BSS Review

[MtB]

11 hours ago, Slow and Steady said:

30,000 boats x £50 to CRT = £1.5M.

Just saying.

 

I doubt CRT get any of the fee. Surely it all goes to the BSS scheme.

 

But the scheme certainly looks to me like a self-feeding bureaucracy, and self-feeding bureaucracies spend a lot of time working out ways to increase their size and reach, I observe. BSS scheme managers are behaving just as one would expect in calling for more frequent checks. 

[Momac]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

I doubt CRT get any of the fee. Surely it all goes to the BSS scheme.

Which is owned by C&RT and the EA

[MtB]

Just now, MartynG said:

Which is owned by C&RT and the EA

 

 

And costs nothing to run, obviously....

[Momac]

1 minute ago, MtB said:

 

 

And costs nothing to run, obviously....

Clearly it does cost something in salaries and overheads  but about £50 goes to the BSS for every certificate issued and people have to pay £5k+VAT  for training to become an examiner.

 

[MtB]

14 minutes ago, MartynG said:

Clearly it does cost something in salaries and overheads  but about £50 goes to the BSS for every certificate issued and people have to pay £5k+VAT  for training to become an examiner.

 

 

 

Indeed. So you agree the £50 for each certificate does NOT go straight into the coffers of CRT then, which is the assertion I was quibbling about? 

[Murflynn]

2 hours ago, LadyG said:

I think I interpreted your post incorrectly, I read it as the AWCC want to double up on inspections, ...........................

 

 

did your basic edumakayshun include comprehension as part of English language classes?    or did you only learn Scottish?

 

 

 

p.s.   I'm not in Yangon, Erzincan, Warri, Ajman, Bani Yas, Fier or Medinat Qaboos any more. 

[Hudds Lad]

4 hours ago, LadyG said:

If appropriate, I would be quite happy to join a Cruising club if I wanted to cruise in company

 

There are other benefits, such as being able to use the visitor moorings and facilities at other cruising clubs that are part of the AWCC. This is why we’ve joined Cutweb. We may not ever use these moorings, but it’s good to have the option of leaving the boat on a mooring that is a bit safer than the towpath if the need ever arises.

[Ex Brummie]

30 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

There are other benefits, such as being able to use the visitor moorings and facilities at other cruising clubs that are part of the AWCC. This is why we’ve joined Cutweb. We may not ever use these moorings, but it’s good to have the option of leaving the boat on a mooring that is a bit safer than the towpath if the need ever arises.

Fortunately, most affiliated clubs have such reciprocal facilities to offer which are funded by their members.😕

[Hudds Lad]

2 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

Fortunately, most affiliated clubs have such reciprocal facilities to offer which are funded by their members.😕

I hadn’t assumed things were free, would obviously expect a fee to be levied?

[TheBiscuits]

6 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

I hadn’t assumed things were free, would obviously expect a fee to be levied?

 

That's not how it works.  Up to a fortnight free mooring if space is available, and it is reciprocal mooring rights as @Ex Brummie says.

 

There are however a few clubs who never seem to allow other boats to use their moorings even when they have space. 

 

A late friend was the mooring officer at an AWCC club for decades and he often ranted about one particular club whose members were very keen on using their rights on his moorings but he never managed to get a slot on theirs.   He often made a point of mooring on the towpath opposite their club moorings, exactly in line with a gap long enough to take his boat ...

 

 

[David Mack]

On 09/03/2022 at 10:28, ditchcrawler said:

I have just read on the AWCC site that they are now formally looking into reducing the time between inspections to 2 or 3 years and also when a boat is sold. Also only allowing the same examiner to do two examinations 

Presumably in the Members area, as I couldn't see anything on the public part of the website.

[ditchcrawler]

8 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Presumably in the Members area, as I couldn't see anything on the public part of the website.

Yes

 

[Tony Brooks]

I always volunteered a suitable fee when I used a AWCC club temporary mooring  except on the Chesterfield where they wanted a fee so I think it depends upon the club. Stafford Boat Club seemed very obliging. The Chesterfield club less so.

[Hudds Lad]

3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

That's not how it works.  Up to a fortnight free mooring if space is available, and it is reciprocal mooring rights as @Ex Brummie says.

 

There are however a few clubs who never seem to allow other boats to use their moorings even when they have space. 

 

A late friend was the mooring officer at an AWCC club for decades and he often ranted about one particular club whose members were very keen on using their rights on his moorings but he never managed to get a slot on theirs.   He often made a point of mooring on the towpath opposite their club moorings, exactly in line with a gap long enough to take his boat ...

