Back to Boats Yee Har!

[Kirbstone]

Nice video, B&B. Now that boat was powered by a large model aircraft elektro-motor and the crew were trained Olympic-style to look sharp every time the boat ran into each lock at 30Kn, Certainly makes short work of a 'staircase' of locks!.

The little single-sided lock gates are a gift, though.

T.

[Milfmog]

I have a good friend the former Thames lock-keeper at Sonning lock who owns a 52 footer narrowboat with hydraulic drive, but only one prop & rudder at the stern. She can be quite a handful in a crosswind, never mind the current. I would recommend all 70-footers to be equipped with a bow thruster. Maybe some of 'em do?

Every narrow boat I've hired had a bow thruster... ...it usually takes the older form, namely a pole that can be used to fend off or shove away or play silly jousting games on the roof.

Have a great time, B&B and I expect it'll be lots of gorilla work getting through all those conventional old-fashioned locks.....but that's part of the charm.

I've not worked a boat through Caen Hill (29 locks in all Carl) but did once manage to get up the Wolverhampton 21 in 2 hours and 5 minutes. As I recall I was about 18 at the time and there were 12 of us on the boat, even so it nearly killed us.

Have fun and enjoy the trip.


Ian.

[crfriend]

Every narrow boat I've hired had a bow thruster... ...it usually takes the older form, namely a pole that can be used to fend off or shove away or play silly jousting games on the roof.

Snicker.

I've not worked a boat through Caen Hill (29 locks in all Carl) but did once manage to get up the Wolverhampton 21 in 2 hours and 5 minutes. As I recall I was about 18 at the time and there were 12 of us on the boat, even so it nearly killed us.

That's just a shade under six minutes per, counting transit time between them. No wonder you were exhausted! How old is B&B, and he contemplating such a marathon....

I didn't get a count of all the locks on the way up Caen, nor did I see if there was much to be worked beyond. Those canals are certainly magnificent works -- and moreso when one contemplates the time in which they were built.

We have some "period" canals still here in the US, but not to the point where they seem to exist in the UK. Around here, the railroads pretty well mopped up, which isn't surprising as the railroads could usually operate year-round where up where I live the canals would freeze solid in the winter.

[Big and Bashful]

Yes, the sound was just sped (speeded?) up with the video, that clip was part of a longer sequence, just more of the same though. The boat hulls are steel and they are built to be nudged against lock walls. Some of the boats do bear scars, i.e. dished in hulls, from where people have entered locks fast and at an angle, which is not a good idea. Hire boats as far as I have seen do not have bow thrusters, I have driven a lot of 70 footers now, none have had bow thrusters. It takes a lot of forethought to put the boat were you want it, cross winds can be quite entertaining! I get a feeling of achievement from making the boat do what I want it to do, most of the time!
Oh , I know it is hard to tell whether the engine is going ahead or astern in the video clip, I tend to enter the lock with the engine about half to two thirds ahead to give me steerage, cut the throttle and you lose steerage. Once the boat is about one third into the lock I use enough reverse thrust to stop it and if going uphill I will let it nudge the top gate, using the engine to hold the boat against the top gate while the lock fills, trying to hold it back off the top gate often ends up in the water flow carrying the boat forwards to thump into the gate as the engine won't be enough to keep the boat off the gate. Going down hill there is less swirling in the lock but with a long boat it is safer to let the boat go forward as the lock empties, if the rudder catches on the sill the back end can get hung, leading to a broken rudder, or worse.

There you go, a quick lesson in narrowboating! On my first full day on the canals we went up through 58 locks, heading up the Tardebigge flight from Worcester, then ran to the pub. Not anymore! the years, the beer and the food have not been kind to us! Good though!