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I have zero prejudice towards ccrs or cmers for that matter..... I really don't. I just made an observation about a stretch where boats almost never Moor. I should have known better than mention this after reading some of the vitriol slung by both sides on some threads. I know the Staffin between Rafford and hazels trine like the back of my hand, why shouldn't someone Moor there for months, no bugger else does. They're not on cm..... So who is being inconvenienced? No one. My position clear now? Their boats were a bloody eyesore though..... Is it OK for me to get arsed about that or are you going to still accuse me of being a cc hater? Fairs fair mate

Yes but then when people describe the problem as I have done many times we simply might as well not have bothered. The descriptions are not challenged, gainsaid or debated but often supported (last time I described what the western k&a was like someone added the story of the bloke who put up a shed on the towpath!). Rather than this they are simply ignored, it's as if the posts were never made. You will never agree there is or was a problem until you see it with your own eyes, you just don't trust those of us who have described it to be truthful. You somehow find it easier to believe that all the complaints and anecdotes are fabrications. It is impossible to change such an entrenched view by debate.

Might as well, every time I raise something relevant I might as well not have bothered. I have no idea how often I have described what the western k&a used to be like, usually with corroboration from other members but it's still portrayed as a fantasy problem only relevant to the terminally bitter with the real problem being the complainers. The people to blame for whatever crackdown occurs is those who pushed their luck too far for too long and BW for shirking their responsibility to effectively regulate.

Here is another arrow to add to your quiver : The opening paragraph to C&RTs T&Cs states :- Numbered paragraphs below are legally binding general conditions. If you breach any of these, we are entitled to terminate your Licence and you could face legal action, which may result in the removal of your boat from our waterways. The following is an UN-NUMBERED paragraph so presumably C&RT accept that it is not legally binding. A HOME MOORING The boat must have a home mooring (as defined in the Licence Terms and Conditions) - somewhere you can lawfully leave your boat when it is not being used for cruising. Moorings are provided by a wide choice of boatyards and boat clubs, as well as by Canal & River Trust - www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/boating provides a moorings search facility that includes these moorings. It also includes helpful information about getting started with boating on inland waterways. The only exceptions to the requirement to have a home mooring are:  If the boat is removed from the water when it is not being used for cruising.  The boat navigates without staying in any one place for more than fourteen days (or less where local signs indicate a shorter period). Please read our Guidance for Boaters without a Home Mooring below. CRT new T&C proposal at 3.1: You must cruise on the waterways whilst you are away from the home mooring (save for any period when you leave the waterways or when the boat is lawfully moored at another mooring site). The 1995 Act actually states : ‘(i) the Board is satisfied that a mooring or other place where the vessel can reasonably be kept and may lawfully be left will be available for the vessel, whether on an inland waterway or elsewhere’. No mention of CRUISING in the 1995 Act - a small but significant change. C&RT then go onto explain that when away from your home mooring you cannot remain in one place for more than 14 days. So a boat with a home mooring, but away from its mooring, cannot stay in any one place exactly as laid out in the Guidelines for Boaters without a Home Mooring. So - lets look at the guidance for Boaters without a Home Mooring - which co-incidently, is yet again an UN-NUMBERED paragraph so is not legally binding. GUIDANCE FOR BOATERS WITHOUT A HOME MOORING The law requires that the boat “will be bona fide used for navigation throughout the period of [the licence]”. The terms ‘cruise’ and ‘cruising’ are used in this guidance to mean using a boat bona fide for navigation. “Place” The law requires that stops during such cruising should not be “in any one place for more than 14 days”. “Place” in this context means a neighbourhood or locality, NOT simply a particular mooring site or position. Therefore to remain in the same neighbourhood for more than 14 days is not permitted So to summarise (again) a boat WITH a home mooring, when away from his mooring must NOT remain in the same neighbourhood / place / locality for more than 14 days. A very clever person used to trying to hide restrictive Terms & Conditions in a document has prepared this document and worked on he assumption that a 'lay person' will not take the trouble to follow the involved, interwoven thread of restrictions from one set of licensing conditions to another.

I am surprised that colleagues vouch for the whiter-than-whiteness of examiners when they also warn us about biased or sharp practice by boat surveyors who are, unless I'm mistaken, often the same people. Is this not correct?

