Being like....totally precious

[Capey]

We are livaboards of about 2 years standing now. Because I work we seldom actaully get to take the boat out, being sort of "landlocked" between two nightmare flights we tend to only potter about 4 miles in any direction. So I am not really that used to leaving the safetly net of our wharf.

On the occasions (like last summer hols) when we have gone cruising with our lovely lovely neighbouring boaters, I become completely obsessed and hysterical about leaving the boat. We live on the Peak Forest Canal and this summer are planning a jaunt up the Macclesfield, turning around at some point and coming back again. Our last trip was spoiled with me spending every evening popping my head out various pub windows every few minutes to check that the boat had not a. been set of fire by local scroats -we in fact never saw any, but I swear they were out there watching us b. been cut adrift by self same scroats c. simply been broken into ( I think the entire contents of my boat can be worth no more than a thousand quid - everything of value is in storage) or d. been graffitied.

 

So now I need some advice/reassurance/tut tutting from you more experienced boaters out there, especially those who have cruised the eventful and colourful Cheshire ring.

 

I might mention here that I do take all sensible precautions (ha ha) to make sure it does not suffer, but this dread of invasion is threatening every trip we take. Its our home and all we have so I feel pretty vulnerable at times.

 

Am I just over-reacting, is it just getting used to it, am I just mistrustful by nature, is there something I could do to the boat to make it more secure.

I thought I might mention that I am South African born and bred so do have a slighly paranoid outlook on life in general but that besides some advice would be nice.

[Nige G]

I'd say you were paranoid and need to go see a doctor for some chill pills!!

[Chris J W]

Don't know the Ring, so can't help there, but I do get that same "is she going to still be there" feeling when I leave the boat somewhere I'm not familiar.

 

It took a lot of reasurrance from the forum to get me down the to the Aylesbury Basin and the hordes of civilisation after being in the hinterland of Cow Roast for several months.

 

Nothing wrong with checking for "bandit territory" before you leave, but you should be OK. I speak from personal experience that getting yourself wound-up only makes it just feel worse.

 

Chris

[pearley]

We've had no problems on the Macc or Upper Peak Forest. Go to the pub and enjoy your beer.

[Capey]

I'd say you were paranoid and need to go see a doctor for some chill pills!!

 

and the name of these pills are................??

[galley bay]

It worries me too, and we haven't even bought our boat yet

MOH has reassured me that we will only moor up in areas we've researched and know to be safe and we have dogs which may be a deterrent!

[Christine]

We've had no problems on the Macc or Upper Peak Forest. Go to the pub and enjoy your beer.

 

We had no problems either but thats the beauty with a hire boat - we'll just catch a bus home.

[chris w]

Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you

[stewey]

We had no problems either but thats the beauty with a hire boat - we'll just catch a bus home.

 

Actually, I was paranoid with the (Timeshare) hire boat!!

 

Stewey

[carlt]

What's a safe area then. A mile from the nearest village? Overlooked by the friendly farmer? Over a mile from the nearest road? 5 miles from the nearest town and 20+ miles from the nearest city?

 

That's where Usk was when she was torched.

 

I used to leave my boat for weeks on end, on the Coventry Basin arm, top "Bandit land" to the more paranoid, and it was never touched.

 

It can happen in your "safe pound", Usk was "safe" for years, or it can happen in, god forbid, Beeston cut.

 

Get out there and go boating!

[DHutch]

We nipped round the cheshire ring this year.

- After 'pushing the boat out a little' last year to get down to london and back, we put down for a quieter year.

 

We went round the ring anticlockwise from anderton (northwich) weekend at a time (im working weeks on placment) leaving the boat moored at varous locations around the network during the week, and then picking it back up friday night for another two days.

- Including a detour up the caldon to froghall to explore the tunnel there, and how well we fit though it.

 

Its all very pleasent. I've not done the macc myself before, so that was a nice change, very nice canal, quiet.

- We did an extra few hours boating one friday afternoon/evening so as to get the boat though manchester all in one weekend.

- But manchester itself was a very good weekend, its quickly becoming the new birminham with all the canalside devlopment, very nice.

 

I can post a full list of where we stopped each night/week but i really dont think you should have a problem.

