Rudolph Hooker -- Health & Safety

I was in a pub the other day (here we go again.... Matt) chatting away to another boater who cruises single-handed on a regular basis, when the topic of lock safety came up.

She had seen new notices on locks stating that the wearing of life jackets was compulsory when operating the locks. Between us we had nearly 20 years of locking experience but had never fallen in a lock. What have we been doing wrong we asked?

Another stupid development is the fencing off of the tail end of locks. This restricts the options to single-handed boaters (and crews alike.... Matt). Presumably walking on the roof of a narrowboats is soon to be made verboten too? Status boaters would, of course, never dream of walking on the roof anyway.... Think of all those muddy footprints darling !

Then a thought occurred to us, maybe the two were linked? Maybe part of the reason we had not been for a swim in a lock was because we used the roof of the boat as a "safe haven" in slippery conditions and had painted it with non-slip paint?