Jump to content

Who weilds the windlass?


NB Alnwick

Featured Posts

my husband is much quicker in working narrow locks as he steps from one gate onto the other and I have to walk round and back again. My husband also likes walking the towpath, and often kindly offers to do the locks.

 

I do that even now years on. For the few extra seconds it takes to walk around I see no point in stepping across - I'm probably a wuss though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We tend to chop and change tasks at the start of a trip but inevitably I end up steering and Mrs GSer ends up whirling the windlass, I do tidy up my 'end' going downhill on most locks if i'm steering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just come down the Audlem flight on a hot morning. With the solitary exception of a bunch of hireboating lads and girls, all the locking was being done by the women of the crews we met. Not only that but their men stood motionless at the tiller throughout. And is it either cause or effect of this that many of the women were lean and fit while many of their menfolk were, er, not?

(For info I enjoy locking - don't tell Starwoman but as you can see it's a chance to chat to other women But while I might walk a flight, setting locks, once she has brought the boat in to a lock we share paddle and gate work, then she hops onto the boat and heads for the next.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is an interesting topic. I wield the windlass and my other (female) half does the boat work, to be honest the 1st time we went on a boat I was petrified of driving it, so by default i did the locks.

 

Also i don't like the smell in the bottom of the locks - she doesn't seem to mind.

 

I do drive/steer the boat now, but i still don't like doing the steering in the locks.

 

We have commented to each other before how it always seems to be the women doing the lock work in general though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have just returned to our home mooring at Cropredy and, as we had agreed that I would operate the 18 locks from Wigram's Turn, I couldn't help noticing that I was in a very small minority. We met other boats at every lock (there was a queue of seven boats at Marston Doles waiting to come down Napton Locks) and in every case bar one (where I think there may have been an all male crew), it was the female member of the crew that came along, windlass in hand, to work the lock while her male counterpart remained aboard holding the tiller (and sometimes shouting inappropriate instructions) - was this a typical sample or is it just a peculiarity of boats on the Oxford Canal at this time?

 

Off topic but just wanted to say I saw your boat at Cropredy on Sunday and wondered if it was the same person as on the forum :)

 

We're just down below you in the 14 day moorings :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Off topic but just wanted to say I saw your boat at Cropredy on Sunday and wondered if it was the same person as on the forum :)

 

We're just down below you in the 14 day moorings :)

Graham hasn't replied so thought I could in his absence. Yes Alnwick is Grahams boat and it is on his home mooring at Cropredy.

 

Graham, hope you don't mind.

 

Martyn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Also i don't like the smell in the bottom of the locks - she doesn't seem to mind.

 

 

Ooh, I love that smell.

 

Ditto - it amazes me when I see the steerer (male or female) just stand at the tiller and expect all the work to be done for them when it's so easy to step off the boat and drop or raise a paddle saving the other person a walk round the lock.

 

Good point. I must try harder.

 

In the 12 years that we hired, I was the one to steer the boat. I really love doing that, although I did do the odd lock. Now we have our own boat, we take turns steering and doing the locks, we try to split it up equally, but I still do more of the steering, my husband is much quicker in working narrow locks as he steps from one gate onto the other and I have to walk round and back again. My husband also likes walking the towpath, and often kindly offers to do the locks.

 

 

It is sad but true, no amount of confidence can make up for short legs. However, I can now open both gates from one side, but it still relies on him shutting the offside one with the cabin shaft. We've managed this on the Wolverhampton 21 but nowhere else yet.

 

I do that even now years on. For the few extra seconds it takes to walk around I see no point in stepping across - I'm probably a wuss though...

If you could do it easily you would, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thus far we ain't never been in that much of a hurry though so it was academic...

It's nothing to do with being in a hurry. If there's a bridge, do you still walk all the way round? No, of course not, because you don't need to. And if you could step across easily you would use that just as you would use a bridge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's nothing to do with being in a hurry. If there's a bridge, do you still walk all the way round? No, of course not, because you don't need to. And if you could step across easily you would use that just as you would use a bridge.

 

Stepping across presents a risk that I deem unnecessary when there is a safer (to me) way of doing it ie using a bridge or walking around. It may be something other folk find easy to do and good luck to them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stepping across presents a risk that I deem unnecessary when there is a safer (to me) way of doing it ie using a bridge or walking around. It may be something other folk find easy to do and good luck to them.

