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Interesting reading all the speculation, Unfortunately the article in the Bridgwater and Taunton Mercury is very misleading and the "unnamed man" is a disgruntled boat owner who has caused nothing but trouble for himself through his own behaviour, Also not an original bw docks boat owner... Thought he could buy a boat on the B&T and freeload from the situation, 1. The reality of the situation is. CRT gave up 28 marina's the same year as the bw docks, Somerset County Council were the only council to insist on all the boats having to leave (not crt's choice) 2. CRT worked with the boaters as yes some lived there had job's and families so lifting out and causing upheaval leaving there home was something crt recognised and helped by allowing the boats to move out onto the 14 miles of waterway, 3. As some on here have stated you can't meet Cc requirements moving over 20 miles a year as it obviously isn't that long a waterway, there were also no suitable identified mooring locations for the particular size of boats in question. 4. the docks future at that point was uncertain, potential leveling up funds for refurbishment but no timescale or guarantee so crt gave the boaters an agreement to bide by and it was reviewed every 6 months. 5. The time came where the town’s fund was secured and a date set for refurbishment was place to be the summer of 2025. 6. Once crt had this information they (last year) spoke with the boaters and indicated if the boats didn't have home moorings by January of this year they would have to be removed from the b&t. 7. Three locations were identified for moorings (pretty much where the boats had found homes over the past two years and local businesses approached with offers to lease and manage the locations, 8 (here's your new paper misinformation) all the original boat owners who left the docks have identified locations there is some finalising to be done with 4 but heading in the right direction. One original boat sadly the owner passed away and the family are removing the boat to be sold. Two of the original boats but not original owners are being removed, And a third that just showed up on the system thinking they could be clever and play the system these 3 boats received eviction notices, Two of the three have done nothing but try to play the system claiming squatting rights cause fights and upsetting the local areas,ect, the 3rd was recently sold and the new owner is lifting it for a refit. So 10 people loosing there homes/boats? Not true. There has been nothing but support for the boaters from crt and the local bridgwater town council, yes some difficult pills to swallow at times loosing the facilities at the docks for example (the county council again insisting they had to be closed) and life adjustments to make but everyone is still local to there families and job's. The Bridgwater mercury didn't fact check before publication.

The humble stick, wooden stick that is, not that old stick as in a person. This stick can be a savior in many applications. Take boats for example. If your boat won't pass under certain bridges due to a lofty wheelhouse or somesuch structure a long stick is attached to the bows sticking upright. As the stick hits the bridge it snaps connecting a contact switch and battery to fire a small charge of dynamite in the too tall wheelhouse to collapse it before it strikes the bridge. A stick poking down at the stern a few inches below the rudder when reversing up close to a bank will snap off when it strikes bottom the snapping sound to warn you that it's trying to save your rudder from getting busted. Carry a few spare sticks for replacments. Now comes the big one, could make my fortune and become a multi billionaire. It's to do with aeroplanes. Aeroplanes coming in to land can be the most hazardous part of flying aeroplanes. My invention again envolves the humble wooden stick. This invention doesn't envolve any power or unreliable electromics for it to function. Landing planes no matter what size, civillian or military can use the humble stick to assist landing in dense fog or a cloud burst when the pilots cannot see to touch down. This stick of variable length depending on the size and length of the aircraft envolved is fixed under the front of the planes belly by a simple hinge. At the tail of the stick is attached a caster wheel.''A supermarket trolly caster wheel is Ideal as they have good bearings which will withstand the speed to which it will become accustomed to. A length of string also attached to the tail end leading up through a hole in the aircraft. The front of the stick is connected to the elevator, ailerons and engine speed control levers. Now imagine the plane commin in to land blind in dense fog. The stick is lowered fully by the string and as the sticks caster wheel hits the runway the stick moves upwards operating the afore said controls automatically to cause a pleasing and safe flare out and landing with no chance of pilot error. Think how much safer you'd feel if your holiday plane was so equiped. I'm approachin Airbus in Toulose first about this invention as I prefer them than Boeing.

