Not a pleasurable day's pleasure boating!

IN THE article 'What's the motive', I recently pointed out in narrowboatworld of concerns with regard to boaters being encouraged by the Trust to use the tidal waters of the rivers Trent and Ouse, writes Pam Pickett.

An investigation into what went wrong

Since that article was written, working together with professional/commercial boatman Tony Dunkley, an investigation of what actually went wrong when narrowboat Long Dog ended up grounding near the Boothferry Bridge on the Ouse has now been carried out, and the reason for it happening established.

Co-operation by all concerned with safety

Though before I write of what went so horribly wrong for Barry Wilkinson on Long Dog on the 5th May I wish to make it clear that following this incident, the amount of co-operation by the NE Waterways Harbourmaster Stuart McKenzie, together with the Naburn and Selby lockies and all of the Ouse bridge keepers, inclusive of North Yorks. CC Bridge Manager Alan Tate, has been amazing,with all credit due to them for their interest in our safety on these tidal waters that, as Alan Tate warns, truly are at the opposite end of the spectrum from either a non tidal river, or a canal.

What a pity though that I felt no such reassurance following a conversation with Mike Carter, Chair of Canal & River Trust's Navigation Advisory Group. According to Mike Carter, if there had been an 'incident' it would have been 'escalated' to Tony Stammers, Head of Safety for the Trust—'end of' (his words) obviously no customer discussion with regard to matters of safety called for here!

Could it be that CaRT's wishes to avoid liability have any bearing?

No information

Regardless, having left York as his 14 days were up, Barry Wilkinson was locked out of Naburn Lock. Barry maintains he received no information whatsoever from the locky at Naburn, the locky however says Barry was 'strongly advised' not to go. Somewhat strangely though, given the Trust's preference for boats to travel together on these waters and given forward booking of passage, a following boat, Sapphire, was locked through only some 15 minutes later.

Perhaps CaRT's concern that it could be held liable should information given be followed by a boater, and that boater then get into trouble could possibly have some bearing here? I would though have thought that a lack of information for boaters encouraged to use the tidal waters of the Ouse by the Trust, as I am informed they are to be. could be looked upon rather less kindly by a court?

Totally unprepared

However Barry Wilkinson was, as I said in my previous article, totally unprepared for tidal waters. He was single-manning. Had no VHF. His mobile phone was low on credit and his anchor had not been made ready. More importantly he had no knowledge of any land-marks that would tell him he was approaching Cawood Bridge.

In addition he also had no knowledge of the ski club pontoon on which he was supposed to wait and from which he was supposed to alert the bridge keeper if it was necessary for the bridge to be swung. Academic in the circumstances, Barry had no knowledge of the landline number for the bridge, this number being notable at the time by its absence on the NE Waterways Navigation Notes.

Unable to stop

Now swept along by a strong tide toward Cawood Bridge Barry admits to panicking. Putting the boat into reverse when he saw the Cawood bridge keeper frantically flagging him to stop resulted only in his being swept broadside through the bridge, miraculously making it through with an air draft (headroom) of only 2.3 metres. Barry has since freely admitted that he had no idea of the necessity to round up (turn around) to stem the tide (stop) and, that purely as a result of his panic to having used abusive language to the bridge keeper—for which he has now sincerely apologised.

Spotted on CCTV

It is a matter of record that Barry was unable to make the 90 degrees turn into Selby Lock and that he was swept past sideways. Barry was then spotted on CCTV heading under the Selby By-pass Bridge. The bridge keeper, concerned not to see the boat emerge, then walked down to check on its whereabouts and found Barry to be tied up on dolphins near the bridge. Barry then spoke to the Selby locky who suggested he go on to Barmby. Unable to untie his mooring rope as it was under so much tension Barry was forced to cut it in order to get underway.

Again, as at Selby, Barry couldn't make the turn into Barmby Lock and succeeded only in making a 360 degrees turn before continuing down river, heart in mouth (his words) looking for somewhere to stop and moor but  he grounded at Boothferry at 1420. At this moment in time it is not known who called the coastguard following a phone call to Selby lock by the Boothferry bridge keeper who spotted the boat in trouble, although the call made to Humber Rescue was timed some 40 minutes later at 1500 with Barry's boat being towed by Humber Rescue to Goole at 1910.

Not the first, probably not the last

Barry is by no means the first boater to experience problems when using these tidal waters, very probably not the last. It is however reassuring to know that serious safety issues raised by Barry's experience are being dealt with as a matter of urgency by NEWaterways, thus hopefully improving safety for others as far as it is possible to do so on these rapidly changing potentially dangerous waters.

On the 5th May, Barry was particularly unfortunate to fall foul of a combination of circumstances, a reasonably big tide added to by over a metre of fresh (rainwater) plus a gusting southerly wind. Not only was he ill-equipped, having neither VHF (highly recommended) or sufficient credit on his mobile phone, he was also in receipt of no information with regard to the approach to Cawood Bridge and its expected air-draft, Furthermore, not having been given the bridge keeper's landline number (notable only by its absence on NE Waterways Notes for Navigation) he had no method of contacting him.

Close call at Cawood Bridge

The panic situation Barry found himself in began when shortly after leaving Naburn, he became aware of the state of the river. He has since referred to it as 'raging waters'. His close call at Cawood Bridge that caused such concern to the bridge keeper could have resulted in damage to Barry's boat and/or Barry himself, to his getting caught under the bridge and possibly being rolled by the tide, or even in damage to the bridge.

It is worrying therefore that there are forces within CaRT that appear to class today's leisure boaters, many of whom will have only the luxury of annual leave, and with some thinking that a Spring (big) tide is only in Spring, to class them with those commercial skippers who gained experience and knowledge of the river by constant usage. I have therefore been asked to add some observations here.

However experienced a boater you are, these waters bear no resemblance to the waters of a canal or non-tidal river, and if you choose to cruise the Ouse, you should ensure that in the absence of VHF any mobile phone you use is not only fully charged, but also that it has coverage in the area.

Avoiding delays for trains

Finally, in addition to safety measures now being carried out by the Trust, and with boater safety in mind, some additional information which will enable the lockies at Selby and Naburn to read-off bridge air drafts from the depths on their lock cills, is being passed on to the Trust by Tony Dunkley, a commercial skipper of many years standing having considerable experience of these waters.

This information will not only enable the lockies at both Selby and Naburn to predict if bridges may need to be swung, it will also assist in avoiding boaters asking too soon for the railway bridge to be opened, with the bridge keeper then subjected to a wait for the boat resulting in trains being held up for an unnecessarily long period, a cause I'm told of complaint. All in all this surely has to be a good result for all concerned.

[Having cruised the tidal waters of various rivers, particularly the Trent, and ourselves being subject to losing all control on a fast flowing tide, it is imperative that boaters take little notice of the Trust's urge to encourage, what Pam calls 'leisure boaters', to use tidal rivers—they can be dangerous.  As surely this article must show—Editor.]