Going through a lock solo

Before leaving for this journey, my main concern was whether I would manage to go through the locks by myself.

I’ve seen many pretty traumatic experiences with several people onboard (including myself), so the thought of doing it alone was not putting me particularly at ease.

Well, I’m happy to say that I think I’ve cracked it ( Touch wood)!

The approach I’ve adopted was after a bit of thought and slightly perfected with the experience.

This is not rocket-science and it’s surprising not more people use such a technique.

Funnily enough I met  a few days later a couple from the Netherlands who use a similar technique, the only difference being there is one person to do each task but that’s not a big issue.

 

So here it goes:

1. Have a prepared boat.
   • Loads of fenders all around the boat (I’ve got 14!)
   • Fender planks on each side put well forward so that they come in contact first with the wall.
   • Long lines on each side, from bow and stern leading to amid ship.
2. Choose your side.
   • Choose the side of the lock where your prop-walk kicks your stern to (in other words, when you put your engine in reverse, which way does the rear end of the boat kicks to).
   • If you have no choice in the matter, just go a little slower on your approach and then you’ll be a little faster to get to your lines and stop the boat.
3. Work those lines baby.
   • Stop the boat close to the wall having the bollard midship, using the reverse to get the rear close and make use of that board to rub against the wall if need be(it’s there for that).
   • Run to your lines mid ship and pass a loop from each side and hold her there. In other words, don’t pull the whole line through but just what you need and leave the rest on deck. This also makes it easier to pull them off and feed them into the next bollard (above or below)
4. Chokes away!
   • When ready to go, take off bow line
   • Keep stern line and put engine in reverse if you need to spring off the wall, if there’s a bit of wind pushing you on wall.
   • Engine forward and get that stern line back.
5. Bow to the delirious crowds.

 

This should explain how this all works.

I might try and do a video of the whole operation and hopefully it won’t all go horribly wrong!