[Trusted/reputable boat builders and other advice]

2 hours ago, Philip said:

Do sea otters offer good insulation? There's a couple on Apollo duck that have webasto heating - better off going for one with a stove, whether it's steel or aluminium? 

Sea Otter 41 on Apollo Duck at the moment has a Hobbit stove fitted.

 

https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/sea-otter-41/619185

[Boat painter]

if you want your boat painted very cheaply to a professional looking finish and with really, really good signwriting, Robert Naghi is your man.

He doesn't do removing windows or taking the whole boat back to bare metal, but for you jddevel I guess that would not be an issue.

Adding a couple of pics of my boat, recently painted by Robert Naghi.

 

 

[What happens to boat speed in tunnels / shallow / narrow sections?]

I'm happy to be corrected by those it may have happened to, but I wouldn't really expect leaf fall to be a major problem in Braunston tunnel.

 

I accept there is some very slow flow, and some will get drawn in, but I wouldn't expect amounts large enough to produce adverse effects all the way through.

 

Having gone through that tunnel a couple of weeks ago, my experience was a bit similar to the OP's (not being followed & harassed by pratt in a hurry, but losing speed). After a while I thought of dropping into neutral & / or giving a burst of reverse, which seemed to improve things for a few minutes each time. So I think that leaves, no doubt being drawn into the tunnel by boats going through it, probably are at least partially a cause of the problem.

[Cordless JIgsaw ?]

If you do decide to get a Bosch cordless jigsaw, why not get the 18v one? they are the same price (£79.99) from Clas Ohlson, or actually only about £72 if you decide to order one straight away, as they have a 10% discount on today (use code CLAS30447).

 

I have a couple of the tools in this range and they are pretty good for my (DIY) purposes. The Li batteries last quite a while, and you can get a spare and put it on charge while using the tool.

 

But NB- if you do want a spare battery don't buy it from Ohson as you can get them cheaper elsewhere.

[licensing fun]

If I understand your post right, you are not liable for the previous owners licence. All the time its on the brokers trade plate you don't have to pay. The day you leave the brokerage, you start your new licence.

 

This is correct, or at least it was last year when I bought my boat from a brokerage.

 

Congrats Jess-- on getting yourself back on the water BTW .

[Deposit down on a Colecraft 60']

 

The only clever pun name I might ever consider would be when I start CCing in earnest. Call my boat 'Dunroamin'.

 

 

How about 'Constance Moira'?

[Deposit down on a Colecraft 60']

I would have gone for the name under my avatar, but alas the missus holds more seats in the household parliament and I've been threatened with a vote of no confidence if I even consider it.

 

Sorry to gang up against you, but your mrs is right about this. There are already around four or five boats with that name floating around the system. Even (or perhaps I especially) the cleverest punning boat name can lose its charm through repetition!

[Buying from a Broker/Owner]

It should be declared if a boat is owned by the brokerage.

 

This is one area that Whilton is very poor - they deny that boats are owned by them to avoid having to honour the Trades Descriptions Act.

 

Yard staff will tell you - "we took this in part exchange", or "we bought this one", but the sales office will deny it.

 

 

 

I would suggest that your negotiations are in no way different - you will only pay what it is worth to you (won't you ?)

If you not happy to make your own mind up, you will want a survey irrespective of who is selling it.

You make the offer and they accept/decline it without having to refer it to 'the owner' so - it may be a little quicker, that's all.

 

Whilton is not the only boat yard that utilises this pretence. When I bought my boat from Gayton Marina last year, the staff persisted in going through the rigmarole of referring to the (mysterious) owner of the boat, although a bit of research on my part had revealed that both the 'broker' and the 'owner' were the one and the same ABC Leisure Group Ltd.

 

Irrespective, it's a good boat and they agreed to sell it for a very decent price .

[Tracer 40Amp MPPT Controller]

We have a 40 amp New Model Tracer, wall mounted in our electricity cupboard. It's been connected since January this year, to 500w of panels. No fans or anything, but the cupboard it's in is quite large.

 

So far I haven't noticed the controller getting at all hot, though obviously it's not running at anywhere near full capacity yet. Having said that, it was putting 17 amps into the batteries around 11am this morning .

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

if we are going to ignore the three legal Judgements that have been granted to BW regarding this then perhaps we should just ignore all other judgements that we disagree with. In fact let's have a field day and ignore all laws and judgements we disagree with!

 

To be fair to those who disregard those judgements, perhaps the judges were insane, or just being weird .

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

I can see why you're being called obtuse .....

 

no.

 

you don't moor to the bed you moor to the bank

 

and you're wrong about most navigable rivers.

 

Oh well. There might come a time when I feel so assured as a member of this forum that I could feel comfortable labelling anyone who persists in disagreeing with me as 'insane', weird', 'obtuse' etc. Though perhaps I would decide not to.

 

Meanwhile. Presuming you are mooring on a CRT-controlled waterway and you are over a CRT-controlled river or canal bed. Hence CRT would have some say in the matter.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

 

Only because you're deliberately missing the point.If I park a camper van on your drive way are you going to cry about whether I've got a tax disc? If you park a camper van on your drive would you pay the council if they sent you a parking charge? It's not at all complicated.

