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The reaction to this article on a fb narrowboat group was much the same as those on here....which did surprise me if I’m honest...I expected at a least a few to say they had done nothing wrong etc. Quite refreshing! People like those in the article make life so much harder for other boaters in general...both practically by hogging moorings and also by affecting public perception of boaters in general.

Let's not forget though we are reading an article written by someone who likely has no knowledge of the canals and then edited by someone else who is also likely to be unfamiliar with the issues involved. No one here knows any of the back story that's led them to this point and tbh it's not really our business. I would just be a bit cautious making a judgment based on the information in that article. Not saying I support them, just saying some caution should be taken before judgement is made

Lived on a boat " Near Bradford on Avon " for FOURTEEN years claiming to be a ccer

Mr Holder said he had travelled 17.7 miles, moving every two weeks, and had pictures to prove it. Thats under 600 yds each week on average. Commonly known as bridge hopping. Perhaps enough to get to the water point and back? But the family have been told to remove their boat by 4 September, which would make them homeless. Flouting the conditions of their licence for 14 years, that can come as no surprise! Mr Holder said a permanent mooring could cost as much as £6,000 per year, plus the cost of a permanent licence at £1,000. Mine's a 60 ft boat and costs a third of that for those items - and he has to pay the same licence whether he moves or not, so that's irrelevant. "This prices most of us out. So they go to wealthy people so they can have a holiday boat, only used for a couple of weeks a year," he said. "This is gentrifying the canal and destroying our community." What a twisted logic! Does he not understand today's canal system exists only because of leisure purposes? Same as a football pitch or golf course - perhaps he should try living on one of those! The "poor me" gypsy mentality of these people is staggering.

But but why should he pay the same as others...he’s entitled to get everything for free....he’s got the NBTA involved so fellow snowflakes & freeloaders can soothe his troubled brow.

Mr Holder said he had travelled 17.7 miles, moving every two weeks, and had pictures to prove it. Then he is an idiot. Half an hour's further cruising over the last 6 months would have let him comply with CRT's minimum acceptable range. And let him keep his family home roughly where he wanted it. 20 miles is a day's cruise for me. A short day.

A few shots of a convoy trip from Limehouse to Brentford, via the Thames Barrier. The river was very busy! https://nbsg.wordpress.com/iwa-trip-to-margaretness/

I only know this because I've worked as a volunteer helping people in these situation. There are quite a few differences in the help given because children are involved. ETA - not with CRT specifically just homelessness in general.

Here is an update on C&RTs CC Monitoring programme : (Last year) New ‘continuous cruisers’ In November, we reached the first anniversary of our programme to actively advise new licence holders of the requirements of their licence. We have now begun to send out letters to those new continuous cruisers coming to the end of the first year who have failed to meet the requirements over the past year (despite regular reminders of their obligations as boaters without a home mooring), informing them that we’ll not be renewing their licence. Since January, 792 new continuous cruisers have received welcome letters, and we have been providing them with regular feedback if we have been concerned about their movement patterns. 63 are now in the enforcement process with a further 83 contacted to say we are concerned. Of these, we’ve contacted 23 with regard to refusing to renew their licences. So it looks like a goodly percentage of new CCers are 'satisfying' C&RT and those that don't are not getting their licences renewed

I’m not sure he does find it a problem. He’s probably just angling for a response from people here who spend too much time bothering themselves about what other people are doing. At the end of the day the arrangements between MK Parks and their mooring customers aren’t our business. Nor can I get too excited about whatever arrangement exists between MK Parks and CRT. JP

A bit off topic, but I had a friend with a house in Godalming, at front of his house was a tiny patch of concrete that he owned, then a road. On said concrete was a council lamp standard, and he found out that the council was meant to pay him a peppercorn rent, so he wrote to the council asking for the rent, and got a nice letter back, with 20 peppercorns attached on sellotape, for back rent and future years. My friend was vastly amused and kept the letter and peppercorns.

Snowflakes .... break the perceived rules and suffer the consequence. Mention the children and expect everyone to give in and let them do what they want. It's about time people that take the piss are dealt with properly - speaking from my highly un polished 20 year old boat .... Am I a wealthy ruiner of the canal system ?, I must have a harsh word with my self !!

