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What do you do with a drunken sailor


tagulablue

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Moored outside the Barbridge Inn , Barbridge and we were side swiped by a boat.. OH ran outside and asked what he was flipping playing at ... he then continued to waver down the canal and under the bridge.   It then looked as if was trying to wind but no, he just ploughed on and narrowly missed hitting another moored boat head on.  My question is, what should you do in these circumstances?  I'm not interested in a bit of missing paintwork only the safety of other boaters on what is a bust stretch of canal.  

It was a narrowboat but no visible name or number on the boat side.

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That's a difficult one, if somebody's inebriated you might not feel safe approaching then, but there are also several medical conditions that can cause someone to appear drunk. I know that up our way the police would likely come out to something like this but I don't know about busier parts of the country. 

 

 

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As with a previous post about kids throwing stones, if you feel he was acting dangerously the only option is to inform the police. It’s then up to them to make the decision about attending or not. If you don’t tell them, they can’t decide and for sure nothing will be done.

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That's a horrible experience.

 

It's not unusual to see boats without a name or number, and if the boater's 'naughty' I imagine the anonymity could embolden them. 

 

Mike's right, make a complaint. 

 

I'll not mention the location; we arrived at a service point where there was one of those 'anonymous' boats on the services, the boater was inside tuning his radio by the sound of things. We stopped a couple of boat lengths away from him, so the boater wouldn't feel harassed. There were bottles of beer on the boater's roof (time was about 10 am). Eventually the boater came on deck, and in painful slow motion he did his services. Then he decided to pick up the deck board to inspect his engine. After a while, I walked over asking (genuinely) if he was OK, thinking maybe we could help with a spanner or something. I got a load of abuse, I didn't argue but I did mumble something about him being an ar*e. He followed me to our boat, where my hubby had his phone's camera pointed at him. This stopped him in his tracks, and he threatened he'd come after us if we'd taken his photo... strange thing to say ?

 

I didn't realise, but several permanently moored boaters were watching. Eventually the guy moved off (in cussed slow motion). When we were moored on the sanny, we received a visit from the boaters who'd been watching. They said we should report the guy to CRT as he's a well known problem, we got a feeling they'd been 'terrorised' by him. So we did, the guy was drunk and aggressive. I didn't know, but apparently CRT have the authority to take action of some kind, like getting him kicked off the canal system (?).  CRT just might be building up a case to start action against the boater. Canals shouldn't be 'bandit territory'.

Edited by Jennifer McM
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1 hour ago, tagulablue said:

Yes I would always consider health issues but on this occasion the bottles on top were the biggest clue

I didn't doubt you - I was just kinda thinking aloud. :)

 

I think like Jen says whipping your phone out (if you have one) and filming as much of it as you can is always helpful, My phone and I aren't joined at the hip so I never remember till after the fact. 

 

People who drink too much will always be in denial about something (it's the nature of the illness) but they often refuse to acknowledge their bad behave when they were drunk when that happens having filmed it on your phone could be very useful for the police. 

 

It might be worth getting in touch with CRT and finding out what their policies and procedures are in these types of instances.  

 

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

No visible name or number per the OP. Not a lot anyone can do. 

Ridiculous. They knew the colour, boat style, aproximate length, time, location, direction of travel and the op's other half had a brief conversation with him. If we only reported possible crime if we had the personal details of the bad dude, the police would have a lot of spare time.

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19 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

Ridiculous. They knew the colour, boat style, aproximate length, time, location, direction of travel and the op's other half had a brief conversation with him. If we only reported possible crime if we had the personal details of the bad dude, the police would have a lot of spare time.

Not to mention Dude's in a narrowboat, the police probbly only have to to walk down that canal a little bit to find him. ?

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2 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

Not to mention Dude's in a narrowboat, the police probbly only have to to walk down that canal a little bit to find him. ?

 

I think you're overlooking the total apathy the Police display to anything that involves any actual traditional policing work down here. Victims of low level crime are absolutely at the bottom of the list when it comes to deciding what needs doing next. 

 

In reality it is down to ridiculously low manning levels according to retired copper I do bellringing with. The three coppers looking after a whole county have priority work which is dealing with mental illness, do social work and filling in forms mainly, nowadays. Only once that is done can they turn their attention to stuff like investigating drunken boaters weaving up the cut. 

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1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I think you're overlooking the total apathy the Police display to anything that involves any actual traditional policing work down here. Victims of low level crime are absolutely at the bottom of the list when it comes to deciding what needs doing next. 

 

In reality it is down to ridiculously low manning levels according to retired copper I do bellringing with. The three coppers looking after a whole county have priority work which is dealing with mental illness, do social work and filling in forms mainly, nowadays. Only once that is done can they turn their attention to stuff like investigating drunken boaters weaving up the cut. 

Agree, but let's not overlook what CRT can do. It's in their interests to keep the canal system 'pleasant'. Depending on how serious the 'crime', perhaps notify the CRT first, and maybe let them decide whether police interaction should be called? 