I'm more familiar than many with this because it's "on my patch", I have known the B&T since pre-restoration and explored extensively, including recently canoeing into the docks from a few miles up the canal. Bridgwater Docks have got a somewhat sorry history post-restoration of the canal. For some reason they ended up with British Rail when the rest of the canal ended up with British Waterways. Going further back they were (and still are) under a separate harbour authority to the port of Bridgwater. When the docks were restored in the mid-eighties the barge lock into the Parrett was restored as well, that's why there are rotting gates with hydraulic paddle gear on them. This lasted about six weeks. The gates were supposed to be sealed against tides higher than the dock, but they obviously weren't as saline intrusion occurred and got into the town drinking water supply. Boats had passed through the lock, and the closure left some very cheesed off boat owners who had taken a mooring here specifically to go out into the river, one or two had even arrived that way and now found themselves stuck. However, the moorings attracted quite a few boats that were suited to the canal, and some even ventured out along it. There was a feeling though that the boats were regarding somewhere between a revenue stream and a bit of a nuisance. The dock regeneration wasn't exactly dynamic - it's all residential, a bit windswept and a bit "out of sight" feel to it - security issues and anti-social behaviour meant the moorings weren't as attractive as they might be, and the canal silted up meaning that only the determined headed off down it. BUT the only other moorings on the B&T are a couple of groups of linear moorings at Maunsel and Creech - Bridgwater Docks probably had more than half the available moorings on the whole canal. So basically the canal was restored, the docks regenerated, both amidst a fanfare, and then they were ignored.... Then a couple of years ago the lease to CRT (originally to BW) was up and it wasn't renewed - there was certainly an option to renew it which is probably why CRT gave a concession to allow boats to moor on the canal, but nevertheless the canal lost more than half it's moorings and those on the closed moorings were not offered an alternative because there wasn't one. The only real alternative is to move your boat to another waterway, and you'll need a truck to do it - this isn't a "choice", as a boat owner who has complied with every regulation going you are now being told to pay a couple of grand and take your boat somewhere else "or else". Whether that is reasonable is not for me to say, but it smacks of bad management that just didn't think it through, not least from the PR point of view, it will be a lot more difficult to sell the next lot of moorings with this fiasco fresh in the mind. The basic problem is the number of agencies looking at this with envious eyes on Paddington Basin, or Bristol Floating Harbour, who see only the magic numbers and not the context. Unless they learn, they'll repeat the mistakes.

They weren't parties, they were work events. 😀

A nice sentiment and undoubtly correct. However I would like to see more curtailment of domestic sewerage and farm offrun as a priority. I suspect this is much bigger problem. Country File last Sunday evening featuring the River Wye as an example was a shocker.

Whilst correct on facts the situation strikes me as a bit of a stitch up, Bridgwater Docks were the only marina on that canal, which is landlocked (the entrance lock to the tidal Parrett has a concrete dam across it) and CRT's attempts to sort this out don't seem to have included creating any more moorings on the B&T, meanwhile Bridgwater Docks are still there, still with mooring pontoons, but no boats. I've never quite understood why the transfer of the lease required all the boats to move out, and resolving the resulting situation seems to have been a fairly classic case of "not our problem" - what has happened is the almost inevitable result Bow Locks - all these boaters were paying for moorings two years ago, moorings that still exist and are empty, but the boaters were moved out from. Willingness to pay for a mooring isn't the problem in this case

The article says the boats are due to move to the marina but does not explain this. I have heard a rumour that the boats can return to the marina when the works are complete, so if this is true then it looks to be unreasonable of CRT to evict them as the problem will resolve itself in due course, and CRT do take some of the blame for this situatin by giving up their lease on the Marina. I believe their might be a court case pending.

Just purely decorative. I bought a short length tiller from an Auntie Wainright auction and made the piece. I tend to keep the rebate on the tiller greased. The main aim was to make a decorative tiller with pin as a gift to Mike Humphris for an anniversary to remind him of his boating days and I had a length left over.

It startles me how strongly opinionated people are about something they know dick all about other than a headline in a local paper.

This surely must be a first in the thousands of battery topics on CWDF.

I think you're right but if we ignore him (or more accurately, CRT ignores him), it teaches both him and others that licencing your boat is optional and if you are obnoxious enough to CRT employees and to passers-by, you can get away with it. Leave him to it an more like him will appear, I predict.

It's windlass breeding season, you didn't put it down you were told to leave it by a randy windless, often this suggestion is actually rather subtle so most people don't realise it's happening. The life cycle is rather long and many years pass between breeding cycles but it just needs to accepted that your windlass is now entering a less settled period in it's life, interestingly some will spend some of this time living an aquatic life often, but not always, at the bottom of a lock, or at least near a lock, many are lost on a long pound unable to find a mate. This is a fairly dangerous period for windlasses, many are lost to rust forever after breeding but thankfully sufficient get found by the magnet fisherman that they can return to the more settled time on someone's boat, until of course the call to nooky is heard again.

CRT want the Council to be responsible for the bins, and the Council want CRT to do it. Two cash-strapped organisations both trying to pass the buck!

You are a very kind and thoughtful man, Ray.

They all surrendered when the first question was asked.

Ron Seal?