Send me a PM with contact information and i'll be in touch whenever they come up. Or should I start naming and shaming them publicly here? I'm led to believe that in order for BSS office to act they must receive a complaint from the recipient of the dodgy certificate and can't take any action otherwise, kinda like asking drug addicts to name their dealers. I could produce a list of Oxfordshire examiners and give examples with photographic evidence of unsafe boats that have received BSS certificates from the last five years, but have never acted on it because the beneficiary customer is the one who must complain, not the next engineer to work on the boat who witnesses the examiners shortcomings. It's not in my interests to make enemies amongst local professionals, so I stay out of it. Also it would be quite unfair of me because I only generally see the work of Oxfordshire examiners and I understand the issue to be national. I do recognise that the standard of professional workmanship is higher elsewhere due to err having any kind of boat repair facility at all wheras in Oxford it's DIY or nothing, so that may be where the Oxford safety issues arise from. Think about it: The customer wants an easy pass. The customer actively seeks out an examiner who he knows will pass a boat, whether through ignorance or incompetence or downright criminality. The examiner with the lowest standards gets the most work. The examiners who are thorough get the least work. BSS examiners are self-employed and self-regulating, so the motivation for the examiner is to produce the most passes in as short a time-frame as possible. The system is flawed beyond belief. I've already said it above, having a BSS certificate doesn't suggest that a boat is safe. I'll happily argue the shortcomings of the BSS but that's a whole other topic and i'd need time to dig up the evidence to back up my arguments with. I'd rather see some evidence that the boat safety scheme does work, I think of it more as a(nother) BW PR stunt more for politicians than the public.

It is on here, silly! And always has been. This place is like the strange looking glass world of Alice in Wonderland compared to the real world out there.

So that you can go boating? Sorry, wrong answer.

No, not at all - it's the bit below in bold that I object to - Using rivers and canals solely as somewhere to live cheaply with no regard or affinity for that environment is bad for all. I would challenge the first part of your statement above. It's quite understandable that with the high costs of housing people get desperate for somewhere to live and use canals and rivers to solve that issue. What sticks in my craw are those who make no effort to adapt to that style of living by dumping their rubbish on the towpath and their ordure in the cut. Up in my neck of the woods there are several groups of liveaboards, tucked away quietly away from the main run. They have 'stuff' all over the place - but try to manage it. Even though it's some distance to go, they transfer their waste and get fresh water using a dinghy - about a mile or two away. Now I have respect for those, and will respond cheerily if you acknowledge their existence with a cheery wave. Not for the others.

. And how would that help I,ve just learned to put their instead of there when referring to people or their stuff,,everyday is a school day

Rented off a bloke down the pub?

If the books travel as far as the boats travel in London I doubt they'll get more then a few hundred yards

You have four panels, two in series and each of those strings, in parallel. If only two panels are pointing at the sun, try to ensure they are two in the same string. If you have two panels in a series string, one in sun and one not, you will get pretty much the current that you would get if both were not pointing at the sun. Whereas if one string is pointing at the sun and the other not, you at least get 1/2 the system working properly.

Nobody complains about CCers. It's the CMers that draw the complaints.

Balls don't learn. Be free to be a ball if you like....

The thing is, if one wants to live an 'alternative lifestyle', one needs to keep one's head down and not piss off the locals. Tabby and her 'community' is reaping what she she sowed...

Nah. I try to avoid official VMs whenever I can. Usually full of boats running their generators all night or having barbecues and enjoying themselves. I like to sit in the middle of nowhere playing Leonard Cohen songs on my trombone. Actually, most other boaters like me to moor in the middle of nowhere too. Can't imagine why.

Rule 1 of this forum (on which I note you have relatively few posts) is that if you are going to start a thread like this you are bound to get stick from several quarters: the PC brigade, the "All CCers are the second coming of Christ" church, and the Troll-hunters army. And of course the pack of bloodhounds sniffing out fresh meat. And of course the Usuaal Suspects who consider any opinion expressed by someone with fewer than 1000 posts to be contemptible. Therefore I hope you are thick skinned! But don't think you have fallen into some parallel universe, most folk on here aren't like that, it's just the noisy ones!

I can't remember what make my MPPT solar controller is but to get a good one your looking at about £75, any cheaper than that and they are junk, I have done a lot of research when I was looking at solar over the last 2 years.

There are deeper mysteries. Meaning of life? Is there a god? What makes women happy? Etc etc...