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On English canals, is a licence really necessary?


NN247

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32 minutes ago, Goliath said:

When did the term “continuous cruiser” first come about to differentiate between the licenses of those with a home mooring and those without?

 

It became common parlance after the 1995 act when the numbers multiplied, before that there were so few no one noticed them.

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The registration plates/ Numbers came in at a different time to the licence I had thought, possibly late 70s or even early 1980s?

 

I was pretty sure pleasure boat licences were bought in the late 1960s. The byelaws suggest differently and later into the mid 70s, but as Dave says there were lockkeepers all round the place who checked, especially IIRC Sam L at Autherley Junction, so the need for byelaws were perhaps not as necessary!   

 

 

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6 hours ago, PD1964 said:

I think your talking b@ll@x, with regards to the licensing, I’ve lived on the Canals full time coming up to 15 years and have alway had a license like the majority of people I’ve met living on them in that time. You say your out of the know and we’re never in the know, so your a 30 year old something that knows sod all about the canals or living on them.

 

Yes he's definitely talking b@ll@x. My first experience of the canals was in 1973. We hired a camping boat from UCC at Braunston and took a canoe along. We had to buy a licence for the canoe, so licences have been in place for at least 49 years.

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7 hours ago, NN247 said:

I'm kind of baffled.  I assume you're new to the canals, because licenses and stuff, until I suppose pretty recently, were not really a thing anyone who lived on the canals properly thought about ...................

To the people wondering about my dad, and my age and all that, you're... weird, but fine: my dad started carrying coal in 1960 and then later passengers.  He worked all over England, and then moved to Europe in the 70s.  In the 90s he moved back to England, and became a trainer.

 

Not exactly new. Came from the Thames to a canal boat in 1960, worked pairs of boats incl. carriage of bulk coal, in 70s also had a couple of passenger boats on the GU at Uxbridge, bought and sold narrowboats. Worked all over UK canals and moved to Europe (mostly France) but not until the 90s. Became trainer for UK and French certification. Now 50/50 UK and France.

 

So the dates don't quite match up anyway, but in case there is any confusion I would confirm that the OP is not my son   😁

 

Tam

Edited by Tam & Di
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CRT say that they walk every bit of the system once every two weeks. This is not quite true but not far off.  River sections with no easy towpath are a good place to hide. I also suspect that some very remote canal sections do not get checked that often, but once CRT suspect that a boat is hiding there they will start to patrol that section. I suspect that they are aware of just about every unlicenced boat but some get away with it because they do not get to the top of the enforcement action list. Removing boats takes a lot of time and money that is better spent on canal maintainance so CRT will only remove a small number of boats each year.

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3 minutes ago, dmr said:

CRT say that they walk every bit of the system once every two weeks. This is not quite true but not far off.  River sections with no easy towpath are a good place to hide. I also suspect that some very remote canal sections do not get checked that often, but once CRT suspect that a boat is hiding there they will start to patrol that section. I suspect that they are aware of just about every unlicenced boat but some get away with it because they do not get to the top of the enforcement action list. Removing boats takes a lot of time and money that is better spent on canal maintainance so CRT will only remove a small number of boats each year.

If they removed all the hiding unlicensed boats from the remote parts of the Shroppie, the water level would drop a foot.

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7 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

If they removed all the hiding unlicensed boats from the remote parts of the Shroppie, the water level would drop a foot.

 

Don't say that, the scumbags will claim that they are providing a useful service and demand that CRT pay them as professioinal water displacers. 😀,

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4 hours ago, Loddon said:

It became common parlance after the 1995 act when the numbers multiplied, before that there were so few no one noticed them.

True. We spent our first few years meeting very very few liveaboards. We had a mooring on the K and A and cced it 93 94. Between BOA and Bath we could travel a mile or more and not see another boat. There were a couple of dozen boats moored twix the croos guns and Bathhampton. Today there are god knows how many. From 89 till 92 we cced and met even less liveaboards. The numbers then started to build up. Its only very recently that its become so many, probably less than twenty years.

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8 hours ago, NN247 said:

I've acknowledged from the start that some regulation has existed for as long as I remember.  My only contention was that for practical purposes, you didn't really need one.  Nothing would happen if you didn't get one, or at least that was the prevailing attitude amongst everyone I knew, and half the boats I was around didn't have one.

 

That's all I've ever said, and it's a hundred percent true.

 

Some people's feelings have been *really* hurt by this objective truth, and they feel very threatened.

That may have been the prevailing attitude in the past but it's not the current CRT stance. They will pursue it but it can take a while. If you are planning to do up a boat for resale (you mention profit) it wouldn't be good to saddle a buyer with a boat that had outstanding fees to pay . Now it's all computerised, there's nowhere to hide,  unless no boat identification is displayed, which is also not allowed but can be ignored. If you do go down that route I feel sorry for the person who buys your boat. 

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2 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

 

So the dates don't quite match up anyway, but in case there is any confusion I would confirm that the OP is not my son   😁

 

Tam

And your surname isn’t Mitty, as he comes across as a right Walter.

Edited by PD1964
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7 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

If it is a major-strip out and rebuild I bet the OP hasn't taken into account the RCR requirements.

They didn’t exist when he was born into boat life on the cut 30 something years ago, just like you didn’t need a license back in the day 15 years ago. So why should people bother with those now.

Edited by PD1964
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....................... and there's me wondering how a bloke thinks he can make a profit by buying a boat that needs the internal fit out that needs to be refreshed/replaced and then sell it on, 'speshully after he's paid the drydock fees, surveyor's fees, his own expenses and wages, never mind a temporary CRT licence.  And all that without any current experience of the canals, just a rusty inaccurate memory from 15 years ago when he was nowt but a callow youf wearing rose tinted specs.

 

ahhh  ........  but I forgot, Daddy worked on the canals and OP was born on a boat so it's in his DNA .............  😎

 

and he's got A levels ................  reely 'elpful .............................

 

dream on ......................  😏

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Murflynn said:

....................... and there's me wondering how a bloke thinks he can make a profit by buying a boat that needs the internal fit out that needs to be refreshed/replaced and then sell it on, 'speshully after he's paid the drydock fees, surveyor's fees, his own expenses and wages, never mind a temporary CRT licence.  And all that without any current experience of the canals, just a rusty inaccurate memory from 15 years ago when he was nowt but a callow youf wearing rose tinted specs.

 

ahhh  ........  but I forgot, Daddy worked on the canals and OP was born on a boat so it's in his DNA .............  😎

 

and he's got A levels ................  reely 'elpful .............................

 

dream on ......................  😏

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget he was a Boat master back in his youth, now he’s just is a Master b*€ter with A levels. IMO.

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On 28/09/2022 at 19:58, blackrose said:

 

 

Yes there certainly are people walking around checking licences but not all of them are paid to do that job. Plenty of your fellow boaters will willingly report your boat if they see that you aren't contributing to the maintenance of waterways facilities which we all use..

It seems C&RT don't  particularly want to hear  from boaters about unlicensed boats .

image.png.1a928f2415ff1c677da41a2f5534c386.png

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3 minutes ago, MartynG said:

It seems C&RT don't  particularly want to hear  from boaters about unlicensed boats .

image.png.1a928f2415ff1c677da41a2f5534c386.png

 

Curious they forgot to mention on that statement they no longer require boats to display licenses and say they won't take action against licenced boats not displaying a license.

 

Or have I got that wrong? 

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29 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Curious they forgot to mention on that statement they no longer require boats to display licenses and say they won't take action against licenced boats not displaying a license.

 

Or have I got that wrong? 

That's what the CRT checker told me when he checked all the boats at the Club

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