Can You Identify A Boat Declared As Having No Home Mooring From it's BW Licence.

[alan_fincher]

I have put this in a separate thread, because the topic comes up often, and I believe people often talk nonsense on the topic.

 

Some claim you can't tell by looking at a BW licence disk whether it pertains to a boat with a declared home mooring or not - others say you can.

 

Julian, "Idleness", said last night that he had checked with BW, and a licence either has a code on it that associates it with a declared home mooring, (e.g. "GU-164-003" identifies Cow Roast Marina, on the GU), or has a BW-xxx-xxx code that means it does not have one.

 

As I was dog walking this morning, I thought I would look at all the boats I passed that could be presumed to have declared themselves as having no home mooring, (provided they were displaying a licence, of course!).

 

Of the 21 boats I looked at that this would appear to apply to, all but one carried the code.....

 

BW-065-007 just below the coloured stripe, with the expiry date on.

 

Curiously just one, (one of our guaranteed locals), contained the code BW-015-007. I've no idea why - it was still an almost current licence.

 

Of the twenty BW-065-007 ones, one even had a Gold licence - a little strange, as there is little evidence of them getting within 30 miles of EA waters, but I digress!

 

So I would say "Yes, if a boat shows something like BW-0xx-007, (where xx seems to often be 65), on it's licence, then, at the last renewal, it was probably declared as having no home mooring.

 

Perhaps some of our continuous cruisers would be happy to confirm this assumption from their own licences ?

 

Clearly there are also boats out there that I know to have given up a local marina place to continually cruise. The one of those I saw still bore the code for their former marina, but it may well be less than a year since it left it.

 

As a slight aside - Does anyone know what a GG-xxx-xxx code might mean ? Would I be suspicious in thinking that "GG" represents somewhere where moorings are cheap, and it is easy to obtain a "paper" mooring ?

[cotswoldsman]

Alan good question. I have been a CCer for 4 years and BW are aware but my licence is GU------------ I think the reason is that when I licensed the boat I had taken 3 months moorings at Calcutt on the GU and since then they have just reissued the same registration. So it is IMO impossible to tell if a boat is a declared CCer.

[GUMPY]

Alan good question. I have been a CCer for 4 years and BW are aware but my licence is GU------------ I think the reason is that when I licensed the boat I had taken 3 months moorings at Calcutt on the GU and since then they have just reissued the same registration. So it is IMO impossible to tell if a boat is a declared CCer.

In which case you should have declared that you have no home mooring when you next licensed after you had left Calcutt

[blackrose]

Can I ask why you would want to know Alan? Is it just out of general interest, like being able to read car number plates?

 

This may or may not be related to ypur post, but I can't help thinking that in our zeal to report overstayers and keep tabs on who is going where, we might in fact just be inadvertently helping to promote more of the big brother society that so many of us say we are opposed to.

Edited February 9, 2011 by blackrose

[alan_fincher]

In which case you should have declared that you have no home mooring when you next licensed after you had left Calcutt

I suspect I can guess the answer that's coming here.

 

I think it's going to be "I did!"

[david and julie]

So I would say "Yes, if a boat shows something like BW-0xx-007, (where xx seems to often be 65), on it's licence, then, at the last renewal, it was probably declared as having no home mooring.

 

It can't be assumed that is the case Alan.

 

I've just received (last week) my new BW licence and it says "Standard Canal & River Licence" and is numbered BW-007-003.

 

On the face of it I could be a CC'er - but that isn't the case - I have a permanant marina mooring on the Bridgewater - and I also have a dual licence to allow me unlimited use of BW waters - many people on the Bridgewater have these as we're in such close proximity to BW waters - I assume the same system applies to others who are on the edge of different systems.

[cotswoldsman]

In which case you should have declared that you have no home mooring when you next licensed after you had left Calcutt

 

I did as I said in my post BW are aware that I am a CCer did you miss that part?

 

I suspect I can guess the answer that's coming here.

 

I think it's going to be "I did!"

 

Correct Alan

[canaldrifter]

Does anyone know what a GG-xxx-xxx code might mean ?

 

Horse-drawn??

 

Tone

[alan_fincher]

Can I ask why you would want to know Alan? Is it just out of general interest, like being able to read car number plates?

Because so often when I see two sets of people "shouting" at each other on here saying that the other is wrong, I actually quite want to know what the truth is.

 

Nothing sinister, but as my licence fairly clearly has a code that says where my home mooring is, it seemed to me something different has to be the case for someone who does not.