- Mooring outside kidsgrove was fine, and handy for the train station. Opersite the churnett valley railway at cheddlton coming back from harecastle, bottom of Bosley locks was another point, then the bottom of marple just a bit before woodley tnl, then though manchester to lymm, and home, really.

 

 

Daniel

[steelaway]

We are livaboards of about 2 years standing now. Because I work we seldom actaully get to take the boat out, being sort of "landlocked" between two nightmare flights we tend to only potter about 4 miles in any direction. So I am not really that used to leaving the safetly net of our wharf.

On the occasions (like last summer hols) when we have gone cruising with our lovely lovely neighbouring boaters, I become completely obsessed and hysterical about leaving the boat. We live on the Peak Forest Canal and this summer are planning a jaunt up the Macclesfield, turning around at some point and coming back again. Our last trip was spoiled with me spending every evening popping my head out various pub windows every few minutes to check that the boat had not a. been set of fire by local scroats -we in fact never saw any, but I swear they were out there watching us b. been cut adrift by self same scroats c. simply been broken into ( I think the entire contents of my boat can be worth no more than a thousand quid - everything of value is in storage) or d. been graffitied.

 

So now I need some advice/reassurance/tut tutting from you more experienced boaters out there, especially those who have cruised the eventful and colourful Cheshire ring.

 

I might mention here that I do take all sensible precautions (ha ha) to make sure it does not suffer, but this dread of invasion is threatening every trip we take. Its our home and all we have so I feel pretty vulnerable at times.

 

Am I just over-reacting, is it just getting used to it, am I just mistrustful by nature, is there something I could do to the boat to make it more secure.

I thought I might mention that I am South African born and bred so do have a slighly paranoid outlook on life in general but that besides some advice would be nice.

 

Hi There

 

Have a sit down and think of the worst possible scenario.

 

You get broken into? - you are insured and wots worth nicking that you cannot get brand new ones.

They nick the complete boat? - how far will they get at 4 mph and probably only in one direction.

You're cut adrift? - you will float 20ft and bang up against another boat or the other side of the cut.

The boat sinks with you on it? - it will down 2ft (?) you will have to paddle out and then have newly re-fitted out boat.

If it makes you feels better keep a piece of 2x2 by the bed.

 

OOh and by the way ----- IT NEVER HAPPENS. Never yet seen, in any papers or TV where a boater has been murded or a boat set on fire or a boater assulted on a boat

It only ever happens in the imagination of other hysterical members of the tow path telegraph.

So many tales so much Bull S--t

 

I feel the greatest danger to all boater is being in canal mode and being careless at locks.

 

Enjoy your boating!! it aint going to happen

 

Alex

[Dylan]

There is much talk on forums and other internet related sites about bandits etc. I think people get a kick from it as if they are fighting some sort of enemy. Tales abound on our moorings about bandits here, bandits there, bandits every f******where. Few of them are credible. They exist; it would be foolish to pretend any different. That said I do not believe that the society in which we live is quite as desperate as some would have us believe. Take the man (really please take him) on our mooring who carries a rifle in the back of his trad. He pulled the bloody thing out and started threatening kids with it in a lock. Their crime? They were swimming in the lock. It requires some common sense to stay safe: Get through dodgy areas before lunchtime as many of the people who like to make problems stay in bed until this time. Particularly nice weather also brings the morons out of their caves. You can have problems with lowlifes on a narrowboat, train, car, bus, house, street, aeroplane, skateboard, bicycle blah blah.

 

Enjoy your boat.

[steelaway]

There is much talk on forums and other internet related sites about bandits etc. I think people get a kick from it as if they are fighting some sort of enemy. Tales abound on our moorings about bandits here, bandits there, bandits every f******where. Few of them are credible. They exist; it would be foolish to pretend any different. That said I do not believe that the society in which we live is quite as desperate as some would have us believe. Take the man (really please take him) on our mooring who carries a rifle in the back of his trad. He pulled the bloody thing out and started threatening kids with it in a lock. Their crime? They were swimming in the lock. It requires some common sense to stay safe: Get through dodgy areas before lunchtime as many of the people who like to make problems stay in bed until this time. Particularly nice weather also brings the morons out of their caves. You can have problems with lowlifes on a narrowboat, train, car, bus, house, street, aeroplane, skateboard, bicycle blah blah.

 

Enjoy your boat.

 

Hi Dylan

 

'I dont believe it'

Wot kind of nutter carries a gun on a boat? What kind of nutter has a gun? He needs stopping.

