Erie Canal Solo?

[_m_miles]

Hello,

I am planning to move my boat — a 33’ Beneteau 331 — from Atlantic Highlands, NJ to Cleveland, OH this summer. While I have been told that I can handle the locks in the Erie Canal by myself, others have said it’s not possible, or even allowed.

Does anyone have experience transiting the EC? Any anecdotes or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

[rslifkin]

There's no restriction on singlehanding through the Erie Canal. Some places (like the Welland Canal) have minimum crew requirements, but the Erie does not. Having a second person on board will certainly make getting through the locks easier, but plenty of people have done it solo and it's certainly possible. Most of the lockmasters are pretty helpful as well, so especially if you're going through at a lower traffic time, they may help you out by filling the locks slower for less movement, etc.

[AiniA]

While it may be doable, I don't think it would be very pleasant and your boat is heavy enough that at times you will need to be pushing one end out while simultaneously taking in line at the other end. At the very least you need lots of fenders - 7 or 8.

[Jammer]

I haven't been on the Erie Canal but have been through many locks on the Mississippi in boats of various sizes.



You'll mostly be locking up so the locks will be filling, which is the more difficult direction as there is more turbulence. I would think that if you are skilled and if you have the boat properly prepared you'll do fine. The main thing is that you want to have the boat thoroughly fendered especially since you'll be by yourself. Have enough fenders that you can approach the lock wall at any angle without damage, including large fenders as close to the bow and stern as possible. If you are carrying your mast have some carpet or other padding over the ends to provide at least a little protection for when you inevitably scrape it against one of the walls. If I recall correctly there are one or two locks in the system where you have to tie up on the opposite of the usual side so you will have to fender both sides.


The Erie locks do not have floating bollards so what you are going to have to do is control your boat with lines going to the top of the lock. This is most difficult in higher lift locks and the Erie does have some higher lift locks, one 40'. The angles make it more difficult to control the boat, it takes a stronger line pull to get the same amount of force pulling the boat towards the wall.



Generally what you are going to want to do is, wearing gloves, stand near the mast facing the nearest lock wall, holding the forward-going line, the aft-going line, and a boathook or pole. You're going to juggle the pole and as needed push with it with one hand while pulling the lines with the other hand to keep the bow or stern from swinging out. You're going to push hard so if you have a collapsible boathook it's going to collapse and perhaps end up being shorter than you want. It's easier to maintain control if you let the boat move out 2-3 feet from the wall and move amidships a little rather than standing right next to the gunwales.


Within reason you always have the right to say no to sharing the lock with other boats. You may have to wait for a later lockage and if the lock keeper thinks you're being unreasonable you have to wait until there's a break in traffic. Typically they'll put all the boats along the same wall since it's easiest to control fore and aft movement. On the Mississippi on a holiday weekend once I saw them lock through more than 20 boats in a single lockage. If you're by yourself you can't control the boat and push away other boats at the same time.

[rslifkin]

If you have midship cleats most of the upward locks shouldn't be too bad. There are a few where you only have lines hanging from the top which can be a pain, but most have pipes or cables you can loop a line around and let the line slide up and down. When going up, we typically do that at the midship cleat and hold the boat fairly tight to the wall, then take whatever we can get at the stern. If your midship cleats are centered enough and you fender well, the one line will likely do the trick. The lines hanging from the top are easier to grab when going down (as you can snag them with a boat hook while getting a line around a pipe can be hard when the lock is full) and generally give enough control on the way down (it's a smoother ride than going up). Good gloves are a must as the walls are generally very slimy.

For fenders, I'm a fan of large ball fenders as they slide well on rough lock walls. And fixed length boat hooks as you can push on them harder without causing them to collapse. If your hull has a lot of flare you'll want big fenders at the waterline and smaller ones just below the deck to better accommodate locks that fill close to the top. If you don't have much flare then just fenders down low will work fine. Fenders should be larger near the bow and stern to help hold the boat parallel to the wall, especially if you're only controlling it from one point.

On the Erie most of the locks don't care which side you're on, but there are a few that do, at least when going up. We normally fender one side only (we can only store so many fenders on board), so for the occasional times when the side matters we switch the fenders on the approach to the lock. Typically we lock on the port side (our preferred docking side) which makes it easy to get a good spot on the wall, as many boats seem to prefer the starboard side. I've never seen a lockmaster care if everyone is on the same side or not as long as the boats fit reasonably.

[Kettlewell]

Possible, but not desirable. Your trip will be much more pleasant with a crew member. If I was solo I would want both sides of the boat fendered and with lines ready. You don't want to be resetting everything as the lock opens and it turns out you have to tie up on the other side.

[boatpoker]

I've done the Erie single handed in a 50' powerboat, no problems.
I've seen it done in 30' to 40' sailboats and it did not seem problematic except when they had the mast strapped on deck. The fore and aft overhang makes single handling a lot more tricky.

[macmire]

Let me know if you need any help with the passage. I am looking to take sometime off. I have been on parts of the Hudson, parts of the Erie/Oswego Canal and most the Great Lakes.

[nuru05]

I just did the canal this past summer in a Moody 425. Honestly I wouldn't try it single hand in that boat. You will be going up in almost all of the locks. Going up is much more difficult than down due to the extra turbulence of the water coming in. If you've got a bow thruster that you can operate while hanging on to a line then maybe.

Honestly I think it's a recipe to ding up your boat. We rode one down while not hanging onto the lines (dumbass operator started dropping us before we got a hold of the lines) and it nearly ended in catastrophe