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'Clearing' of Visitor Moorings?


pearley

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My problem with moorings being reserved is nothing to do with who has reserved them but when they are reserved. On a number of occasions I have passed long lengths of towpath with signs saying no mooring reserved for XYZ and you know they event isn't for a number of days.

 

If the area must be reserved send somebody out say 24 hours before preferably less rather than 2 or 3 days. It might be reasonable to reserve a mooring for say a weekend event but not from Wednesday and then the signs not taken in for a few days after.

 

Just my opinion other opinions are available.

When I was last in Birmingham there were notices on some rings saying they were reserved and gave the dates they were reserved for, what it didn't say was they were not being used overnight. Still if they had I may not have got a mooring for the night. Whet get me is when they reserve them for say the Floating Market and also for the week after. Once the market boats are there and trading there is no need to reserve them and should be available for use as soon as the market boat leaves whether that is the Monday morning or the following Friday night.

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The point being that everyone pays the same licence fee, and therefore should have the same consideration in the use of visitor moorings, on rivers they are scarce enough. I don't see a club going for an outing is really the same thing as say the historic rally at Braunston.

 

If the boat clubs put effort back in, then that is great and to be commended, but it is volenteering, they should not expect to get anything back for that.

John, some of the boat clubs on the River Lee were the only reason the navigation was kept open after cargoes ceased. For many years, the lower end was seen as a no-go area and an annual cruise by the Enfield Club for a BBQ was a notable occasion, not only for lock use, but for navigation.

 

Just because 1000 plus boat owners have decided that the L&S is a suitable mooring for their accommodation to moor up in has happened doesn't mean to say the Cruising clubs shouldn't have their annual day/weekend out????, does it??

It was loosely agreed in 2011, maybe now it should be signed and enforced, just to let it happen.

  • Greenie 1
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The signs I have seen are normally put out well in advance but have operative dates much closer to the actual event.

 

IMO this is essential, as any innocent boater mooring up where there are no signs displayed, has a reasonable expectation of being able to remain there unmolested for the full duration permitted on that mooring.

 

In some locations this could be 14 days therefore a notice restricting use of that mooring needs to be in place 14+ days in advance.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

IMO all that is needed days in advance is a notice saying that from X hours on Y date they are reserved for event ABCD.

 

I know the assembled company don't like road analogies but I am going to use one. When we have events in town the notices say just that they don't say no parking days in advance and I see no reason why a canal should be different. Anyone mooring once the notices have gone up knows when they need to move by.

 

EDIT: to complete a sentence.

Edited by Jerra
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John, some of the boat clubs on the River Lee were the only reason the navigation was kept open after cargoes ceased. For many years, the lower end was seen as a no-go area and an annual cruise by the Enfield Club for a BBQ was a notable occasion, not only for lock use, but for navigation.

 

Just because 1000 plus boat owners have decided that the L&S is a suitable mooring for their accommodation to moor up in has happened doesn't mean to say the Cruising clubs shouldn't have their annual day/weekend out????, does it??

It was loosely agreed in 2011, maybe now it should be signed and enforced, just to let it happen.

It was not the specific case of the Lee, having never been I would not comment on that specifically. It is more the general principle of a group being able to book visitor moorings when they want to go out, when a normal boater has to take pot luck as to if they can stop or not. I don't think that is fair, I pay my licence and would accept a fair shot at the use of visitor moorings particularly on a river.
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Braunston is a public even that if I am not mistaken raises money for charity. It is more than a group of friends getting together for their own entertainment. The two types of use seem totally different to me.

 

 

It was not the specific case of the Lee, having never been I would not comment on that specifically. It is more the general principle of a group being able to book visitor moorings when they want to go out, when a normal boater has to take pot luck as to if they can stop or not. I don't think that is fair, I pay my licence and would accept a fair shot at the use of visitor moorings particularly on a river.

 

Your comments seemed to suggest that a "club outing" was just a group of friends getting together for their own entertainment

 

The Lea case is a club outing. You say you would not comment on that specifically and yet you seem to be happy to lump it in with your analysis of a group of friends getting together for their own entertainment.

 

I think this is something where an understanding of exactly what the club outing consists of would be helpful before people start objecting to it

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Hear hear.

 

And I don't like this either:

 

"the cruising clubs concerns over the volume (and sometimes poor standard) of boats that now populate visitor and casual moorings along much of the two rivers."

 

Judgemental and a good example of shinyboateritis at it's worse.

...not at it's bess, then?

