Get Locky

Think of locks and what can often come to mind is a man with a beard the size of Brian Blessed’s leaning on a wooden beam and then taking a pull on his pipe as a narrowboat chugs into the lock in some deeply landlocked part of the UK. It feels a million miles away from the sea and the sort of boating that we take part in. Yet locks can often be a prominent part of a sailors landscape. Many marinas feature a tidal lock and the more adventurous sailor can negotiate a route across Scotland via the Crinan Canal without even dropping his or her mast. Another route close to hand that sailors may well want to use is the Dutch inland waterway route up the Scheldt, past Amsterdam and into the Ijsselmeer. Again, this is a route that takes in several locks but does not require dropping the mast. It also cuts out a substantial length of often unfriendly North Sea. Meanwhile, for those planning to drop their mast and head to the Med via the inland route, many miles of canals and hundreds