 

This may or may not be related to ypur post, but I can't help thinking that in our zeal to report overstayers we might in fact just be inadvertently helping to promote more of the big brother society that so many of us say we are opposed to.

I can't see any connection, myself, particularly.

 

BW know where the boats I have just looked at are anyway, as I have on at least 3 occasions since the start of the winter seen BW men out with hand-helds looking at them, (yes it really is a very regular activity around here).

 

If, despite repeatedly recording them, BW appear to have little interest in how long they have been there, me knowing what code appears on their licence disk really doesn't make much difference to anything, I'll freely admit.

 

But let's be quite honest - one gives out far more information about oneself moving about with a mobile phone, using a credit card and driving past countless cameras that can automatically recognise number-plates, than one is likely to do by leaving a BW licence disk displayed in our boat window.

 

But you are right - I do oppose the Big Brother society - that program has to be one of the worst things to hit TV in years!

 

It can't be assumed that is the case Alan.

 

I've just received (last week) my new BW licence and it says "Standard Canal & River Licence" and is numbered BW-007-003.

 

On the face of it I could be a CC'er - but that isn't the case - I have a permanant marina mooring on the Bridgewater - and I also have a dual licence to allow me unlimited use of BW waters - many people on the Bridgewater have these as we're in such close proximity to BW waters - I assume the same system applies to others who are on the edge of different systems.

Although perhaps the format BW-xxx-007 has one meaning, and the BW-007-xxx one you have reflects your particular situation ?

 

Isn't the Bridgewater situation pretty unique ?

 

Horse-drawn??

 

Tone

Very good!

 

(In which case I look forward to "Horse died - BW are aware" notices on envelopes in the windows!)

Edited February 9, 2011 by alan_fincher

[david and julie]

Horse-drawn??

 

Tone

 

:lol:

[cotswoldsman]

Just one point Alan BW do not seem to issue Winter Mooring licences unless you are staying for the complete 5 months so they might well have paid for winter moorings. Also some people choose not to display a winter mooring thingy as it is just another piece of paper on the window and feel that as long as BW know they have paid for a winter mooring then why would they need to display it.

[carlt]

Horse-drawn??

 

Tone

Classic!

 

I've run out of greenies so I'll have to give you the clap.

[cotswoldsman]

Just one point Alan BW do not seem to issue Winter Mooring licences unless you are staying for the complete 5 months so they might well have paid for winter moorings. Also some people choose not to display a winter mooring thingy as it is just another piece of paper on the window and feel that as long as BW know they have paid for a winter mooring then why would they need to display it.

 

OOOOOppppsss think I got my threads mixed up!!!!!

 

Classic!

 

I've run out of greenies so I'll have to give you the clap.

 

No comment but would rather have the greeny if it was me!!!!

[david and julie]

Isn't the Bridgewater situation pretty unique ?

 

I've never moored anywhere else so don't really know.

 

Until about 4 or 5 years ago our BW licence used to say "Gold" on it but BW changed that.

[alan_fincher]

Just one point Alan BW do not seem to issue Winter Mooring licences unless you are staying for the complete 5 months so they might well have paid for winter moorings. Also some people choose not to display a winter mooring thingy as it is just another piece of paper on the window and feel that as long as BW know they have paid for a winter mooring then why would they need to display it.

Possibly,

 

But there is a long length allocated as Winter Moorings, and signed as such. No boats are using, (or have used) that length at all. All the boats referred to are elsewhere, and in at least 4 different pounds. BW did not advertise that range of Winter Moorings here.

 

I didn't intend this to be another thread about the rights and wrongs of how long people stay in one spot - we have had plenty of those, and don't need another.

 

I was trying to explore the topic of actual codes on the licence, and put to bed the myth that they don't exist.

 

Your case obviously establishes that someone without a BW-xxx-007 code may still have made a continuous cruiser declaration. So does anybody claim to have never been a CCer, but to still have a BW-xxx-007 code on their licence, then ?

 

EDITED: To acknowledge you now say you didn't mean to post this in this particular thread!

Edited February 9, 2011 by alan_fincher

[cotswoldsman]

 

I didn't intend this to be another thread about the rights and wrongs of how long people stay in one spot - we have had plenty of those, and don't need another.

 

 

 

Sorry about that got myself all mixed up

[Mac of Cygnet]

So does anybody claim to have never been a CCer, but to still have a BW-xxx-007 code on their licence, then ?

 

 

 

I'm not on the boat at the moment, so I can't look at the code, but in BW's eyes I'm a CC.

