Any one knowwhat happened to "Blossom"

[Richard T]

On 26/07/2017 at 03:40, Tonka said:

Primus is the name of Andy Watson boat. Saw it at Branston in June

Andy had a mooring in Crockers at Shardlow - I think he's still there.

[jam]

On 7/26/2017 at 07:25, Rob-M said:

Blossom on Darley waiting to enter lock 13 on the Audlem flight from last Sunday.

Not often I see a photo of me preparing to take a photo of Darley (or any other boat for that matter)

[Rob-M]

11 hours ago, jam said:

Not often I see a photo of me preparing to take a photo of Darley (or any other boat for that matter)

Are you Dave on the counter of Scorpio or the other person on the towpath...?

[jam]

10 hours ago, Rob-M said:

Are you Dave on the counter of Scorpio or the other person on the towpath...?

The one on the towpath watching the shenanigans as Scorpio hovered whilst waiting for the butty Leo to appear. Blossom had to beat a hasty retreat at that point.

10 hours ago, Rob-M said:

 

[jam]

Will see if I can find the video of this episode.

[jam]

 

[pete harrison]

2 hours ago, jam said:

The one on the towpath watching the shenanigans as Scorpio hovered whilst waiting for the butty Leo to appear. Blossom had to beat a hasty retreat at that point.

Goodness me, I do not blame Malcolm ('Blossom') for making a 'hasty retreat' with this level of incompetence. It is hard to believe that these 'enthusiasts' have been trained at all let alone passed some sort of test - no wonder C. & R.T. insist that the crew wear life jackets.

It looks like the Steerer has made three critical mistakes: 1, not straightened up the motor properly before moving forward as it is essential to pull the butty out in line with the motor - 2, gone too hard with a gap between the motor and butty so pulling over the fore end of DARLEY resulting in having less room - 3, running the line from the dolly instead of the hook so making the angle of pull to severe and cross winding / jamming the butty on the lock walls. Personally I would have backed the motor into the lock once the bottom gates were open (straightens the motor with the butty) and towed out on cross straps rather than a line (I could drop a cross strap if needed but it would be unlikely), then I could have wound up the motor and DARLEY would have been held on the offside as the pair come out of the lock straight and fast. This would also alleviate the need for a butty steerer who could get on with something more useful 

Edited July 31, 2017 by pete harrison

[junior]

Yeah, stone them i say. And dock their wages. Oh hang on...

[jam]

10 hours ago, pete harrison said:

Personally I would have backed the motor into the lock once the bottom gates were open (straightens the motor with the butty) and towed out on cross straps rather than a line (I could drop a cross strap if needed but it would be unlikely)

And the straps were dangling there just waiting to be used

[pete harrison]

41 minutes ago, jam said:

And the straps were dangling there just waiting to be used

When the cross straps go tight they will also help to pull the motor straight as the butty is initially a deadweight, assuming they are the same length of course.

The 'Vicar' on the hotel boats held me up for an hour or so the last time I saw him when he was trying to be clever towing his butty on a short line out of Kings Norton Stop. As with the video above he got the boats all out of line and his motor went straight up the bank - on the towpath side !!!!

Having said all of this there are several boaters that tow quite successfully through narrow locks on a short line, the difference being they know what they are doing. I have done it but I do not find it advantageous, so for the few seconds that I loose picking up the cross straps I regain by freeing up the butty steerer 

[pete harrison]

3 hours ago, junior said:

Yeah, stone them i say. And dock their wages. Oh hang on...

I do not think these volunteer boatmen need stoning, or their non existent wages docking, but I do think the training / passout they undergo clearly leaves a lot to be desired - especially in these days of competence and compliance which C. & R.T. clearly have to operate under.

In my view the most unfortunate aspect is that many canal users see 'historic' boats as the pinnacle of boating, and many will assume that the crew are full time professionals. This demonstration of incompetence is far from uncommon on these type of multi-user 'historic' boats and in my mind it does nothing to promote 'historic' boats and boating at all, in fact quite the opposite. Fortunately there are a number of 'historic' boat owners that can demonstrate high levels of skill, and also know how to present their boats properly - Malcolm (Blossom) being one (who could see what was going on and reacted to it)   

edit = clearly I have strong opinions about multi-user 'historic' narrow boats (organisations as much as individuals), so rather than turn this thread into a bashing session I will make no further comment.

