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Please take part in an important liveaboard survey!


Dave_P

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Survey done Dave.

 

We're planning to winter in Birmingham this year so we'll claim our beer at some point :)

 

I hate to ruin your day, but I'll be moored in Huddersfield this winter.

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Just a thought might not your sample of he survey be slightly biased towards the web enabled and therefore maybe slightly wealthier live aboard, who as a result might be also be healthier, apologies now if I have offended anyone by suggesting they are healthier or wealthier than others !

 

Absolutely right. This is something I will discuss in my write-up. On a general note, any survey of this type is likely to exclude, to some extent, the most negatively affected and vulnerable people. This doesn't just apply to boater surveys but consider a boater who suffers from serious mental health issues, has learning difficulties, is illiterate, has difficulties with social interactions, is depressed, is a continuous cruiser, has a scruffy and unappealing looking boat, is shunned by other boaters, who tends to moor up in isolated locations and doesn't answer when his door is knocked. I was recently chatting with a RBOA representative about these sort of people (who do exist on the canals). It would be reasonable to expect that their health is at a greater risk than most but are also likely to be be unrepresented in any general study of boaters.

 

Of course it would be possible to specifically seek out these sorts of people, but how hard should you try? If you try too hard, then they will be over-represented. A survey such as this should be as random as possible, but, in practise this is impossible. The best you can do is to be aware of the shortcomings and discuss the possible effects of those shortcomings.

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I hate to ruin your day, but I'll be moored in Huddersfield this winter.

 

We're boating on the Shroppie today so it'd take a lot more than that to ruin our day :D

 

Seriously, I wish you all the best with your study.

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May I please edit my survey response to include another theft? Ta.

 

Oh dear! As an early bit of feedback on results, I can confirm that whilst most people haven't had any issues with theft, vandalism etc., those that do, often report repeated occurrences. Perhaps due to cruising patterns, location or perhaps to do with security issues on the boat. As always, one survey begats another...

 

I'll probably be stopping taking any more questionnaire responses in another day or two as I really need to start the data analysis.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello again!

 

I did promise to give updates and not just run away like previous questionnairing (sic?) types have done. I'm in the brain-melting data analysis section doing lots of exciting statistical tests including one-way-anova, wilcoxon, chi-square and kruskal-wallis for the mathematicians here.

 

I've a little way to go but this is the last thing I wrote:

 

"The analysis of the data so far shows that the lack of a permanent or residential mooring has a significant affect on health outcomes and on the individuals’ ability to access treatment, with elderly boaters at particular risk."

 

I'm sure some of you will point out that this is stating the obvious but I'm just happy that I've got some valid results which stand up to scrutiny, not just a 'hunch'.

 

Thanks again to those who contributed.

 

Dave

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Ahem.

Shouldn't that be 'effect'

 

And presumably elsewhe you have differentiated between permanent and residential moorings?

 

Sorry, gone into supervisor mode.

Thank you for the update, it is much appreciated.

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Ahem.

Shouldn't that be 'effect'

 

And presumably elsewhe you have differentiated between permanent and residential moorings?

 

Sorry, gone into supervisor mode.

Thank you for the update, it is much appreciated.

 

Sorry Chertsey but the boy done good! ;)

 

affect 1 |əˈfɛkt|

verb [ trans. ]

have an effect on; make a difference to : the dampness began to affect my health | [with clause ] your attitude will affect how successful you are.

• touch the feelings of (someone); move emotionally : [as adj. ] ( affecting) a highly affecting account of her experiences in prison. See note at moving .

 

six of one half a dozen of another.

 

Thanks for the update.

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Sorry Chertsey but the boy done good! ;)

 

affect 1 |əˈfɛkt|

verb [ trans. ]

have an effect on; make a difference to : the dampness began to affect my health | [with clause ] your attitude will affect how successful you are.

• touch the feelings of (someone); move emotionally : [as adj. ] ( affecting) a highly affecting account of her experiences in prison. See note at moving .

 

six of one half a dozen of another.

 

Thanks for the update.

Sorry Jackster but affect=verb (to have an effect); effect=noun. The suspect word in that sentence is a noun.

Something affects (verb) something else or it has an effect (noun) on it.

 

He could have said 'significantly affects' which would convey the same meaning, but he didn't.

Affect can also be a noun but it means something else entirely.

Edited by Chertsey
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Sorry Jackster but affect=verb (to have an effect); effect=noun. The suspect word in that sentence is a noun.

Something affects (verb) something else or it has an effect (noun) on it.

 

He could have said 'significantly affects' which would convey the same meaning, but he didn't.

Affect can also be a noun but it means something else entirely.

 

Touche Chertsey! humbly bow out tail between legs!

 

:cheers:

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Ahem.

Shouldn't that be 'effect'

 

And presumably elsewhe you have differentiated between permanent and residential moorings?

 

Sorry, gone into supervisor mode.

Thank you for the update, it is much appreciated.

Ahem

Shouldn't that be 'elsewhere'? :)

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Sorry Jackster but affect=verb (to have an effect); effect=noun.

 

I do like this forum - it makes pedants like myself feel very much at home. In the interest of accuracy, "effect" can also be a verb (to "bring about", "to cause"). Although Chertsey was quite correct to point out the incorrect use of "affect".

