Boatyards and costs

[Joe]

While we are talking about service costs i thought i would have a general moan.
I recently had a phone call from an old friend of mine thats been working on the river for over 30 years that prompted this mail along with my own reflections of the time i have spent trading on the Thames
He is yet another small trader being forced of the river by the huge pointless costs of trying to run a buiseness on it.
The river is and has been declineing in boat usage over the last 20 years and no one it seems cares or has tried to do anything constructive about it.
There is a huge decline in people using it and this is to do with the overall cost of everything on the river rather than people not wanting to use it.
Its a sad reflection of the decline in small boatyards and independant marine buisenesses who once made up the backbone of life and trade on the river.
Ive been working on the river now for around 29 years and ive seen it all slowly going down hill.
A combination of health and safety, Insurance costs, Red tape, Huge over the top rents, Boatyards being converted into housing, Moaning townies, and the loss of the holiday boat industry brought about by the advent of cheap flights to sunny places, etc etc.
I could name more reasons but all in all the combination of so many obsticles makes it near impossible to run a buiseness and actually make a living on the river these days.
And remember all these costs and overheads are passed onto the river user which then forces them away to spend thier money somewhere else!
Its simply to expensive to own and run a small boat on the river these days so people dont bother.
It seems that just a few huge marinas and a few niche independant boatyards are all thats left of a once thriving industry here on the Thames.
Its a really sad reflection on the lack of understanding from the authorities, Land owners and boat users of what small independant boatyards once provided here on the Thames be they good or bad they did provide choice and colour.

Joe

 

[Captain Coochie]

Are you offering cheap moorings to those of us that do own a small boat on the Thames then ?

 

[Joe]

Moorings

No sadly i am unable to offer anything other than cheap moorings for small skiffs open launches and dinghies
I only have room for around 8 boats in the water moored on an old punt and some dry storage in sheds.
Its not much i know but i dont have to pay a greedy landlord huge amounts of cash to keep it so i can reflect this in the mooring costs to local people here in Hampton.
I would dearly love to have a bigger yard and be able to offer the same service to all but as you can see from my above post its unlikely i will be doing it.
Cheers
Joe

 

[oldgit]

Not just the Thames.

Simply a reflection of the way the world is going in all walks of life.
In the past the average working man would have had a very limited amount of disposable income.
In order to go boating,his boat and not by choice would have been fairly ancient,possibly converted from some previous life with a cabin and the addition of a small petrol engine.
All maintaince and any modifications would have been carried out by either the owner or perhaps by an actual carpenter, mechanic or electrician ,looking for a bit of extra cash.The probably smallish boat would have been kept in a boatyard,possibly one that actually built boats at some point,any small additional income from any moorings provided on riverbank would have been useful but not vital.
As the population became more affuent more and more people could afford to buy and run a boat,space became an issue,with the resulting pressure to provide moorings it became viable to make money simply by providing somewhere to park a boat and be able to leave it for weeks on end in relative security,so the big boys started moving in,the days of owners living within walking distance and being able to wander down to the river bank every day to check the boat were disappearing fast.
The rise of easy credit to the mass boating industry enabled more folks to buy bigger newer boats and therefore a whole new requirement for people to mend,repair and of course polish and provide daft fake brass placards announcing "The Wife is in Charge" etc came into existance.
As the old world boatyards fell into decline because everybody just had to keep their expensive investment in a "Marina",the chance for the owner of a boatyard,who has spent the last few years watching his livelyhood slowly decline,to grab some folding cash from a developer,would be difficult to resist.
As for the decline in river useage,I doubt it,you may have lost a lot of the little basic boats,but suspect the economy of the river is just as healthy now as it as ever been.
Recent rumour was that one of the locks had over 14000 boats through it last year.Seems pretty busy to me.
As with everything else money has the final say ?

