Bugger!

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Something like 27 historic boats attended the gathering at Hebden Bridge

This list was compiled by Pete Harrison...
 
Saltaire (S), Flamingo, Vela (S), Aldgate, White Heather, Madeley (F), Hazel, Forget Me Not, Purton, Tug No 2, Bream (F), Tasmania (F), Plover, Warbler, Beatty, Belfast, Rat (F), Stanton, Bath, Swan, Daphne, Squire (F), Thor (F), Thea (F), Marquis, Maria, Joel

(F) = original fore end of 'historic' boat.
(S) = original stern end of 'historic' boat

The logistics of getting so many deep draughted boats to Hebden Bridge can't be under-estimated - not that long ago boat movements on the restored Rochdale Canal were on parts of it limited to no more than 4 boats per day - water supply on this very heavily locked route remains a constant challenge.

Most of the boats attending has to come over the Rochdale summit from Manchester, and most have to go back that way. Not much further on the Rochdale Canal ends at Sowerby Bridge, and the route continues as the Calder and Hebble. The Calder & Hebble can handle 60 foot boats as an absolute maximum, so any narrow boat of 70 feet or more, (which the majority were) cannot get here or leave by that route.

To ease the burden from Manchester to Hebden Bridge, the organising Historic Narrow Boat Club, (HNBC), allocated boats to one of three convoys in each direction. Each of these were spaced 2 or 3 days apart to give some hope of water levels recovering before the next convoy. We came in on the third convoy from Manchester, and were scheduled to leave on the second from Hebden bridge, which should have been on Wednesday. We missed that opportunity because of all the troubles detailed in two previous posts, and thought we might instead go out on Friday when fewer boats were allocated.

However...

Whilst we were having our own "interesting" moments, reports started to come in from the lead boats in the first convoy back to Manchester that there were major difficulties with a lock near Rochdale, (Lock number 49). Shortly after came reports that CRT had closed the lock to Navigation, due to a "blown cill". It seems about only three of the boats scheduled to go that way had made it though the closure.

Mixed messages then started to appear about the scale of the problem, or which boats were where. What remained unclear was to what degree CRT had been able to investigate the actual issue, and hence whether there was any prospect of an imminent fix. 

It appears that the short pound below the lock cannot be drained for whatever reason, and hence for CRT to expose the cill they need to erect a "coffer dam" around the bottom end of the lock, and then pump out the water. They seem to have been some time actually getting the dam on site, and now we are hearing that although they hoped to get it erected and the water pumped out yesterday, that they have so far failed to do so - we don't know why, and they have issued no further update. They were initially saying if it is no worse than feared it might be fixed by Tuesday or Wednesday - one can only now assume that has probably slipped by a couple more days.

11 boats held at Littleborough
(Photo: Nick Grundy)

Meanwhile something like 11 of the boats that left Hebden Bridge for Manchester on either Monday or Wednesday are now moored up at Littleborough, marking time. There are at least facilties for water and toilet emptying there. The actual lock is an area near Rochdale where we are told you would not want to spend a night, so none are moving further at the moment.


Meanwhile we remain with Flamingo at Hebden bridge. We have already witnessed four of the shorter boats attending the gathering, and who were heading for Manchester coming back past us in the other direction - they are short enough to go down the Calder & Hebble, which most of the others can't, although this involves the tidal Trent to get back south - a very different style of boating!

We had a family conference about our options. With three of us here and two large dogs, and no transport of our own, it would be both a major exercise and a very expensive one to try and get us away from here now, and to come back later. We have decided to stay put until CRT final provide some kind of time to fix. Should that mean a significant delay, we have stayed in Hebden Bridge, as it seems perhaps the best place to leave the boat if we are forced into that situation, (which, of course, we may yet be).

As the title says... "Bugger!"