Have a quite word with the local bobby tell him this guy is frightening the kids, they will have a word.

It is extremely frowned upon to threaten any body -- especially with a rifle!

 

Alex

[denboy]

What's a safe area then. A mile from the nearest village? Overlooked by the friendly farmer? Over a mile from the nearest road? 5 miles from the nearest town and 20+ miles from the nearest city?

 

That's where Usk was when she was torched.

 

I used to leave my boat for weeks on end, on the Coventry Basin arm, top "Bandit land" to the more paranoid, and it was never touched.

 

It can happen in your "safe pound", Usk was "safe" for years, or it can happen in, god forbid, Beeston cut.

 

Get out there and go boating!

Now carl im going to be up all night

[dor]

Sheeesh, come on get real.

 

So you are from South Africa - it's not like you are going to get car-jacked at gun-point here. And does the average middle-class resident of Jo'burg get attacked every night?

 

OK, so boats do occasionally get broken into, but IT IS RARE!

 

If you are really that paranoid about it, then the canals are the wrong place for you. Just about every one else gets on with it, enjoys the canals and doesn't suffer any more break-ins etc than land based people suffer. If you REALLY are that bothereed, I suggest you go and see a psychiatrist, the canals just are not that bad. Yes, bad things happen, as CarlT has unfortunately suffered. But I've been leaving boats moored up for a week or two in odd places for the last fifteen years and never suffered a break-in. OK, so if I've left a boat for a few weeks and go back and find it untouched I do breath a little sigh of relief, but do I get home in the evening and think "well no-one tried to shoot me today"?

 

Go and get your pills or give up the idea of going on the canals.

[Dylan]

Hi Dylan

 

'I dont believe it'

Wot kind of nutter carries a gun on a boat? What kind of nutter has a gun? He needs stopping.

Have a quite word with the local bobby tell him this guy is frightening the kids, they will have a word.

It is extremely frowned upon to threaten any body -- especially with a rifle!

 

Alex

He IS the local bobby JOKING!!! The guy is a nutter as you point out. Rumour has it that he is quitting and emigrating so we live in hope. It is nutters like this that escalate the problem IMHO.

[Chris J W]

Sheeesh, come on get real.

 

So you are from South Africa - it's not like you are going to get car-jacked at gun-point here. And does the average middle-class resident of Jo'burg get attacked every night?

 

OK, so boats do occasionally get broken into, but IT IS RARE!

 

If you are really that paranoid about it, then the canals are the wrong place for you. Just about every one else gets on with it, enjoys the canals and doesn't suffer any more break-ins etc than land based people suffer. If you REALLY are that bothereed, I suggest you go and see a psychiatrist, the canals just are not that bad. Yes, bad things happen, as CarlT has unfortunately suffered. But I've been leaving boats moored up for a week or two in odd places for the last fifteen years and never suffered a break-in. OK, so if I've left a boat for a few weeks and go back and find it untouched I do breath a little sigh of relief, but do I get home in the evening and think "well no-one tried to shoot me today"?

 

Go and get your pills or give up the idea of going on the canals.

 

I must say that shows a complete and utter lack of understanding about how some people feel in these sort of situations. Fine, you may not be able to understand or appreciate that feeling, but as someone who suffers similar now and then it's very hard to feel "rational" about such an "irrational thing" that you perfectly understand intellectually is not, really, such a big issue.

 

I freely admit to getting myself wound-up now and then, but once the water starts flowing under the hull that feeling just goes. (And I'll admit a good bit of positive reassurance from here - reference my "concerns" about going down The Aylesbury Arm - has helped too.)

 

So, may I respectfully suggest that this thread not wander off into a "mental health" thread and give the OP the reassurance she asked for?

[GUMPY]

OOh and by the way ----- IT NEVER HAPPENS. Never yet seen, in any papers or TV where a boater has been murded or a boat set on fire or a boater assulted on a boat

It only ever happens in the imagination of other hysterical members of the tow path telegraph.

So many tales so much Bull S--t

 

Thats the biggest load of rubbish that I have ever read

Of course it happens.

Two years ago just up from here 3 miles from the nearest towns and half a mile from the village, a boat was set alight by some lads, luckily the owners were in the pub. The kids took the wood from the roof piled it in the cratch and set light to it.

