On 8/6/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi everyone can you please sort out something that has been > niggleing me for twelve months. Last summer we were on the > Middlewich > arm of the Shroppie. We were waiting to go up the I think it > was the Venetian lock. There were a few waiting to go up, so we > helped people through up and down. We had let a boat out of the > lock that had gone up. There were no more boats to come down but > about two hundred yards away there was a boat aproaching, so I > said wait for the boat and it can go down with the water that > was in the lock. a lady from another boat said no we can empty > the lock and get another boat up before the boat arrives at the > top > of the lock. I said surely that's waisting water. The lady said > the lock has to be emptied sometime. My point is they emptied a > full lock of water instead of waiting. Should I have stood my > ground or reported the lady. > Look forward to your input Dave
It takes 5 minutes for the lock to fill, it tooks us 3 minutes to travel 200 metres away from the lock (~2.7 mph - the only data I have is in that diection). Not sure how long it takes to empty, but lets say it's a quick one at 3 minutes, the boat coming down would have to wait an extra 5 minutes while the boat coming up would have to wait an extra 3 minutes. However if there was a queue it would only take two boats waiting to make that 6 boat minutes, so it would be better for everyone concerned to turn the lock! There always seams to be a queue at this lock, and so don't worry about it. If you are going to turn the lock on someone however, ensure that you do it quickly so as to minimise the delay to the other boater - you can probably add an extra 2 minutes while the boat below gets themselves into the lock - it usually takes us about 30 seconds, often less! Remember the canals are now more busy than ever they were during the height of carrying! (Especially during the summer). Cheers, Mike -- Michael Askin http://shoestring_DOT_zapto_DOT_org/