 

But not in mine. I have a home mooring for 6 months of the year (same every year) and travel the system for 6 months. I started with CC status because I was 'between moorings' 5 years ago, and haven't told BW any different. Any reason why I should, while there is no separate CC licence?

 

There must be a fair few people in the same situation.

 

Mac

[canaldrifter]

I've never moored anywhere else so don't really know.

 

Until about 4 or 5 years ago our BW licence used to say "Gold" on it but BW changed that.

 

For the past nine years I have winter-moored off BW waters on the Basingstoke, River Wey, Bridgewater and now the Yorks Derwent, so no, the Bridgewater situation is not that unique.

 

I don't buy an annual BW licence. I buy either 6 month licences or shorter visitor licences if I need them.

 

It does tend to blow their minds a bit in the office, where I must show up on the computer as a part-time licence dodger. (I am... but legitimately).

 

Tone

[WJM]

When I bought my boat it was based on the Trent & Mersey and the license started with TM. I moved to the Grand Union and when that license expired and I renewed it the new license started with GU.

[mayalld]

It can't be assumed that is the case Alan.

 

I've just received (last week) my new BW licence and it says "Standard Canal & River Licence" and is numbered BW-007-003.

 

On the face of it I could be a CC'er - but that isn't the case - I have a permanant marina mooring on the Bridgewater - and I also have a dual licence to allow me unlimited use of BW waters - many people on the Bridgewater have these as we're in such close proximity to BW waters - I assume the same system applies to others who are on the edge of different systems.

 

 

So, it appears that;

 

BW-xxx-007 seems to mean CCer (the meaning of the xxx being unclear, perhaps we should ask BW)

 

BW-007-xxx seems to mean Mooring off BW waters presumably 003 means Bridgewater, with other codes for other navigation authorities.

[magpie patrick]

Alan good question. I have been a CCer for 4 years and BW are aware but my licence is GU------------ I think the reason is that when I licensed the boat I had taken 3 months moorings at Calcutt on the GU and since then they have just reissued the same registration. So it is IMO impossible to tell if a boat is a declared CCer.

 

Mine has changed though. I've been to Ripple today and her number is SJ 001-025 (as are most, but not all, the numbers vary but all have SJ for Saul Junction unless they have only recently arrived), for the first two years she was registered on the Macc so BW must have changed the code.

 

In my view there are enough inaccuracies that you can't say a specific boat has no home mooring, but not so many that it invalidates a survey in which 20 out of 21 boats had no home mooring. MOST of those boats don't have a home mooring.

 

My guess is the Gold Licence in Alan's survey claims his home mooring is on the Middle Level or summat, where BW can't check

[pearley]

Joanie M has always beeb declared as being a CCer amd our licence number is CE-001-019-01

[canaldrifter]

I've just checked my licences for 2010, and 2009. Both were six month licences. Both have code:

 

BW-010-007

 

But I'm not a continuous cruiser and haven't been since 2001. I do have a winter mooring, although not on BW waters and I do usually live aboard.

 

This rather blows out of the water DM's claim that there is such a thing as a specific CC licence.

 

There is a 'Standard Canal & River Licence' that might denote that at the time of issue the boat either had, or did not have a mooring on BW's bit.

 

What seems apparent from this thread is that BW's coding is vague. Obviously the initials demarking certain mooring locations are only valid at the time when the licence was issued according to what was put on the application.

 

Tone

[magpie patrick]

I've just checked my licences for 2010, and 2009. Both were six month licences. Both have code:

 

BW-010-007

 

But I'm not a continuous cruiser and haven't been since 2001. I do have a winter mooring, although not on BW waters and I do usually live aboard.

 

This rather blows out of the water DM's claim that there is such a thing as a specific CC licence.

 

There is a 'Standard Canal & River Licence' that might denote that at the time of issue the boat either had, or did not have a mooring on BW's bit.

 

What seems apparent from this thread is that BW's coding is vague. Obviously the initials demarking certain mooring locations are only valid at the time when the licence was issued according to what was put on the application.

 

Tone

 

In fairness it was my claim originally , and I knew it was slightly tenuous. I suspect that some licences don't get their code updated. The first year at Saul, Ripple didn't get any number at all! If a code doesn't get updated when you register a change, it probably stays wrong, because the person processing the licence see's nothing has changed, so doesn't check the detail

 

I will try and get holf of you over Derwent ambitions by PM, but not tonight, too much on

[bottle]

Just checked mine BW XXX-007, always been a CCer but travelling incognito,

 

My name is Bond, James Bond.