What on EARTH possessed them?
The bottom of Isis lock has changed. There is now a platform too moor up in order to work the lock. (the ramp coming towards the picture is away from the lock)
The landing stage may be, in principle, a “good idea” as not everyone likes clambering up the bank. However, I am not sure that it is going to be that easy to turn up sheep wash with this HUGE landing stage where it is, and a boat, in the way.
The problem is that this bit of water is difficult, very difficult when there is a flow, and the landing stage is placed exactly where the nose of the boat goes in order to wind. If you don’t wind then you have to go in a u-shape and double back on yourself which isn’t always that easy when there is a flow.
This shouldn’t be too much trouble as the area is quite big, except in their infinite wisdom they have put some posts in the water, in the middle of the channel:
Now, it is a year or two since I did this stretch in a 63ft boat when there was a flow on the river. I was an amateur and these posts are IN THE WAY. I would have got stuck on them. The water from sheep wash pushed me down stream when I was trying to turn and I ended up further down than these posts are. I am not sure that getting stuck on them is my idea of fun.
You may think that they are at the end of the navigable channel and that anyone going beyond them (to the left in the photo) would run aground. Not true. to the left of this picture is a narrow boat moored up having a lovely time.
WHY WHY WHY???? I will be writing to BW to ask them whether they actually thought this through. From where I am I can see that no boats will be able to turn there if there is a flow on the Thames (there isn’t, at all, at the moment) which means hire boats will be stuck and Dusty, our coal man, won’t be able to turn… and we all know what that means. A cold hungry winter without any diesel to generate electricity, coal to light our fires, and gas to warm our food.
Do I like it? I would if I didn’t have a boat or think anyone ever took a boat there. As it is it looks incredibly dangerous.
posted by MortimerBones at
8:10 AM
3 Comments:
It seems that BW haven't thought a lot of things thru in advance, they appear to work in hindsight even with the major stuff..
H
Yeah I saw the beginning work of this platform and wondered what was going on until a few weeks ago when I saw the finished product. Single-handed in a fast flow will be interesting...
H
The best bit is BW were told before they put the posts in that they were in the wrong place but they still put them in. mark
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