Replacing damaged spindles

A SPOKESMAN for Canal & River Trust states that there is to be a meeting with boaters to discuss new designs for pawl catches and the replacement of spindles on paddle gear.

This has been brought in under health and safety, and is a national project to  replace damaged spindles and to ensure all paddle gear has working pawl catches, which prevent the windlass from slipping out of control when the boater is using the lock, Mick Fitzgibbons tells us.

Running trials

The waterways teams will be running trials of modified pawl catches at different locations across the country.

A great deal of the paddle gear across the system is unsafe, with the picture showing one spindle on a lock on the Shropshire Union Canal that is so worn it is virtually circular, and the windlass actually slipped off, with the paddle crashing down, that didn't do it much good. Many pawl catches too are so displaced that they slip off, so a national effort to do something about the problem is surely welcome by boaters.