David Cragg wrote: > What annoys us is how some crews can be in a mad rush when in a queue > of boats going up a lock flight and we are next up in the queue in > front of them. On the last holiday this happened at Bosley with madam > (from boat behind) walking on the the next - and attaching windless to > bottom paddle before we were up in the lock - while her husband was > expected to drive into the lock below, climb the ladder then work the > lock before driving out, stopping and shutting the gate before moving > over to hold the boat at the side until madam had opened the bottom > gates of the lock he was waiting to enter.
When Chris and I are out and about on Arun, our usual procedure at closely spaced lock flights is for Chris to move on and start to get the next lock ready as soon as she has opened a gate for me to enter the current lock. Experience shows us that having a lock set ready for me to enter roughly halves the time it takes to work through it. We would not be significantly quicker (and probably would be a good deal slower) if Chris stayed to help wind up a paddle. In our case it's not Chris "expecting me to do all the work at a lock", so much as me asking Chris to go forward and set the next lock. Unless the people in front are unbearably slow (or are being held up by a similarly slow boat), she has opened the gates before I arrive at the lock. BTW, this is not me being "typical male, with hand glued to the tiller", Chris is not at all confident about steering the boat yet and prefers to work the locks. Terry Streeter - Belgium
