Cast adrift at Henley, Saturday night.

[imported_DaveBig]

A group of drunken Wan#<rs pulled out mooring pins and tried to push boats adrift on Staurday night / Sunday morning. This was on the Berkshire side, downstream of the bridge (Opposite Fawley Meadows).
They pulled out the mooring pins, but (strangely) left the lines which were secured through the fixed rings??.
This happened to me, the boat next to me & a number of other craft further up stream (towards the Bridge). Some of these other vessels were only secured with pins, and one was actually boarded.
Envag are aware, but as the approach was from the land, then it is a police matter.
This happened tween say 00.30 and 01.30, shortly after the music stopped further down stream (Berks side)!

Perhaps the best advice is to always drop the hook, but especially in the Henley area.

 

[DogsBody]

Little Bugg3rs should be decapitated, we could then put their heads on the mooring pins as a warning to others.

Always worth dropping the anchor when mooring overnight in a town or anytime leaving the boat unattended. Usually the stream is gentle enough that it will act as a mud weight and hold you without being bedded in.

 

[ms1]

It would seem that drop anchor has now become necessary pretty much everywhere on the Thames.
Friend of mine thought he was safe using rings and returning the line to the boat .. except that his nocturnal visitor burnt through the ropes with a lighter leaving him heading for Teddington Weir.
Know of quite a few incidents at Windsor too.

 

[miket]

Sad reflection.

..... of the times we live in although it has been an ongoing problem in some places for many years, although I thought Henley had escaped.
Not a huge help to the EA plans to encourage more river users, whatever you may think of them.

 

[trev]

I've tended to avoid a Saturday night stop-over in Henley for the past five years or more. The town seems to take on a somewhat sinister and threatening ambience late on Saturday night.

 

[apollo]

"sinister and threatening " - are we talking about the same place??

 

[byron]

[ QUOTE ]
"sinister and threatening " - are we talking about the same place??

[/ QUOTE ]

Henley can be quite daunting at night especially now there's no Police Station. The town relies on coppers sent in from Reading in times of stress.

 

[trev]

Yep !
After peaceful and tranquil Saturday afternoons come the drunken yobs and fighting in the streets. Plus rowdy gangs roaming in the park and on the towpath.
Not my scene at all !!

 

[alistairedw]

[ QUOTE ]
I've tended to avoid a Saturday night stop-over in Henley for the past five years or more. The town seems to take on a somewhat sinister and threatening ambience late on Saturday night.

[/ QUOTE ]

A bit like most British towns and cities? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[apollo]

Thats strange, in the 32years I have been going to Henley, never encountered any of these, I must have been lucky!

 

[Chris_d]

Same here, I was wondering if there was another Henley /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Possibly the drunks concerned, may have been from one of the Clubs or houses further down the reach, so a better class of yob at least /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Oen]

May I offer a top tip from my days on the river?

Dropping the anchor is completely useless unless it is bedded in - and most folk only lower it until it touches the bottom, anyway.

You need to carry strong chain and a decent padlock or two.

Padlock something immovable on the boat to a fixed strong point ashore, ideally from amidships so that if the warps are cast off, she'll lie to the stream without moving too much, especially cross-current.

If there's no strong point ashore, put a mooring stake into the ground at 45 deg, then another at 90 deg to the first, so that the tops meet very closely. Padlock the chain and tops of the stakes together. That way, louts would need to dig the stakes out to release the boat.

One other tip: shining a very powerful spotlight into a person's (lout's) face whilst approaching him causes instant but temporary loss of night vision (effectively, blindness), and causes him to put his hands over his face. I detained a lout thus until the old bill arrived, once.