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Buckby lock No 8


nigel carton

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Looks like 2 boats in the lock have some forst hand knowledge of whats happened. Looks like they were coming up as its happened.

 

Well one presumes they can't get out because of where the unhinged gate has ended up.

 

So yes, they must surely have been there when it happened.

 

Looks like someone must have smacked it pretty hard to get it off the pintails.......

 

I can't see how, unless another boat has failed to stop coming the other way.

 

Could one of the boats got its button caught on the gate and lifted it out as the lock filled?

 

Nearly happened to me me on the Leeds & Liverpool once.

 

Except that you can see the lock has the modification of the extra guards between the top of the gate and the balance beam that is meant toprevent it happening.

 

Like Moomin Papa, I'm struggling to see how you can do this!

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My guess is the far boat got his bow under the gate when the level in the lock was still two or three feet below full, and lifted it off.

 

At which point the lock filled rapidly as the water flowed in under the gate and the boat and the gate rose two feet or so. Then the gate either fell off the prow or the boater levered it off, and it broke falling down into the position shown in the photo.

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My guess is the far boat got his bow under the gate when the level in the lock was still two or three feet below full, and lifted it off.

 

This is one of many grand union gates that has had an extra baulk of timber added between the top of the gate and the balance beam, with the specific intent of stopping this happening.

 

You can see it is still attached to the top of the gate.

 

The right hand boat does not seem to have a bow shape that could easily have got under anything on a gate that has been modified with that extra part.

 

I can't think of a different explanation though, but I'm not convinced by this one.

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This is one of many grand union gates that has had an extra baulk of timber added between the top of the gate and the balance beam, with the specific intent of stopping this happening.

 

 

No I reckon it got under the gate frame proper, not under the balance beam, lifting the gate a long way up. Then the gate fell back down a couple of feet to its current position.

 

I can't image any way for the vertical gate pivot to have been violently detached from the underside of the balance beam otherwise.

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No I reckon it got under the gate frame proper, not under the balance beam, lifting the gate a long way up. Then the gate fell back down a couple of feet to its current position.

 

I can't image any way for the vertical gate pivot to have been violently detached from the underside of the balance beam otherwise.

 

What "gate frame" though? Those gates have a smooth rubbing surface all the way up anywhere a stem post can reasonably end up.

 

Sometimes you can lift a gate by getting a short boat diagonal in the lock, so the stem post ends up where one never should be, but with two boats in the lock side by side, you are more or less guaranteed that the stem will only be in contact with part of a gate with nothing you can hook under.

 

The one real opportunity is to get the stem or fender under the balance beam, but the additions present on this lock ought to have made that impossible.

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What "gate frame" though? Those gates have a smooth rubbing surface all the way up anywhere a stem post can reasonably end up.

 

Sometimes you can lift a gate by getting a short boat diagonal in the lock, so the stem post ends up where one never should be, but with two boats in the lock side by side, you are more or less guaranteed that the stem will only be in contact with part of a gate with nothing you can hook under.

 

The one real opportunity is to get the stem or fender under the balance beam, but the additions present on this lock ought to have made that impossible.

 

 

I'd say the evidence in the photo suggests otherwise!

 

 

(And there must be some gate framework somewhere. The outer face of the gate is smooth in the photo, yet the gate is about 10" thick...)

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My guess is the far boat got his bow under the gate when the level in the lock was still two or three feet below full, and lifted it off.

 

At which point the lock filled rapidly as the water flowed in under the gate and the boat and the gate rose two feet or so. Then the gate either fell off the prow or the boater levered it off, and it broke falling down into the position shown in the photo.

Looking at the bow fender, hung low and flay it seems unlikely

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More (and much clearer) pictures from Facebook.....

 

I'm now persuaded that maybe even with that "filler piece" added between the top of the gate and the balance beam that BW/CRT have managed to leave a big enough gap that something can get caught.

There would seem to be strong evidence that the fender on the red boat has been broken away from its centre mounting, and probably wasn't hanging down like it now is.

 

I now think it has probably managed to get in the gap enough to lift the gate.

 

With this style of steel gate it is also possible to get a shortish boat diagonal in a lock, so it misses the rubbing panel completely, and the front gets caught under the main cross members of the gate. However don't think you could manage that with two boats side by side, so if it has caught, I think it is under that extra beam that has been added, but probably too far towards the top of the gap that would be there if it wasn't present.

EDITED TO ADD:

I'm pretty convinced the red boat now has a home mooring at exactly the same place our two boats are based, It looks like one of the relatively recent arrivals to me, but I may be wrong.

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13260028_989041467800008_865179142315429

13226984_989041501133338_900887757682179

13239030_989041384466683_912175294580082

13237624_989041427800012_839760442819771

Edited by alan_fincher
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Looking at the collar, it looks like the pivot side of the gate was lifted just far enough to lift the pintle out of its socket, and then the gate rotated, crashing the balance beam into the ground and breaking it away from its fixings.

 

 

MP.

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This type of incident (and the similar one where a boat gets hung at the front by its fender, going down) basically shouldn't happen. By that, I mean the fender should protect for frontal (horizontal) bumps but shouldn't be able to impart any significant vertical loads, eg by the way its fitted (using a weak link in the chain, for example). Would be interesting if CRT see it the same way and progress an insurance claim against the boat concerned.

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Is in not just the case that the bow of the boat caught into the steel lips (might not be the best technical term) on the gate? If the shorter Blue boat was back nearer the lower gates and the Red one was touching the gates, the bow could have drifted off the rubbing plate and caught?

Couple of photos from my albums P4240771_zpsc2ik9tvu.jpg

 

DSC_8609_zpsrvozpae4.jpg

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" I mean the fender should protect for frontal (horizontal) bumps but shouldn't be able to impart any significant vertical loads, eg by the way its fitted (using a weak link in the chain, for example)"

 

To me it looks like the fender did break away from its fixing, my assumption is there would then be room for the bow to stay in the frame of the gate and carry on lifting.

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Is in not just the case that the bow of the boat caught into the steel lips (might not be the best technical term) on the gate? If the shorter Blue boat was back nearer the lower gates and the Red one was touching the gates, the bow could have drifted off the rubbing plate and caught?

Couple of photos from my albums

DSC_8609_zpsrvozpae4.jpg

 

 

Well that looks to me like an utterly stupid gate design. How they don't get lifted off once a week by boaters chatting instead of paying attention is beyond me!

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" I mean the fender should protect for frontal (horizontal) bumps but shouldn't be able to impart any significant vertical loads, eg by the way its fitted (using a weak link in the chain, for example)"

 

To me it looks like the fender did break away from its fixing, my assumption is there would then be room for the bow to stay in the frame of the gate and carry on lifting.

 

Yes but it took the gate off in doing so!!!!!

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