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Helping yourself


Jim Riley

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I was talking to someone who had cruised through the area I moor, they had come to any empty pound. They rang CRT to come and fill it. The pound in question is maybe 200 yds long. Between that and the summit pound is another small pound, maybe 100yds long. CRT came out and ran water down from the top pound. I think it was a waste of CRT staff time, fuel and resources. I would fill it myself, even in an area I'm not familiar with, it's obvious where the water would have to come from.

Would you do it yourself or ring CRT. 

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Things are certainly changing. When we got our boat, ten years ago, I admired the liveaboards who were strong self sufficient people and were on the cut because they liked the independent and self sufficient lifestyle. Empty pounds, stiff or leaky lock gates were seen as an interesting but routine challenge.  I notice more and more of a dependency and "customer satisfaction" attitude in some more recent boaters who expect everything to work perfectly and for CaRT to be called to fix every minor day to day issue. I have seen cases of boaters, when faced with an empty pound, taking a photo, putting it on facebook, and saying "can somebody report this please." 

Its a difficult one as people who are clueless can do more harm than good, so maybe its time for CaRT to produce some guidelines as to how to fix things are what it is reasonable for boaters to tackle themselves?. It does concern me that the increasing automation of swing and lift bridges is creating more infrastructure that require constant attendance by CaRT (or more likely their contractors) 

.............Dave

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30 minutes ago, Jim Riley said:

I was talking to someone who had cruised through the area I moor, they had come to any empty pound. They rang CRT to come and fill it. The pound in question is maybe 200 yds long. Between that and the summit pound is another small pound, maybe 100yds long. CRT came out and ran water down from the top pound. I think it was a waste of CRT staff time, fuel and resources. I would fill it myself, even in an area I'm not familiar with, it's obvious where the water would have to come from.

Would you do it yourself or ring CRT. 

I think I would ring CaRT unless I knew why the pound had drained e.g. I found paddles had been left open. If you do not know you could drain  a lot of water through a breach and maybe make things worse.

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I lifted up a pipe that had fallen from a bridge over the BCN and was blocking the cut using a cable puller.

Turns out there was a 132,000 volt live cable inside it, supplying many streetlights on the M6, and it earthed itself very spectacularly with much flames and smoke as I lifted it up.

Ended up calling out the fire brigade and CRT anyway to turn it off first!

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14 minutes ago, FadeToScarlet said:

I lifted up a pipe that had fallen from a bridge over the BCN and was blocking the cut using a cable puller.

Turns out there was a 132,000 volt live cable inside it, supplying many streetlights on the M6, and it earthed itself very spectacularly with much flames and smoke as I lifted it up.

Ended up calling out the fire brigade and CRT anyway to turn it off first!

Shocking!

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2 hours ago, dmr said:

Things are certainly changing. When we got our boat, ten years ago, I admired the liveaboards who were strong self sufficient people and were on the cut because they liked the independent and self sufficient lifestyle. Empty pounds, stiff or leaky lock gates were seen as an interesting but routine challenge.  I notice more and more of a dependency and "customer satisfaction" attitude in some more recent boaters who expect everything to work perfectly and for CaRT to be called to fix every minor day to day issue. I have seen cases of boaters, when faced with an empty pound, taking a photo, putting it on facebook, and saying "can somebody report this please." 

Its a difficult one as people who are clueless can do more harm than good, so maybe its time for CaRT to produce some guidelines as to how to fix things are what it is reasonable for boaters to tackle themselves?. It does concern me that the increasing automation of swing and lift bridges is creating more infrastructure that require constant attendance by CaRT (or more likely their contractors) 

.............Dave

Completely agree. The wife and I are fairly new to the canal system only been living on since 89 but even that short a while ago people put up with and enjoyed the waterways more. Electrification of lift bridges etc is a retrograde step. I do agree with Tonys post though that as people get less and less aware of the system they use some would open paddles even if there was  a breach and could cause mayhem, it is a tricky one in this age of ever increasing PC awareness and ever decreasing Common sense.

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Around the BCN, empty pounds are so commonplace that calling CRT each time would be ridiculous.  

