Hatton Volockie

[Hawthorn]

I can only speak as I find, and the attitude of this particular vlockie was clearly out of order, but we've been both up and down the Hatton flight recently and found the vlockies to be very helpful. Agree that you can open both paddles going down but as a single boat we followed the single paddle method going up. It holds you against the side so you can exit easily and quickly from the gate on that side. I don't think opening both paddles would have saved more than a few seconds per lock (to repeat, this is going up not down the flight)

Our experience too. In fact the Volockie I spoke to this year had timed the difference. If you have one crew member the difference is between 45 secs and one minute per lock.

[ditchcrawler]

 

 

Anyway, I suppose I shall have to mention that we subsequently met a couple of volockies on the main straight rise of the Lapworth locks who, despite steady rain, were helping a fairly hopeless ABC leisure hire boat down, and prepared a couple of locks for us. They were very pleasant and helpful and could not be faulted.

 

Blimey, Lapworth is pretty ghost-like. Just the one at the bottom and the one in the middle passed, no other moving boats seen.

You did better than me, we met a boat at lock 6 who had 4 Volockies help them, when we arrived they all walked off down the flight, I didn't mined that but they all walked passed the next lock and not one could be bothered to lean on the beam and open the top gate.

Edited August 25, 2015 by ditchcrawler

[Tom and Bex]

Anyway, I suppose I shall have to mention that we subsequently met a couple of volockies on the main straight rise of the Lapworth locks who, despite steady rain, were helping a fairly hopeless ABC leisure hire boat down, and prepared a couple of locks for us. They were very pleasant and helpful and could not be faulted.

 

Blimey, Lapworth is pretty ghost-like. Just the one at the bottom and the one in the middle passed, no other moving boats seen.

I had fantastic help up Lapworth this morning by Brian, one of the volockies. Stayed and helped all the way to the top cycling to and fro between locks. Have to say he did ask right at the bottom if I wanted any help and what he could do to be most useful. Can't praise him enough.

 

It was also quite busy on the flight this morning, although Brian said it was quieter than usual for August. Guess everyone wanted to complete the locks before the rain set in!

 

My experience of volockies at Hatton though is much the same as others have said. They seem to like shouting orders across the lock, and generally seem to get in the way without doing anything useful to help. When we came down in pouring rain a year or so ago they were nowhere to be seen and we came down much quicker without them!

 

Tom

[Victor Vectis]

So, we arrived at Lapworth to go up the N Stratford, 1st lock full to the brim so emptied it, got Jeff in, opened paddles and went ahead to open the gates on next one, which was empty. Encountered a chap from a boat coming down. Yelled to Jeff to leave the gate open on exit. It would be a few minutes before the opposite direction boat went in to it, but I felt justified in leaving it open since the bottom end clearly didn't leak (lock was completely full on arrival) and had a boat appears behind us we could have gone back to shut it. However when Jeff was mid-pound a CRT person appeared out of no-where and closed the gate, then disappeared from wherever he had appeared from despite Jeff shouting to him that a boat was coming down.

 

Was this Lock 20? If so, then.........

 

No, no & thrice no!

 

We moor in the basin at Lapworth so are familiar with this lock.

 

The lower gates leak and it drains. When empty the RH gate (looking 'uphill') swings open. This is useful when single handing as 9 times out of 10 I don't have to get of the boat to open the gates when coming up from the link.

[nicknorman]

Was this Lock 20? If so, then.........

 

No, no & thrice no!

 

We moor in the basin at Lapworth so are familiar with this lock.

 

The lower gates leak and it drains. When empty the RH gate (looking 'uphill') swings open. This is useful when single handing as 9 times out of 10 I don't have to get of the boat to open the gates when coming up from the link.

Lock 20 yes. It was completely full, or very nearly so. Lock 19 was empty. No traffic passed on GU for some time. No traffic visible anywhere in fact, apart from the descending boat in lock 18. So my take on that is that since lock 20 was full and 19 empty there must have been a boat up the N Stratford from GU, then a boat down the N Stratford carrying on down the S Stratford, all now dispersed.

 

So I've no doubt lock 20 leaks, but not that fast and not so as to drain itself in the 10 mins or so it was going to take for the descending boat to clear lock 18 and traverse lock 19. If we had shut the gate, whatever water that was lost through the bottom gate would have to be replaced anyway - shutting the gate would limit the loss to 1 lockful for sure, but the loss would have been much less than that.

 

Oh and yes, the bottom gate on 20 did swing open and I had to crack the top paddle to get it to stay closed.

Edited August 25, 2015 by nicknorman

[Iain_S]

Our experience too. In fact the Volockie I spoke to this year had timed the difference. If you have one crew member the difference is between 45 secs and one minute per lock.

 

Although if the gates at the other end of the lock are leaky, it could be a fair bit more.

[Victor Vectis]

Lock 20 yes. It was completely full, or very nearly so. Lock 19 was empty. No traffic passed on GU for some time. No traffic visible anywhere in fact, apart from the descending boat in lock 18. So my take on that is that since lock 20 was full and 19 empty there must have been a boat up the N Stratford from GU, then a boat down the N Stratford carrying on down the S Stratford, all now dispersed.

