NB on weir at Ditchford, R. Nene

[the grinch]

just seen on facebook RCR have posted a picture of a boat on the weir at Ditchford Lock on the Nene no other detail at the moment!

 

link:

 

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=484291334924388&set=a.431648790188643.97860.360550173965172&type=1&theater

[Tam & Di]

just seen on facebook RCR have posted a picture of a boat on the weir at Ditchford Lock on the Nene no other detail at the moment!

 

link:

 

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=484291334924388&set=a.431648790188643.97860.360550173965172&type=1&theater

 

The wording suggests that the sluices were opened as they approached the lock and went to moor. Alternatively it does not say whether or not they were aware of the raised sluices when they were coming down the pound. It would be one thing to motor on down knowing of the danger (albeit a rather daft thing to do), but another if they were in ignorance of it.

[the grinch]

yes and very remiss of the EA if they caused this by not checking first that it was safe to reverse the lock

detail not out yet so only speculation at the moment.

[gazza]

The wording suggests that the sluices were opened as they approached the lock and went to moor. Alternatively it does not say whether or not they were aware of the raised sluices when they were coming down the pound. It would be one thing to motor on down knowing of the danger (albeit a rather daft thing to do), but another if they were in ignorance of it.

 

it is not a pound, the nene is a good sized fluvial river with a catchment area of some 600 odd square miles.its primary function is to keep the nene valley free from flooding......

 

there is a decent stretch between wellingborough lower and ditchford lock, alarm bells should have been ringing for this couple as they left wellingborough, the lock there is of a conventional canal type lock, there is a very large weir next to it that would have been running like crazy, its been raining most of the week, sometimes very heavily. a look out of the window would confirm the river was not safe for boating..

 

it is possible the lock was reversed or the sluice opened as the boat approached, its been a foul day today, a lightly painted narrowboat with a small frontal area would be easy to miss on the approach to ditchford, it is on a slight bend and the river would have been going like the clappers. i would guess the narrowboat had little control over speed or steering coming downstream anyway.

 

the EA do make great pains in their printed and online media to alert boaters to floodline services, if folks dont take it up what can they do? river inspectors numbers are posted at locks and they are always willing to give advice on river conditions.

[cheshire~rose]

The actual words used by RCR:

"the river went on flood alert this afternoon and the sluice gates were opened to manage the flow, as they were mooring up for the lock the flow caught them and dragged the boat towards the sluice gates...its lucky that the barrage held them. very unlucky boat but very lucky crew"

 

I read this as the sluice having been opened earlier and they were caught by the flow as they tried to moor but it is a little ambiguous. It is good to hear the crew are safe but it must have been very scary. I would not like to be the people having to recover the boat. That barrage, with the boat across it is effectively acting as a dam holding against millions of gallons of water! It just goes to prove how effective these things can be

 

[ditchcrawler]

That lock has quite a small lock landing, big enough but only about 70 foot long. That stretch of river comes to an end with the lock on the right and the weir on the left. The speed of the flow is deceptive and if they were not well to the right when they tried to stop the stern could easily pull out. I got caught across the lock mouth myself last month. There was a broken down cruiser on the lock landing that I was trying to help them and RCR. I almost ended up like this boat.

Edited November 1, 2012 by ditchcrawler

[gazza]

re reading rcr post

 

'the river went on flood alert this afternoon and the sluice gates were opened to manage the flow, as they were mooring up for the lock the flow caught them and dragged the boat towards the sluice gates...its lucky that the barrage held them. very unlucky boat but very lucky crew'

 

i would guess the controllers had already set the locks and sluices to control the high flow levels and this boat should have stayed put, i am willing to bet they were at wellingborough embankment and were worried about rising river level and the risk of getting stuck. the river will be up by about 1 1/2' or more at the moment.

 

 

to be pedantic its a sluice to the left coming down stream, they are used to maintain levels, some are automated and some handraulic. it is possible to navigate the river now and again, but this year it seems mostly to have been on strong streams.

 

FWIW, we have had 9 days since the last SSA was lifted....

[the grinch]

sorry cheshire i can't agree with you the barrage is INeffective if a boat can be dragged under it there should be a suitable barrier that the boat would pin against at worst not get sucked under. the whole weir barrage protection should be re-thought so that it is near impossible for this situation to arise. yes it was probably foolish of them to move but the river should be better protected against such things happening.

[Keeping Up]

That's scary.

 

I have a bad memory of that lock too. We were going down through the lock once when the EA opened the top paddles above us to take some extra water through the lock.(presumably getting ready to reverse it?), and before padlocking them open and driving away they just advised us to open the radial bottom guillotine further. The problem was that if we did that our bows kept getting caught so we tried roping the boat back but then it was held so tightly against the side that the baseplate kept hanging up on the protruding bolts of the "safety" chains. In the end we had to rope back to both sides of the lock, thus staying in the middle. Once we had emptied the lock, we untied and shot out like a cork from a bottle.

[RLWP]

sorry cheshire i can't agree with you the barrage is INeffective if a boat can be dragged under it there should be a suitable barrier that the boat would pin against at worst not get sucked under. the whole weir barrage protection should be re-thought so that it is near impossible for this situation to arise. yes it was probably foolish of them to move but the river should be better protected against such things happening.

