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Update : Commercial Barge Unaccompanied Voyage On The Trent


Alan de Enfield

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From NBW

 

CaRT's 'Inappropriate Mooring' caused damage

Published: Monday, 10 February 2020

From today, Monday 10th February, the new 'Inappropriate Mooring' process will be applied where a boat is
moored in a way that affects safety, quotes Tony Dunkley.

The above few words, from CaRT's Head of Boating Matthew Symond's in a 6th February 2020 Press Release, not only see his employer's achievements in hypocrisy soaring to new heights, but also begs the questions— what was the catalyst for introducing this 'new' process at this particular juncture and how does it differ from the Trust's old 'Inappropriate Mooring' process which, presumably, was the one with which they themselves were BargeSelbyMichaelconscientiously complying when they moved my commercial carrying company's 250 ton barge, Selby Michael from it's CaRT allocated commercial mooring above Hazleford Lock (on the river Trent between Nottingham and Newark) last year and left it moored to the lock island bull-nose below the weir throughout the last few months of the Trent's floods without bothering to re-use all it's mooring lines, or re-rigging the precautionary anti-vandal wire rope and bulldog grips from the barge's bow to a shore bollard.

Adrift

Selby Michael was first sighted adrift in the Trent in the early evening of Sunday 26th January 2020 and the immediate concern on the part of those who first sighted the drifting vessel was for the safety of any craft in it's path, and even more importantly, the safety of anyone who could or might be aboard them. The time and location of the first sightings of the drifting barge were reported by phone to the CaRT emergency number immediately but the Trust's assessment of the situation was that it was nothing of any immediate concern and would be attended to on the following day during normal working hours.

This was not a view shared by those who responded so promptly and capably to the emergency and succeeded in getting the barge under control and temporarily tied overnight to a tree near Mill Bight in Newark Dyke later that night.  Those directly involved in the hazardous operation were the owner of a boat damaged by the drifting barge at the Fiskerton moorings, the proprietor of those moorings, and James Wilkinson and Chris Chapman with the ex-BWB tug Friar Tuck, now owned and operated by Newark Marina.

Purveyors of 'waterside wellbeing'

Precisely what, you may ask, did the nation's leading purveyors of 'waterside wellbeing' contribute to ensuring that this serious threat to people's personal safety, and to their boats, was brought under control and averted without delay?

The answer—CaRT neither displayed any interest nor took any part whatsoever in securing the barge for the night and preventing it from doing any further damage, to property or people!  The best they could offer on the Sunday evening, with the barge getting ever closer to Newark by the minute, was a vague promise, made over the phone to the proprietor of the moorings at Fiskerton and to the owner of the boat at those moorings which had just been struck by the barge and damaged, to come out and assess the situation on the following day.

Failure to grasp the seriousness

I'm sure that two working weeks on from this dangerous incident, the owner of the damaged boat and the proprietor of the Fiskerton moorings will take great comfort from the Trust's latest Press Release and the
remarkable insight it will have given them into the directing minds behind the Trust's failure to either grasp the seriousness of the situation on the evening of 26th January last—or to act on it!

Is there, I wonder, any realistic prospect of our new Government exercising some sort of supervision and control over the activities of the irresponsible people in overall charge at CaRT, and to whom most of our system of navigable inland waterways has apparently been abandoned to do with as they will.

Thus far, the Trust, and all the potential victims of this very much 'unfit for purpose' organisation, have largely escaped any serious consequences in terms of loss of life or injuries arising out of the unspeakable shambles that has been created since British Waterways was consigned to history in July 2012.  How long will it be before CaRT do finally succeed in maiming or killing some of the supposed recipients of the particular brand of 'wellbeing' they expend so much effort and money in promoting?

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Have I misunderstood something? CRT moved someone else's boat last year, moored it unsafely, the owner didn't bother to do anything about it, left it there for months, it's now come loose and damaged stuff and it's all CRT's fault?

