The safer way

MY FIRST experience of using narrow canal locks was in 1961 as a ‘spare body' on a pair of Willow Wren boats. I had been used to barges on the Trent but narrow locks required different techniques, writes Mike Stone.

The skipper, Alec, schooled me in all the correct procedures for boating with a pair—from sheeting up to tying up. Some skills I have forgotten or not used (when did I last handle a pair?) for many a year. Others I still put into practice every time I take my boat out.

Safer

Going uphill I was told the boat should nose up to the rubbing plate at the front of the lock and the engine should be in low revs ahead. It was safer particularly for a loaded boat to rub the cill or top gate than for the back end to hit the bottom gate which, in extremis could fail. In most cases the fore end was rubbing on the cill wall and only rubbed on the gate as the water rose in the lock. The water above the top gate adds strength to it.

I have seen many private boaters holding back then working the engine very hard to prevent their craft being caught in the flow from the top paddles and hitting the front of the lock with some force. Just ‘let the water do the work' and if the craft starts at the rubbing plate in forward gear it will usually remain there.