 

Are the barriers there to save boats or people?

 

Richard

[gazza]

Are the barriers there to save boats or people?

 

Richard

 

neither, their purpose is to stop the mad canoeists from shooting dodgy sluices and weirs.

[the grinch]

Are the barriers there to save boats or people?

 

Richard

 

don't seem to be doing a good job of either!!

[MtB]

At first sight it looks from the photo as though the boat is caught right on the weir, but I don't think this can be the case.

 

There is a water level mark on the piling downstream of the boat suggesting the normal water level, and this appears to be the same as upstream of the boat. I surmise that the boat stern was caught by the flow as they slowed to moor in the lock cut, and with the boat now at 90 degrees to the full flow and held on the barrage, the boat itself acted as a dam and the water level downstream began to fall. As the level fell downstream of the boat, the attitude of the boat shifted and the partial capsize progressed.

 

Its hard to imagine any way in which this could have been prevented once the boat was caught on the barrage. It's also difficult to image a different design of weir protection that might have prevented this. Or maybe not. A far longer barrage at say, 45 degrees to the flow might have prevented the boat from blocking the river flow so badly...

[MoominPapa]

Blimey! That's our next-door neighbours at Bill Fen. Very glad to hear they are all Ok.

 

MP.

[MoominPapa]

Are the barriers there to save boats or people?

Certainly they have handles hanging down from sections of wire rope between the green sausages, for the desperate to grab as they are swept past.

 

MP.

[nbfiresprite]

At first sight it looks from the photo as though the boat is caught right on the weir, but I don't think this can be the case.

 

barrage at say, 45 degrees to the flow might have prevented the boat from blocking the river flow so badly...

 

That's not a weir, The sluices about 70ft downstream from the barrier.

 

The barrier is fixed at 45 degrees from the bank to the lock side.

[MoominPapa]

That's not a weir, The sluices about 70ft downstream from the barrier.

 

The barrier is fixed at 45 degrees from the bank to the lock side.

Google maps linky.

 

MP.

[Ssscrudddy]

local rag report on the incident

 

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/environment-transport/barge-sinks-on-river-nene-in-northamptonshire-1-4434533

Edited November 2, 2012 by Ssscrudddy

[stewey]

Google maps linky.

 

MP.

Thanks for that MP. Makes the situation much easier to understand. What a terrifying sight.

 

Thank goodness the crew were safe but what a job it will be to salvage the boat.

 

Stewey

[MoominPapa]

what a job it will be to salvage the boat.

If you zoom out, you can see that there's another weir and channel which bypasses the lock entirely. Might be best to wait 'till the flow has gone down enough for that to cope by itself, and then close the sluices next to the lock. Without the flow, salvage would be easy.

 

MP.

[cheshire~rose]

Looking at images being circulated on FB it appears to have slipped even further under the barrage now (which is not surprising)

 

 

It is tied at the bow but someone is going to need to get some strong winches in there to pull it away from that flow

 

 

Edited to add - cross posted with Moominpapa

Edited November 2, 2012 by cheshire~rose

[Proper Job]

It certainly brings home the risks of a fast running stream.

 

It's so easy to happen. Even when keeping hard over to the right when approaching the lock, the crew gets off with a bow rope, the stern starts to swing out before the skipper can stop the boat/get off with the stern rope. From that point on, it was pretty much game over.

 

Once sideways across the stream, the current would start to roll the boat.

 

In similar circumstances, I always get the crew to get off with a centre line. Go in fast and close and then give it everything to stop.

 

Looking at the google map, there's very little length to stop in and no slack water due to the head of the lock being so close to the head of the island.

 

The boat can be recovered and fixed. Thank goodness the poeple are safe, if not shaken.

 

 

 

Looking the pictures that CR posted.....

 

It's probably only the flow pinching the boat against the wall that is stopping it sinking.

 

Once the flow recedes, there's probably a high chance that it'll slip down the wall and go under.

 

Edited November 2, 2012 by Proper Job

[Chris Pink]

You are wrong. Going downstream you need the stern rope off. The centre rope will not have enough purchase to hold a boat in that kind of stream. Then the boat will roll at the same time as the stern is pulled out.

 

Never use a centre rope on a fast flowing river.

 

Ps not sure why they haven't started winching. Photos are deceptive but it looks to me as if you could winch it into the lock cut.

[WJM]

Surely the solution is to close the sluices for ten minutes. With the flow stopped the boat should pop back up and float away!

 

I wonder why it hasn't sunk?

[boathunter]

Very sad. It's clear a lot of you are experienced boaters and wouldn't have got into this situation, but for the rest of us it's easy enough to see what happened and learn a lesson without putting ourselves in a similar position.

 

For myself the more events like this that I read about the more respect I'll have for rivers set against a plodding, relatively difficult to manouvre NB. I'll be reading and learning for years before I dare venture onto such a river, particularly down-stream when it's clear events happen so quickly there's barely time to react before it can go so horribly wrong.

 

My "wise after the event" comment would be that if the island was extended with armco or similar, this couldn't have happened? I'm fully expecting others to say there'd be no need if you could handle your boat properly, but it's a fact that some people have little experience and the only way to gain it is by having a go...