CompairHolman

Thanks, I've finally found out what that hooky thing is that has been in my gas locker for ten years.

" Basic boat insurance " just give you the policy automatically it seems to me, whenever I've taken it out I got a copy emailed straight back .

Its not strictly speaking a defect, its the nature of welding , welded parts will often fracture at the ( HAZ ) heat affected zone under a heavy vibration load like hammering, they are just made in small quantities with the cheapest methods, and people want cheap chandlery not a forged one piece mooring pin.

CRT can't " deny a licence" to anybody for any kind of criminal activity. Possibly they could seek a court order to bar the person from their property if the offence was related to damaging their property ??? Even if you murdered the CEO of CRT you would still legally be eligible for a licence if you had a valid BSC and insurance.

I'm not sure threatening behaviour by boat owners has anything to do with CRT, they manage waterways they don't have any authority to enforce public order.

CRT has a scheme where a disability let's you arrange a cruising pattern within your capability that they are also happy with. I think its called " reasonable adjustments" or something like that. Before the permanently angry go into a spasm, its not something that can be scammed easily, it requires a doctors letter ect, and it doesn't mean you don't have to cruise anywhere or you can stay on one mooring for ever.

Because the canals are in theory still run under rules set out under statutory canal acts, I say " in theory" because there is no practical way to ensure CRT abides by the legislation, I think they know this, maybe have engineered it, complaints are handled in house, they appointed their own ombudsman in secret, and there is no legal aid for any kind of legal challenge to CRT.

It can't, the licence is statutory and can only be revoked by the statutory conditions set out in act (s) of parliament, ie the law, you are talking bollocks to use your own words.

Thanks for your input Wurzel.

You have to obey laws but " rules " are voluntary or contractual. So it depends which one of these the mooring time restrictions are . There is no penalty for overstaying on a 24 hr mooring up to 14 days so it must be a " rule" . We have one near us that says " 2 days free mooring" but CRT are unable to explain what that means since there are no morning charges for towpath visitor moorings by law.

A boat living friend of ours was dying of hepatitis, basically it reduced him to a skeleton , other boaters complained about his overstaying which led to letters from CRT which caused him a lot of worry. ( This was when the hostile enforcement was going on a few years ago, which has changed now. ) So it's probably best that you check the circumstances first before you decide about other boat owners " taking the piss" ?

Stick every time.

Depends what you want on your stops , I know the route very well, do you want shops, pubs, restaurants, quiet moorings, or town moorings, are you in a rush or want to go slow ?

Mike the boilerman giving us the benefit of his sage advice on another subject he has absolutely no experience or knowledge of.

I used to work in welding and fabrication. Imported Steel varies in quality globally, from products that meet all the quality specs the manufacturer codes and is traceable back to the works, to for instance Chinese or Indian products that meet no standards or have fraudulent standards. Chinese steel was rated as " abysmal" quality maybe a decade ago, though now they have a programme to improve it, I don't think they even use their own steel for bridges ect. Major Civil engineering projects like bridges, tall buildings, and ship building don't use unidentified imported steel as its not safe. Poor quality means less dense, inclusions, and delaminations, which also mean corrosion problems, you rely on good quality steel for the big long term investment you put into buying your boat. As for the welding , its an insane situation that there are no standards for inland waterways craft and anyone can build and sell one , in fact I know of one boatyard where they do overplating and stretching where the "welder" has no qualifications, and would fail a city and guilds part time 2 week course in basic welding practice, he doesnt even know how to set the correct sheilding gas flow. Surveyors regularly pass his work because he uses a trick called ' manual pulse' MIG welding which produces a nice looking weld but with no penetration or strength. Proves these surveyors know nothing about welding. This person also built a hull which is basically a demo piece of bad welding, I'm sure one day it will be sold and there's nothing anyone can do about it, the new owner will end up with £1000 of scrap minus cutting up charges, ie he will have to pay them to take it away. I also saw a survey from a well known boat yard on the Thames on a nb which declared the hull 5 / 6 mm thick, the new owner was happy, bought it and dry docked it and the pressure washer went straight through the bottom, the owner faced maybe 4/5 years in litigation, no legal aid, and the boat on hard standing with more surveyors and lawyers arguing about who was right for years, they chose to sell it at a £15,000 loss and move on . Some surveyors carefully word their reports so that they're not legally binding. Two years ago i saw up close on hard standing a 60 / 70 ft nb that was condemned here the hull welds were just put in without any edge preparation on closed butted plates, say 2 mm of penetration on 10 mm plate only on the top, joins where the distortion had got the better of them were just left unwelded. And this boat was sold and fitted out and the owners were left to fight it out in court. I wouldn't buy any steel hull without proven steel origin certificates, and the qualifications of the welders on the job. Not much to ask for tens of thousands payment ?

Wrong.

Edit

True it is a pain, but as i said before that is the price you pay for having a functional canal system, a system with less boats and less licence fees wouldn't be faster to navigate because it would be economically unviable. There are no commercial boats that depend on speed anyway .

The season is here again, when the boats all come out of the marinas and travel miles out into the countryside , navigating miles of canals, dozens of locks to find the most quiet spot with the best view, then moor up, put up their satellite dish, start their generator and spend their time watching TV inside , while ruining the peace and quiet , and not going outside except to throw coal ash in the hedge to make sure the next person moors by a slag heap. I wonder why these people want to watch TV in various remote scenic locations around the canal system, wouldn't it be easier just to stay put, and get Sky plus ?

People who move the minimum distance allowed are saving water, pollution, congestion, and wear and tear on the infrastructure, whilst not doing anyone any harm. Look at it as a benefit.

The minimum requirements of the licence are still the licence, and the owner is fully entitled legally and morally to do that. The " spirit of the licence " is just someone's arbitrary opinion of what someone else should be doing. The people who have these opinions complain about others but don't even know the circumstances, a boat in my area has only moved a few miles in the last year, the owner has terminal cancer, so before you complain about others find out the circumstances or just mind your own business.

There is no such thing as " the spirit of a licence".

I don't see how a foam filled bike tyre is going to give you a comfortable ride. I'll go for the green slime , and see how it works.

Any one have the same problems we have , when the spring and summer comes and the towpath hedges get cut the path is littered with thorns and basically un-ride-able ? I just went out and only got 100 metres on the towpath before it was game over for both tyres. The contractors sometimes blow the path clear, but you can never be sure.