Naughty BW

[moggyjo]

A 20m mooring round the corner from us has just gone up for tender, (Thrupp Road, Gunpowder Wharf, South Oxford) anyway that mooring has been vacant since summer 2006 when the people that had the mooring went to the IWA Pangbourne Fest and moved to a mooring in Thrupp itself when they got back. on the tendering site it says "in May 2007 there were 22 people on the waiting list for a mooring at Gunpowder Wharf"

Why was it not allocated to one of those 22 people wanting a mooring there instead of keeping it vacant for 9 months before the waiting list was stopped in May this year? It all seems very wrong to me.

If something like this has happened in your area could you please contact, Simon Robbins at moorings.07@nabo.org.uk Thanks Wendy

[StoneHenge]

There are a number of vacancies on a mooring I was on the waiting list for (I was number 5). I doubt they will come up anytime soon even though they have had vacancies for a while.

 

Money, money, money......

[moggyjo]

There are a number of vacancies on a mooring I was on the waiting list for (I was number 5). I doubt they will come up anytime soon even though they have had vacancies for a while.

 

Money, money, money......

A friend of ours was no1 on the waiting list for that mooring, little did he know that all the time he was doing the continuous cruising bit he could of been settled on a mooring, ( if they hadn't been holding it back) He is so fed up now as there is no way he could afford to bid for it, hes put his boat up for sale

[GUMPY]

A friend of ours was no1 on the waiting list for that mooring, little did he know that all the time he was doing the continuous cruising bit he could of been settled on a mooring, ( if they hadn't been holding it back) He is so fed up now as there is no way he could afford to bid for it, hes put his boat up for sale

Sounds defeatist to me

How does he know what it will go for?

He should just bid what it would have cost him before the Auction, he may get lucky if everyone else thinks as he has done.

 

Julian

[moggyjo]

Sounds defeatist to me

How does he know what it will go for?

He should just bid what it would have cost him before the Auction, he may get lucky if everyone else thinks as he has done.

 

Julian

I am pretty sure that BW will not let a mooring go for the start price, I think they are more likely to close a site and turn it into 14 day moorings if it does not reach a good price, its only a 3 boat size mooring.

[GUMPY]

I am pretty sure that BW will not let a mooring go for the start price, I think they are more likely to close a site and turn it into 14 day moorings if it does not reach a good price, its only a 3 boat size mooring.

There is no "start price" merly a guide price, You could bid below that if you felt you would get it.

If the system was open auction, as it was before the IWA got their oar in, you would know what the bidding was at and could play accordingly.

 

Nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

Julian

[debbifiggy]

There is no "start price" merly a guide price, You could bid below that if you felt you would get it.

If the system was open auction, as it was before the IWA got their oar in, you would know what the bidding was at and could play accordingly.

 

Nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

Julian

There are a number of possibilities, people putting in lots of low level bids, one person putting in a high level bid because they are desperate and many other permutations. Until the first bids finish on 28th November and we can see the tender history and bidding via www.waterscape.com we won't know. After that the world is the mollusc of your choice but probably more so if you have a deeper pocket. Interesting times. Believe that's a Chinese curse :-(

D

[moggyjo]

but don't you think its bad that BW kept a mooring unlet for 9 months before the waiting list was stopped in May?

[Bones]

but don't you think its bad that BW kept a mooring unlet for 9 months before the waiting list was stopped in May?

 

Definitely. I also think the whole tendering business is outrageous. What are we meant to do about it?

[magnetman]

It seems there are only 5 moorings available to auction on the GUC main line between Braunston and Brentford. I think BW need to increase online moorings (never say never again) or someone needs to make a layby somewhere with green catseyes.

[paul morgan]

It seems there are only 5 moorings available to auction on the GUC main line between Braunston and Brentford. I think BW need to increase online moorings (never say never again) or someone needs to make a layby somewhere with green catseyes.

 

BW can only put moorings up for tender as they become available. i.e. they have to wait until the current incumbent's contract expires AND the current incumbent chooses NOT to renew. If the GUC moorer's want to renew then there will inevitably be a wait on that waterway.

 

hth,

paul

[colin1325]

i have a 250 foot garden you can all come and moor here if you like . admittedly i am approx 400 miles from the nearest canal but hey ho

[Big John]

i am approx 400 miles from the nearest canal

So which part of Cornwall is that? I haven't been there

(It might feel like that though.)

[GUMPY]

i have a 250 foot garden you can all come and moor here if you like . admittedly i am approx 400 miles from the nearest canal but hey ho

 

I doubt you are that far away from a canal

 

There is the Bude Canal in Cornwall

 

Not to mention the Grand Western Canal at Tiverton

and the Bridgwater and Taunton canal both in Devon.

