William_H
Well-Known Member
I have my little boat on a swing mooring in Swan River. It is in about 3 metres of water and I first found a great lump of iron in the water 30 years ago and made that my mooring. State government got into the act about 12 years ago and required all moorings to be registered with a fee of now nearly 300 squid a year. Just a few weeks back they sends a letter with the renewal notice demanding that the mooring be inspected every 2 years by one from there list of Approved Mooring Contractors.
I then asked the authorituy if I could be accepted as one of their approved mooring contractors.... no respose a bit cheeky perhaps.
Got some quotes for doing the inspection. I reckoned the gear was great and I even did some tidying up of the mooring so it would pass any inspection. One guy quoted 130 squid for the inspection plus 100 squid labour. Finally another quoted 130 squid for the inspection including labour. I asked him to do it.
Within a week he phoned to say he was at the mooring and he did not like what he saw. The original iron mass was so rusted that attachment was difficult I knew that and had attached a small danforth anchor in one direction and 4 car tires filled with cement each about 50kgs in various directions. No the riser chain was fine but the mass on the bottom could not be accepted for his report. Bu##er. Just to get it over with I asked him to fix it. He offered a large railway wheel 360kg at 200 squid plus labout plus other parts.
Yesterday fortunately I was near the boat when he turned up to do the job. I was able to watch him like a hawk. The railway wheel was dropped a small distance away from the original. No, that was the only acceptable spot according to differential GPS.
Obviously the original survey location was wrong. He has attached my original SS chain to the wheel.
In accordance with my phobias and fortunately I was able to dive down my self and check on the arrangements.
he seemed a nice enough bloke but I am still waiting for the bill. I will now go back and pick up all my apparently worthless tackle ont he bottom. I hate beaurocracy... Talk about a Nanny state... They tried to justify the inspections by talking about men risking their lives recovering boats that come free. grumpy olewill
I then asked the authorituy if I could be accepted as one of their approved mooring contractors.... no respose a bit cheeky perhaps.
Got some quotes for doing the inspection. I reckoned the gear was great and I even did some tidying up of the mooring so it would pass any inspection. One guy quoted 130 squid for the inspection plus 100 squid labour. Finally another quoted 130 squid for the inspection including labour. I asked him to do it.
Within a week he phoned to say he was at the mooring and he did not like what he saw. The original iron mass was so rusted that attachment was difficult I knew that and had attached a small danforth anchor in one direction and 4 car tires filled with cement each about 50kgs in various directions. No the riser chain was fine but the mass on the bottom could not be accepted for his report. Bu##er. Just to get it over with I asked him to fix it. He offered a large railway wheel 360kg at 200 squid plus labout plus other parts.
Yesterday fortunately I was near the boat when he turned up to do the job. I was able to watch him like a hawk. The railway wheel was dropped a small distance away from the original. No, that was the only acceptable spot according to differential GPS.
Obviously the original survey location was wrong. He has attached my original SS chain to the wheel.
In accordance with my phobias and fortunately I was able to dive down my self and check on the arrangements.
he seemed a nice enough bloke but I am still waiting for the bill. I will now go back and pick up all my apparently worthless tackle ont he bottom. I hate beaurocracy... Talk about a Nanny state... They tried to justify the inspections by talking about men risking their lives recovering boats that come free. grumpy olewill