On my first trip on Beau, bringing her back from Braunston, I encountered an empty pound on on Hatton.  I spent about 2 minutes scratching my head and wondering what to do.  I'd never even imagined such a thing was possible.  I never considered calling BW, I just figured it out and carried on through.  Some people are naturally more inclined to deal with things themselves, some always tend to look elsewhere for help.  The first group are far more suited to boating IMO.

 

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I am at Crofton at the moment where the water levels are very easily affected if the locks are not left as per instructions on the gates. The pounds will either drain or flood. It is part and parcel of mooring here to wander out with a windlass regularly to reset everything after a boater has left chaos in their wake. I don't call CRT out they would be here constantly, but I do have the advantage of familiarity with this flight. Also when possible the 'culprits'are advised how to do it correctly - in the nicest possible way of course :D

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Generally check the above the low pound water levels  , if there is enough I would let some down.  If not if it would hang up other boats or leave that pound really short of water I would phone crt . Bunny.

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Whatever you do some "person" who thinks they know better will tell you you are doing it wrong. Ring CRT and let them take wrath of the all knowing know it alls.

 

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11 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I would do what I could to sort myself out, and have done in the past, but then ring CRT to advise them so they are aware that there has been a problem.

This is what we have done in the past when we've encountered empty pounds, not that it's happened to us very often thankfully.

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I always run down the water myself.

Was caught once doing it on the BCN by a CRT bod who gave me a lecture about how another boater had rung about it, and he had been sent down to sort it out. I was not to interfere and was to call CRT next time and leave such things to the experts like him.

I ignore what he said obviously.

Empty pounds are far too common to mess about calling CRT every time.

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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15 minutes ago, NickF said:

I almost always just sort it out .. the only time I didn't was when the only water available to run down was from the Rochdale summit.

 

 

So how did it get fixed? A CRT bod running water down from the summit I bet!

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24 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

So how did it get fixed? A CRT bod running water down from the summit I bet!

The Rochdale summit lock is padlocked by CRT and you need to be booked in and at the appointed time CRT turn up and unlock/operate the lock and let you through.

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2 hours ago, Chewbacka said:

The Rochdale summit lock is padlocked by CRT and you need to be booked in and at the appointed time CRT turn up and unlock/operate the lock and let you through.

That's not been the case for several years.  It is only padlocked at times of water shortage  and I can't even remember when that last was.

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10 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

So how did it get fixed? A CRT bod running water down from the summit I bet!

We were  planning on winding in the pound below the summit . We managed to turn with some difficulty in the pound below that . we spent the night there and yes in the morning a CRT bod let water down from the summit  which at the time was locked .

Edited by NickF
correct spelling
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Every morning around 7.30 CRT go to perry Barr locks and riders green .to check the pounds  .and that's every morning so it seems to me it's crts job .i just get on with it myself if CRT turn up yippee if not tough 

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In the early/mid 60's after the demise of BW's carrying fleet i think that you were more likely to encounter low/empty pounds as the system was in a poor state & the then common practice of gates left open /paddles left up a practice from carrying days was the norm  this was accepted if found & the number of pounds assessed to run down the required amount of water if you were lucky there would be a BW guy around but mostly it was a DIY job It was a possibility the folk boating were more canal orientated by being enthusiasts rather than the wider spectrum as of today so were more prepared to run water down & accept it as part & parcel of boating rather than panic what do I do now & ring C&RT Times have a changed I guess As said before the plywood/ wriggly tin sheet; bucket of ash were necessary leak stoppers + the "tirfor" for extracting boat from varying obstacles not nowadays a common occurrence as was then " Ah the good old days"

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16 hours ago, Meanderingviking said:

I am at Crofton at the moment where the water levels are very easily affected if the locks are not left as per instructions on the gates. The pounds will either drain or flood. It is part and parcel of mooring here to wander out with a windlass regularly to reset everything after a boater has left chaos in their wake. I don't call CRT out they would be here constantly, but I do have the advantage of familiarity with this flight. Also when possible the 'culprits'are advised how to do it correctly - in the nicest possible way of course :D

and where have you put the bodies?

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