Navigating Locks When Boating

This past week I was teaching a Small Vessel Operator Proficiency (SVOP) course in Castlegar. This is a Transport Canada Accredited course for commercial operators.

I was instructing on a 22' jet boat on the Columbia River outside of town. The Hugh Keenleyside dam is just up the river. We decided to take the opportunity to go through the lock to allow everyone the experience of locking through.

Here are pictures showing a log boom exiting the lock,

the downstream door closing,

the upstream door closed.







The lock chamber is 50' wide, 200' long and 150' deep.

There are floating bollards (mooring points) contained in the vertical grooves in the lock walls. You take a mooring line around the bollard to secure your boat while the lock is filling or emptying. You should not tie the boat to the bollard in case the bollard gets stuck.