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Interfering at locks


Philip

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21 minutes ago, mayalld said:

 

I have a particular thing about people who wind paddles down before opening the gates. It isn't on the critical path - wind the paddles down once the gates are open, you have spare time then.

 

 

 

Apart from anything else this can be a face- as well as a time-saver when going up locks. If the water appears level, but you haven't checked for, or noticed, a leaking bottom gate, you don't half feel a fool rasting away at the top gate, finding it won't open and then having to open a top paddle again to equalise the levels.

However, if only one person is doing the lock work, it makes sense to close the far side paddle before opening the gate, because, er, you can't reach it otherwise!

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15 hours ago, nicknorman said:

All that is fine and I'm not having a go at you for being a slowcoach!

My only thought is that I slightly resent this thing that one sees quite often these days, which is that "it's my home" and therefore more important than someone's boat that isn't a live-board.  I don't see why your boat being your home makes it more important / valuable / delicate than my boat, which is only my "home" for the duration of my leisure time and holidays.  Again, not having a "go" at you personally, it's just a proliferating trend that I rather dislike because it is yet another "us and them" divisive thing.

No didnt think you ' were having a go ' for one moment . I certainly dont think that our boat is more important than any other , but if someone did whack  the paddles up and we had a problem, where we needed to move off the boat for any length of time, you never know these things can happen , we would have difficulty finding somewhere to live with 2 boat rabbits.  A hirer or a person with a hoilday boat still have a roof over their heads anyway, I dont particularly like reving back then forward or banging about in locks , dont see the point for a minute or two .  Bunny   P.S we always ask how the steerer would like the paddles opened .  

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9 minutes ago, Athy said:

Apart from anything else this can be a face- as well as a time-saver when going up locks. If the water appears level, but you haven't checked for, or noticed, a leaking bottom gate, you don't half feel a fool rasting away at the top gate, finding it won't open and then having to open a top paddle again to equalise the levels.

However, if only one person is doing the lock work, it makes sense to close the far side paddle before opening the gate, because, er, you can't reach it otherwise!

It always surprises me when someone closes ANY top paddles before opening the gate. I open the gate and wind down the paddle on my side and Iain winds down the paddle on the other side as the boat comes in or leaves the lock. After all the boat is in a narrow channel and isn't going anywhere -) . 

haggis

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39 minutes ago, mayalld said:

Yes, rule number 1 is my rule, and I apply it to any lock where my boat is in the lock. I care not whether others abide by it when I'm not around, but if my boat is involved, compliance is not optional!! It is also a rule that I would commend to others.

 

So what happens in wide locks where you are sharing with another boat? Do you force your rules on the other boat? Is there a fight? Can I come and watch?

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52 minutes ago, Athy said:

Our aim, which I hope we sometimes achieve, is to be quick, efficient and safe when working through a lock.

aka expeditious.

When I was a CAA pilot examiner, part of the standard pre-flight brief for a pilot test/check flight was that the pilot should conduct the flight "expeditiously, without cutting corners". "Expeditiously" has connotations of your quick, efficient and safe. But it is more efficient since it is only one word!

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5 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

aka expeditious.

When I was a CAA pilot examiner, part of the standard pre-flight brief for a pilot test/check flight was that the pilot should conduct the flight "expeditiously, without cutting corners". "Expeditiously" has connotations of your quick, efficient and safe. But it is more efficient since it is only one word!

When did you last use one word where three would do?

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6 minutes ago, haggis said:

It always surprises me when someone closes ANY top paddles before opening the gate. I open the gate and wind down the paddle on my side and Iain winds down the paddle on the other side as the boat comes in or leaves the lock. After all the boat is in a narrow channel and isn't going anywhere -) . 

haggis

For narrow locks going up we tend to have one on the boat and one working the locks, so one will be standing opposite the balance beam, when the lock is nearly ready the offside paddle is lowered, gate crossed, by which time the lock is ready and the gate opened. Exception would be when a lock is obviously taking a long time to complete the fill with both paddles due to a leak etc, with the risk that closing one paddle would prevent the level being made. But apart from that, I think that walking the length of the boat twice in order to save 5 seconds (time difference between the very last stage with 2 paddles vs 1 paddle) is inefficient. But perhaps you think Iain needs the excercise!?

Just now, Athy said:

When did you last use one word where three would do?

When I said "expeditiously".