 

 

To be fair i’ve not really looked that closely at it, my better half sorted it all.

It was more a case of having a further safety net. We are leisure boaters, not liveaboard. So if ever we can’t get back to our home marina for whatever reason and theres a chance we can leave it at a CC with monitored moorings rather than just on the towpath, it seemed a small price to pay for peace of mind. There seemed little point joining a club with a physical base and the membership demands that come with it when we would never be there.

[Arthur Marshall]

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

Indeed. So you agree the £50 for each certificate does NOT go straight into the coffers of CRT then, which is the assertion I was quibbling about? 

Seeing as how most examiners now charge over £150, a fair bit must go to CRT. Or somebody. And, presumably, the ridiculously expensive training fee. Someone somewhere is making money out of all this, as it really serves no other purpose, certainly does nothing to improve the safety of boats.

I just hope it's CRT and they reinvest it in the system. But it probably just goes to pay bonuses to the BSS designers.

I did have a quote for some rewiring work from someone involved in revising the system, which was four times the figure I finally got it done for, and that was by a guy who isn't exactly cheap. Showed me where their priorities lay.

Edited March 10, 2022 by Arthur Marshall

[TheBiscuits]

11 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

There seemed little point joining a club with a physical base and the membership demands that come with it when we would never be there.

 

Seems reasonable.  Cutweb may get grumped at by some, but if the AWCC accept the club for membership they can't be doing anything "wrong."

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

45 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Seems reasonable.  Cutweb may get grumped at by some, but if the AWCC accept the club for membership they can't be doing anything "wrong."

 

 

We have hosted the AGM in the past which involved us hiring a room and paying for a buffet as we don't have club facilities 

[Nightwatch]

You take a car for a MOT. It passes. You drive around the corner to another MOT examination. Chances are it will fail.

 

Theidea that a different BSS examiner has to be used after two periods is nonsense. The examiner gets to know the vessel and knows it’s weak spots and foibles. Sound like a money making scheme to me. But for whom? Just saying like.

[Idle Days]

On 08/03/2022 at 14:09, TheBiscuits said:

 

It does.

 

New applicability – cables between batteries and battery isolators are permitted to have a cross-sectional area of less than 25mm² where it can be confirmed that the circuit only supplies low current domestic and/or navigation equipment (e.g. lighting, fridges, pumps, radios, etc)

Presumably it will have to have a suitably sized fuse or circuit breaker.

[George and Dragon]

16 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Its taken to now to realise you don't need a flame arrester gauze on a diesel tank vent

Not unless someone has poured petrol in with your diesel. 

I did a fire safety course 30+ years ago and the instructors (firefighters from North Yorkshire Fire Service as it was then) had us all try to light a tray of diesel. Couldn't be done without the petrol on top.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, George and Dragon said:

Not unless someone has poured petrol in with your diesel. 

I did a fire safety course 30+ years ago and the instructors (firefighters from North Yorkshire Fire Service as it was then) had us all try to light a tray of diesel. Couldn't be done without the petrol on top.

I have a Dickinson diesel stove and you need a wick material to start it

[Momac]

1 hour ago, George and Dragon said:

Not unless someone has poured petrol in with your diesel. 

Diesel is combustible , but not flammable.

 

 

[wandering snail]

On 09/03/2022 at 10:28, ditchcrawler said:

I have just read on the AWCC site that they are now formally looking into reducing the time between inspections to 2 or 3 years and also when a boat is sold. Also only allowing the same examiner to do two examinations 

Do you know where this came from? I can't see it in the consultation.

[ditchcrawler]

32 minutes ago, wandering snail said:

Do you know where this came from? I can't see it in the consultation.

Its not in the consultation. It was a meeting BSS/AWCC

[Momac]

13 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

Indeed. So you agree the £50 for each certificate does NOT go straight into the coffers of CRT then, which is the assertion I was quibbling about? 

You must be referring to someone else - not me .

I didn't assert the £50 certificate fee goes to C&RT 'coffers' . 

 

I pointed out the fact that the BSS is jointly owned by the C&RT and the EA.

If you don't believe me just search on Google

 

So any profits from the BSS, if there are any, would go equally to the C&RT and the EA . But certainly not all profits would go to the C&RT.

I doubt the profits amount to much .

£50 x 8500 tests a year is £425k.  Not a huge sum  in business income terms really. But I guess the BSS is  keeping a few people in work which is not a bad thing.