A few weeks ago the slipway team took a 70 foot boat out of the water for a survey, unfortunately as we were drawing the narrowboat out of the water one of the trolleys jumped off the rails and the boat got stuck. We then had to hire a crane to remove the boat from the trolleys, allowing us to realign the bottom trolley onto the rails. As a consequence of this we had some concerns regarding the state of the rails under the water.
This week we had a boat cancel its blacking week which has given us the opportunity to empty the slipway and inspect the rails. We hired a 4 inch 4 stroke water pump and pumped out the slipway after boarding the entrance. The team then cleared away a large amount of mud.
Upon inspection one of the rails was quite distorted and raised above the slipway surface We managed to straighten the rail and then drilled and rag bolted it securely to the concrete.
I am happy to say after refilling the slipway and testing the viability of the repair we found that all was working as it should. Both of the trolleys were thoroughly inspected, cleaned and re greased.
I can confirm the slipway is now In full operational use once again. We have however decided that the maximum length of a boat coming out of the water will be restricted to 65 feet from now on.
It was nice to see the return of the Land and Water Space Director Mr Eric Roberts who supervised the Operation which was run by Mr Julian Swindell the slipway manager, ably assisted by Ian Hooper and Mike Robison, With further assistance from Ian Jewel and new member John Longden.
Article by Mike Robison 05.10.23
More pics of the slipway cleanup