 

If we are back to the road parking analogy, the canal or river is not the same as your driveway. At best it would be equivalent to the street outside your house.

 

In which case, anybody else would have the same rights as you to park there, unless you have obtained a local residents permit from your council.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

not quite; you're getting there. it gives you the right to keep your boat in the canal but the right to moor is with the land owner, often but not necessarily CRT

 

just to clarify; boats without home mooring have s legal right to moor on CRT land ( generally the towpath ) for 14 days, others have no such legal right but it is granted in the terms and conditions ( by the landowner, CRT)

 

OK, but on canals and (most) navigable rivers, CRT 'owns' the bed of the waterway, hence having at least some control over mooring?

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

the have a basis to charge you for keeping a boat over the bed of the canal,yes. it's called a boat license.

 

Which license would presumably empower the holder to moor anywhere legal over the canal bed, including over the patch by the end of somebody else's garden.

 

Seems we are back to square one.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

on the canal, CRT own the bed of the canal so a riparian owner can do what he likes on his land but cannot build on CRT land - thre canal bed - or keep a boat over it, without charge.

 

 

OK, so CRT does have a basis for EoG charges?

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

as others have said Tony Dunkley has been uncharacteristically polite.

 

 

Ah, I should be grateful that for merely being repeatedly accused of being argumentative, obtuse and posting rubbish!

 

So, much worse would normally be expected for those that dare to question Mr Dunkley?

 

 

C'est la vie.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

 

the rubbish you've been posting ... argumentative and obtuse...

 

 

Ok, I get it. You clearly don't like people being 'argumentative' with you. Anyone who doesn't share your view is obtuse and talking rubbish.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

how about 'wrong' ?

 

as i said look up 'riparian rights'

 

I'm aware of riparian rights, and have indeed looked up some material on these. However what I have seen suggests that these do not straightforwardly apply on navigable waterways.

 

I should add that I am quite new to the boating world (bought my boat in July last year and have been CC'ing since then). I'm still forming my opinions about some of the issues. I have no problem with people thinking or saying that I'm wrong, and at the very least I have a lot to learn!

 

But the hostility which has been expressed to me in some recent posts on this thread has given me a bit of a jolt. It seems to suggest that there are some people or opinions which should not be questioned, in any depth, on this forum.

 

Perhaps there is an issue that I do not (at least so far) fit in to any of the (apparent) factions here.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

Hmmm. To me its not blatantly obvious that the combination of having a garden adjacent to the canal / navigable river, and buying a boating license, gives somebody sole control of the right to moor in the part of the waterway next to the garden.

 

Especially given that the legal judgements, and the fact of the existence of EoG mooring charges by CRT, indicates that things cannot be quite so simple.

 

I guess from the claims that I am therefore "insane", "plain weird", "posting rubbish", that I have touched a sensitive spot for some people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

The right to moor is a separate issue, the granting of which is solely in the gift of the landowner to whose land it will be moored.

 

Well, no doubt you would like that to be so. But that does not seem to be the legal position, nor have I heard any overriding principles which dictate that it must be the case.

 

 

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

having paid for a boat Licence, a boat owner has already paid for occupying that 'waterspace' on the canal

 

Ok,I'll try to break this down. It is that you believe that when a boater, who happens to have a garden facing the waterway, buys a license, that license includes specific rights regarding that part of the canal or river which is adjacent to the said garden?

 

In that case, yes I did previously misunderstand you. But I suspect you would be badly mistaken.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

there is no ' ban on mooring offside', only dishonest, but regrettably successful, instances of BW / C&RT frightening boat owners into paying again for something that their boat Licence already entitles them to do, ie. keep and use a boat on C&RT waters.

 

QED?

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

The towpath mooring(s) I am referring to above are long term C&RT moorings, not casual or Visitor moorings.

 

But that would have to be paid for by the (potential) moorer- unlike the space at the end of somebody or other's garden, which you point out has already been paid for by any random licence payer; hence free at the point of use.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

If the owner of a passing boat has decided to use someone else's long term mooring, be it on private offside land or the towpath, do you really think they are going to be deterred by considerations about who pays who, and for what? In fact, in the circumstance of choice between a towpath mooring and a less accessible or convenient offside mooring, which one do you think they are more likely to choose?

 

You seem to be assuming that a towpath mooring is readily available. That isn't always the case, eg in parts of London.

 

Further, isn't your case that the towpath side is subject to the 14-day rule, whereas the offside bank is immune from it? In which case, that would make an offside mooring more (not less) attractive to quite a few boaters.

[Hackney CMers want to have a "CC Licence" and to remain in one place.]

I don't know the answer to that, mainly because silly hypothetical situations aren't something that I spend my time thinking about, but if someone was stupid enough to leave a boat in the way you describe then C&RT would, or more realistically let us say, should, take action long before 14 days had passed.

 

If word got round that it would make boaters immune from the 14 day requirement, then I would bet that such situations would rapidly cease to be hypothetical, and that some inventiveness would be applied to the matter of making mud weights (or other solutions) more effective.