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I do like this forum - it makes pedants like myself feel very much at home. In the interest of accuracy, "effect" can also be a verb (to "bring about", "to cause"). Although Chertsey was quite correct to point out the incorrect use of "affect".

Do you know, I tried to go back and edit to add that, but I couldn't get it to work on the iPad at three in te morning.

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Sorry Jackster but affect=verb (to have an effect); effect=noun. The suspect word in that sentence is a noun.

Something affects (verb) something else or it has an effect (noun) on it.

 

He could have said 'significantly affects' which would convey the same meaning, but he didn't.

Affect can also be a noun but it means something else entirely.

 

and effect can also be a verb. Thanks for the proof-reading chertsey.

 

Ahem.

Shouldn't that be 'effect'

 

And presumably elsewhe you have differentiated between permanent and residential moorings?

 

Sorry, gone into supervisor mode.

Thank you for the update, it is much appreciated.

 

I have discussed the difference between residential and leisure moorings. They are both 'permanent' unless you know different. Trying to get BW/ CaRT to define the difference is somewhat tricky. They actually told me that it's not for them to define and that I should ask my local authority, which kind of begs the question - why do BW even distinguish between leisure and residential? If were them I would say that all BW moorings were potentially residential and leave it to the moorer to obtain consent from the local authority to live there. Surely this would save BW / CaRT from spending money enforcing something which isn't really their problem.

 

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this as it directly relates to my dissertation.

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This is a large can of worms, residential moorers would in the main rather remain on leisure moorings as to invite the local authority to approve as residential is to invite a council tax bill, it would also invite other housing residents nearby to object. You can analysis your raw data and draw you conclusions but as your sample of boaters largely those who can afford Internet connections is so narrow it's good from an academic perspective towards qualifications but please don't pass to CRT as representative of the wider boating community.

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This is a large can of worms, residential moorers would in the main rather remain on leisure moorings as to invite the local authority to approve as residential is to invite a council tax bill, it would also invite other housing residents nearby to object. You can analysis your raw data and draw you conclusions but as your sample of boaters largely those who can afford Internet connections is so narrow it's good from an academic perspective towards qualifications but please don't pass to CRT as representative of the wider boating community.

 

Thanks for the thoughts Tuscan. I agree with what you say about the 'can of worms', but... On the other hand, a land-living friend of mine came to me for advice recently as she was looking to buy a boat to live on. She had already contacted various boat-yards, marinas and the like and told them she would be residential. All of them told her she could not moor with them. Some of the places she contacted have people I know of who already do live there but keep their heads down and get away with this. I told my friend that she would have been better not to tell prospective mooring sites that she would be residential. I know I wouldn't if it was me! My results so far, indicate that moorers with an authorised residential mooring have better outcomes in terms of health, security and employment than those who don't, so are those boaters who 'keep their heads down' actually harming themselves by doing so? I'm one of them, so this matters to me too!

 

On the issue of council tax, at my mooring site, to my knowledge, there are about 10 residential moorings of which I think only one pays council tax. This came about as a result of being hounded by the local authority. There is at least one other moorer who has tried to pay council tax but failed as the same local authority have been unable to set him up to do it! Other people with residential moorings, don't officially live there, but again, how is this defined? I have a land-based address where I do spend plenty of time and BW have told me that up to 4 nights out of 7 is acceptable to them on a leisure mooring although it's not clear where this figure comes from or whether it has any enforceable legal basis.

 

A good question for this forum would be: Does anyone know of any prosecutions or sanctions against people living permanently on a leisure mooring? I'm aware of this happening to continuous cruisers who don't cruise very far but that's all.

 

Finally, do you have any evidence that boaters with internet access represents only a small proportion? That's not my general experience, although I haven't properly investigated levels of internet access. I'd be more inclined to take the view that the people I've contacted through web-forum represent a narrow sample mostly due to being the types of people who like to get involved with web-forums. Either way, I am able to compare the data I have for the online respondents with the data I have for people I met face-to-face and I haven't been able to find any statistical differences between the two groups. The only difference I have found is that the online respondents were more likely to misunderstand the questions (partly a fault on my part), and this has forced me to discount some small portions of the data. For example there was one question which was about illegal drug taking and this was obviously not clear to everyone, leading to some people including prescribed drugs in their answer.

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Could it be that boaters who are officially residential are also more likely to be better off and generally authority-abiding (e.g. Keeping doctors appointments, going for checks etc) than those who are keeping a low profile. They are also more likely to have an address to get appointments etc sent to, and to receive them in good time.

 

You have probably considered all that of course, I am throwing it in just as much for the interest of others.

 

From what I've heard it's not generally BW/CRT that pursue people for 'abusing' leisure moorings, but the moorings owners, who are fearful of getting into trouble with the local authority, and the local authority themselves, for various reasons.

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Could it be that boaters who are officially residential are also more likely to be better off and generally authority-abiding (e.g. Keeping doctors appointments, going for checks etc) than those who are keeping a low profile. They are also more likely to have an address to get appointments etc sent to, and to receive them in good time.

 

You have probably considered all that of course, I am throwing it in just as much for the interest of others.

 

From what I've heard it's not generally BW/CRT that pursue people for 'abusing' leisure moorings, but the moorings owners, who are fearful of getting into trouble with the local authority, and the local authority themselves, for various reasons.

 

Aren't BW/CRT the largest owner of moorings in the UK?

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