Lock working for hirers

RICHARDS Swan's comment this morning concerning training new hirers how to work locks is valid comment, but it is not easy to do when the base is a considerable distance from the lock, writes Linda Andrews.

We are lucky at Cheshire Cat Narrowboat Holidays, as the lock is 40 minutes away by canal (or five minutes if they are tackling Audlem Flight), and for anybody other than very experienced crews, we send an instructor by car to wait at the lock for our boats to come through. This is fine, 40 minutes of canal and not many distractions, the longest I have waited is an hour and a half.

Impossible situation

However, it is a different matter if the lock is five cruising hours away, the hirers stop for lunch, for the night, turn off at a junction somewhere etc, there is no way you could predict what time they would arrive, and multiply that by the number of boats leaving that day and you can see it is an impossible situation.

You can show a video, do it with a model lock, even have a mock paddle installed at the base, but there is still no substitute for the real thing. If anyone has the answer, I am sure the hire companies would love to know it!

Linda Andrews
Cheshire Cat Narrowboat Holidays