Maffi
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Posts posted by Maffi
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On canals, please always close the gates on exit unless an opposite direction boat is in view. Whilst your point about efficiency is correct, gates should be closed to prevent or reduce leaks. Leaving gates open can drain a pound and cause extensive delays to those coming through later, and just wastes water in general. This is why most canal flights have a sign or two requiring all gates and paddles to be closed on exit, and it's in the CRT boaters handbook as well.
On rivers of course the water loss doesn't matter so it's common to leave the exit gate open. On some canals fed nearby by a river section, the loss of water is likewise probably not important but it is still convention to close all gates on exit and to not do so just causes annoyance to other people. Better to be considerate than a smartarse! As mentioned, this to some extent applies to the lower GU but more relevantly when you get close to London people are intrinsically selfish and inconsiderate so in general gates and probably paddles get left open.
The odd lock has to be left empty as it leaks into adjacent property etc (it will be signed thus) in which case it is reasonable to leave the bottom gate open.
Now its funny you should say that, but there are two locks on the K&A on the run up from Newbury to Kintbury that are marked to leave the bottom paddles up. These two locks are in the middle of nowhere. A river runs down one side and the land slopes up on the other side. Would you like to hazard a guess why?
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The gates at Foxton are supposed to be opened at nine in the morning. The last time I went up they were two hours late opening up. When they finally opened up I was not allowed to go up on my own.
This is odd because on Christmas day the gates are not locked at all. When I phoned CRT to ask where the lockies were as two hire boats out of Market Harbourgh wanted to go up they understandably said no lockies worked on Christmas day and then aske me if I would help them up the locks.
I wish they would make up their minds.
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I got from the London area "That is the plan but as yet we are not ready to implement."
The plan, as far as boats are concerned, is flawed. Though currently we are supposed to display our Registration Number many don't. If a boat has no identifying marks from which CRT can identify the owner how are they to tell errant boaters they are required to display a reg no. Should you be involved in an incident how are you supposed to identify the boat, no Reg No no Name. As it is people already 'leave the scene' with no concern for any damage or injury and the victim is left to pay the cost. If the disc is to go then there should be an insistence that the a name and number is clearly visible on both sides of the boat and I don't mean written on a post-it note. One and/or the other should be visible from a distance at least the same as the registration plate.
The privacy argument doesn't hold water any more than not having a reg no on a car. If you don't want a to display your name and number then no licence should be issued simples.
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Apparently this has been fixed
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I worked at Shipton quarry for a while a few years back. It is the biggest hole in Oxfordshire and very necessary to the future of the county as all other big holes are coming to the top. The Nature chaps insisted on relocating the newts (not crested) The task took months and £90,000 in newt fencing. The chap who collected the newts placed them in the 'safe' area every day. The 'safe' area was under a rookery. We had the fattest crows in the country.
That and the Little Ringneck Plovers caused the company to go bust. The LRPs nest site was out of bounds to all. The chicks hatched and were doing well until the night a fox came into their lives. The Nature man said "Ho hum that's life", and we never saw him again. I did think his comment "Oh what a lovely natural habitat" was a bit much considering it was once a 100 ft hill and was now a 50 ft + deep hole and told him so. He said. "Well you know what I mean". I told him I didn't.
When I asked the boss nature man how come the animals arrived in the quarry he said, "When the quarry went quite the animals moved in". So I asked if they would move out now that the quarry was working again. "Oh yes," he said, "These animals don't like noise."
"So what was the point?" I asked as I left the quarry with my redundancy pay in my pocket.
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Not only poor boat but possible damage to the infrastructure?
Ray the infrastructure at 215 is destroyed, they aint gonna hurt it! If the guy who took the vids was so concerned why didn't he send them to the owner? who could have dealt with any problem. That lift bridge is, like most on the oxford, on a corner, The steerer, in the first vid, let go of the tiller and the back of the boat went into shallow water. At that point he was going to hit the brickwork what ever he did. The owner watched the first vid and was not unduly worried. Yes the boat was going a bit fast for passing a moored boat but not excessive and why was a boat moored that close to the bridge hole anyway? I notice that comments on the vid have been disabled That was after I pointed out what I have said here. So why did he disable the comments?
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On the first video why is one person steering and another person on the throttle.
This is common on Dayboats and general hire boats.
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Not necessarily, you don't need to display a cruising licence now.
Yes you do!
Flipping hell!!
Changes, changes.
Oh well I feel as though I'm always behind!! Lol
So you don't get a piece of paper to show folks that you've paid!
So if you painted on by mistake (of course) a wrong registration number or duplicated
And you don't need to display a licence
A boat effectively can travel the system, constantly cruising and never be recognised by CRT s System
False number plates, no need to display a licence
Col
Many people in the Oxford area have been told to display their licence number, and the number on the ticket isn't big enough.
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The Boat is only 40 ft and is moored on a bow rope nose in . Of course its gonna rock.
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But irrespective of hull design and how little a given design disturbs moored boats you still slow past moored boats
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Thanks for the blog.
I think the sign at Isis lock must have been upgraded.
This was originally the advice for boats heading down the canal who wished to turn, as the winding hole above the lock is for about 50' max. But I can see it could be a good approach for turning into Sheepwash, esp if there is a lot of water coming down the backwater.
The turning at the top of ISIS Lock is 52 feet.