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Quite right Mike, but if we all start thinking negatively and don't bother reporting then not only will nothing definitely be done, but those scrotes will get even more into the mindset that they can get away with anything. There is then a natural escalation and they gravitate to more serious stuff. I know a lot of them take this course anyway but I also know that if the police get enough complaints about recurring crime from the same group / family, they start taking an interest in them.

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1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

In reality it is down to ridiculously low manning levels according to retired copper I do bellringing with. The three coppers looking after a whole county have priority work which is dealing with mental illness, do social work and filling in forms mainly, nowadays. Only once that is done can they turn their attention to stuff like investigating drunken boaters weaving up the cut. 

Totally agree.   A policeman turned up to my SiL's sudden death, a not really unexpected event she had had a heart condition for 10 years.   When the condition began the Doc didn't think she would live to reach hospital.

 

I suggested the cop would be more usefully employed catching criminals and his reply was "Oh we don't do that any more!"   When asked to explain he gave more or less what you say MtB as his reply.

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3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I think you're overlooking the total apathy the Police display to anything that involves any actual traditional policing work down here. Victims of low level crime are absolutely at the bottom of the list when it comes to deciding what needs doing next. 

Oh - our local coppers like going for a donder along the canal, it saves them having to do any real police work. No that's not really true at all, but I have to say our local bobbies are very good at dealing with anti social behaviour.  

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We had a really nasty experience at our home mooring, right in the middle of “the Beast from the East” linky below..

 

 

we contacted both the police AND CRT and were told by the latter that all such reports will go as notes on the perpetrators file, especially as we had a crime number. According to the person I talked to - persistent ASB could mean they may not be issued another licence. First I’d heard of it! 

The police did eventually feel his collar - as we had full I.d. Including his home mooring.. but this didn’t happen for months. 

 

Something thankfully seems to have have had an effect though as he now cruises past us regularly but at a sensible pace with eyes front and no loud “threats to kill”! 

 

Really really freaked me out at the time, I didn’t feel safe on our home mooring for months.. later in the spring new security gates and cctv were installed which helped no end. 

 

Now the only emotion I have when I think of that incident is laughter at what could possibly be the most mis-named boat on the System ??

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4 minutes ago, lampini said:

We had a really nasty experience at our home mooring, right in the middle of “the Beast from the East” linky below..

 

 

we contacted both the police AND CRT and were told by the latter that all such reports will go as notes on the perpetrators file, especially as we had a crime number. According to the person I talked to - persistent ASB could mean they may not be issued another licence. First I’d heard of it! 

The police did eventually feel his collar - as we had full I.d. Including his home mooring.. but this didn’t happen for months. 

 

Something thankfully seems to have have had an effect though as he now cruises past us regularly but at a sensible pace with eyes front and no loud “threats to kill”! 

 

Really really freaked me out at the time, I didn’t feel safe on our home mooring for months.. later in the spring new security gates and cctv were installed which helped no end. 

 

Now the only emotion I have when I think of that incident is laughter at what could possibly be the most mis-named boat on the System ??

I remember that, and wondered what the outcome was. Glad it worked out in the end, and I doubt you were the only ones targeted. 

 

(Hope to catch you soon for that catch-up we keep promising:hug:)

 

 

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Once I had occasion to have a polite word with someone behaving badly.I was quite surprised when he mumbled something like an apology.

I did have my windlass dangling from my belt and a mooring pin in my hand (wouldn't dream of using them as a weapon) but perhaps the sight of these helped to keep the conversation reasonable.

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15 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Once I had occasion to have a polite word with someone behaving badly.I was quite surprised when he mumbled something like an apology.

I did have my windlass dangling from my belt and a mooring pin in my hand (wouldn't dream of using them as a weapon) but perhaps the sight of these helped to keep the conversation reasonable.

Funny what a windlass-in-hand can do, swinging it while walking along towpaths somehow makes mad cyclists slow down - they've got more respect for hard steel than flesh and bone.

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1 hour ago, Jennifer McM said:

I remember that, and wondered what the outcome was. Glad it worked out in the end, and I doubt you were the only ones targeted. 

 

(Hope to catch you soon for that catch-up we keep promising:hug:)

 

 

Actually one of the best things to come out of posting on here and farcebook was that we found out that we were by NO means the only ones to be targeted by him - an alcoholic with anger issues for many years it turned out. It can really make a difference in the wee dark paranoid hours to know that we were nowt special! I was scared he would come back for months... 

 

 

but then really....

 

”Brotherly Love”???!!! ????????

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53 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

Funny what a windlass-in-hand can do, swinging it while walking along towpaths somehow makes mad cyclists slow down - they've got more respect for hard steel than flesh and bone.

Speak softly - but carry a big stick! ?

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7 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Having a sock full of marbles (apparently) is a good idea.

I friend of mine who was a Royal Marine was chatting about the hazing process and that they would use the slappy sock thing but they would use and orange and I mentioned that in the films they use soap and that surly an orange isn't going to do much good, his reply was that unlike every thing else an orange hurts like hell but doesn't leave a mark. 

 

 

Edited by Tumshie
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