River Ouse (Yorkshire)

[tinkicker0]

Can anyone recommend any good books / charts about the Ouse? The MoBo running aground yesterday has made me think I had better be prepared.
Plan on weekending in the summer, down the river Trent at the waterski areas ysee.

Mind you Naburn to Goole in my little boat will be: Naburn lock, Selby Sea Lock, Selby Canal, Jump off at Haddlesey lock, run over the fields, have a cuppa at home, run back, up the Aire, down the Aire and Calder and then Goole and the Trent without the risk of having to make like King Canute or a logjammer.

Come to think of it some good navigation literature about the Trent will be handy too.


Sometimes small is good...

 

[JKay]

Mark

This is the best guide to Trent and Ouse although the Trent boaters association produce a guide as well

The shop in Naburn will sell you one

Clicky

you can overnight at Torksey or come down the Fossdyke tp Lincoln for the weekend.I'll organise a mooring if you like

Cheers Joe

 

[mont]

Not a dig at you but a basic rant on the general subject and the run aground mobo story.
Having been based at Newark originally, and travelling to Hull as 'Trent virgins', and also then from Hull to York and return as 'Ouse virgins' we used the TBA Trent Boating Association guides for both and some basics of boating.
We were told that the guides are as such guides and they are not prescise as of course the various sand banks will shift in time. Having said that the guide does, I remember it well, say to not under any circumstances cut the corner just below the M62 Ouse bridge going downstream as the water is very shallow and unpredictable. i.e. where the mobo was aground ! There is a red line to follow around the island in deep water and the M62 bridge is a modestly visible landmark if your lost at that stage of your jolly.
We also found ourselves eventually leading a flotilla of 10 presumably experienced mobos through the last six miles of the Trent just before apex corner. I was pretty shocked to be placed in such a position as a first year newby and Trent virgin. I was questioned repeatadly by swmbo as to why we were sat tied up at Torksey when boats were going downstream passing us. Some boats held at Gainsboro and we eventually drift on down at slow speed to find three boats aground at various un-charted points dowstream i.e. not in the marked channel.
I basically found for both rivers that if you use the 'guide' / chart which tells you roughly where the water will be, and of course your depth sounder to confirm it, coupled with basic passage / tides planning it aint rocket science. I learnt these basics of boating on my non compulsory, not required, day skipper course with Clive in sunny Duquesa - not a promo as I'm sure most courses will teach the same.
We then spent 2.5 years based at Hull on the shocking Humber where of course boats do run aground when they attempt to sail or power across the mud and sand. Usefully there are monthly charts telling where the water / channel now is and where the mud and sand is - bit like roads and muddy fields and embankments for cars.
So I basically found that by doing some research ( ask around the ones who do travel the rivers) on tides and water levels with the help of the charts then it's really not difficult. Do remember though that on both rivers, in the eyes of some non tidal river 'boaters', passing from the non tidal to tidal sections at Naburn and Cromwell will result in your watery end.
Respect the rivers and any water, there all dangerous, but dont be put off, there's life beyond.
Rant over.

 

[JKay]

Well said,although a bit of scaremongering
The problem with the Trent,Ouse and Humber Delta is the amount of flow and thus its unpredictability
the latest hot off the press charts are often out of date when we get them
we were discussing tonight at Lincoln boat Club a new shoal
that Myself and a friend discovered last year
most thought we were in the wrong place
This year pep's seem to agree a new shoal has formed
To summerise "If you have'nt hit the Mud you ain'nt boating

Cheers Joe

 

[tinkicker0]

Purchased said Boating Association guides 2 & 3 at Naburn yesterday.
Yes I was glad to see they had a red line to follow and included transits and the like to keep in the channel.

I am also fortunate to have as a next door neighbour a bloke who grew up at the side of the Ouse and went to work on the boats when he left school. I showed him the guides and he said much the same.
The skippers used to have a grapevine faster than light to inform each other of new shoals appearing and the ability to "read" the river is a must with the tide ebbing.
Douggie also mentioned the fact that it is not dredged now as often as it was and should be.

He also mentioned the fact that the boats had to be moored up within 15 minutes of the tide turning as the lister 40 engines fitted could not make headway against the current once the tide started ebbing seriously.
Apparently if the bottom scraped and the boat stopped, it could be sat on the mud within minutes.

I will have him teach me the arcane subject of river reading this summer hopefully.

Happily he is keen to come on the boat and as he is a retiree, is also keen to go to the marina and sit on the boat with a cuppa during those hot summer days when I am at work. Now all I need to do is show him where the polish locker is! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Good old Douggie, when the boat first appeared at the end of the drive on its trailer, his slippers almost caught alight at the speed he came out of the house.

 

[mont]

Pleased you have made the first step of buying the 'guides'.
The bridges on route should provide you with no air draft issues but you'll be studying the guides to confirm this anyway.
We found the 'locky' at naburn at the time was helpful as regards timings. We also found many boaters were very un-helpful with their doom mongering and fourth hand tales of hundreds of submerged cars and floating fridge freezers in the river. Below Naburn is a bit like beyond the twilight zone for some.
Perhaps if you do some trial passage planning in advance with of course the proper tidal charts for the river and humber beyond you'll soon grasp the logic of how you can use the flow or push against the current if needed.
Possibly the Humber then beckons ??
Good luck and sorry for the earlier rant.

 

[ians]

Mont
The ouse is like that, Its not doom mongering, there is a lot of ribbish in the river.
and you need to prepare for having problemsjust in case
We picked up a eel fishermans rope which disabled both engines in a fast current
Its down to luck, we have smashed props on sumerged logs and stuff, but have not had too much trouble in the last couple of years.
I never put people off going down, but they have to be prepared.
best to go down with someone who has done the trip before

ians