Where not to moor

[14skipper]

Hi we are in process of buying boat,on which we plan to live

We are planning at first to have a home base from which to venture out from and cruise.

But when we are out and about we are a bit uncertain about where to moor,by that l mean a good or bad area.

I don,nt think you would buy a £100.000 car and park it on a dimly lit back street on a industrial estate so why would you do it with your boat.

So how do we find out about where you would or would not ever dream of mooring ?

Thanks

[bottle]

Hi and welcome.

 

There are lots of 'towpath telegraph' stories but just moor your boat where you would be happy to leave your £100,000 car.

[Bobbybass]

With a car...you can drive large distances until you are happy with the area.

With the boat...there will be times..that at the end of the day...you still haven't found anywhere that looks great...but at 3 MPH you are stuck with it.

I tell myself that some day it will be broken into...so if I come back and its OK..its a bonus !!

 

Don't forget...the boat doesn't count...its what it does for you !

 

bob

Edited July 17, 2011 by Bobbybass

[Guest]

Hi we are in process of buying boat,on which we plan to live

We are planning at first to have a home base from which to venture out from and cruise.

But when we are out and about we are a bit uncertain about where to moor,by that l mean a good or bad area.

I don,nt think you would buy a £100.000 car and park it on a dimly lit back street on a industrial estate so why would you do it with your boat.

So how do we find out about where you would or would not ever dream of mooring ?

Thanks

 

It's not an easy question to answer to be honest.

 

Whilst there might be some outwardly looking obvious places where you wouldn't leave your boat such as certain inner city or urban areas, boaters have had occasional problems in areas that going on location and appearances you would expect to be 'safe'. Braunston as an example had a spate of break-ins to boats last year so appearances can be very deceptive either way.

 

There are also some perfectly safe moorings in cities and urban areas too.

[Robin2]

Hi we are in process of buying boat,on which we plan to live

We are planning at first to have a home base from which to venture out from and cruise.

But when we are out and about we are a bit uncertain about where to moor,by that l mean a good or bad area.

I don,nt think you would buy a £100.000 car and park it on a dimly lit back street on a industrial estate so why would you do it with your boat.

So how do we find out about where you would or would not ever dream of mooring ?

Thanks

 

I believe the world will always be how you expect it to be - those who expect problems find them.

 

I reckon the simple answer to your question is that almost everywhere is safe and even in the places with "reputations" you would probably have no trouble. And, as someone else said, no matter how good the neighbourhood you cannot be 100% certain that a thief won't appear.

 

I don't think it is fair compare a narrowboat to a £100,000 car. The car will be a much clearer symbol of wealth for the begrudgers who like to scrape a key down the side and they are easily stolen and exported for resale elsewhere or can be stripped for parts. I suspect the troublemakers along the towpath have little sense of which boat is cheap and which is valuable.

 

If there are already other boats moored at a location it is almost certainly suitable for mooring. And for areas where you are apprehensive seek out local knowledge from other boaters. However it seems to me (when the benefit of hindsight becomes available) the advice tends to be overly conservative. The same was true on the few occasions I have asked this sort of advice from BW staff on the towpath.

 

I am cautious myself because I operate single handed and would be in a very difficult position in any altercation and I don't want my home wrecked.

[14skipper]

Hi thanks for your replies,Car and £100.000 were only meant as a example.

l just wondered if there were well known "Trouble spots to avoid" I understand anywhere could be prone to trouble .

But we all know that when we lived ashore there were places we would never stay given a choice.

Edited July 17, 2011 by 14skipper

[cotswoldsman]

but just moor your boat where you would be happy to leave your £100,000 car.

 

In my garage????

[Lady Muck]

Some forums and websites list 'no go' area's but we tend to not do on CWDF. Probably because we all have differing opinions of what is and isn't safe. My partner and I moor permanently in Tottenham, which is often listed as a no-go area. We wonder what all the fuss is about as it is very quiet here.

 

Use your wisdom, if you're not sure, then designated visitor moorings or next to other boats is a good idea.

Edited July 17, 2011 by Lady Muck

[BlueStringPudding]

I avoid anywhere with graffitti unless there are other boats moored nearby. That's my only rule. On a couple of occasions where I've had to moor somewhere a bit dodgy because of running out of daylight, or somewhere looks worse than you'd have thought from the Nicholson's guide, I've stayed aboard that night and moved the next morning.

[dor]

I agree absolutely with Robin's answer above. In over 20 years of boating I've never experienced any trouble. Yes I do avoid leaving the boat in certain areas, that's just common sense. You will soon get to know where is ok and where isn't. If in doubt, moor near other boats until you get to know the cut better. And as Lady Muck says, there are always people that tell you of no-go areas. I recently went down the "notorious" Ashton Flight and received nothing more threatening than a wave and a smile from the local kids, but then I did pick my time. Don't ignore warnings competely, but try and put them into perspective.

