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River Great Ouse - Brownshill to Hermitage Lock


Tomek

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Hello. Next week I'm bringing a boat from St. Ives to Cambridge. There is a tidal section of the River Great Ouse between Brownshill Lock and Hermitage Lock. I have almost 1 meter draft and worrying about tides and river depth. Any advice on best times to cross that tidal section? 

 

Thanks, T.

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The tidal influence in this section is very limited and you will have no trouble with your draft.

 

A bigger problem for you at the moment might be parts of the 10 miles of the Old West River from Hermitage Lock to the Cam junction.  It is very, very weedy and your progress may be slow and involve lots of prop and/or raw water filter clearing.

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25 minutes ago, erivers said:

The tidal influence in this section is very limited and you will have no trouble with your draft.

 

A bigger problem for you at the moment might be parts of the 10 miles of the Old West River from Hermitage Lock to the Cam junction.  It is very, very weedy and your progress may be slow and involve lots of prop and/or raw water filter clearing.

Oh I did not think about that ... omg how do I clean prop?! I imagine I have to get in the water? 

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12 hours ago, Tomek said:

Oh I did not think about that ... omg how do I clean prop?! I imagine I have to get in the water? 

Short bursts of reverse regularly will help keep the props clear.   If it's the boat I think it is, you might consider running on just one engine on the Old West, keeping the other as back-up just in case.

 

As regards the filters, I think you have two Vetus raw water filters with nice clear lids.  Just keep an eye on the flow and check and clean the baskets whenever you can.

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Tomek said:

That shows level only? Where can I get the datum to calculate actual depth? 

Sorry no idea. I don't think the EA publish hydrographic data. (Some years ago I did come across a website where people could upload data from GPS and depth sounder.)

 

 In theory lock cills should define the minm depth.

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Even the EA claim to have no data on river depths!

 

However, they are required by the Anglian Water Authority Act 1977 to take such steps as are reasonably practicable maintain this navigation to the standards that existed preceding the Act in December 1975.  They say they have no records of those standards in relation to depth but data from one of their predecessors, the Great Ouse River Authority from 1968 and 1976, shows the available draught (at minimum water levels) for the Brownshill to Hermitage stretch as 4ft 6ins (or about 1.38 metres).

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