Narrowboat Skills: Using a Canal Lock!

[@domsusefulstuff]

This is the video I found to explain canal locks to a friend and then became so interested in Dan's travels on the canals that I watched all of his videos and now want to follow in his wake.

[@SortOfInteresting]

Wow! Thank you! I’m glad you found these videos so interesting! (A new video is going live in an hour or so! Wild camping not boating though!)

[@domsusefulstuff]

@@SortOfInteresting Thank you, I watched it right away! Beautiful filming and it's nice to see some of your nature walks away from the canal.

[@cellokid5104]

Very cool

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

so i noticed that there are stones that are higher than the rest near locks and they look like they are used to be able to push off to get a start swinging the gate. I wonder if those stones had a name. Push stone or something like that

[@trevorsbarkingmadchannel4501]

Dearly missing your vlogs. House for sale and hope to be living on the canals. Yours and other vlogs really really helpful.

[@barrycossins9027]

very good informative video would like to see more like this

[@normsmith3519]

Interessting. Never heard or seen it before.

[@debbz575]

this information helped my Canal locks presentation thank you!

[@handyman4192]

very useful I'm rented one out in two weeks, getting myself knowledge up great vid

[@richardtofts8546]

Have you done any episodes specifically about the challenges of single-handed boating? Docking, securing and casting off etc. Thinking of buying a boat ( starting small, probably old canal cruiser, but would love to progress to Water Bug style narrow boat ) and most guides and walk-throughs are for crewed boats. Its likely that even if I wasnt alone, I would be pretty much doing all tasks myself. Awesome series of videos by the way :-)

[@kevinneil2241]

Hi Dan. Can I say this was a very useful video. I was not aware of fenders jamming against the sides of a lock. Is this just on llangollen locks or is it a country wide thing? The end gate came as a shock. I've watched a lot of canal video's and I have never seen one before or even a picture of one so well done with this video. Can I suggest you shoot another video in the future of another lock with different features and how you deal with them as a single user. I am going to buy my own canal boat and I will be on my own for most journeys and ensisage that locks will offer the biggest challenge as I dont plan to journey in storms or windy days!

[@jeh1950]

HI Just love you video's, they are fantastic. My family and I are planning a canal boat trip in summer 2016. We plan on doing the Cheshire Loop. Do you have any videos about this route? We are looking to start from Atherton for the starting place. We live in Huntington Beach, Cal south of Los Angeles Cheers Best Wishes John Hamilton

[@kallijayasuriya7025]

Hey! What do you do if there is no bridge near double gates?

[@furryhenry]

Very helpful, thanks.

[@2thinker]

Great videos Dan,I've been following you for a while and would love to slip by you on a canal some day. I've got a great idea for a future post. Why don't you film a clip about dos and don'ts for holiday cruisers. I'll be an American visitor next Spring and I don't want to be that kind of guy that long time boaters roll their eyes at. Give us a top five list of your pet peeves so we can keep your cheerful disposition going😊

[@carper1325]

glad youve done this again dan next please do a vid on how to view your podcast /listen

[@SortOfInteresting]

+carper1325 Hello, I'm afraid that my podcasting days have come to an end... for now at least! But I did take time to upload a lot of the old episodes me and a friend did a few years back, videos and audio episodes are all in this playlist, it seems like almost another lifetime ago! Also honestly don't worry about sending me anything, just the fact you have spent so much time watching and commenting is more than I could ask! kzbin.info/aero/PL81338D53D650D18D

[@carper1325]

hi dan i wouldnt offer if it was a prob it would be a way for me to contribute something for all of your hard work and time spent on your videos i have a lot of jack pyke stuff etc that would make an interesting bundle for u .......... i dont want anything in return..it just would give me pleasure of contributing something to you that would make me feel ive done my bit lol

[@kingsboy48]

Why did I duck when you went under that bridge at the end of the lock! I'm sitting at my desk in the office! (maybe my boss was coming!)

[@kenlynch6332]

Hopefully you retrieved your Lock Key (Crank) which was placed onto the grass after opening the forward gate. I know you had to go back and lower the gate. Very polite of your saying that the boats sinking in the locks are those Holiday Boaters that crowd the canals in season.

[@danoneill8751]

Ho did you get the boat out of the lock, did you have to jump down, or did you use that terrifying looking ladder? looks very slippy! Or did you pull the boat out using the rope maybe? Genuine question, I'm not a boater or anything so just interested, and maybe I missed that bit!

[@jabbertwardy]

Or, "How to Survive a Canal Lock". It's amazing how many hazards the various narrowboat channels point out. But that's 18th and 19th century safety culture for you! The main takeaways: don't fall in, don't sink your boat. 😄

[@michaelcoker3197]

Thank you!

[@stokesjack]

Where was this lock?

[@SortOfInteresting]

This is by a place called Queens Head in Shropshire.

[@CariStarlite]

In line for a custom wide beam but in USA at present. Got to sell the house first. Would love to read your Kindle books but unfortunately they are not available for folks outside the UK :(

[@SortOfInteresting]

+CariStarlite Excellent, let me know how you find your own boating adventures! Also this link should take you to my amazon US page: amzn.to/1N2B7wt

[@walleye364]

Is there a reason they don't automate the gates so a person doesn't have to get out and do it manually? Will it ever become automated where you could just send a signal from the boat to the lock and open and close them.

[@SortOfInteresting]

Hello, a lot of these gates were first put in two hundred years ago so they would need to be entirely reworked to be motorised, plus many are in extremely rural places so powering them would another issue, the gates are often very heavy to move even with the leverage of having the big arms sticking from them so it would likely require a serious bit of power to open them... Basically it would be very expensive and difficult to do with the huge number of locks there are across the country, the Canal & River Trust is a charity and it would take some serious donations to get it going... BUT... nobody would really want them automated anyway, as the draw of the canals to many is the rural simplicity of it all!

[@btudrus]

No, it's a livestyle to do the locks manually...

[@clareduffy5963]

Hello mates

[@harrynew340]

25 mins for a lock ? I wouldnt like to be behind you but your method is sound and good advice for newcomers .

[@SortOfInteresting]

Haha I’d probably let you go first to be honest!

[@carper1325]

i take it that u pull the boat to the ladder then climb on board that way i knew this was the only credible way to get back on other than jump onto the top of the boat which would be rather foolhardy lol colin

[@ellaness2279]

i'm so scared

[@andrewwilliams3032]

👍 👍 🚲

[@carper1325]

dan if u pm your postal address i will send u something that will help keep u warm this winter in camo colin

[@VeerSharma-hw8se]

In a canal

[@Doug_Diego_Cazadores_Cassidy]

Why do you have to go back up and shut it, for the next guy? He could be coming the other way, would have been better to have left it open for him?

[@rdmsh]

Doug Cassidy I’m just a gongoozler, but from my understanding if the top lock gates aren’t very water tight this can help to conserve water if the next boat is also going down through the lock and would need to refill it. Also in that situation the next boat would also need to shut the lock if it was left open.

[@sharpfang]

@@rdmsh If nobody closes the gates, half of the time you need to operate a gate 4 times as normal (close far, open near, close near, open far, instead of open near, close near, open far, close far), and the other half of the time you'd only need to operate them twice (close near, open far). And while in some canals water level is an issue, there are many where the overflow is running a good-sized brook. The one issue I can actually think of is accumulation of crud on the watertight surfaces where the two gate wings touch together.