Locking the Thames

2/8/2018


A warning- this is a boring post, explaining how a 20 tonne boat climbs up the Thames. The photos are all of Grafton Lock, which is only 3 ft 8 in deep.

On the upper Thames, west of Oxford, many of the locks are manually operated. Below Oxford it's a button pushing exercise, and the locks are deeper.

Where there is no lock keeper, one of us jumps off below the lock onto the provided landing stage, where the boat's centre rope is used to tie up. If there is a lock keeper, both of us can stay aboard.

Most narrowboats have 4 ropes, one on the bow and stern, and 2 centre ropes, attached to the roof. They're all quite long, around 10 metres or so. The centre ropes lie either side of the roof, running towards the stern. (This allows control from either side.)

While the boat is secure below the lock, the shore crew trots up to the lock gates, and using the large wheels in the photo, turns them to open the sluices.  These upper Thames locks are only 7 ft deep, some only 2.5 ft, so emptying them is quite quick, maybe 5 minutes. Quite a volume of water, as the width is about 15 ft, and length about 75 ft.

With the water level now the same as downstream, the large gates open quite easily, and in she comes. The Cap'n usually gets this task, as I think it's trickier. The gates and sluices are closed behind the boat, which is now sitting up to 7 feet below the lock edge.

With the boat in the lock, the Cap'n throws first the stern rope, then the bow, to the 1st mate. The bollards on the lock edge are used, ropes secured, and the ends passed back to the boat. This enables the Cap'n to hold the boat steady. He holds the bow rope, allowing him to keep the bow against the lock side. The stern rope which is taut at the beginning, slackens as the boat rises. Not ideal, but even the Cap'n can't be in 2 places at once.

Opening the sluices is done slowly, gradually, taking much longer than the emptying process. This is so the boat is not thrown around by the currents. The crew on the boat direct the opening, as he/she must hold the bow against the wall.

Once the boat has risen to the top of the lock chamber, gates are opened, boat sails out, and sluices and gates closed. The crew jumps back on, and away we go!

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