Bruce Napier wrote: > Morning all > > Those who follow my witterings on Living in Sanity will know that the > following tale featured in my latest post: > > ... a humorous account from the hirers [of Skye] of trying to take > Hatherton, the Ownerships boat in which they have a share, through the > locks on the Huddersfield Broad. Technically those locks are 58’ long > and since Ownerships boats are 58’ 6” it should have been easy to take > her through on the diagonal. Hatherton must be over length, since she > refused to fit into the lock. Her crew became aware of numbers of > office workers in the nearby buildings observing their struggles. They > obviously make a habit of doing this since after a while they held up > signs which said “try going through backwards”. > > Unfortunately, although this strategy worked, the thought of having to > do it at each subsequent lock was so discouraging that they abandoned > the trip and went somewhere else. > > I've had a comment asking "How would going backwards help?". I've > explained about fitting the bow into the corner of the lock, but never > having actually boated this waterway (since Sanity is 60', just as > well, looks like), I couldn't be more specific. > > Just what exactly is the advantage of reversing down the lock?
Are you sure it was the Huddersfield Broad? I'm struggling to think of offices overlooking the locks there. You can get a 60 ft narrowboat through those locks, facing either upwards or backwards. The boat doesn't exactly go diagonally - one end goes in the corner behind the bottom gate, the other end goes in the centre of the cill, as the cills are curved. The critical length is between the centre of the cill and the edge of the open gate as you try to get it past the end of the boat. When things are very tight it can sometimes be easier to get the gate past the boat facing one way rather than the other. That problem should not arise with a 58' 6" boat. There are some suggestions here: http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/calder/locks.htm -- Martin Clark Pennine Waterways Website http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
