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Rope lengh required to navigate the Thames


johnmck

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Hi.

 

We are presently at Braunston and intend travelling down the Oxford and thence onto the Thames. We intend to travel to Leclade and then after a diversion along the K & A, down to Brentford.

 

Our mooring ropes at the moment are 10m. Do you think these will suffice, or do we need to purchase some a tad longer?

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

 

John.

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Hi.

 

We are presently at Braunston and intend travelling down the Oxford and thence onto the Thames. We intend to travel to Leclade and then after a diversion along the K & A, down to Brentford.

 

Our mooring ropes at the moment are 10m. Do you think these will suffice, or do we need to purchase some a tad longer?

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

 

John.

Thames lock keepers generally seem happiest if you have two people on board, one with a rope around a bollard at each end of the lock.

 

The locks are not particularly deep, and have many, many bollards along them, so you are never usually far from one.

 

When we have done it, certainly none of our ropes exceed 10m - you will be fine, I'm sure.

 

(BTW the alternative if you are in the middle of a lock, rather than to one side, is that you may be asked to hook your ropes onto the dollies or cleats of a neighbouring boat - some of the neighbouring boats may prove to be just as high as the locks!)

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You may have problems in the deeper locks below Oxford. You are required to have Ropes fore and aft up to bollards on the lock side. Your 10 mtr (about 32 Ft) will only allow a 16 ft drop this may be just enough but you wont have much slack to play with once you are at the bottom. I think the deep ones are Sandford 8ft 10 ins and Culham 7Ft 11 ins.

 

regards G

Edited by gralyn
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Thames lock keepers generally seem happiest if you have two people on board, one with a rope around a bollard at each end of the lock.

 

The locks are not particularly deep, and have many, many bollards along them, so you are never usually far from one.

 

When we have done it, certainly none of our ropes exceed 10m - you will be fine, I'm sure.

 

(BTW the alternative if you are in the middle of a lock, rather than to one side, is that you may be asked to hook your ropes onto the dollies or cleats of a neighbouring boat - some of the neighbouring boats may prove to be just as high as the locks!)

 

Thank's for that Alan. I will save my pennies then. cheers.gif

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I find that going through manned Thames lock don't require long ropes and yes technically the byelaws need a bow and stern rope.

 

As I went single handed ob tha K&A I neede a longer centre rope ( especially for the turf sided locks )

 

Paul

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I'd save your money. I've got 10 metre ropes, and have never had a problem. Bear in mind that one end of the rope is attached to the boat, and the other you are holding. It doesn't need to reach as far as the water and back!

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Hi.

 

We are presently at Braunston and intend travelling down the Oxford and thence onto the Thames. We intend to travel to Leclade and then after a diversion along the K & A, down to Brentford.

 

Our mooring ropes at the moment are 10m. Do you think these will suffice, or do we need to purchase some a tad longer?

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

 

John.

I'm on passage from Loughborough to The River Wey at the moment, but stopped just south of Aynho with a particularly hard dose of man flu!

I went to bed a dying man, but did wake up this morning, which is always encouraging!

 

Largo is equipped with 10 meter lengths of warp and I'm not anticipating any problems.

 

But, I shall be putting two warps on the foredeck to help the wife.

They will be laid out either side, inside the cratch, ready to be used whatever side of the lock I decide or am told to use.

 

I find doing this stops any last minute panic from the foredeck crew trying to reach the warp from around the cratch to bring it to the correct side, then having to reach around and do the process again should the mooring side be changed.

 

I found that the last time had a passage on the Thames that most of the locks were unmanned, so the centre line was used by me anyway, although I do find the Thames locks quite gentle and most can be used by the stern line and a small burst of the Girly machine.

Whatever you find or do, have fun!

Nipper

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I'm on passage from Loughborough to The River Wey at the moment, but stopped just south of Aynho with a particularly hard dose of man flu!

I went to bed a dying man, but did wake up this morning, which is always encouraging!

 

Largo is equipped with 10 meter lengths of warp and I'm not anticipating any problems.

 

But, I shall be putting two warps on the foredeck to help the wife.

They will be laid out either side, inside the cratch, ready to be used whatever side of the lock I decide or am told to use.

 

I find doing this stops any last minute panic from the foredeck crew trying to reach the warp from around the cratch to bring it to the correct side, then having to reach around and do the process again should the mooring side be changed.

