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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/10/14 in all areas

  1. The overwhelming majority of who, where? I've said this before, my ideas about CCing and leaving people alone are nothing to do with my situation, I have a residential mooring with planning permission and I pay council tax. I am able, unlike some it seems, to look beyond my own circumstances and apply a principle regardless of whether it works to my personal advantage or against it.
    2 points
  2. Ah, thank you. Sorry, but what has this diatribe got to do with General Boating or the topic in question? - it belongs in the virtual pub.
    2 points
  3. Unsure about your legal rights as a boater? Want to find out what the recent introduction of neighbourhood maps and minimum travelling distances could mean for you? Boaters without a home mooring, especially those new to the water, need to understand their legal rights, and how these may differ from Canal and River Trust (CRT) guidance. At a time when CRT is increasing enforcement – and pushing new guidance in terms of maps and minimum travel distances – we all need to get knowledgable about what we should do if we receive a warning letter or are threatened with legal action. The National Bargee Travelers Association (NBTA) have a wealth of knowledge to share on these issues, built up over many years advising boat dwellers and working directly with legal representatives. Join us for a briefing in London on Thursday 6th November where you can learn about your legal rights and what to do if you encounter CRT enforcement, and put your questions direct to NBTA's experts. Reserve Your Place Now
    1 point
  4. I went to the open meeting with Richard parry in Milton Keynes last night, and found it a thoroughly depressing experience. However the reasons for this had very little to do with Richard Parry and other CRT personnel, and almost entirely related to the majority of those in the audience raising questions. Except most were not actually questions, in the true sense, they were largely just rants. It was like having an an audience 80% to 90% comprised of IWA grandees (!), all baying for the blood of anybody who dares to keep an even half way scruffy boat without a home mooring. Bizarrely many talked about "wanting to enjoy they boating", but sounded like they were incapable of enjoying anything on the canals, because the experience had been so poisoned for them by others. Trying to be objective, everything I have tried to do to improve how BW and CRT manage the waterways, I have tried to do from a position of inclusiveness, and building as much common ground as possible. Whatever our reasons for boat ownership, and whatever our style of boating, we all have to share a common resource, and a whole bunch of us are not about to disappear simply because we are unpalatable to a different bunch of waterways users. I just hope that those actually mouthing on last night are not typical, even though they largely dominated the meeting. My hopes were slightly raised by several people around me muttering "rubbish" under their breath to some of the more outlandish claims. I guess you might say why did more not speak out against the ranters? The thing was it was billed as a way to come and ask questions about the trust - "What are you going to do about these terrible people?" is indeed a question, just not a very good one, if it is the only thing anybody can keep coming up with. (My rant ends!).
    1 point
  5. So basically you advocate anarchy, where whoever is most prepared to impose their ideas of how things should be wind. Sod the fact that the overwhelming majority want something different, just get in there and take it. Of course, once you've appropriated the canals for housing and there are no moorings for people who want to use them for cruising, you will apply the same logic that the canals are for whatever people use them as if the local residents turn them into a sewer or if NC decides to move her speedboating from Lincoln to London. No,of course not. The right to Do as you please is for you to ride roughshod over others, not for them to do it to you isn't it?
    1 point
  6. I was fairly gobsmacked this year when delivering boats down to and through London how large the boating population has become. Areas which until two or three years ago would not have been considered for safe mooring are now end to end boats. Kensal Green was probably 10-12 boats maximum when I was CCing the London loop 3 years ago, it now has boats stretching for a mile either side. Even West Drayton had a few boats moored. Moving boats, I rarely moor up until late evening, and both deliveries did not fail to find a good mooring near shops/facilities, sometimes the most obvious moorings are the ones to head for as everyone thinks they will be full. London as it stands, is not going to stop expanding as a housing solution, Whilton buying sinkers , blacking them and selling them, for £15k with a map of the route to London free, is not helping. There is much free cruising to be had in London, there are still long stretches unoccupied. All that needs to happen is that a certain number of Visitor Moorings need to be bookable in advance.....Say 5 at Little Venice, 5 in Paddington Basin, 3 at Camden, a few at other choice sites. If there is a reservation fee or a booking charge (how about £25), then so be it, it is our countries capital city and everything else commands a premium cost down there. I did suggest this several years ago to BW Head of Boating, but their financial system does not allow anything other than Fines to be levied. and that is how they continue to leave it.
