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The Thames next week?


Peter Thornton

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Planning to go on to the Thames at Brentford on Monday Evening to go up to Oxford. Just looking at the EA website which is turning yellow and red after a few days of levels dropping. What's the reality behind this? Are we likely to get stuck here? What do folks think?

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Planning to go on to the Thames at Brentford on Monday Evening to go up to Oxford. Just looking at the EA website which is turning yellow and red after a few days of levels dropping. What's the reality behind this? Are we likely to get stuck here? What do folks think?

 

The reality is that it's yellow and red. As someone who moors on the Thames I can say it's usually pretty accurate.

 

Unfortunately this year because of the catchment area being so saturated, it only takes a day or two of rain to bring normal flows back up to red board. I think it's the same all over the country.

 

Just today the level has gone up about 5 inches on the reach I'm moored on.

 

You're perfectly free to ignore the EA boards. People on powerful plastic cruisers do, but you'd be unwise to do that on a narrowboat.

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The reality is that it's yellow and red. As someone who moors on the Thames I can say it's usually pretty accurate.

 

Well there's red and there's RED. A mix of yellow and red is generally perfectly navigable provided you aren't a wussbag worrying about such things as the insurance co quibbling should you need to claim.

 

On the other hand, when the whole of the Thames is on RED it is often quite dangerous. The trouble is, back in the day red used to really mean it, but nowadays 'board inflation' has lead to red meaning quite a wide range of conditions ranging from 'fast', to downright un-navigable.

 

 

MtB

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Well there's red and there's RED. A mix of yellow and red is generally perfectly navigable provided you aren't a wussbag worrying about such things as the insurance co quibbling should you need to claim.

 

 

Although it might give you some idea of the state of the river in general, since the EA displays boards specific to each reach a mixture of red and yellow doesn't really mean anything at all. Anyway, surely navigability on red board conditions depend on the particular boat and its skipper? Personally I really don't think it's wise to advise anyone that a reach on red board is "perfectly navigable" unless I can see it for myself and I know the boat and its owner. Also, I don't think that wanting to be insured means one is a wussbag (whatever that is?)

Edited by blackrose
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Although it might give you some idea of the state of the river in general, since the EA displays boards specific to each reach a mixture of red and yellow doesn't really mean anything at all. Anyway, surely navigability on red board conditions depend on the particular boat and its skipper? Personally I really don't think it's wise to advise anyone that a reach on red board is "perfectly navigable" unless I can see it for myself and I know the boat and its owner. Also, I don't think that wanting to be insured means one is a wussbag (whatever that is?)

 

 

I asked my insurers (Newton Crum) about navigating the Thames on yellow / red boards. They checked with their underwriters and the answer; not on red boards but OK on yellow stream DEcreasing boards, if caught out and stream INcreasing boards displayed then to moor up ASAP and sit it out. This information was in 2012.

 

 

 

Dave

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I agree with Blackrose. If a stretch of the Thames is on red boards, then don't attempt it. Your insurance will be invalidated, and there are some parts of the Thames that are dangerous under red board conditions, unless you have a powerfull engine and know what you're doing.

 

 

The number of locks showing red boards is currently increasing.

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Outside of the insurance case whatever it may be with your insurance company it does not matter how powerful your boat is if you have a tree jammed in the propeller. Floods bring the debris down.

 

 

Echo ALL of the above - just to add a caveat to Blackrose's comments:-

 

While it may be reasonably easy to navigate a reach (just as his is) Lock approaches and weir streams ARE very dangerous hazards. Your boat is slowing down to approach and many locks don't have protected laybys - so you'll either get caught in and eddy (= whirlpool) or sucked towards an overflow weir.

 

Examples are Bell Weir head, Mapledurham tail and there are lots more.

Even if you've got oddles of power, NBs in general lack the punch even for Yellow decreasing boards.

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Planning to go on to the Thames at Brentford on Monday Evening to go up to Oxford. Just looking at the EA website which is turning yellow and red after a few days of levels dropping. What's the reality behind this? Are we likely to get stuck here? What do folks think?