Yes, and what I was saying was that I envy those who find it easy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, and what I was saying was that I envy those who find it easy.

 

I've nearly 'gone for it' a couple of times but never had the complete confidence that the gate I was stepping off wasn't going to wobble or move at the crucial moment and cause me to slip and fall in. Of course sensibly thinking about it's a very small gap that when you replicate on the ground one can easily cover with a stride - on a lock gate, many feet above the water - it takes on a whole new dimension (no pun intended).

 

I guess it's one of those things - If I do it once, I will wonder what all the concern has been about.

Playing safe for the mo though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've nearly 'gone for it' a couple of times but never had the complete confidence that the gate I was stepping off wasn't going to wobble or move at the crucial moment and cause me to slip and fall in. Of course sensibly thinking about it's a very small gap that when you replicate on the ground one can easily cover with a stride - on a lock gate, many feet above the water - it takes on a whole new dimension (no pun intended).

 

I guess it's one of those things - If I do it once, I will wonder what all the concern has been about.

Playing safe for the mo though.

 

The only part that needs a little planning is which hand you will have your windlass in when you step over. If you want to learn this technique, start by stepping over when you are closing the gates going up. That way you step from the end of a gate onto a wide step with the handrail in front of you. Somehow, this feels safer to start with

 

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Full marks for El Gato; NoH gets the locks AND the complicated steery bits... that's luurrrve that is!

 

I think the steery bits is a confidence thing, the First Mate seems perfectly competent to me. Perhaps because it's my boat so if I give it a smack that's ok, but if she did it she'd feel guilty? Most of my friends who have a go at steering have stoved it into a bank within the first few hundred yards.

 

Also, First Mate doesn't do locks. End of. Otherwise I'd be with Carl, Ange, et al. The most efficient method with a crew of two is to have both of you lock winding with the boat taking care of itself. Uphill it will even open the gates for you, so is a 3rd crew member.

 

Completely unrelated: I got up Delph yesterday in an hour and ten all on my oddy knocky. I was rather pleased with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only part that needs a little planning is which hand you will have your windlass in when you step over. If you want to learn this technique, start by stepping over when you are closing the gates going up. That way you step from the end of a gate onto a wide step with the handrail in front of you. Somehow, this feels safer to start with

 

Richard

 

TBH I hadn't even contemplated stepping off the open gate onto the closed one, I can see it all in my head now, the gate I'm attempting to step on slowly moving away and me plummeting (not so) majestically into the lock below.......

Edited by MJG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

TBH I hadn't even contemplated stepping off the open gate onto the closed one, I can see it all in my head now, the gate I'm attempting to step on slowly moving away and me plummeting (not so) majestically into the lock below.......

 

The gate weighs about ten times what you do*, so it's not going to slip away from you that quick

 

Richard

 

*Well, perhaps eight in your case

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only part that needs a little planning is which hand you will have your windlass in when you step over. If you want to learn this technique, start by stepping over when you are closing the gates going up. That way you step from the end of a gate onto a wide step with the handrail in front of you. Somehow, this feels safer to start with

 

Richard

 

Or practice first without a windlass, or with the windlass securely stowed in your belt. Two feet on the gate you are stepping off, one hand on the handrail on the gate you are stepping off and reach out for the other handrail. Only when you have a firm hold on both handrails do you step across. Admittedly you do have to have reasonable length limbs to do it this way, but it avoids that feeling of leaping into the unknown.

 

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or practice first without a windlass, or with the windlass securely stowed in your belt. Two feet on the gate you are stepping off, one hand on the handrail on the gate you are stepping off and reach out for the other handrail. Only when you have a firm hold on both handrails do you step across. Admittedly you do have to have reasonable length limbs to do it this way, but it avoids that feeling of leaping into the unknown.

 

David

 

Are you a Gibbon?

 

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or practice first without a windlass, or with the windlass securely stowed in your belt. Two feet on the gate you are stepping off, one hand on the handrail on the gate you are stepping off and reach out for the other handrail. Only when you have a firm hold on both handrails do you step across. Admittedly you do have to have reasonable length limbs to do it this way, but it avoids that feeling of leaping into the unknown.

 

David

 

Surely that would result in me over stretching myself and falling in????

 

I can see the logic of not letting go of the rail of the gate I am on before I have a foot on the other gate, but the other hand aswell??

 

Or am I missing something?

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.