Mike wrote: > All the really sharp corners on the Trent are quite shallow on the > outside, and while I know the course on some bends are shown properly > on the chart it seems others are not. I wonder about the legalities of > producing such a publication with errors in it which could cause > expensive damage to more fragile craft. It seems that some of these > problems aren't being corrected in the newer editions (the one I have > compared it against was about 15 years old!) hence I didn't buy one.
The outside of the bend in question is shown as having rocks and stone heaps. Your knowledge of the outside of bends being shallow is counter-intuitive as one is generally taught that the scour (and hence the water depth) will be on the outside of the bend (due to the higher water velocity around the outside I guess), but the chart generally confirms what you say with lots of rock deposits shown. I guess that this *is* due to the higher water velocity as it has the power to shift the rocks and dump them when the velocity falls off. > > Of course the real trick is to learn to read the river, and while I > did manage to find the bottom last year just upstream of Laneham, them > shallows weren't shown on the TBA map either! > > http://tinyurl.com/34crk64 There is a specially enlarged whole page featuring this Laneham stretch in my guide, a useful indicator that it requires special attention. This stretch defies the above suggestion about 'shallow on the outside' as there are rocks and shallows on both sides and the navigation channel winds its way down the realatively gentle curve of the river. We were reading the river though. The shallows almost always had the smoother water surface and the deeper the more choppy. This worked well for us, in combination with the chart, except for the one exception described. There were other sections where I was aware that the depth wasn't good because the boat was working harder and making slower progress but these never slowed us to the point where we had any worries. > > Glad you enjoyed the Trent it's one of my favourite waterways. If I'm honest I can think of many other waterways that I prefer. I do enjoy seeing the commercials at work though and having to monitor the VHF as it is not the usual experience for the majority of the canal network of course. Roger
