Beyond the call of duty

THE boss of  Abingdon Access Scaffolding, Alan Joyce, is well revered by boaters on the Thames at Abingdon, as he has saved many boats from either being grounded or being washed downstream in the floods.

It all started in 2007 when he received a call from a friend in trouble with her boat floating above the river bank in the flood, it being at risk of being grounded as the water receded.  Alan came to the rescue by inserting scaffold poles to prevent this happening, Alan Tilbury tells us.

Protected boats

Other boaters, seeing what he was doing also called on his services, that resulted in Alan spending the rest of the day with some of his men protecting boats from being grounded.

Last week he even organised a 16 men team to rescue a boat from going over the weir when it broke loose from its moorings, and he does it for free, claiming that he could 'clean-up' twice a year in the floods, but does it to help people.

Method

His method is to insert three scaffold poles at an angle before the water rises so that when it rises the boat goes up with the water but not over the bank, then of cause it slides back as the flood recedes.

During one particular flood his yard was empty of poles, so he would not have been able to undertake any scaffolding work should it have come in at that time.

Now, of course, whenever the river starts to rise, boaters know who to call.  In fact it was Ian Mitchell, who posted an SOS on Facebook last week as his boat had broken from its moorings, that again prompted Alan to the rescue, who using strong arm tactics with his men manged to haul the boat to the bank.

Having to use his employees, he now just charges £20 to help cover their wages.