I HAVE read the various diatribes of boaters in your columns who have complained about the state of the canals, but I have had a good season, writes Eugene Fowler.
My wife and I have spent the past four months cruising the canals this year on the Kennet & Avon, the Thames and around London and the Grand Union, and have never been held up once by any maintenance problems, and there has never been a pound low enough to stop us moving.
Managed all lock gates
Though still not too old to have lost our strength, we managed all the lock gates except those of course on the Thames that have lock keepers, but as an aside, I should mention that the locks were built for working men and women, not for the old and infirm, who of course will have problems especially with the broad lock and narrow deep lock gates, but surely this is to he expected.
We had no trouble even with Marsh Lock on the Kennet & Avon that has the swing bridge over it, that seems to cause others problems.
We met those often maligned volunteers and had no problems with them at all, with most being most helpful, though like many other boaters we would prefer to do the locks ourselves, like other boaters we have spoken with, as many have their own idiosyncrasies.
Ill-treated
Time and time again however we have seen locks ill-treated by boats bumping into lock gates in an attempt to open them before the water is level, with one boater we shared locks with on the Kennet & Avon even suggesting when coming up for both of us to go forward and crash into the gates to get them open. The offer was refused. But this same boater, when it was his turn to do the locks, opened a top paddle fully after the boats went in, saying that it made the closing of the bottom gates easier, he totally ignoring the crash as they came together.
He was not an inexperienced hire boater but one who told me he had been boating over 20 years. I dread to think what damage he must have caused if this is how he operated the locks all that time. And he left the top gates open when he left the lock, but either my wife or myself closed them after him.
Sheer stupidity
From this, it can be seen that it is not only normal wear and tear that causes so much maintenance but sheer stupidity on the part of some boaters, and why maintenance is perhaps running out of control.
I have submitted this article in the hope that it will show that all is not lost as some seem to portray.