Thursday 7th. Election day dawned, and the winds had dropped. We were disenfranchised because although we had applied for postal votes in good time, about 4 weeks ago, when we called up the local authority to ask why our ballot papers had not arrived last week, the insisted that they had not received our applications, and that it was too late to do anything about it. We decided on a bus tour of Oxford, very enjoyable, some sightseeing, some shopping and lunch at the Grapes (recommended). Set off in the afternoon and moored up on the public moorings outside the Boat in Thrupp. Back end on rings, great, front needed a mooring pin - bummer. Dinner at the Boat was Beef Wellington.Stayed up most of the night watching the election. The results in our constituency were not materially affected by our missing votes.
Please do make a formal complaint about the voting issue. If no one kicks up a stink they wont fix it.
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No it was further down towards Stratford but I can't remember which one. Had a lot of dog walkers and two of them got yelled at by me for allowing their dog to cock their leg against my hose reel.
I cant believe people do that. I have seen it several times. What are they thinking?
We have about 4 cubic meters of water on board so it can take a long long time try never to run out it has a switch on it which turns off the waterpump to stop that running empty
Peter
4 cubic meters is 4 tonnes of water. Why?
A friend of mine who is a liveaboard moors against the water point, puts the water on low trickle. The wife does all the washing then they all have showers (4 people) takes about 6 hours.
I don't like your friends.
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Well
Well I was thinking about others more than myself. I do feel great sympathy with those who have little or no way of protecting themselves and/ or lack the means/ confidence to do so.
Everyone can 'protect' themselves. They simply have to play by the rules. It is not difficult.
On the subject of targeting newbies. There is a logic to it. If CRT apply themselves to sorting out the long term 'offenders' the newbies will arrive and assume that no one is bothered about them if they stay over.
By the time CRT have sorted out the long term 'offenders' they will then have a bunch of newbies who have become long term 'offenders'. It makes sense to 'educate' the newbies when they arrive then they will learn from the outset what the rules are! Rather than learning them from someone in a pub who will benefit from more newbies not knowing the rules.
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Maybe try & convince the guy to spend some money on a bunch of solar panels.
If a chap is twat enough to run his engine after ten is he going to listen reason. I very much doubt it.
Would that not rather make a mess of the UK holiday market? Particularly in places like the Lake District there is no way without holiday lets that the visitors to the area could be accommodated.
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It may seem unfair, but the 100% council tax on an empty house is there, apart from ensuring income for the council, to discourage people from leaving houses empty.
There is a housing shortage, after all.
Tim
So why not make it illegal to own a house that is not occupied?
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I'd ask the guy running his motor at 10pm to turn it off, if it was annoying me. Pragmatically, I'd not be bothered because I'd be sat in the boat watching telly and couldn't hear it. I'm more bothered about early morning engine running - that's quite annoying! The other issues, I'd not worry about. If I can't find a mooring where I want it, I tend to have a "plan B" and "plan C" for somewhere else to stop. I'm not sure you can generalise and say everyone, or even a majority, stopping at a 48h mooring brings in revenue to the local area.
Paul if you were not watching TV as some of us don't, what would be your response then? Even a Honda Wisper Gen is annoying!
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Hmmm, don't tell anyone....
You can see a long way beyond Shrewley when you are approaching it, probably two or three tunnel lengths (I'd give it a go without booking)
Richard
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Whenever the topic of mooring in Birmingham comes up someone says there are pleasant moorings in the Vale on the Worcester and Birmingham. Can anyone explain quite where they mean. Strikes me as a useful stopping point without having to leave the Birmingham area altogether.
This is odd surely Birmingham is on a hill.
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I'd like to know if anyone thinks living aboard as a CC'er while CRT strictly enforce the 14 day rule would be viable. I don't think so, except for a tiny minority, and for a limited period. And obviously not in the winter maintaince period.
I would think it would be similar to being on the run from the police. No thanks.
Oh c'mon. I CC mostly in the winter when a lot of CCers are on winter moorings. Yes there are times stoppages catch you out. I was caught one year for seven weeks due to river flood and another year only one day. Another time two weeks in ice. This year I was stopped for a worn Gearbox which RCR took a month to sort. I move every one or two days, except an odd week here or there when I will hole up for a rest. Otherwise I am out in the snow and rain. I did stop in the summer but usually on friends moorings. This year however I am having a summer boating. I am not running from anyone least of all the police. CCing suits some not all. It a state of mind thing I suppose.
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Someone I know has had a nose bleed caused by CRT and its new T&C/enforcement this week.
He has come up Buckby Locks for the first time in almost 2 years and is suffering from altitude sickness.
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I'll be down that way next week and will be "about" whilst Mary gets a train to go visiting the grand children.
I'll see whats occurring!
But i have come across an old guy in the Middlewich area who does the same thing.
He walks up to your boat, looks at it, full on. Puts his hand in his inside pocket and gets out a small note pad, and proceeds to write something down. I can only presume its the boat name and number,
i have no issues about him and even Mary said that he was just a old chap with probably load of lists on his bedroom wall, doing no harm to anybody, but giving himself something to do!!
Nipper
You coming this way? Hurrah!
Selling forged licenses?
Who Moi?
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Maffi - we peered (had a good nebbing) at your licence whilst u woz shopping in Tescos/clearing up some other boaters' dog poo and saw your licence was clearly a forgery. Not sure whether to send to to CRT or to an Art Gallery. Please advise
Oh that's odd I don't think it was current the last time I was near Tesco!
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Well you might do either if the boat is not otherwise displaying its reg number, or to check that the licence is for the boat in question and not for example a colour photocopy of someone else's.
Do you really think CRT train people to see forgeries?
I could make one up tomorrow and you would probably never be able to tell.
Boater Sues C&RT for Section 8
in General Boating
Posted
No sorry that is not the right comparison.
People do not moor boats in fields (with maybe one or two exceptions).
The better comparison would surely be laybys, verges and hard shoulder? All of which are not main 'navigation'.