(I assume this was a joke).

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IMO all that is needed days in advance is a notice saying that from X hours on Y date they are reserved for event ABCD.

 

I know the assembled company don't like road analogies but I am going to use one. When we have events in town the notices say just that they don't say no parking days in advance and I see no reason why a canal should be different. Anyone mooring once the notices have gone up knows when they need to move by.

 

EDIT: to complete a sentence.

That is exactly what I said.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

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Your comments seemed to suggest that a "club outing" was just a group of friends getting together for their own entertainment

 

The Lea case is a club outing. You say you would not comment on that specifically and yet you seem to be happy to lump it in with your analysis of a group of friends getting together for their own entertainment.

 

I think this is something where an understanding of exactly what the club outing consists of would be helpful before people start objecting to it

I don't know why you don't get it. I don't see the Lee example is important, what is important is that licence holders are being denied the use of visitor moorings by these people. I can see how anyone can accept that as fair.
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I don't know why you don't get it. I don't see the Lee example is important, what is important is that licence holders are being denied the use of visitor moorings by these people. I can see how anyone can accept that as fair.

Quite agree. If they want to reserve moorings they should get on the rota and join the mates shuffle like anyone else.

  • Greenie 2
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I don't know why you don't get it. I don't see the Lee example is important, what is important is that licence holders are being denied the use of visitor moorings by these people. I can see how anyone can accept that as fair.

 

The problem is that you do not see The Lea example as important and yet elsewhere you say that you would not comment on it specifically as you have never been.

 

I have never been but I have got a good idea of how it is as I follow what goes on in that region on social media.

 

I went to a CRT meeting in Leeds once where the CRT bods present had a missive from above about the need to strictly enforce the times boats stay on moorings. They did not understand why - it rarely caused a problem for anyone in the North East, there are loads of visitor moorings that are often empty.

 

Our navigations are such that it is impossible to judge what is fair or appropriate in any area based on just the bit of the network an individual knows unless it happens to be that area

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The problem is that you do not see The Lea example as important and yet elsewhere you say that you would not comment on it specifically as you have never been.

 

I have never been but I have got a good idea of how it is as I follow what goes on in that region on social media.

 

I went to a CRT meeting in Leeds once where the CRT bods present had a missive from above about the need to strictly enforce the times boats stay on moorings. They did not understand why - it rarely caused a problem for anyone in the North East, there are loads of visitor moorings that are often empty.

 

Our navigations are such that it is impossible to judge what is fair or appropriate in any area based on just the bit of the network an individual knows unless it happens to be that area

Right, let me have one final go at explaining now I am not on my phone and can see what I am doing properly!

 

I am saying that the Lee example is not important to the general point, it may well be very important to people on the Lee, but as I have never been to the Lee I am not commenting on the specifics of the Lee case. Hopefully that clears it up, please......

 

The point I am making is a general one, and yes that is off topic as the thread was started with specific reference to the Lee, but I have a yet not been slammed by a moderator for going off topic.

 

That generic point is that I believe (and I accept that not everyone will agree) that is is unfair for clubs to be able to pre-book visitor moorings for them to use for their social events as that denies other licence paying boaters the use of those mooring. That is even more important a point on rivers where moorings are scarce, think the Severn and a club booking Upton visitor moorings for example.

  • Greenie 2
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Members of the boat clubs on the River Lea and indeed those on the Regents Canal and Paddington Arm make up a large proportion of the indigenous pleasure cruising boat owners in London. Also, as has been mentioned, these clubs helped keep the River Lea/Lee Navigation and Regents Canal open though their activities in past decades.

 

In 2012, they were all asked not to take their boats out during the summer due to the Olympics and, since then, with the rise in the floating residential population, it has become more and more difficult to plan to cruise locally at all due to the shortage of visitor moorings. Unlike the visitor boater who is passing through and may find mooring a bit tricky once or twice, these boat owners face the same issue every time. Additionally, apart from individual cruising, going out in groups often with a social intent is something which many boat clubs organise for their members.

 

The particular matter raised here is the passage of boats from the River Lea/Lee Navigation to the IWA's Canalway Cavalcade in Little Venice. This journey cannot be completed in a single day and therefore an overnight stop is needed. The bookable spaces at Rembrandt Gardens have been very popular and, if it is decided to put in a few more, this might be one solution. If not, a single annual mooring suspension for Cavalcade purposes may be required. I wouldn't condone a mooring suspension for a Club barbecue though I do believe a way must be found for such activities to continue.

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