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Post by kris on Dec 9, 2018 17:24:56 GMT
Are they Rachel's instructions? Keep up at the back, they were for Lift Bridges. Your quickly becoming a know it all like Rachel.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 17:38:13 GMT
Bollocks yourself. If you open gates by pushing with the nose of a boat, of course the gates will run down the sides of your boat. "Not being able to steer" - it's impossible to steer accurately when wind and water currents are affecting you, and you are going to touch that gate anyway when there's just a 1 millimetre gap. Having seen gates being made at Stanley Ferry, I lift my hat to the City & Guilds craftsmen, and now we try to avoid rubbing gates, and we prefer opening and closing them by hand. Just have a look at many bridges to see chunks missing from 'competent' narrowboaters. Notice I said most not all. Actually it doesn't damage the gates pushing them open with a proper boat as the mitre strip doesn't touch the hull, you may have to go back to schoolboy geometry to see why. Being new to this I expect you do struggle to get a 6'10" boat through a 7+ft gap without hitting something. Better you open both gates then you wont do so much damage
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 17:42:55 GMT
I've not had a look a the control panels on the L&L swingbridges but it is sometimes feasible to put some sort of holding device on the button to open the gate. On Thames lock gate controls I have used a magnet with a little adjustable arm to press the button, elastic bungee holding a random item onto the button and the last time I tried it a few days ago I decided to use a length of exhaust lagging which happened to be in my pocket. Lagging is slightly elastic so I tied it around the control box and wedged an item under it to depress the gate open button. Then I legged it across the opening gates.
All that to save 30 seconds of my life.
Anyway I suspect there are some options of this kind on powered moveable bridges. You would have to stop after the bridge to get the lagging back. And the Watermate key if you need it.
Of course the obvious other solution is to teach yourself to pick the lock. Yale locks are pretty easy to pick as it happens. A "piece of piss".
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 17:43:06 GMT
Are they Rachel's instructions? Keep up at the back, they were for Lift Bridges. Ah I see, we have ornamental ones on the Northampton Arm and a seldom used one on the Lodes. No use asking me.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 17:48:49 GMT
The problem with this is that over the years the vertical guard irons which protect the seal, known as Breast Irons, have got smaller and smaller. The old breast irons used to be 3+ inch forged iron D strakes attached with large iron spikes. Real heavy duty stuff. The modern ones are usually 2 inch rolled D section mild steel attached with large posidrive screws. Nothing like the real thing. So people breasting the gates open with way on can be a problem on modern locks. However that's not what wears away the gate seals. Its narrow boats doing that. Quite funny how people don't work it out but its actually impossible for a boat more than about 8ft wide to ever touch the sealing surfaces on a wide canal (14ft) lock gate.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 17:54:33 GMT
Hence my comment about proper boats!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 18:06:35 GMT
I'm getting worried now. Are you suggesting that Lord Charles boat is a "proper boat" ?
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Post by Jim on Dec 9, 2018 18:11:59 GMT
Keep up at the back, they were for Lift Bridges. Your quickly becoming a know it all like Rachel. Only on a fat boat somewhere in the Midlands. I posted the advice I stole from others, having tried it myself. Rachel's advice was never posted, just promised.
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Post by kris on Dec 9, 2018 18:14:39 GMT
Your quickly becoming a know it all like Rachel. Only on a fat boat somewhere in the Midlands. I posted the advice I stole from others, having tried it myself. Rachel's advice was never posted, just promised. So how many bridges have you actually been through using the technique shown in the video you posted?
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Post by 46700 on Dec 9, 2018 18:16:51 GMT
I am reminded of the Hillmorton incident, where a lockie got fired, when a boat that was obviously too long for the lock insisted on attempting it anyway and got hung up on the gates. I forget the name of the boater. GU boat Flamingo got hung up in one of the Himorton locks only swift action by his son prevented a sinking volo lockie was a bit useless apparently seems the problem was bolts fitted the wrong way around with long thread length protruding through the nut
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 18:19:55 GMT
I like thinking about how the old horse drawn boats were operated. Nobody really knows what happened its like a history "black hole". I suppose there were usually at least two people per boat so at the moveable bridges the person in charge of the horse would presumably "have a word in the shell like" of the horse then go and do the bridge.
Or were there single operators of horse boats perhaps. Its all intriguing. I suspect that the protocol was to leave the bridge open and they would have all been manual so there might have been a fair bit of shafting and rope work involved.
I'd love to have a time machine.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 18:20:11 GMT
I'm getting worried now. Are you suggesting that Lord Charles boat is a "proper boat" ? Its a fat narrowboat! Proper boats have style and substance, I can think of very few newly built boats that I would class as proper. Most boatbuilders these days haven't a clue how to build anything over 6'10" beam
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 18:21:19 GMT
I am reminded of the Hillmorton incident, where a lockie got fired, when a boat that was obviously too long for the lock insisted on attempting it anyway and got hung up on the gates. I forget the name of the boater. GU boat Flamingo got hung up in one of the Himorton locks only swift action by his son prevented a sinking volo lockie was a bit useless apparently seems the problem was bolts fitted the wrong way around with long thread length protruding through the nut Yes that was discussed earlier in this thread some slightly negative commentary was involved !!
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Post by kris on Dec 9, 2018 18:26:09 GMT
I like thinking about how the old horse drawn boats were operated. Nobody really knows what happened its like a history "black hole". I suppose there were usually at least two people per boat so at the moveable bridges the person in charge of the horse would presumably "have a word in the shell like" of the horse then go and do the bridge. Or were there single operators of horse boats perhaps. Its all intriguing. I suspect that the protocol was to leave the bridge open and they would have all been manual so there might have been a fair bit of shafting and rope work involved. I'd love to have a time machine. I suppose the point is there would have been crew, as you say at least two. One on the boat and one with the horse. The reason the "controls" are on the offside on the Leeds and Liverpool swing bridges, is so they wouldn't interfere with the tow rope. Apparently when bicycles became affordable, there would be one on the boat for one of the crew to go ahead and open the swing bridges ready for the boat to sail through.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2018 18:27:32 GMT
I'm getting worried now. Are you suggesting that Lord Charles boat is a "proper boat" ? Its a fat narrowboat! Proper boats have style and substance, I can think of very few newly built boats that I would class as proper. Most boatbuilders these days haven't a clue how to build anything over 6'10" beam It does seem quite unusual I agree. There used to be some boat fabricators who could do a decent job but they gradually went out of business. Pickwell and Arnold did some quite nice wide beam canal boats. Like these two for example (photo courtesy of bargemast) That was 20 years ago though to be fair !
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