer McM said:

Serious question, wonder if they used washing up liquid at the point where the boat was stuck? It worked like magic when the boats were stuck in Banbury last week - using the liquid almost immediately released the boat after tugging for half an hour. The man from Toolie's said they used to use washing up liquid when the old wooden boats were stuck years ago. 

It was tried in our incident, but made no difference at all.

[billS]

Does Aldi washing up liquid work as well as Fairy liquid?

[matty40s]

2 minutes ago, billS said:

Does Aldi washing up liquid work as well as Fairy liquid?

You can use lots more of it for the same price....

[Dr Bob]

5 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Do you happen to know if any of the recently stuck boats were historic ones?

We got jammed in with Flamingo in early April - details here.

There was no chance we could have got through - it didn't even look close to doing so.

I don't think any modern built boat should get stuck though, as it is typical for all to be built at least a couple of inches narrower than working boats like ours were actually built by design.  There was certainly no concept of 6' 10" maximum beam in the 1930s!

It was tried in our incident, but made no difference at all.

Alan, No sorry we didnt discuss the type of boat, other than 'it was an old one'. We've got a bog standard 15 year old colecraft and didnt notice any issues of it being too narrow, and Roland got down in his 'work boat'. @roland elsdoncan give you details of his boat and how wide it is. The incident of the boat getting stuck sounded a big deal from the crt engineer so perhaps someone on here has info on the boat in question?

[alan_fincher]

14 hours ago, Peter X said:

I came across Richard Parry briefly at Rickmansworth on Sunday and took the opportunity to mention lock 9 at Napton. I wasn't on the crew when the NBT went down there (twice) last year, but I heard Nuneaton got stuck once and needed help from a CRT boat to get through. It's listed in the winter maintenance schedule to have some serious rebuilding done in Nov/Dec, but I don't know whether some temporary fix might get done before then:

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/13038/lock-9-napton-oxford-canal

I very much doubt if any temporary fix is possible - based on our evidence, I think a wall has moved in considerably over the years, and there was no evidence that it was just a very localised bulge that could perhaps be ground off.

I would assume a stoppage of quite a few weeks will be required, for a large amount of the offending wall to be taken down and completely rebuilt.  I can't see that happening outside the winter months, unless things have suddenly got heaps worse, and lots of boats are getting stuck.

 

Stupidly if you come down the flight the next lock up has warnings about the next lock being narrow, and not to attempt it with any fenders down.  However going up the flight the bottom lock displays no such warning, nor is there any warning at the lock itself.  As a starting point, I would suggest CRT need to put some up.  The CRT employee that assisted us told us that many of the incidents involve fenders, and would not have occurred if they had not been used.  Trying to extract boats that never needed to be stuck in the first place seems a poor use of CRT manpower.

I'll be very grateful if they do fix this this winter - we might then be able to access the Southern Oxford and the Thames.  I would not wish the majority of boaters to be subjected to a long stoppage before the winter, though.

[Tuscan]

Dover got down and through with some help from CRT yesterday. Hopefully it can be sorted this winter (and Hurleston) as I would like to do the Oxford again. It needs ploughing !

[alan_fincher]

1 minute ago, Dr Bob said:

...................and Roland got down in his 'work boat'. @roland elsdoncan give you details of his boat and how wide it is.

Yes, I'm familiar with "Fenny", which is another "Grand Union" boat, built originally to the same nominal dimensions as both of those, though Fenny was built by Harland and Wolff, whereas ours are Yarwoods on Northwich.

The reality is that few of us probably know the exact dimensions, or how they may have changed in over 80 years of use (and abuse).  These boats were nominally built to seven feet and half an inch, but ours, like many is reckoned to be at least half an inch more than that.  The tolerances in the locks souls in the past have meant it mattered not whether the real answer was 7' 0" or 7' 3", it should still go through - sadly this lock has moved enough that for some, but no means all of us, it is an issue.  I have no idea without trying whether "Sickle" would fit where "Flamingo" failed - it might well do - but the general advice from CRT and the HNBC is simply "try it - it is the only way to find out".

Some boats will pass if facing one way, but not the other, and one apparently goes up the whole flight backwards, because it can't do it forwards, (and IIRC, it is then a long way further to the next winding hole at the top, so they must want to do it pretty badly!).

4 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

Dover got down and through with some help from CRT yesterday. Hopefully it can be sorted this winter (and Hurleston) as I would like to do the Oxford again. It needs ploughing !

Out of curiosity, does that mean you know you don't currently fit, or that you are not prepared to try?

[matty40s]

9 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Alan, No sorry we didnt discuss the type of boat, other than 'it was an old one'. We've got a bog standard 15 year old colecraft and didnt notice any issues of it being too narrow, and Roland got down in his 'work boat'. @roland elsdoncan give you details of his boat and how wide it is. The incident of the boat getting stuck sounded a big deal from the crt engineer so perhaps someone on here has info on the boat in question?

There is a boat called Sycamore that goes down (and gets stuck ) every spring, and goes the other way in Autumn. I helped him do the tsunami release last year.

[alan_fincher]

3 minutes ago, matty40s said:

There is a boat called Sycamore that goes down (and gets stuck ) every spring, and goes the other way in Autumn. I helped him do the tsunami release last year.

Hopefully Stycnomore after the winter then?

[Athy]

8 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

Dover got down and through with some help from CRT yesterday. Hopefully it can be sorted this winter (and Hurleston) as I would like to do the Oxford again. It needs ploughing !

I saw the legendary Dover at Cropredy wharf on Saturday. I recall that it has been the subject of considerable comment on here when it was offered for sale for large amounts of money, and that it seemed to remain "for sale" for a quite long period. I had a chat with the owners who told me that they had had it for 18 months. The cloths were down so I was unable to form an opinion of its expensively-refitted interior!

I'm pleased to hear that they got down to Napton.

2 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Hopefully Stycnomore after the winter then?

...and Flamoutgo too.

[roland elsdon]

Lock visibly tighter ( but last pound well full) than september last year. If we had been full length we would have got stuck. Badly eroded bricks at bottom about a metre from waterline on left and 60 ft in on right. Our boat is 55 ft which suggests the lock is not square rather than a simple width issue. Mind you we have been through hurleston in the past. Grease washing up liquid and ep 90 all used in the past...

[David Mack]

24 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Grease washing up liquid and ep 90 all used in the past...

 

Do you have to use API-CC grease for an old boat, with a modern boat able to use a higher modern grade?