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Middle level weed nightmare


Tom766

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Hello all,

 Can anyone advise if any particular boat type is more suceptible to dragging up weed than another?  I have a 30' springer with cruiser deck, single pot Bukh 10 hp engine. My weekend trip to March and back was a nightmare (return journey).  Trip to March was fine, moored up below the pub, opposite that nuisance abandonned sailing boat. Trouble was that the drunks were out shouting until about 4am!

Anyway, on the way back i was caught in a vicious circle.  Boat slows down, weed wrapped around prop, nowhere to tie up as banks are steep and overgrown so I nudge the bow into the reeds. Clear the prop and now the boat is stuck.  The water level is so low.  can't push or lever the boat off so have to rev up engine which as i'm close to shore pulls up more weed!  this goes on several times.  To make matters worse my boat sucks in river water to cool the engine, its now sucked in debris and shes overheating aaarrgghhhh.  A neighbour happend to stop by as i'm dangling upside down in the engine bay trying to clear the water intake pipe.  He has a small grp cruiser and as soon as he tries to tow me into clear water his boat veers into the reeds (summat to do with physics of the prop I suppose).  Several attempts to clear the blockage finally work and she's running cool again.  One last prop clearance by the low bridge before the Benwick turn and i'm grounded, water level is SO low...dread to think what it's like trying to man handle anything bigger than my 30' boat.

5 hrs later and i'm home, battered and bruised.  Confidence in narrowboating also battered and bruised. I even considered buying a nice big one to live on!

 

Tom....

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5 minutes ago, Tom766 said:

Hello all,

 Can anyone advise if any particular boat type is more suceptible to dragging up weed than another?  I have a 30' springer with cruiser deck, single pot Bukh 10 hp engine. My weekend trip to March and back was a nightmare (return journey).  Trip to March was fine, moored up below the pub, opposite that nuisance abandonned sailing boat. Trouble was that the drunks were out shouting until about 4am!

Anyway, on the way back i was caught in a vicious circle.  Boat slows down, weed wrapped around prop, nowhere to tie up as banks are steep and overgrown so I nudge the bow into the reeds. Clear the prop and now the boat is stuck.  The water level is so low.  can't push or lever the boat off so have to rev up engine which as i'm close to shore pulls up more weed!  this goes on several times.  To make matters worse my boat sucks in river water to cool the engine, its now sucked in debris and shes overheating aaarrgghhhh.  A neighbour happend to stop by as i'm dangling upside down in the engine bay trying to clear the water intake pipe.  He has a small grp cruiser and as soon as he tries to tow me into clear water his boat veers into the reeds (summat to do with physics of the prop I suppose).  Several attempts to clear the blockage finally work and she's running cool again.  One last prop clearance by the low bridge before the Benwick turn and i'm grounded, water level is SO low...dread to think what it's like trying to man handle anything bigger than my 30' boat.

5 hrs later and i'm home, battered and bruised.  Confidence in narrowboating also battered and bruised. I even considered buying a nice big one to live on!

 

Tom....

 

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Ah Tim Lewis,  thanks so much.  Thought I was just being stupid all day lol.  Feel better about it all now!  Do wish the engine had its own sealed system water supply though, one thing less to have to deal with.

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That type of weed is a nightmare. On my boat it wraps round the propeller shaft, rather than the propeller itself. The propeller becomes ineffective when the ball of weed in front blocks any water getting to the prop itself. There are weed cutters for sale that fit around the shaft, but never tried one and no idea if they help. They are sharp and can cut you when you do have to stick your hand down the weed hatch. The only time it has ever defeated me completely was on the Chesterfield Canal, just outside Retford a few years back. Clear the weed, go another couple of yards, clear the weed, repeat till I gave up and reversed a mile back to the previous winding hole. Met a CaRT contractor who had spent weeks working a weed removal boat there with little effect.

 

Jen

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Middle Level weed is a notorious nightmare - you can try bursts of reverse to untangle it but in my experience to little effect. You just have to battle through somehow. We used to get caught every spring/summer but the worst was one winter; the stuff had rotted down and with a deep draughted boat we just trawled it off the bottom. Stuck so often in the end we resorted to bow-hauling from the edge by moonlight, then finally stuck a couple of pins in at the first chance and went to sleep.

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