Surely the boat remains the owner's responsibility - he could at least have got round to tying it up properly. And why did CRT shift it in the first place?

I suspect that as usual this is half a story.

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54 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Have I misunderstood something? CRT moved someone else's boat last year, moored it unsafely, the owner didn't bother to do anything about it, left it there for months, it's now come loose and damaged stuff and it's all CRT's fault?

Surely the boat remains the owner's responsibility - he could at least have got round to tying it up properly. And why did CRT shift it in the first place?

I suspect that as usual this is half a story.

In the circumstances as stated, yes. See British Waterways Act 1995, sec. 19, in particular, sub section 6.  We don't know if subsections 1, 2, 3 or 5 were complied with, either.

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1 hour ago, Iain_S said:

In the circumstances as stated, yes. See British Waterways Act 1995, sec. 19, in particular, sub section 6.  We don't know if subsections 1, 2, 3 or 5 were complied with, either.

Yes what? Yes I've misunderstood, yes it remains the owner's responsibility, or yes it's half a story?

A gloriously unhelpful reply, thank you. I've only got the post above to work from, although I did miss that it was one of Tony's boats. It did strike me as odd that CRT would still lease (as suggested above) boats from someone they keep trying to kick off the water, but Tony's interraction with CRT is always interesting, though CRT would probably use a different word, and so, I suspect, would he.

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2 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Have I misunderstood something? CRT moved someone else's boat last year, moored it unsafely, the owner didn't bother to do anything about it, left it there for months, it's now come loose and damaged stuff and it's all CRT's fault?

Surely the boat remains the owner's responsibility - he could at least have got round to tying it up properly. And why did CRT shift it in the first place?

I suspect that as usual this is half a story.

 

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

But what Tony Dunkley doesn't comment on is why he didn't take any interest in how well Selby Michael was moored during the last few months below the lock.

 

Eta crossed with Arthur.

It has a mooring at Fiskerton for the last 6 years, if CRT/contractors want to use that place for loading unloading they move the boat, in this case they used only 3 of the 5 lines and a wire lines and didnt move it back to its mooring when they had finished. So as its an open boat it must gather water and have to be pumped out regularly one would assume? So maybe Tony visits the boat every couple of months to do this? In the meantime the moving on its own has happened? Just a thought, after all we have boats on our mooring that never get visited at all.........................................

Edited by peterboat
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2 minutes ago, peterboat said:

 

It has a mooring at Fiskerton for the last 6 years, if CRT?contractors want to use that place for loading unloading they move the boat, in this case they used only 3 of the 5 lines and a wire lines and didnt move it back to its mooring when they had finished. So as its an open boat it must gather water and have to be pumped out regularly one would assume? So maybe Tony visits the boat every couple of months to do this? In the meantime the moving on its own has happened? Just a thought, after all we have boats on our mooring that never get visited at all.........................................

Yes, but he says it was there on the wrong mooring, badly moored  for months. So he must have visited it there, so why not either moor it properly or insist it be put back on its contracted mooring?

Have to stop now, the wife's playing the tuba and it makes my head hurt. It's like living with a bloody foghorn, you can't think straight after a couple of minutes.

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23 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Yes what? Yes I've misunderstood, yes it remains the owner's responsibility, or yes it's half a story?

'Yes' it would be CRT's fault (according to the act referenced in that post). I wasn't sure either so I looked it up.

 

You'll probably get better/more info on this on Thunderboat becasue the owner posts on there. You don't have to have a darkside log in to read it either iirc.

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20 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

 

Have to stop now, the wife's playing the tuba and it makes my head hurt. It's like living with a bloody foghorn, you can't think straight after a couple of minutes.

Come on Arthur,live and let live.Your wife has to put up with your Trombone playing.

Are you just narked because she plays the Tuba better than you play the Trombone?

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26 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Come on Arthur,live and let live.Your wife has to put up with your Trombone playing.

Are you just narked because she plays the Tuba better than you play the Trombone?