Some people look for trouble and usually find it.

[Lady Muck]

We have, by accident and not design, had to moor in places that we'd later found out were quite dodgy.

 

Usually the worst that happens is that you have to listen to a load of street drinkers going on and on singing and talking loudly until the wee small hours. They ignore the boat, I reckon they don't even realise you are there.

 

Real 'trouble' is pretty rare, IME.

[matty40s]

Hi thanks for your replies,Car and £100.000 were only meant as a example.

l just wondered if there were well known "Trouble spots to avoid" I understand anywhere could be prone to trouble .

But we all know that when we lived ashore there were places we would never stay given a choice.

When I first ventured out into the CC'ing way of life, I was full of trepidation..... did I dare leave the boat on it's own for a day, should I lock and chain it, was even the deepest countryside safe???

 

I soon realised that there are moorings everywhere that provided you are sensible, are safe. There are many livaboards, both fixed moorings, continuous moorers and CC'ers who are on the cut all year round. Generally, if there are boats around, it is reasonable to assume that you can moor fairly safely. that said, there are also long stretches of boatless canals where it would be safe to moor overnight too. The difference between the £100k car and your boat is that you don't overnight in your car.

There are certainly places NOT recommended for mooring, however, these are a small percentage of the total towpath length of the canals, and are usually clearly warned about on forums like these, local boaters will advise you, and can be easily avoided. Certain areas of the Birmingham and Manchester canals are risky, and other city/towns need investigating and a sensible approach, however, London is now far safer than it used to be through large stretches due to the numbers of boats moored over a period of time and the resulting "safety umbrella" reducing the crime levels of the past.

One simple observation is that if you're boat looks lived on and used, it can put interested parties off, if it is obviously locked, left and un-used for periods, it will attract the attention of undesirables.

Edited July 17, 2011 by matty40s

[keble]

This has been discussed before, and one idea to emerge was some form of wiki where folks could write opinions of moorings.

Then it was pointed out that Canalplan (a great web site and tool) has a "moorings" section in each "place".

So it's worth looking there - and contributing to it!

[BlueStringPudding]

Seriously, you do need to be sensible though. It depends on your definition of trouble. Twice when moored by other boats at the designated moorings in Leamington Spa we had a bit of trouble. On one occasion two twats off their heads on something other than alcohol stepped onto the boat and started picking a fight with Kev - we were just sat having our dinner! And another time at night an oik shoved a full bottle of drink down the chimney and filled the boat with smoke. Luckily there's ample CO and smoke alarms on board. Had we had pets and been out, they'd probably be dead. When moored in Chester some pillock tried stealing the bike off the roof at about 3am... not realising it was chained up. When moored near Kate Boats in Warwick at about 7am kids untied the ropes of all the boats... except ours thanks to Kev's malleting of pins and my macrame knots! So they started ferreting around in teh gas locker which woke us... all it would have taken is a lighted fag chucked in there. And we still had to rescue a boat that was off down the canal.

 

In my experience (and contrary to what my Mum thinks is a safe place for her daughter to be!) the arse end of nowhere is invariably safer to moor than in well lit suburbs. But that's just my experience.

[Keeping Up]

Mostly it seems that the centre of a large town or city is fine, and the countryside around it is fine, but the suburbs are the most risky.

 

Like all generalisations, there are of course many exceptions to this.

[muddywaters]

Our first time ever on a canal holiday we never read the information about places to avoid mooring until 11.30pm on the Sunday night and shire cruises had made a list of places to avoid mooring.

We where actually moored at one of the places they said to avoid top of the shop lock in Toddy but found we had no problems at all

[Robin2]

I agree absolutely with Robin's answer above. In over 20 years of boating I've never experienced any trouble. Yes I do avoid leaving the boat in certain areas, that's just common sense. You will soon get to know where is ok and where isn't. If in doubt, moor near other boats until you get to know the cut better. And as Lady Muck says, there are always people that tell you of no-go areas. I recently went down the "notorious" Ashton Flight and received nothing more threatening than a wave and a smile from the local kids, but then I did pick my time. Don't ignore warnings competely, but try and put them into perspective.

Some people look for trouble and usually find it.

 

Great news. I may go that way in early autumn.

[Chertsey]

I would moor a boat places I wouldn't park a car - a boat is harder to steal and harder to break into.

We've had a hint of trouble in only two places - Wolverhampton (predictable?) and Stone (surprising?).

