Arthur Marshall

Not being a fisherbod, I struggle to see the problem,or the costs involved in maintaining fish in a canal or river. Fish largely make more fish, and while fishermen seem to kill a few, most get chucked back. Again, I always thought of it as a casual hobby, especially for boaters. I'd imagine hardly any have a licence of any sort. I presume the fishing rights owners use the money they raise for competition prizes rather than improving the towpath or medical schemes for trout, or whatever it is swimming about down there.

CRT could just hire the local Banksy to graffiti an ID number onto the boat...

It isn't really, though. Two reasons - not many of us are fit enough, big enough or brave enough to risk approaching someone's stuff and vandalising it, and secondly, it's on the other side of the damn canal!

I just thought it was an apt word to use...

All the residents at mine just used the boat name and the farm address. All the mail got dumped in a box and we all just fished our own out. All very civilised.

The reason the narrowness of a narrowboat doesn't matter much for a leisure user is because most of the time you're not in it. You're either standing on the back driving, or sitting outside in the sun with a book and a beer. You're only really inside if it rains, or you're cooking or sleeping. If it's just a weekender, you won't be there unless the weather's good anyway. It's different for a liveaboard, not that I found it a problem. I was either at work, or sitting on the back with a book... There's so much space outside, you don't notice the width inside.

Wouldn't you end up with every passing boat getting glued to the other side?

I've never seen anything wrong with living on a leisure mooring. Fewer facilities, usually, but so what? There again, I'm biased as that's what I did - never realised there was anything odd about it, and nor did the other 20 or so people on the site. No one kept hush about it, and as far as I know no one cared or ever threatened to kick us off.

About eighteen quid for two pins and seventeen for the welding (they charge in half hour chunks). Didn't charge for the steel as he used offcuts. You can't say fairer than that. I'll paint the tops white too. Mostly broke and buggered off, sometimes with the contents of my bank balance. Fun, though.

Bits of the L&L are stunning, ths Bridgewater is pretty good but not part of CRT's empire and I think moorings hard to come by. The Shroppie is lovely but only really accessible by narrow boats. Horses, as they say, for courses. One thing to think on is how long it takes to get to the boat - a long motorway drive cuts out a lot of the fun. Having it ten minutes away makes a huge difference, especially when you have to do maintenance stc.

Indeed. There's a very pleasant visitor mooring opposite which is unusable because of him. Luckily, most of us aren't like that. It's still poethe OPs problem bloke doesn't realise the disturbance he's causing . A suggestion that he builds a sound insulated box for the genny might help.

Just out of interest, what canal are you on? There's always a chance that someone here might know the boater and be able to have a word.

At the site where I lived, the owner had a rule that engines/gennies should not be run after 8pm. If you can trace the owner of the moorings, complain to them. It may not even be a legitimate residential mooring. The situation may improve as the days lengthen, lights aren't needed and so less battery power is needed.

Supposed to be improving this week...

There's no implication that the temporary 42 day mooring should be provided free. Could be quite a moneyspinner for a cash strapped council. I can envisage every possible and currently free mooring bit of bank being so designated, policed by the usual car park boys.