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13 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

So what happens in wide locks where you are sharing with another boat? Do you force your rules on the other boat? Is there a fight? Can I come and watch?

 

Well, on the rare occasions that we venture into such places;

1) In general I will be with the kids on their boat, so will be sharing with another boat that DOES play by that rule.

2) If invited to share with another boat, I will enquire as to their attitude to winding paddles up fast, and if I'm not happy with it, I will moor up for lunch.

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I quite like the word expeditiously. Another good term - used by Jeremy Batch when he was senior lock-keeper at Limehouse - is "handsomely", basically not hurrying but not hanging around either, so being cast off and away from the bank when the gates start to open. 

It matters in a convoy of 20 boats locking out on a falling tide. If the earlier lockings are slow, then the last group won't be able to get out over the cill...

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1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

I feel your pain!

But on the semantics, efficient and expeditious mean different things. Efficient means doing something for maximum effect with minimum energy expended. It has no sense of time or speed. Expeditious means being efficient, but also speedy.

However, I might argue that an efficient operation of a lock would inevitably be the most expeditious operation. 

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When going up in a lock putting the boat gently in forward gear as the gate opens gives time to step off, walk along and close the offside paddle whilst the boat gently moves out of the lock. Then step back on so only walking the length of the lock once.

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3 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

When going up in a lock putting the boat gently in forward gear as the gate opens gives time to step off, walk along and close the offside paddle whilst the boat gently moves out of the lock. Then step back on so only walking the length of the lock once.

Dead embarrassing when it goes wrong though!

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Do remember coming out of a lock once and a captains hat type on boat coming into lock started to give me some advice about something or other (I was not interested so blanked him to be honest). When he went in the lock I looked behind and he was standing on a large footstool as he was about 4 foot tall.

 

Said a lot about the man.  ;)

Edited by mark99
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1 minute ago, alan_fincher said:

Dead embarrassing when it goes wrong though!

Yes, I sometimes have an issue where my tiller goes hard over and then the boat stops moving forward. I probably need to get some tiller strings to hold it central.

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22 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Dead embarrassing when it goes wrong though!

Not half as embarrassing as someone closing the offside paddle , walking across the lock gate then spending the next few minutes trying to push open the gate. I find that the last half inch takes much longer than all the previous half inches, especially if you just have one paddle open.  Like most couples Iain and I have our routine for working locks and this seldom involves me in crossing a lock gate. Iain does get off the boat and do a fair bit of the work as we find that works for us and he would feel cheated if he had to stay on the back of the boat all the time. It is all in the training of boat steerers :-) 

haggis

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I must admit  we have stopped ' for lunch' once , when I wasn't happy with the speed the paddles were opened on The Wey . I was frightened, don't mind admitting it .No baffle plates extra long windlasses and firm instructions to rope in the locks , even if there two boats and we know the fairly well , been that way 9 times now.  Bunny.  

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4 hours ago, nicknorman said:

But apart from that, I think that walking the length of the boat twice in order to save 5 seconds (time difference between the very last stage with 2 paddles vs 1 paddle) is inefficient. But perhaps you think Iain needs the excercise!?

It's not the length of the boat twice! Going up,gate opens, boat starts going forwards, step off, walk half to three quarters boat length close paddle, about quarter boat length back, neutral, and a bit of reverse to pick up the crew. (Obviously, varies with distance to next lock, etc, etc: Might be me closing gate, or opening and closing gate, or carrying on without stopping, or  .... )

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5 hours ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

I quite like the word expeditiously. Another good term - used by Jeremy Batch when he was senior lock-keeper at Limehouse - is "handsomely", basically not hurrying but not hanging around either, so being cast off and away from the bank when the gates start to open. 

It matters in a convoy of 20 boats locking out on a falling tide. If the earlier lockings are slow, then the last group won't be able to get out over the cill...

I wonder if Mr Batch is ex "Andrew"? In RN Naval parlance handsomely actually means "slowly or with caution". I have never come across it being used in the real navy (the MN!).

Howard


 

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To slightly contradict my opening post; having come up the Stourbridge 16 locks yesterday in my cruiser, the soapy sud created by the opening of the centre paddle on most of these has left a right greasy mess on the gel coat!

I know this used to be a real problem on the Shroppie and Staffs and Worcs locks, less so since the water treatment process improved. Whereabouts is the sewage/water treatment works which seemingly discharges into the Stourbridge?

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