 

Or a boat might have gone up Lock 20 and into the basin. I was there this morning and it struck me that a lot of the boats that usually live there were away.

 

I didn't witness this but I was told by someone else that moors there that there was an occasion when the boats in the basin were all on the bottom. Draining the pound between Locks 21, 20 & 19 must have taken some doing, looking at the ammount of water that comes down the bywash from the fishing pond.

Oddly enough I was thinking about this just the other day, mildy musing if it was caused by someone leaving the top gate of Lock 20 open and all the water leaking throught the bottom gates.

[nicknorman]

Or a boat might have gone up Lock 20 and into the basin. I was there this morning and it struck me that a lot of the boats that usually live there were away.

 

Yes, for some reason that possibility hadn't occurred to me, although there seemed to be no activity in the basin. Anyway, for clarity I am not suggesting it's a good idea to leave the top gate of lock 20 open regardless, but when you know another boat is going down in under 10 minutes I can't think any water loss is significant.

[Ange]

On our own we do one side and one gate (sorry) it saves a lot of work when there are 2 of you.

Yep us too - silly opening both gates for one boat.

 

Lol just read the whole thread - that's me way behind!

Edited August 26, 2015 by Ange

[Dharl]

Yep us too - silly opening both gates for one boat.

Lol just read the whole thread - that's me way behind!

Keep up at the back!!

 

Thread seems to have grown in to Lock gates, leave them open or close debate....

[John V]

There is normally only one of me and I usually only open one gate, however being a small boat (25') getting through without touching is a bit easier than with a longer one. I'm not particularly keen on having help as I enjoy bumbling along at a leisurely pace (unless there are folks waiting of course) and as regards the one or two paddles I normally only open one (saves on the walking and I ain't in a rush). I HATE leaky gates as then I have to walk round and open another paddle .

[Martin Megson]

A slight aside but when my son was passing through the flight at Fradley junction the vlockie on the first lock commented on how he was pleased to see him using just the centre line as so many boats were using both bow and stern lines which was a bit unnecessary on narrow locks. Two locks further up the flight a different vlockie told him he should really use a bow and stern line. I think I know why the first lockie was having a problem.

[ditchcrawler]

A slight aside but when my son was passing through the flight at Fradley junction the vlockie on the first lock commented on how he was pleased to see him using just the centre line as so many boats were using both bow and stern lines which was a bit unnecessary on narrow locks. Two locks further up the flight a different vlockie told him he should really use a bow and stern line. I think I know why the first lockie was having a problem.

They dont say anything to me and I dont use any ropes

[PeterG]

Using ropes on narrow locks, why would you want to do that?

[bottle]

Never use ropes in narrow locks and rarely in wide locks even if I am the only boat, the crew do know how to work the paddles though.

[Martin Megson]

That's fine if you have crew but as a single hander I always use a centre line to control the boat in the lock.

[john6767]

That's fine if you have crew but as a single hander I always use a centre line to control the boat in the lock.

Me too, as an inexperienced single hander, ie I don't do it very often, I would use the centre line in narrow and wide locks. Other than that no real need to use ropes on normal canal locks.

[Arthur Marshall]

That's fine if you have crew but as a single hander I always use a centre line to control the boat in the lock.

Same here. It's always exciting when they snap.

[MtB]

That's fine if you have crew but as a single hander I always use a centre line to control the boat in the lock.

 

 

Puzzling. As a single hander too I rarely find the need to use a line to control the boat in a narrow lock.

[Rob-M]

If I'm leaving the boat unattended in a lock I always take a centre line with me. If going downhill I generally then pull the boat out of the lock with it.

[ditchcrawler]

Well I am not a single hander but the boat quite often has no one on board while in the lock, Di will be working ahead or we will have a paddle each and we still don't use a rope.

[Alf27]

Now getting to the serious point, did the volocky on Hatton say anything to you about dropping paddles ??

 

Getting coat !!

 

[Arthur Marshall]

Puzzling. As a single hander too I rarely find the need to use a line to control the boat in a narrow lock.

Lot depends on size of boat . a 40ft boat tends to move about more than a 70footer

[MtB]

Lot depends on size of boat . a 40ft boat tends to move about more than a 70footer

 

 

Mine are 45ft and 68ft. Rarely need a line with either!

[nicknorman]

Now getting to the serious point, did the volocky on Hatton say anything to you about dropping paddles ??

 

Getting coat !!

 

No. Although they wound them down. On here I have been a bit concerned about the recommendation to drop them because some of them do spin down fast and crash into the no longer existent cushioning. However having traversed the flight again yesterday and observed, most wind themselves down slowly, a few too slowly and have to be wound down, and just a very few are very loose and best wound down rather than crashed down. So like all these things, "it depends"!

 

Ed: for clarity I was on the boat and Jeff was locking but he mostly knocked off the caches and let them "drop" themselves.

Edited August 26, 2015 by nicknorman