Four fire engines later it was out, they had to attack it from the opposite side of the cut as there was no access down the towpath.

 

 

So Yes it does happen, I have seen it.

Thankfully it doesnt happen very often.

 

Julian

[Debby]

We live in Macclesfield and walk along the canal every day. There are regularly boats moored along the towpath for weeks at a time, obviously unoccupied. The worst 'vandalism' I have seen was an item of ladies' underwear draped over the rails of a boat called.......Naughty Nun. There are several liveaboards moored at Lyme Green, which is not far from the Moss Rose Estate - they never have a problem. I have no real knowledge of the rest of the Macc, but there are no problems in Macclesfield!

Edited February 4, 2008 by DaveandDebby

[carlt]

OOh and by the way ----- IT NEVER HAPPENS. Never yet seen, in any papers or TV where a boater has been murded or a boat set on fire or a boater assulted on a boat

It only ever happens in the imagination of other hysterical members of the tow path telegraph.

So many tales so much Bull S--t

 

As someone who happens to be a critic of the more hysterical, paranoid members of the towpath telegraph could I just say, welcome to the real world:

 

 

Two lads, mid to late teens, one with long dark hair, one with a shaved head.

 

These things do happen, but they are rare and shouldn't stop us from doing the things we love.

 

To say it will never happen is as ridiculous as the "hysterical" saying it definitely will.

Edited February 4, 2008 by carlt

[chris w]

Hi Dylan

 

'I dont believe it'

Wot kind of nutter carries a gun on a boat? What kind of nutter has a gun? He needs stopping.

Have a quite word with the local bobby tell him this guy is frightening the kids, they will have a word.

It is extremely frowned upon to threaten any body -- especially with a rifle!

 

Alex

 

He should be reported. Carrying a loaded gun in a public place (without police permission or justifiable cause) is an imprisonable offence, irrespective of whether the owner and gun are licensed or not. Possession of an unlicensed gun is also an imprisonable offence (5 years).

 

Even if it's "just" an air rifle, threatening someone with it (or even a replica gun) is an imprisonable offence. It is also an offence simply to have a loaded air rifle in a public place (without police permission or justifiable cause).

 

Chris

Edited February 4, 2008 by chris w

[Pie Eater]

Capey

 

You are worrying too much, go out for a couple of weeks and cover the Cheshire Ring - can be hard work on the locks but if the weather is right you will enjoy it.

 

If you are worried about leaving the boat then stock up with cans, stay on board and have the occasional barbie - you don't have to go to the pub.

 

Steve

[steelaway]

Thats the biggest load of rubbish that I have ever read

Of course it happens.

Two years ago just up from here 3 miles from the nearest towns and half a mile from the village, a boat was set alight by some lads, luckily the owners were in the pub. The kids took the wood from the roof piled it in the cratch and set light to it.

Four fire engines later it was out, they had to attack it from the opposite side of the cut as there was no access down the towpath.

So Yes it does happen, I have seen it.

Thankfully it doesnt happen very often.

 

Julian

 

Hi There

 

Why do you feel you have to be so confrontational.

But then again I am not like you - I make mistakes.

Total count in this forum - two in two years.

Sorry I was wrong - just talking rubbish

 

Alex

[Proper Job]

OOh and by the way ----- IT NEVER HAPPENS. Never yet seen, in any papers or TV where a boater has been murded or a boat set on fire or a boater assulted on a boat

It only ever happens in the imagination of other hysterical members of the tow path telegraph.

So many tales so much Bull S--t

 

It does happen. I thought our mooring (at an EA lock on the Thames) was as safe as you could get. Three boats moored there - ours, a 30' cruiser and a smashing 20' wooden cabin cruiser that was lovingly cared for by its owner.

 

The 20' er disappeared (hand start Stuart Turner), was taken to the next pub down stream and then torched when they got fed up with playing.

 

That said - good security on the boat is the answer - make it difficult and they give up (make it more difficult than the next boat and they leave yours alone and they do that one - a bit of advice given to me from the local crime prevention officer!)

 

When all is said and done, just use your common sense. My family has had numerous boats over the last 40 years and we've never had any problems - maybe we've just been lucky.

 

Enjoy you boat and boating - its a contact sport, but relitively low risk if your careful

Edited February 4, 2008 by I want a 'proper job'