 

The reality is, yes you are likely to get stuck.

 

The Thames will, in all probability, be on red boards for its entire length by Monday.

Although it's possible to navigate in those conditions, it's always risky, especially if you're not used to rivers.

I've done it on may occasions, in different boats and both upstream and downstream.

Going upstream is tedious because it takes a very long time to get anywhere, when you get to a bridge it seems like you're standing still and can take 20 minutes or more to pass through. All this time your engine will be working hard and ( unless it's raw water cooled) could overheat. You'll get some respite from this if you know where to look for slack water (where the flow is not so great) and make use of it.

You'll need to have your anchor ready to deploy and keep a constant eye on where you could escape to if your engine suddenly stops ( I've had this happen to me twice on a pair of working boats, the first time I was on my own!) and remember, it's unlikely that any other boats will be on the river to assist you should you need it.

 

The question you have to ask yourself is, do I really need to do this?

 

Keith

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Its certainly possible to navigate on yelows and "just reds", the problem is that you have much less, or even no, safety margin when something goes wrong. We were stuck at Benson last November, a widebeam coming down stream took the bend above the lock just a little wide and ended up right across the entrance to the lock cut. A very small Tug with smallish vintage engine was following them down and this left them in a very tricky situation as they had to hover, in the flow towards the weir, till the widebeam could get itself sorted out.

 

..........Dave

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I have just moved from a mooring where in 24 hours the level had risen over a metre and I would not have moved if i had not needed to. I would echo all the other comments and say to the OP keep off the river until things are calmer. The Thames is great, but when it's like this stay put and watch it!

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Its certainly possible to navigate on yelows and "just reds", the problem is that you have much less, or even no, safety margin when something goes wrong. We were stuck at Benson last November, a widebeam coming down stream took the bend above the lock just a little wide and ended up right across the entrance to the lock cut. A very small Tug with smallish vintage engine was following them down and this left them in a very tricky situation as they had to hover, in the flow towards the weir, till the widebeam could get itself sorted out.

 

..........Dave

 

Traveling downstream is WAY trickier than traveling upstream in strong current. I would be far less likely to go out on red boards downstream than upstream.

 

And for the avoidance of doubt, I wasn't advising the OP to make the trip. I was trying to illustrate, not very successfully, that there is a very wide spectrum of conditions that can exist under red boards, ranging from on the cusp of turning to yellow boards (decreasing), right up to downright torrential and unnavigable.

 

MtB

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We're hoping to go from Brentford to Shepperton/River Wey the Monday or Tuesday after next(25th or 26th) to join the Basingstoke Easter cruise but I'm not sure we will be able to.

 

Just had a look at the river at Walton Bridge via the live webcam and flotsam is zipping downstream at an alarming rate!

 

http://www.camvista.com/streaming/waltonbridge.html

 

Mick

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We're hoping to go from Brentford to Shepperton/River Wey the Monday or Tuesday after next(25th or 26th) to join the Basingstoke Easter cruise but I'm not sure we will be able to.

 

Just had a look at the river at Walton Bridge via the live webcam and flotsam is zipping downstream at an alarming rate!

 

http://www.camvista....ltonbridge.html

 

Mick

 

Hey that wasn't there last time I drove over Walton Bridge!

 

 

MtB

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Thanks everyone for the good advice. We're moored at the Black Horse waiting for a break in the rain to set off for Bulls Bridge where unfortunately we've accepted that (this year) we need to turn right rather than left and go back up the Grand Union.

Very disappointed, but the decision was greatly helped by the image of our share boat Sunseeker broadside against a weir with me ringing up the other owners to explain what happened!

 

I'm 90% certain we would have made it but 10% chance of disaster is too great, and there's always next year.

 

Will have one final check on the website to make sure all the boards have not magically changed back to yellow but I think that the winter rains have just taken away any capacity for the ground to absorb further downpours.

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