My son has an electronic mute for his tuba so only he can hear it.

 

Back to the OP the barge has been moored below the lock for at least 15 months. I too cannot understand someone not checking on his boat during that time.

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51 minutes ago, pearley said:

My son has an electronic mute for his tuba so only he can hear it.

 

Back to the OP the barge has been moored below the lock for at least 15 months. I too cannot understand someone not checking on his boat during that time.

No it hasn't I saw it twice last year on its proper moorings 

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2 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

Come on Arthur,live and let live.Your wife has to put up with your Trombone playing.

Are you just narked because she plays the Tuba better than you play the Trombone?

She played the trombone better than me too! I had to get a euphonium to catch up, then she got the tuba. I play the fiddle, she plays the double bass. I play accordion, she plays church organ. There's a pattern, if only I could spot it...

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1 hour ago, peterboat said:

No it hasn't I saw it twice last year on its proper moorings 

Mid October 2018 it was moored on the downstream end of Hazelford lock island. Early March 2019 it was moored on the downstream end of Hazelford lock island. Early December 2019 it was moored on the downstream end of Hazelford lock island. Only my assumption that it hadn't moved in that time.

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1 minute ago, pearley said:

Mid October 2018 it was moored on the downstream end of Hazelford lock island. Early March 2019 it was moored on the downstream end of Hazelford lock island. Early December 2019 it was moored on the downstream end of Hazelford lock island. Only my assumption that it hadn't moved in that time.

Pretty much the same philosophy as used by the C&RT 'movement checkers'.

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

She played the trombone better than me too! I had to get a euphonium to catch up, then she got the tuba. I play the fiddle, she plays the double bass. I play accordion, she plays church organ. There's a pattern, if only I could spot it...

Please,don't either of you take up one of the worst instruments ever invented.

 

The Tenor Horn!

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19 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

Please,don't either of you take up one of the worst instruments ever invented.

 

The Tenor Horn!

It's an oddity, that one. Our horn section always brings to my mind the gentle mooing of a contented herd of Fresians.

I'm glad you said only "one of the" though, because there's always banjos and accordions to fall back on, which is probably a good idea anyway.

Edited by Arthur Marshall
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On 11/02/2020 at 17:36, Arthur Marshall said:

She played the trombone better than me too! I had to get a euphonium to catch up, then she got the tuba. I play the fiddle, she plays the double bass. I play accordion, she plays church organ. There's a pattern, if only I could spot it...

 

You could always try the nuclear option...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bagpipes ! ???

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If dont play but for about 12 years I was Brass Band  groupy. Our son was always interested in music and when he went to big school prevaricated about joining the school band. When he finally went they only had one instrument left, a B flat bass, the big brother of the Tuba. So big I had to make a stand so the mouthpiece was level with his mouth. So for the next 12 years Jeannette or I took him from venue to venue, not just the school band but the local one and the County one. Having a pickup and a Transit available we were roped in to carry the timpanies, stands, etc to various venues every weekend.

 

Fortunately he now drives, still plays Tuba as a dep but mainly conducts but we still find ourselves going to various gigs.

 

But really enjoy Whit Friday for some decent Northern beer!

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23 hours ago, pearley said:

If dont play but for about 12 years I was Brass Band  groupy. Our son was always interested in music and when he went to big school prevaricated about joining the school band. When he finally went they only had one instrument left, a B flat bass, the big brother of the Tuba. So big I had to make a stand so the mouthpiece was level with his mouth. So for the next 12 years Jeannette or I took him from venue to venue, not just the school band but the local one and the County one. Having a pickup and a Transit available we were roped in to carry the timpanies, stands, etc to various venues every weekend.

 

Fortunately he now drives, still plays Tuba as a dep but mainly conducts but we still find ourselves going to various gigs.

 

But really enjoy Whit Friday for some decent Northern beer!

He's not short of a band to conduct, is he? We've mislaid ours... (not the band, the conductor!)

 

Edited by Arthur Marshall
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