Length/width of moorings

[Julysea]

This is of course an entirely hypothetical question, but if you were thinking of bidding on a CRT mooring auction and it stated the maximum width was 7 feet, you needed it to be 11 feet, and as far as you could see there would be no problem with extra footage as the mooring was behind a long concrete arm, what would you do? Would you bid anyway and if you won, just moor and hope no-one noticed? Would you contact the person auctioning and discuss the possibility of using it for extra width? Would you just leave it presuming there was a good reason for the published max width? Or would you do something else?

 

Thanks for any and all thoughts

[Guest]

Personally I would contact the moorings manager for the site concerned, their contact number will be in the ahem 'hypothetical' auction listing and point out the possible error in the auction.

 

You don't know but the width restriction could be due to a perfectly reasonable reason such as depth issues. If it is an error they may pull the auction and re-start it.

[JDR]

I'd contact the person named on the mooring details to confirm if the width was negotiable before risking being contracted to pay

for a mooring I couldn't use. You won't know until you ask.

[Lady Muck]

I would speak to them first. We had a situation up here where someone bid on a mooring which was advertised smaller than it actually was and when they won BW evicted them for being, 'too big' then readvertised the mooring as being a bigger size. So they bid again and won and got the mooring for half the price as the other bidders had dropped out! Bonkers.

 

Dont assume they've got the size or width or even depth right. Im only saying, because my neighbour checked the depth before he moved here and it was a very good job he did. The depth was barely 2 feet and his draught was 41/2 feet. They had to dredge.

 

Don't assume that because your boat will fit then you can moor there, they often need certain space available for their own craft. They might need a certain width free next to the berth you've seen for access.

 

So, yes, I'd check first.

[Lesd]

I hope you have more luck than I did.

I was tempted to bid on a mooring at Marsworth a few years ago. The add said max 7' width and our boat is 10.5', there were already two 12'+ boats on the same 100m stretch. The lady at BW said they wouldnt change the max width due to ''operational reasons'', she wouldn't budge even when I told her about the other boats present or let me speak to anyone from the operations team who apparantly set the rule. Madness but there you go.

Les

[Julysea]

Thanks for that everyone. I guess I'll check with them first thing and see!

[arpeeuk]

In terms of length, don't assume that because there is some space in a row of moorings that they can be shuffled up and make a larger space.

 

It could well be that, because of the auction system, people are paying for a space that is longer than their boat and, from what I'm told by the CRT mooring coordinator, they have the right, at any time, to moor a longer boat on their mooring up to the length that they are paying for.

 

While on the subject of the length of moorings, there's one at Hungerford at the moment that is 23m, 75'6". Shame the locks on either side are only a bare 70'. Sure the're be someone that will pay for 5' that they can't use but it won't be me!

 

Rik

[Guest]

In terms of length, don't assume that because there is some space in a row of moorings that they can be shuffled up and make a larger space.

 

It could well be that, because of the auction system, people are paying for a space that is longer than their boat and, from what I'm told by the CRT mooring coordinator, they have the right, at any time, to moor a longer boat on their mooring up to the length that they are paying for.

 

While on the subject of the length of moorings, there's one at Hungerford at the moment that is 23m, 75'6". Shame the locks on either side are only a bare 70'. Sure the're be someone that will pay for 5' that they can't use but it won't be me!

 

Rik

 

Correct our CRT LTM mooring is 10ft longer than our 60ft boat.

[alan_fincher]

If you bid on a mooring, in my experience they check against the boat details they hold against you, and ring you if they think you have bid on a mooring where you exceed the dimensions they gave.

 

(I know this because they assumed I was going to put my 50 foot boat on a 46 foot mooring - in fact I was bidding for a mooring for my 40 foot boat).

 

I would certainly not assume you can put a bigger boat there, even if you can see no reason why not.

 

As Les says, they restrict a lot of berths advertised to narrow beam only, even though there are already wide beams on moorings at the same site.

[David Mack]

While on the subject of the length of moorings, there's one at Hungerford at the moment that is 23m, 75'6". Shame the locks on either side are only a bare 70'.

The K & A is not limited to 70'. You can get 71'6" long narrowboat through there sharing locks with a boat up to about 70'.

Edited December 4, 2012 by David Mack

[MtB]

If you bid on a mooring, in my experience they check against the boat details they hold against you, and ring you if they think you have bid on a mooring where you exceed the dimensions they gave.

 

(I know this because they assumed I was going to put my 50 foot boat on a 46 foot mooring - in fact I was bidding for a mooring for my 40 foot boat).

 

I would certainly not assume you can put a bigger boat there, even if you can see no reason why not.

 

As Les says, they restrict a lot of berths advertised to narrow beam only, even though there are already wide beams on moorings at the same site.

 

I had the same when I won an auction for a mooring for REGINALD, 45ft. They were on the phone in an hour asking why I bid on a 50 ft mooring when the boat they had recorded for me was ALDEBARAN, 68ft long!