Cuckoo Land?

[miket]

Just had an email from my golf club reassuring us that our membership subscription will be extended by the period of time that the club is closed due to Covid19. How very refreshing.
What chance EA doing the same? In the words of a well known tennis player, “You can not be serious!!”
After a winter in Norfolk, our boat is now stuck there. Transport not allowed and anyway the yards at each end are closed. Now paying Norfolk storage costs plus Thames mooring. Yippe.

 

[Old Crusty]

I had a letter from the DVLA today reminding me that my car tax is due by end April despite it being parked up and I'm not using it as I'm not allowed out.

Meanwhile, my boat is in its marina and I can't get to it never mind go cruising in yellow boards.

Worst of all, it's so cold, my climbing beans won't germinate.

The UK has gone to the dogs!

 

[boatone]

Just had an email from my golf club reassuring us that our membership subscription will be extended by the period of time that the club is closed due to Covid19. How very refreshing.
What chance EA doing the same? In the words of a well known tennis player, “You can not be serious!!”
After a winter in Norfolk, our boat is now stuck there. Transport not allowed and anyway the yards at each end are closed. Now paying Norfolk storage costs plus Thames mooring. Yippe.

Difficult situation. I understand the sentiment but we're not dealing with a commercial company here that has profit margins and reserves.
The EA is an agency of government which has no money of its own. All income comes from direct fees paid by users (and all that income has to be spent on the purpose for which it is raised i.e. the upkeep of the waterway), and the rest comes from public purse income i.e taxation. If we get a rebate, refund or stay of payment it ultimately means less money available for managing the waterway so further decline in services and maintenance. Those of us that are afloat are afloat because we are on the EA waterway and thats all we are entitled to in return for our registration fees.
Hard truth I'm afraid.

 

[oldgit]

More concerned if grant to EA from Defra is reviewed and how does CaRT stand with its different funding. ?

 

[normskib]

So glad I shelled out just under six hundred pounds with no chance of going out on my boat until who knows when ?

 

[ianc1200]

I'll pay my EA licence when I can use the boat, no point otherwise.

 

[plumbob]

Just had an email from my golf club reassuring us that our membership subscription will be extended by the period of time that the club is closed due to Covid19. How very refreshing.
What chance EA doing the same? In the words of a well known tennis player, “You can not be serious!!”
After a winter in Norfolk, our boat is now stuck there. Transport not allowed and anyway the yards at each end are closed. Now paying Norfolk storage costs plus Thames mooring. Yippe.

Just had the same from 2 clubs I belong to. Saying the same thing. People are realising that in these unprecedented times it will pay huge dividends when this is over to look after their members . And I don't mean just golf clubs.

 

[Old Crusty]

I'm with Groucho on club membership.

 

[miket]

After very many years of boating on the Thames I am more than familiar with the workings and financing of the EA.
I think Plumbob has hit the nail on the head. Other institutions have a need to look after their members. Not so the EA. As I have maintained for many years, boat owners are a pain in the a.. to the EA. They would like nothing more than lose the lot of us.
My boat is currently in Norfolk and so not sitting on EA water. Many boats, including all at Sonning who came out of the water last autumn are still out of the water so not sitting on EA water. No refunds there either.
There are many far worse off than us, don’t get me wrong, but a small gesture from EA would be nice?
A recognition that we will have lost much of the 6 month season, for which we are charged for 12 months, would be nice.

 

[normskib]

Dream on !

 

[Old Crusty]

The only gesture you're likely to get from the EA is an invisible two-fingered one. It would be a bit of good PR if the charity boats like Rivertime and the Thames Venturer and the voluntary groups like the Scouts had a bit of an extra discount that could be authorised locally. There's no point complaining to the Waterways Manager or the EA regional director either, they have no greater authority than to follow the laid down acts and regulations that govern the non-tidal river. I can't see the Chancellor being sympathetic towards an already heavily tax-payer subsidised recreational facility while he faces an estimated £40 billion UK bale out for business and employees.

I accept fully that the river is a dynamic entity, often in strong stream condition when it cannot be enjoyed safely for large parts of the year. That's the risk I take for choosing to boat on a river. I can't visit any National Trust properties at the moment but I don't expect a discount or an annual membership extension next year. The Covid 19 element is just a nuisance factor in this instance and we have far greater risks to deal with in just surviving right now.

As an organisation and a former member of it for six years, I can say that the EA doesn't regard all Thames boaters as a PITA, only the noisy, self-important, self-entitled few who clog up the working week with ridiculous, petty complaints about its shortcomings and how inconvenient it is to have to get off the boat to press buttons on a lock pedestal (I had the joy of managing the complaints about the Waterways Team for a year so I know). Most complaints from this group are treated like the background noise from a Geiger counter. Of the 20,000+ boaters on the Thames and I've spoken to hundreds while lockside, most of them really don't care about the politics, they just enjoy the river for what it is, as do I.

