Let's have a look at your local lock

Hi All,
I never used a lock until I got a berth in my present marina. They aren't all that common in Australia. The one I use is at the entrance to the marina, and it works very well.

Each berth holder is issued a remote control to control the lock, giving us 24/7 access. A button for each gate; one to equalize and open the other gate; and an emergency stop button. All very simple. It is a bit slow taking maybe 10 minutes to get through, depending on the tide. Opening the sea side gate requires a pedestrian bridge to automatically retract, along with the necessary safety gates, flashing lights etc, taking a bit of extra time.

The lock is about 80 feet long allowing 2 boats the size of mine, although it is rare to get more than one boat passing through at a time. The only design problem is the horizontal I-beams on each of the gates. I have heard of boats drifting forward until the bow rail touches the gate. If the lock level is rising, the bow rail can get caught under the I-beam while the water level rises. Not good. Obviously its a good idea to keep your distance.

There are ropes hanging every 4 feet along each side which can be used to hold your position, although not a good idea to tie off when the level is dropping, for obvious reasons. (unless you want to do a quick bottom check)

What are your local locks like? I have heard others are hard to deal with singlehanded etc, but this one is a breeze. (actually no breeze, making it easy)

Sorry -no photo's handy.

Here are a couple pics of locks near to us from one of our summer trips. One has about a 47 ft lift, the other just 20 ft.

Swift Rapids?

Our " local" cruising grounds have locks that have lifts from 25' to 110' in a single lift, the smaller that are the better in my opinion. We once entered one of the big locks in the pics during very windy conditions... the lock master reported gusts in the low forties.. it made for very interesting maneuvering inside the chamber.

On a side note.. no matter how many times I go under the guillotine style gates they give me the creeps...

HOLLYWOOD

Although I only locked through once, it was quite an experience.

The flight of 8 locks in Ottawa, Canada.

I'm posting a few pics of Ice Harbor Lock on the Snake River. I'm not sure if this is the same one Hollywood posted, but they're very similar. Ice Harbor lock is 86' wide x 675' long and has the highest lift of any lock in the US. The last time we went through the lift was 120'. Here's what it looks like from the downstream approach.....


Here's the guillotine gate on the downstream end of the lock....


Inside the lock, secured on a stbd tie to the bollard....


Here we are at the top, waiting for the upstream cantilever gate to lower and then we're ready to head out of the lock....


We're headed out tomorrow for a 3-day trip up the Snake and will be going through this lock twice...tomorrow and Sunday as we return. It's always an adventure!

This is L&D #25 on a trip south on a friends boat to Port Charles marina near St. Louis, this is as far south as I've been on a boat.

I wish ours were that big. This one in Montezuma Slough is 20 ft wide.

jleonard said:

Swift Rapids?

Click to expand...

Yep!!

Greetings. No hostory of any county is complete without canals. Check out FALKIRK WHEEL to see wonderful technology. On the Trent-Severn there are three wonderful feats, the two lift locks and the Big shoot.

I posted these pics on another thread, but I'll put them here as well. This is the Hiram Chittenden locks in Seattle which is run by the Army Corp. of Engineers. Two locks (one smaller and one large) which allow boat passage between Puget Sound and Lakes Union and Washington via the Ship Canal, sometimes called the Montlake Cut. There is also a retention dam and fish ladder for the passage of salmon and stealhead.

I like the scale/looks of this lock:



(Belgium)

I don't have a local lock but I am we'll over 100 locks into the great loop. My favorite by far was the flight of eight locks going up into Ottawa.



Arch

Here's KaJen (second boat) last week in the Wilson Lock on the Tennessee River.



Arch