Edited August 1, 2017 by pete harrison

[Rob-M]

As the trained skipper for moving Scorpio and Leo we had exited every lock from Birmingham to Audlem with cross straps where there wasn't a strong cross flow. On Adderley and Audlem a short line was used to give the motor more steerage to be able to counter the flow. There were only two locks where issues were encountered, this being one of them due to not running out on a long enough short line so the motor had no steerage. I was not steering as I was allowing crew to steer but as I am not allowed to stand on the gunnels in a lock I can only advise from the bank. As life wasn't in danger I let the steerer make the mistake so he would learn from it as I did with the other crew member on the previous occasion. Interesting that the "expert" at Adderley told the steerer to use a 14ft line as he was coming out on cross straps...!

[Captain Pegg]

5 hours ago, Rob-M said:

As the trained skipper for moving Scorpio and Leo we had exited every lock from Birmingham to Audlem with cross straps where there wasn't a strong cross flow. On Adderley and Audlem a short line was used to give the motor more steerage to be able to counter the flow. There were only two locks where issues were encountered, this being one of them due to not running out on a long enough short line so the motor had no steerage. I was not steering as I was allowing crew to steer but as I am not allowed to stand on the gunnels in a lock I can only advise from the bank. As life wasn't in danger I let the steerer make the mistake so he would learn from it as I did with the other crew member on the previous occasion. Interesting that the "expert" at Adderley told the steerer to use a 14ft line as he was coming out on cross straps...!

Don't worry Rob, as discussed I will be filling in my application form shortly and I am well qualified to uphold the expert level of incompetence following my failure to master the finer points of working Atlas & Malus. It's staggering how after a career not involving boats spanning 25 years in order to attain a level of excellence I haven't been able to master a pair of boats over just a few weekends of volunteering and bugger all training.

Although beware, I may have some burgeoning necessary skills; I did narrowly fail to buy a boat I liked the look of a couple of years ago.

Jon

[alan_fincher]

Actually I think perhaps people are being a bit tough on them.

To me it looks that the fierce inrush of water from the bye wash is doing a lot to try pinning both motor and butty to the tow-path side.

The strength of the flow can shift from "inconsequential" to "really quite bad" in minutes, and anyone not familiar with those locks can easily get caught out.

We now know a more experienced steerer was present on the bank, but a less experienced one is actually at the tiller.  Only by actually trying things out and making the occasional mistake will am inexperienced steerer learn to be a better one.

I have seen one of the well respected crews of a privately owned pair cause modest mayhem at those locks - it is not something that is limited to "trust" boats where maybe the steerer has not yet gained a lot of experience.

[X Alan W]

Back in the day working uphill on "Shoppie " flights & meeting single motor/ pair coming down hill we used to put the uphill motor fore end as near to the lock mouth as possible to not obstruct the exiting boat on the tow path/non bywash side, if the bywash swill was strong it moved the exiting boat over but on laying along side  the waiting uphill boat it could slide down & exit the lock without getting all crossed up. I have to add it required both steerers to know of & how to use this method, but it made exiting locks if the downhill motor was picking up the butty tow an easier operation  not possible on Audlem town lock though

Edited August 2, 2017 by X Alan W

[BWM]

On 31/07/2017 at 23:04, jam said:

 

The sign in the hold of Scorpio says it all! 

[Peter X]

That flow from the bywash was definitely making life difficult, pushing first the boat going uphill, then the motor and finally the bow of the butty over towards the towpath. We don't see what the butty steerer was doing just before his bow bumped the other boat at 3:18, but I suppose he was doing his best to steer away from it but couldn't quite make it because of the bywash.

 

I'm sure it would have been best if the other motor was on the towpath side as X Alan W says, and if cross straps had been used. Then the motor steerer just winds on and goes away down the centre of the canal, probably able to avoid touching the other boat if he's got enough power to counter the effect of the bywash, and the butty should be able to glide nicely out behind. Easy with hindsight.