Now that he runs the river money, please forward all future complaints to Rishi Sunak.

 

[oldgit]

Now that he runs the river money, please forward all future complaints to Rishi Suna

Something like this perhaps and in Green Ink for effect ?

Dear Public servant,
Sir, am wondering exactly what we pay our registration fee for, in my day the birch would have been used.
While passing through Boulters Lock recently was distressed to discover that some algae from the lock chamber had contaminated several of our mooring ropes.
This nessitated a prompt return to my marina mooring and it completly ruined our cruise.

Can you please give the EA some more money.

yours

 

[Old Crusty]

Not green ink, he'll think you read the Graun or used to be a teacher.

 

[oldgit]

Not green ink, he'll think you read the Graun or used to be a teacher.

or some sort of tree hugger ?

In the spirit of lockdown helpfulness ........and after a careful perusal of old forum posts how about this !

Letter No2

Dear Public servant,
Sir, am wondering exactly what we pay our registration fee for, in my day the birch would have been used.
While approaching Boulters Lock recently was distressed to discover that some leaves from overhanging trees had become lodged in my pennant mast.
This nessitated a prompt return to my marina mooring and it completly ruined our cruise.

Can you please give the EA some more money.

 

[Actionmat]

Hotel boats, passenger and hire companies will have a tough time of it, the smaller ones may not survive.
The EA could at least let them off the licence fee, the river would be a poorer place without them.
Apart from Colliers, I would toast their demise.

 

[boatone]

Deleted - pretty much same as wot I wrote above !

 

[Outinthedinghy]

Hotel boats, passenger and hire companies will have a tough time of it, the smaller ones may not survive.
The EA could at least let them off the licence fee, the river would be a poorer place without them.
Apart from Colliers, I would toast their demise.

As a riparian resident in Hampton Wick I used to regularly go out in my kayak and dive into the wash behind the Connaught in the 80s and early 90s as a teenager when the weather was warm. Nice boat really. Ex salters I think.. The wash was a bit too much and I believe they did get quite a lot of complaints from various residents of the area between Teddington and HC.

Kingwood was another one. Not sure if it was the same company but a similar boat.

At the end of the day they are working to a timetable.

The River between Teddington and Molesey is basically fairly well sorted in terms of moorings as a lot of it is basically partially tidal if there is high fluvial flow and spring tides.

Having said that there are a few areas specially closer to the Hampton Court terminus which will suffer more than others. Thinking specially about Thames Ditton island towards the upper end.

 

[Lower Limit 1909]

As a riparian resident in Hampton Wick I used to regularly go out in my kayak and dive into the wash behind the Connaught in the 80s and early 90s ....

Probably fun in a Kayak but I've seen Fine Boats with schoolkids in tipped into the tidal by The Connaught.

The Connaught and stable mate The Cockney Sparrow remain the worst offendors for excessive speed and wash between Hampton Court and Putney. The three decades since your experience can't do much to fix inherently problematic hull designs (in the case of The Cockney Sparrow) but you would have thought a more enlightened approach to speed and wash would have been achieved since the 80s.

It will be interesting to see how many Coot and Moorhen nests flourish this year as these are often destroyed by their wash. There will be a few less pontoon bumps and scrapes for us moorers to have to repair as well.

If these vessels (operated to damaging schedules and with little respect for the river) disappear from the commercial scene that won't be a loss.

 

[oldgit]

Just a thought but looking at the age of some of those vessels most must be years old.
Unlike some old historic classic trip boats used elsewhere ,where the age of the boat is all part of the experience, most of the Thames trip boats just seem old tired and in many cases tatty.
No investment in new craft with more efficient no wash hulls .
Wonder when the last new vessel was commissioned and put into service as opposed to yet another old derelict pressed into service. with bit of welding to get through the MCA.
Lipstick on a pig ?
No money to made running trip boats on the Thames perhaps.
Possibly when originally laid down the engines fitted could only push the hulls along a certain speed a few years down the line a new a more powerful engine was fitted enabling it to travel faster and the resulting increase in wash.
Time to invest in a small Clipper style Cat.
Remember all the fuss when sometrip boat need fortune to get it up standard.
Special pleading from the owners about the expence.
Whatever happened in that case.

 

[Actionmat]

Princess Freda is nothing to look at. A dated interior harking back to the 80's. I was really surprised when I read it was built in 1926 and was a Dunkirk little ship.
Trip boats are often full, especially at night so there must be money to be made.
Indian funerals have become popular on trip boats. Garlands chucked in the Thames along with the ashes. Cheaper than a trip to the Ganges and thanks to many of the liveaboards, some familiar brown trouts to accompany the chrysanthemums.