Bought ours 2nd hand 20 years ago with 'thin' plate cos we was young, carefree.... And CWDF didn't exist. The current plan is to wait another 50 years, just as its about to sink, and use it as a viking burial vessel. We will get it towed out into the North Sea and set adrift. (just hope we are both dead at the time)

For clarity, it was that 1) he is bankrupt, 2) he lost the first stage, thus the legal costs now somewhat escalate, 3) there seems to be no appetite for (for example) a boating organisation or other interested party to fundraise or provide help in the funds, renders the affordability of appealing somewhat out of reach. The point being, that the time for the finer arguments over the law have now passed. He now has to deal with the practicalities of how law works within the court system. Which tend to suck, unless you have a rock solid case (and even then, defending yourself without the legal assistance of a barrister is fraught with hazards). So while in theory he can appeal, simply from the weight of the facts surrounding this case and other aspects of Tony's case eg lack of wider support, ill health etc etc, practically the door is closing upon this. I admire your meticulous approach to waterways law, of course it will always be an uphill battle against any public body or navigation authority, and sometimes its difficult to make your point properly to a judge. But I feel Tony's approach is quite different and lacks the finesse; which doesn't go down well with judges and other officialdom - some of whom are in a strong position to determine his future.

A case of glass houses and stones I would think. Tony made himself a very public and outspoken figure on this forum, and made his battles with CRT very public. He has also made all manner of untrue accusations about various people, myself included, when they were not in a position to defend themselves. If he had won anything he would have publicised it extensively so can't expect privacy if he has lost. .............Dave

Just a natural response to you spiteful comment about landlords.

Very droll.

Can anyone translate the OP into plain English please? Despite reading it several times, I have no idea what the problem is with this bloke on his widebeam having his winter mooring! Maybe its the weird text formatting but I simply can't stay with it right to the end, all in one single para. (See what I did there?)

In the Last few months I have done a couple of hundred miles ok some of those were in someone's else's boat ? but 50 were in mine which some on here say cannot do that

Yes but why does Para's granny know so much about skinning cats?

Clearly true, but buyers still worry about low original build plate thicknesses, the OP being a good example. ISTR the member here "Junior" agonising about whether to buy a boat with a 6mm baseplate. He bought the boat cheaply due to the 'thin' baseplate and used it without issue for a number of years. A boat built from thin plate but still in good condition can easily turn out to be a bargain due to this effect.

Muppets find it difficult to do that.

That explains things, with two eco fans they set up an aggressive standing wave that knocks smartgauges out of calibration...........

Well, I can guarantee that one day the start battery will fail eventually and nowadays the usual failure method is an internal short that you will not know about until one day it won't start. As an example I started my car without any signs of a problem, drove to Eastbourne (say nearly 2 hours), stopped an had coffee, started gain with no trouble and drove to B&Q , bought my bits and it would not start because the battery had failed. There is nothing you can do to stop that sort of thing. At least you still have the domestic bank and, as on a boat, both bank's negatives should be joined by a thick cable so a single decent jump lead between the two bank's positive should get it started. Most "leisure" batteries used for domestic batteries are in fact start battery construction with handles so it won't do any harm. Dead right, 6Watt solar panels will only ever be battery maintainers and I doubt even that when the get old and increase their self discharge rate. If you want solar to charge both batteries then connect it to the engine battery and change the split charge relay for a VSR sensed off the start battery. That way whenever a charge source increases the engine battery voltage to above 13.6 to 13.8 the VSR will join both banks. You might even consider changing the charger connections to the engine battery a swell so that charges both banks when the voltage is above 13.6 to 13.8 from whatever source. How much solar depends upon what you can afford and how much electricity you use but for a camper I would suggest 100 Watts will do but maybe no if you are a heavy user of electricity and do not connect to the 240 volts or drive about each day.

Yeah, ok, ok! I don't know about you though, DC, but I quite often moor up and walk somewhere. In this particular case, I've moored up at Trevor, walked to Llangollen (having a pint in the pub halfway and stopping to laugh at the utter chaos caused by boats meeting the trip boat in the narrows) and I've caught the bus back when it rained. Worked pretty well for me, and I've no reason to suspect it wouldn't be an even more useful strategy for a nervous hirer like the OP.

Nah. Go for it straight away. Ellesmere is OK if you like Tesco and a couple of pubs, but Llangollen is great. There is nothing complicated about the aqueduct. I know people who have a fear of heights who just leave the boat in gear and hide in the cabin until they are at the other side ... but I think it's a shame because it's beautiful. Go for the good bit first and do the rest if you still have time later.

I aspire to tread a middle path. Amusingly, out cruising on my 30 year old boat (with it's now dull but perfectly serviceable original paint job), I have been labelled a "shiny boater" and a "scruffy boater" by different people both on the same day!

Are you for real? I spend closer to £100 a year than £1,000 year on paint to maintain my three boats.

Morag I think you may have problems with grit blasting, it is such a messy process that few dock owners will allow it, look in the classified section in Waterways World for a dry dock near you and under Surveys. There is usually a waiting list for the docks, especially at this time of year. Most will allow you to do it yourself with the hire of a high pressure steamer / blaster, save a few pounds. Don't discard your old anodes if there is more than 25% remaining, have extra ones fitted alongside the old.