 

If you want to add Canals that dont exist anymore there are others..........

 

Julian

[moggyjo]

Going back to my main point though, How can they justify leaving a mooring empty for 9 months before stopping the waiting list

[carlt]

i have a 250 foot garden you can all come and moor here if you like . admittedly i am approx 400 miles from the nearest canal but hey ho

Here in Rugby I'm about 300 miles from land's end (with plenty of canals in between). Nowhere in the UK are you 400 miles from a canal.(319 miles from the tip of the caledonian to the most northerly point of Shetland, btw).I haven't included British overseas territories though.

Going back to my main point though, How can they justify leaving a mooring empty for 9 months before stopping the waiting list

They're British Waterways, they don't think they have to justify anything they decide to do.

[Sir Nibble]

Going back to my main point though, How can they justify leaving a mooring empty for 9 months before stopping the waiting list

The name of the game is money, if you don't have it, you can't play.

[RichardH]

I have some friends who are literally sh*tting bricks over this. They are residential on a BW mooring and the next mooring up has just become vacant. I can't remember the exact nos but say they pay £60 per metre per year. What if the mooring up for auction goes for £120 per metre just because it is desirable but more so because 2 bidders really want it.

 

What then becomes the 'commercial price' for this mooring? I can't see it staying at £60 for much longer.

[flatplane8]

On a slightly related note, I've just made a trip into London this weekend (very pleasant) and I've seen a few boats for sale that are on BW residential moorings. I know that some of these boats are on the market for £2-300k, which I assume is down to the mooring being included. Is this mooring transferable to the new owner, or would they suddenly have to bid on it like everyone else?

Edited November 5, 2007 by flatplane8

[Sir Nibble]

On a slightly related note, I've just made a trip into London this weekend (very pleasant) and I've seen a few boats for sale that are on BW residential moorings. I know that some of these boats are on the market for £2-300k, which I assume is down to the mooring being included. Is this mooring transferable to the new owner, or would they suddenly have to bid on it like everyone else?

According to BW, moorings are not transferable, but then BW are living in a fantasy.

[Bones]

According to BW, moorings are not transferable, but then BW are living in a fantasy.

 

This is true, but there are exceptions.

[grahoom]

According to BW, moorings are not transferable, but then BW are living in a fantasy.

 

 

 

interesting, i got this email from BW in august regarding residential mooring in oxford...

 

We have two sites of residential moorings within the Oxford area ~ one at Hythe Bridge (which is where the Oxford canal ends) and an area called Agenda 21 ~ which is collection of five separate sites within a 3 ½ mile distance from Oxford – northwards ~

 

We do not keep waiting lists for these sites, because the moorings are transferable with the sale of a boat

[flatplane8]

According to BW, moorings are not transferable, but then BW are living in a fantasy.

 

This has been my understanding, but I wondered what the reality was. Bit of a risk to pay such a big premium on something that isn't transferable, but I guess as long as the money keeps rolling in, BW are happy.

[Lady Muck]

On a slightly related note, I've just made a trip into London this weekend (very pleasant) and I've seen a few boats for sale that are on BW residential moorings. I know that some of these boats are on the market for £2-300k, which I assume is down to the mooring being included. Is this mooring transferable to the new owner, or would they suddenly have to bid on it like everyone else?

 

I'd suggest that whoever buys these boats should be VERY VERY careful indeed. It might have been the case that they'd have transferred them in the past, but theres no guarantee, I can think of plenty of instances near us recently where the buyers thought they were getting a mooring and ended up a bit surprised when they didn't. It seems that things have been tightened up recently.

 

I think there are barely any moorings free near us, there were quite a few, but they have mostly now been let before the *cough* experiment starts.

[flatplane8]

I'd suggest that whoever buys these boats should be VERY VERY careful indeed. It might have been the case that they'd have transferred them in the past, but theres no guarantee, I can think of plenty of instances near us recently where the buyers thought they were getting a mooring and ended up a bit surprised when they didn't. It seems that things have been tightened up recently.

 

I think there are barely any moorings free near us, there were quite a few, but they have mostly now been let before the *cough* experiment starts.

 

Definitely, I'd get that in writing before I would commit to such a deal. In London and nearby, the effect of mooring can dramatically put up the price of a boat. I've even seen a couple of adds where they stated that the boat was basically derelict and would need to be replaced (hence my question). One recent one was for £29k in Islington. Some private marinas are fine with this, and you can say 'transferable subject to agreement with marina', the one I'm in now is like that.