Jump to content

Our scariest incident to date.


IanR

Featured Posts

Coming down the Meaford Flight on the Trent and Mersey. In lock 32, all going well, lock emptying quickly, all of a sudden the boat starts to roll to one side. Shouts to Jane to close the paddles which she does, but by the time they are closed the boat is at what seemed like 40 degrees! The port side was out of the water, stbd water level was a few inches off the gunnel. The back cabin top corner was close to the wall on the right. Then there was an almighty spadoosh as the boat slipped off the obstruction and it became obvious what had happened.

 

About halfway down the length of the lock, a stone had become washed out from the side wall. This stone was about 30" long, 9" thick and perhaps 12" depth, the trouble was it was hanging out by 9" or so and the boat had hung up on it on the way down. I was amazed just how quickly it all happened and even more amazed that boat didn't whack into the walls when it fell off the ledge. With the boat floating level again, alongside the stone, I managed to lever it back in using the short pole against the wooden gunnel,

 

I pinned a quick note to the top lock gate warning to stay right on the way down and we carried on, thanking our lucky stars that it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been.

 

Is there a specific C&RT number to report this to?

 

Ian.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Indeed it does Nick! The lock is a narrow one, I don't think the boat would have been able to capsize in it as the port chine and stbd back cabin roof would perhaps have jammed, but the boat slipped off the 'shelf' before it got that far. I remember seeing the top right corner of the cabin and its proximity to the lock wall and thinking you wouldn't want to have been stood there!! When I'd gathered my thoughts and went to push the stone back in I did notice that there were at least another set of marks on it so it seems someone else might have had the same thing happen. I think we were lucky in that the stone picked us up half way down our length so it was an even roll, if the boat was shorter and it had been picked up fore or aft then the results might have been more drastic.

 

Ian.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its scary isnt it - We were on the Rochdale coming up to the summit a few yrs back & the corner of the boat got caught in the gap between the stonework (Where the pointing had gone).

 

We were roped correctly & against the side wall, due to the lack of topgate access we had already opened one set of paddles the other side so SWMBO was wrongsided to quickly close........ As she ran around the boat was listing heavily from the rear corner, a few more seconds & I think we would have had water in through the outboard well - Full throttle & it popped out luckily from the wall with a resounding splosh.

 

Once again a reminder that you never stop learning - It certainly was a clenching moment !

 

Glad nobody hurt in your incident.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.