I am quite familiar with Lock 17, it is "ropes only". That means there are ropes hanging into the lock which the boaters use to hang on. There is no mechanism of any kind, there is nothing to jam. If a boat got suspended from one of these ropes, it can only be if the boater cleated the line to his deck. That would be madness to do such a thing, and it can only be 100% the fault of the boater. Yes, the flow can be stopped at any time, though it takes a few minutes to close the valves. It is easily possible that the lock operator simply did not see the boat in trouble, as it is a 40 foot drop and would not be visible from the operators control panel. Moral of the story is never cleat the lines to your deck. Fred Tug 44 ---------------------------------------- From: "Hangreg" <hangreg@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, September 06, 2013 4:44 PM To: "Great Loop" <great-loop@lists.trawlering.com> Subject: Boat hangs up in lock 17 I got sketchy reports about a boat piloted single handed, hanging up in the little falls lock 17. Lock 17 is the largest drop on the Erie. It was very windy yesterday. Reportedly it hung from a cleat when the tag line jammed. When the line was finally cut by someone?? the boat free fell into the water from some height. I locked through a few locks with a 30 foot inboard express cruiser that fits the description. He was single handed. I believe that in some locks the operator cannot stop the flow once started. Anyone have more details. Greg Han

Hard to believe anyone could bee that uneducated about locks by the time they get to lock 17?? Even if the line was only wrapped it should have been attended. We always had a "line wrench" at hand, on our person, while locking. (thats a knife, for those who have not heard the term) Elaine On Sep 7, 2013, at 12:33 AM, fred@tug44.org wrote: > I am quite familiar with Lock 17, it is "ropes only". That means there are > ropes hanging into the lock which the boaters use to hang on. There is no > mechanism of any kind, there is nothing to jam. > > If a boat got suspended from one of these ropes, it can only be if the > boater cleated the line to his deck. That would be madness to do such a > thing, and it can only be 100% the fault of the boater. > > Yes, the flow can be stopped at any time, though it takes a few minutes to > close the valves. It is easily possible that the lock operator simply did > not see the boat in trouble, as it is a 40 foot drop and would not be > visible from the operators control panel. > > Moral of the story is never cleat the lines to your deck. > > Fred > Tug 44 > > ---------------------------------------- > From: "Hangreg" <hangreg@gmail.com> > Sent: Friday, September 06, 2013 4:44 PM > To: "Great Loop" <great-loop@lists.trawlering.com> > Subject: Boat hangs up in lock 17 > > I got sketchy reports about a boat piloted single handed, hanging up in the > little falls lock 17. Lock 17 is the largest drop on the Erie. It was very > windy yesterday. > > Reportedly it hung from a cleat when the tag line jammed. When the line was > finally cut by someone?? the boat free fell into the water from some > height. I locked through a few locks with a 30 foot inboard express cruiser > that fits the description. He was single handed. > > I believe that in some locks the operator cannot stop the flow once > started. > > Anyone have more details. > > Greg Han > > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com > > To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address, > unsubscribe, etc.) go to: http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/options/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com