But really, there is no substitute for trusting your judgement at the time - places can change from hour to hour, day to day and year to year which renders any list worse than useless.

[BlueStringPudding]

I found Wolverhampton fine!

[homer2911]

I found Wolverhampton fine!

 

 

Us too - going up the 21, start as early as possible, and if you need to stop, there is a handy mooring on the off-side, inaccesible other than by boat, round the corner from the top lock.

[Scooby]

Hi we are in process of buying boat,on which we plan to live

We are planning at first to have a home base from which to venture out from and cruise.

But when we are out and about we are a bit uncertain about where to moor,by that l mean a good or bad area.

I don,nt think you would buy a £100.000 car and park it on a dimly lit back street on a industrial estate so why would you do it with your boat.

So how do we find out about where you would or would not ever dream of mooring ?

Thanks

 

Well i never slept in a £100k car before, we move almost everyday for last 18 months, always find a quiet spot if possible it doesnt take much common sense to work out what looks ok, did get untied in wolverhampton with another boat but no harm just my fishing net stolen, had fishing rod stolen off roof at mirfield(west yorkshire), had a solar light (cost £1) stolen from bristol floating harbour.

 

End of the day if you have anything lose on the roof it will get stolen at some point, most places you moor will be perfectly fine, stop worrying about the mooring spots, we always moor where other boats arent if we can and never have any problems at all, currently at staines(days travel from london on free visitor mooring).

[KeithL]

i could tell you to avoid mooring on the river severn at stourport, as one morning at around 2am i woke to hear drunk people outside talking about untieing the boats, i just turned the headlight on and they all ran away, not so brave when they can be seen! I'd moor there again no problem, but may put a chain on just to be safe as drifting down the severn wouldnt be funny.

[RLWP]

i could tell you to avoid mooring on the river severn at stourport, as one morning at around 2am i woke to hear drunk people outside talking about untieing the boats, i just turned the headlight on and they all ran away, not so brave when they can be seen! I'd moor there again no problem, but may put a chain on just to be safe as drifting down the severn wouldnt be funny.

 

For me, this is exactly why making a list doesn't work. Drunk people talking about untying boats sounds to me like a one-off piece of opportunism. Does that mean that those same drunks are there every night, drunk, untying boats? I really doubt it. Put that incident on a list on a website, another mooring is labelled as a No-Go area, another opportunity lost, more fear created.

 

Richard

 

Keith, pleased to hear you'd give it another try in the future

Edited July 18, 2011 by RLWP

[KeithL]

For me, this is exactly why making a list doesn't work. Drunk people talking about untying boats sounds to me like a one-off piece of opportunism. Does that mean that those same drunks are there every night, drunk, untying boats? I really doubt it. Put that incident on a list on a website, another mooring is labelled as a No-Go area, another opportunity lost, more fear created.

 

Richard

 

Keith, pleased to hear you'd give it another try in the future

I agree with everything you say, bad things can happen anywhere at any time, doesnt matter where you happen to be.

I've got no worries about mooring down on the river again, ive moored there a few times before without incident, a few drunk children wont put me off :-) when i bought my boat it was on a 3 month winter mooring at camp hill locks birmingham, not the nicest part of town from what i could see, the only trouble i had there was some snooty boater (posting on here) saying that i was an over stayer on the visitor moorings ! lol

[David Mack]

Hi we are in process of buying boat,on which we plan to live

We are planning at first to have a home base from which to venture out from and cruise.

But when we are out and about we are a bit uncertain about where to moor,by that l mean a good or bad area.

I don,nt think you would buy a £100.000 car and park it on a dimly lit back street on a industrial estate so why would you do it with your boat.

So how do we find out about where you would or would not ever dream of mooring ?

Thanks

 

I don't want to be a wet blanket, but the fact that you have to ask such a question suggests that you have little experience of canal boating. If this is the case, are you really sure you want to spend £100K on a boat and commit yourself to living in a much smaller space than the smallest of flats, with no mains services and with the possibility of being immobilised in a winter like the one we've just had? Official residential moorings are like hens teeth, and the only legitimate alternative is to be a 'continuous cruiser' moving every 14 days over a substantial part of the network - not usually consistent with holding down a normal job (although there are some who manage it).

 

Browse this site for other theads on new boaters and aspiring liveaboards, to get some idea of the issues that those who have done this before you have found to be important.

 

And then you can ask whether you should go for cassette or pumpout toilet, or how long you need to run your engine to charge the batteries, or whether a bowthruster is a ) an essential aid to boating, or b ) the work of Satan himself, or whether you only have to slow down for moored boats if they are occupied, or ..... or ....

 

David