Grounded on a sandbank as lockdown eases

ROGER Boot and Colette Nevin of nb Dragonfly shared the following correspondence they have had with the Canal & River Trust:

As liveaboards we have been in lockdown at the top of the Stoke Lock at Stoke Bardolph on the River Trent on the floating pontoon for eight weeks. Yesterday (May 21) we suffered a theft from the pontoon on which we had previously no problems over that time.

Recently there has been a very significant increase in numbers of people using the towpath (several hundred a day) in the past few days which started to make us uncomfortable.

With supplies running low and in need of prescription medicines, we decided to move off and head for Gunthorpe – the Stoke Lock was on ‘boater use’ which we were able to do with no problems.

Having closed the lock gates behind us, we were central channel about 100 yards out and immediately hit a gravel/ sandbank. We were stuck fast and couldn’t move the boat in any direction. The sand and gravel had obviously built upafterthefloodsinNovember2019and February 2020.

We phoned the emergency helpline at CRT and were advised that it wasn’t a CRT problem and that we should phone River Canal Rescue. We said we are not members and in any case it isn’t an RCR problem. We were not broken down – we were simply stuck on a gravel bar that CRT had failed to detect and dredge. We were advised that any cost we might incur with RCR was our cost and nothing to do with the CRT.

During the time of the phone conversations we had attracted quite a crowd of onlookers – when I explained the problem to them and that CRT wasn’t interested in organising any assistance they were incredulous.

Out of the crowd came three burly guys and asked if they could help. Three hours of tugging and overheating the engine, together with continuing emptying the lock to get an extra inch of water, we managed to free the boat.

We found a very narrow channel to float the boat in and eventually made our way down to Gunthorpe lock on the way to Newark.

We would like to make a formal complaint about the attitude of CRT management and their lack of interest in providing assistance. It is especially annoying to read that the trust is spending thousands of pounds on contractors cutting grass from June 2020 when no money is spent in keeping the navigation open.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that navigation channels are likely to be silted up after the weirs and nobody at the CRT can be bothered to check them out.

The next time we find the navigation blocked by a fallen tree, for example, who do we call? CRT or RCR and who has to pay for its removal? On the strength of our latest encounter with CRT’s helpline, it seems that we will have to get our chainsaw out and remove it ourselves!

The increasing cost of our licence seems to be more spent on towpaths and cycleways rather than on the navigation itself.

Roger and Colette received the following reply from Jo Grummett, boating and customer service manager at the Canal & River Trust on June 16:

I am very sorry to hear your boat was stuck on sand banks that have arisen following the floods we experienced between November and February. The high, fastflowing water along with minimal boat movement on the network since March has caused unexpected build-ups on a few locations around our network.

This has resulted in us reviewing and re-prioritising our essential dredging works for this year. During lockdown we have been operating on reduced staff and only carrying out key essential work, however now that we are coming out of lockdown and are reopening our network fully and becoming aware of these issues, we are able to re-prioritise accordingly.

It concerns me to read that you felt the on-call manager was dismissive of your situation and unwilling to help when you contacted us to let us know you were stuck. Unfortunately as a trust we are not able to provide a rescue service when boats break down or get stuck, even if this is as a result of the natural changes to the waterways such as silt/gravel/sand build-up, or trees and vegetation being along the river bed.

As we don’t offer a rescue service we don’t have the boats or the staffing resource to be able to assist boaters in these situations and don’t employ trained helmsmen to be able to respond to a rescue situation. If it was an emergency we would always advise boaters to contact the emergency services. We would also recommend boaters use the River Canal Rescue service, not dissimilar to using the AA on the highways.

I have logged your complaint on our records and have fed back to the duty manager the way you felt about his response. He has passed on his apologies and assured me that it was not his intention to be dismissive or unhelpful and he is very alarmed to hear that it might have come across this way.

I hope you understand why we were unable to assist in the removal of your boat on the day and be reassured that we are reassessing the waterways after the long periods of flood and then long periods of minimal movement, in order to keep them safe and navigable for all users.

Editor’s note: Roger also pointed out that there was no warning sign alerting boaters to the hazard and also at Hazelford Lock, where there is also a sandbank.

On June 1, CRT issued an advice notice for Stoke Lock, Hazelford Lock and Barton Island, urging people to proceed with care due to sediments having been moved around by the winter floods.