 

I found that the last time had a passage on the Thames that most of the locks were unmanned, so the centre line was used by me anyway, although I do find the Thames locks quite gentle and most can be used by the stern line and a small burst of the Girly machine.

Whatever you find or do, have fun!

Nipper

 

 

Girly Machine! I rather like that.... Even beats the description of our pram hood as a "Wendy House" by those rotters in bridge 61 at Foxton.

 

Thankyou all for the advice. clapping.gif

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I did the Thames singlehanded with 10m ropes with no problems. The technique I used was to secure the bow line to a bollard and then stand on the lockside holding the centreline with a turn around a bollard. Worked like a dream and has the added advantage of being able to chat to the lockie and get tips on the next reach. Obviously you need to adapt if there are several boats sharing the lock.

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I have about a 6 metre line ..front and back..but am not single handed. I keep another line in the locker near me..and may quickly knot 2 together if its a deep lock...usually for the stern...if the bollards do not quite fit. Have done Thames 4 times like this and have been fine.

I do not loop the lines completely around the bollard though...as I once had one 'nip' .

Had a bow line (wife) ..and she stands up so the line does not have to be long enough to go back to a boat cleat....and a centre line before now....but some lockies have made me abandon the centre line and use a stern line...as in some locks there is a serious current that drags you away from the side.

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You may have problems in the deeper locks below Oxford. You are required to have Ropes fore and aft up to bollards on the lock side. Your 10 mtr (about 32 Ft) will only allow a 16 ft drop this may be just enough but you wont have much slack to play with once you are at the bottom. I think the deep ones are Sandford 8ft 10 ins and Culham 7Ft 11 ins.

 

regards G

 

I don't understand that? Why wouldn't a 32ft rope which you've already said will allow a 16ft drop, not be able to cope with an 8ft 10in drop?. You'd have to be some distance from a bollard for there to be a problem.

Edited by blackrose
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A long spare heaving line is worth carrying and has many uses, eg, extending a rope that's too short, heaving to a towpath walker when you break down, spring rope when mooring, rescuing drowning people, tying up burglars, lashing an enemy to a post during a Corroboree surrounded by a big bonfire and for general securing things and practicing doing your knots on.

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Your ropes will be fine.

Ropes that are too long can be a pain on the Thames, especially on a trad stern where space is limited.

Some of the lock keepers can be a little fast; they are filling the lock as soon as you are in, so trying to sort out tangles in over long ropes is not good.

We keep a set of shorter ropes for use on the Thames!

We did notice this year that the lock keepers were much more "user friendly" and almost all helped with the ropes, however a couple of volunteers looped the rope through a handrail rather than over a bollard and this made it awkward to retrieve the rope when leaving.

 

.......Dave

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I'd just like to say that my lad is the Summer Assistant at Kings lock this year.

 

All boats entering and leaving the Thames should go via Dukes cut and Kings lock as he doesn't seem to have enough to do.

 

He is measuring 'busyness factor' by the ratio of cups of tea drunk during the day to locks operated. The tea is winning hands down

 

......... feel free to abuse as you see fit biggrin.png

 

....... oh......... and your ropes are more than long enough

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I'd just like to say that my lad is the Summer Assistant at Kings lock this year.

 

All boats entering and leaving the Thames should go via Dukes cut and Kings lock as he doesn't seem to have enough to do.

 

He is measuring 'busyness factor' by the ratio of cups of tea drunk during the day to locks operated. The tea is winning hands down

 

......... feel free to abuse as you see fit biggrin.png

 

....... oh......... and your ropes are more than long enough

 

Surely, if they want to see the best part of the river and keep him occupied they should go out through Isis lock and up through his lock?

 

 

Tim

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I'd just like to say that my lad is the Summer Assistant at Kings lock this year.

 

All boats entering and leaving the Thames should go via Dukes cut and Kings lock as he doesn't seem to have enough to do.

 

He is measuring 'busyness factor' by the ratio of cups of tea drunk during the day to locks operated. The tea is winning hands down

 

 

Hi PJ

 

Passed through Kings lock today and suggested to you lad that he earnt two cuppas as we had our dinghy in tow. He seemed very happy in his work.

 

ATB

 

Dave

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