CRT workboats, irresponsible mooring

[Ricco1]

I say CRT, they could be contractors boats.

 

2 workboats are moored double breasted at Whaley Bridge terminus, on the Peak Forest. It's probably obvious that a terminus is also a winding hole.

 

Do the rules and guidelines about mooring not apply to CRT or their contractors, are they excepted from them?

[Machpoint005]

BW and CRT boats and those of their contractors have been badly moored all over the place since I first had a boat, so I'm afraid it's nothing new. They don't usually object if you shift them about yourself, although I agree you shouldn't have to do so in the first place.

[larryjc]

Or rescue them when they've come adrift because they don't even know how to tie a line ashore!!

[Thorfast]

Or they are tied up with a thin length of blue plastic string.

[dmr]

Part of the historic stone built wharf at Pewsey (K&A) has been destroyed and CaRT have built a substantial fence, half on land, half in the water, to prevent access so I assume no repair is planned in the near future. How did this happen? Two widebeam workboats were loosely tied up there, breasted up, for a long time. I assume the constant movement due to wind and passing boats has knocked the supporting wall away.

 

A workboat (one of the above?) is now similarly tied up (long term) at Devizes wharf where it will probably do exactly the same. It is also occupying one of the very few places on the K&A where a boater can drive a car right up to the boat for unloading heavy objects.

 

At Kintbury two workboats occupy a very popular visitor mooring with a gap between them just short enough to prevent a boat getting in, so effectively occupying almost 3 boat lengths. (and they have their legs down on the bottom so no way can a boater move them!)

 

..............Dave

Edited April 3, 2015 by dmr

[Burgiesburnin]

This would seen to suggest that the "workers" that belong to these boats are not boaters themselves. If they were, they would used a bit more practical common sense and be more considerate.

You will probably find that these workers look upon the boats as floating platforms to do work from or just like trucks to move stuff about.

There is nothing less common than common sense

[Rufford]

Or they are tied up with a thin length of blue plastic string.

 

Ah, the BW branded blue 'farmers' twine that they use. Never ever seen a BW/CRT boat tied up with anything other than one length of blue twine. Obviously a cost saving measure!

[J R ALSOP]

We used to use good lines,with nice eye and back splices but passing boaters used to think they looked better than theirs and swop them.

[thunderbird]

Or they are tied up with a thin length of blue plastic string.

I thought this to be the way they are instructed to tie up!

Until that is the workboat has come adrift and as we passed obligingly moved over to the far side of the cut and now in need of recue by the unfortunate workmen!

This would seen to suggest that the "workers" that belong to these boats are not boaters themselves. If they were, they would used a bit more practical common sense and be more considerate.

You will probably find that these workers look upon the boats as floating platforms to do work from or just like trucks to move stuff about.

There is nothing less common than common sense

[Martin Megson]

Came across two wide beam boats tied up on the services point at the top of the Wigan Flight. Obviously I could walk to the elsan and rubbish point but noway to reach the water point. What was really annoying was that there are visitor moorings further along which they could have used.

[alan_fincher]

 

Ah, the BW branded blue 'farmers' twine that they use. Never ever seen a BW/CRT boat tied up with anything other than one length of blue twine. Obviously a cost saving measure!

 

Just for you then, a photo of ours in 1989. [Photo: John Lower]

 

However, just to not fully disappoint, it is virtually tied up on a lock landing"

 

[kingswood]

yep had to rescue one of there barges 2 years ago at thurmaston as the piece of string they used had snapped and it was rushing down stream in flood on a headlong charge for some cruisers

[cheshire~rose]

We passed "Blue Cuckoo" today. A small CRT tug. It was very neatly moored on the offside in a place that no private boat would ever consider mooring - because you would need a plank to get off and then find yourselves in a farmers field!

 

Ah sorry, this thread is about when they moor inconsiderately isn't it?

 

Just to balance the view one pound before be came across the CRT boat there was a private boat moored on a lock landing. The occupants were aboard and fishing from the bow. In fairness when one of them saw I had walked ahead to set the next lock he got off the boat and went back to close a gate for Dave

 

I do wonder how many people bother to ring up or email CRT when one of their boats (or their contractors) is left in a bad place? Maybe we have all just become so immune to seeing it through all the years that BW did it that we do not believe anything can change. I think there are occasions when they do need to leave these boats in a specific place but we will never know unless we ask.

[jonathanA]

Narrowly avoided getting some blue rope round the prop in one of the lock pounds on the Blackburn flight. Saw a BW work boat at bit further on and told them there was length of rope in the pound. "Oh that's where our mooring line went" the BW Man said.....

 

Usually the CRT workboats are chained up when i have seen them

[Rufford]

We used to use good lines,with nice eye and back splices but passing boaters used to think they looked better than theirs and swop them.

Thats that one explained, makes sense :-)

[FadeToScarlet]

Ah, the BW branded blue 'farmers' twine that they use. Never ever seen a BW/CRT boat tied up with anything other than one length of blue twine. Obviously a cost saving measure!

Someone else I know fitted their recently ex-BW working boat with some decent hempex lines.

 

They lasted a week before someone nicked them.

[SamKingfisher]

There's nowt wrong with blue polyprop, but it helps to tie a proper knot. I've had to rescue one at the top of 5 rise.

 

There was one moored on the water point near micklethwaite for months. Also on the approach mooring for the airedale boat club swing bridge, which is supposed to be left open but isn't always in the winter (which is fine by me)

[DHutch]

Its certainly true that there is a significant number of CRT and contractor boats that are well moored in suitable locations, an taring all with the same is careless. And there is also an amount of truth that a heavier boat, often left for some time in a location which is not a long term mooring location for it, is one of the harder boats to moor well. There also also lots of privately owned boats moored badly. And known cases of decent ropes being pinched from work boats.

 

However I will also say that the majority of the most extreme cases of badly or inappropriately moored boats are those owned by CRT or their contractors, and that this has been the case for the duration of the time I have been boating, dating well into the BW period. This is a shame.

 

Some time the should just be two boat lengths less near the lock landing, other times they would be fine the rope used was strong enough to not snap when pushed, but others are chained to water points or the like for months at a time.

 

 

Not really sure why this is the case, and while I am not for knee jerk or poorly thought out spending, if I was in charge of the situation I would spend an amount of time and money improving the situation.

 

 

Daniel