 

[byron]

I have to agree with you Joe. Health & Safety and for that matter Political Correctness are crucifying this country. The H&S people are just totally out of control and coming up with mindless idiocies. As for the PC people. I grew up in an area where even in the 1940s & 50s there were tons of Black folk. I wasn't really aware that another kid was black, white or yellow. To me he was another kid I either got along with or I didn't. It was by the time I reached my 20s & 30s when the PC Brigade started ramming their propaganda down my throat that I realised I was racist. I found out the the reason I never played with boy X wasn't because he was a bully it was because I was a Racist. The reason I played with Boy Y wasn't because he was inventive and funny it was because I was a Racist. All through my childhood I never realised that Boy X was Jewish and boy Y was black.
The Health & Safety Industry needs reigning in. The costs they add to a small business is stupefying. Why not have sensible risk assessment? I mean why wear a hard hat on the assumption a meteorite might hit you ? If a risk is say 1 in 10,000 then to all extents and purposes it should be ignored.
Did you know that if a Farmer leaves a Fork in a field and a Parachutist lands on it then the Farmer is at fault. Daft? It's true.

 

[pheran]

Bravo Byron. And if a burglar breaks into your property and falls down your well (and lots of similar examples) he can sue you. Absolutely bloody madness. Given this and and the rest of the ordure that has been heaped on Olde England, its little wonder that a number of the rich and famous are publicising their intentions to transfer their domiciles (and wealth) to Australia. [/meldrew mode]

 

[oldgit]

its little wonder that a number of the rich and famous are publicising their intentions to transfer their domiciles (and wealth) to Australia. [/meldrew mode][/QUOTE]

Its also little wonder that all their youth want to come over here to escape that antipodean backwater to seek there fortune in the real world.

 

[pheran]

Its also little wonder that all their youth want to come over here to escape that antipodean backwater to seek there fortune in the real world.

I would guess that 'seeking their fortune' is not at the heart of youngsters reasons for coming to the UK. Even Polish plumbers (drawing UK Child Benefit - how crazy is that) are leaving in droves. But yes, I would agree that the Antipodes is probably more attractive to those who have done it, made it, banked it and are looking for a rest.

 

[Joe]

River usage

Never turn rumour into fact Oldgit
The river is and always has been full of rumours and i would certainly be very cautious about figures from authorities about facts and figures as they are very open to manipulation to serve thier own ends
Take it from me the river is in no way anywhere near being used as much as it used to be.
I deal in facts from experiance
Besides you could run 1 boat through one lock thousands of times but it wouldent mean the whole river is being used as such.
And i cant agree that there is the same amout of wealth being created on the Thames now iether
Maybe a select few huge marinas are doing ok but where is the rest going?
All i see all day is rowing boats which create little or no money for anyone.
You do get the usual increase on sunny days of course but this is very seasonal
For instance on the stretch between molesey lock and Sunbury lock 25 years ago there were around 5 or 6 hire fleets, Maybe 10 or more boatyards and 3 or 4 times the boats spread out creating lots of work and jobs for everyone.
My guess would be there is maybe half that number of boats now which are crammed into big marinas who wont allow people into work on the boats unless they pay them or have some other form of payment.
When i started work on the Thames there was even a college course at Kingston college to try and help provide skilled labour for a trade that needed it.
The courses like the trade have now gone.
What the river really needs is a huge cut back in red tape to help encourage these small independant boatyards back onto the river.
Someone in government needs to ban all future development for housing along the banks of the Thames.
Further they need to try and force those companies that own large amounts of propety and land along the river who bought it to make money from developing it into housing etc to hand it back to its original intended use.
Lots of these companies are locked in disputes with local councils over development or are just waiting for leases to run out so they can build yet more yuppie housing on it.
Who cares if its a flood plain because we will just get the council to build a relief at taxpayers expence later when it all goes under water and there is a huge outcry.
Just shift the flooding problem further down the river!! lol
Sigh
where does it all end

Joe

 

[Captain Coochie]

Joe , please tell me you like a drink ? I'm moored at Wilsons and can imagine many hours of putting the Thames to rights aboard Cuchilo with a few beers down our necks

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Joe , please tell me you like a drink ? I'm moored at Wilsons and can imagine many hours of putting the Thames to rights aboard Cuchilo with a few beers down our necks

Sounds like a plan to me too! Just down the river from Cuchilo.

AC Marine are making a go of running a boatyard without much land footprint but the Sunbury locals dont seem to like them, daft really as the AC folk are nice people.

 

[oldgit]

According to assorted EA websites river usage declined dramatically up until about the late 1990s with a drop of something like 25%,however more recent surveys indicate that river traffic has been growing at about 4% a year since then.