Ann wrote: > From: "Will Chapman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 2:45 PM > Subject: [canals-list] Re: Canal Etiquette > > >> David Cragg wrote: >> >>> - Trying to tell MY husband what to do is stupid. He was in the >>> (merchant?) navy for >>> 10 years and has been through the Panama canal many times. He >> says this is a doddle >>> compared to the work he did to get through them! >>> >> I've met them! Her husband was the one that I described in a >> previous post - I was single-handed and alone in Braunston bottom >> lock and he (and she) opened the paddles wide open whilst I was >> climbing up the ladder! >> >> She said the same thing to me when I complained once I got to >> the top of the ladder. >> >> I took note of their boat's name but it is lost in the cobwebs of >> my ageing memory. >> >> Cheers >> -- > It's a pity you can't remember the name of the boat - or which scheme it was > with. It is incidents like this which get all shared boat owners a bad name. > A bit like hirers. A bad expereince with one tends to colour your judgment > of all hirers. > Ann,
In my case I think it was a private ownership not a shared one but your point is well taken. And its not just etiquette. Someone suggested to me that most lock damage is caused by careless boaters; if that is true, I wonder how much BW would save if there was a way to educate poor lock handling? I think I'll check and see if BW keep records. Whilst waiting in the queue for a lock with a busted paddle on the T&M this summer, a boater told me he arrived below a lock early one morning to find the top gate not just off its hinge but also clearly moved out of the way so the offending boat could get out of the lock (presumably overnight or extremely early in the morning). Now this bit sounds like it belongs in a book on rural myth - but he insisted it actually happened: Shortly after calling BW, a local farmer spotted him waiting, took a quick look at the lock gate and went off to bring back some lifting equipment. By the time BW arrived, they had drained the pound (luckily a short one) and farmer had got the gate nearly back in place and the BW chap (who came just to assess the situation) just had to drop down into the empty lock to supervise the final stages. I and the chap who told me the story mused about how long it might have taken if BW had to fix it in their own time. The paddle problem we were experiencing had apparently happened days before and wasn't to scheduled to be fixed until the day after we were there. (This was at the busy junction of the Caldon and the T&M). I don't blame BW for such delays; its just an example of the sort of impact caused by the Defra cuts that we were all predicting would happen. Cheers Will Cheers Will -- Will Chapman Save Our Waterways www.SaveOurWaterways.org.uk