    1 point
  7. Not at all, I am more than ready to hold this disgraceful government to account for their record. Don't play the "More liberal than you" card unless you have homeless people sleeping on your floor. This is "Canal world". We care about waterways and if the use of a waterway AS a waterway is impaired by residential use we have every right to protest it and that doesn't make homelessness my fault. As for whining about cruising in London, That's what the waterway is for! I have no intention of entering into an infantile pissing contest.
    1 point
  8. Jason Gallop starting the Bolinder on Spey:
    1 point
  9. Imagine the incredulous looks you would get at an open meeting if you raised the point that you only had a mobile phone for emergencies and used very little internet on it.
    1 point
  10. RP's view is that everybody has a view, and that those views should be heard. I told him I very much hoped that not all these meetings had produced so much vitriol, but he wouldn't be drawn on how this one compared to others he has run. If I thought the attitudes expressed were vaguely representative of all boat owners, I think I would pack up and leave the waterways, but I suspect that actually many of these people own boats, and seldom move them. Their principle objection seems to be they pay to keep a boat somewhere, whilst others do not, but they didn't actually seem to know very much about the waterways that they boat on, latching on instead to the (wrong!) anecdotal "evidence" of others. (Sorry I did say "rant ends"!!!)
    1 point
  11. I'm sorry I must have missed where Earl Grey was classed as proper tea - could you point me to a source?
    1 point
  12. The whole meeting was seemingly an opportunity taken by a silly bunch of old duffers to knock continuous cruisers, or like David daines, moan about having two boats and having to licence them.One guy even came equipped with photos of overstayers, which turned out were not, and proved to be a huge embarrassment for him. All in all, there was some disgusting attitudes on show. David daines is on the south east waterways sub group. He was the guy who believed licence fees should be doubled, and online mooring fees halved.
    1 point
  13. Jethro Tull - seen on the River Wey in June 2012:
    1 point
  14. If I want someone to pass the wrong side, I usually point at the other boat, and then with my hand in the direction of travel wave down the large expanse of water into which they should go!
    1 point
  15. The answer is obvious. The boater in front of you appears to be wearing the correct apparel, and therefor has right of way. Follow him at all times.
    1 point
  16. I found your comment on another thread advocating that we set off a nuclear bomb in Syria/Iraq to destroy ISIS and presumeably a huge number of innocent civilians of greater concern than a little spat about boating. Back on topic there were some interesting comments that the judge made from the NBTA judicial review and I believe this has caused CRT to realise that they can be vulnerable to a challenge and it's one of the many pieces that has led them to want to try and get more of a consensus (among associations ) which might lead to greater clarity of what 'bona fide' navigation means from an enforcement perspective. In my personal opinion of course.
    1 point
  17. I have no recollection of suggesting that you wish to "assist people in breaking the Law" so to use that as a qualifying observation is inappropriate. As a former Trades Union Regional Sectetary, I have some relevant experience in establishing what "rights" people have, But rights are almost invariably accompanied by obligations and to discuss one without the other is to misrepresent those who you seek to support.
    1 point
  18. I believe that the PRM150 can be run either way. The only issue is that the fail safe facility ,where you can lock the gearbox in drive to get you home,only works with a right hand prop(unless you want to get home backwards,of course)I have been using a PRM150 with a left hand prop,for 2,200 hours with no problem.(I converted from Lister to Isuzu)
    1 point
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