Koeketiene
Well-Known Member
In view of recent posts on here regarding dinghies (and even the Libby Purvis podcast on YBW) I would like to offer the following for debate:
We're lucky to park on a very nice swinging mooring on the Orwell. Of course, this means a dinghy ride to the boat. Sometimes very wet, at other times a relaxing prequel or sequel to a nice sail.
We've got this very useful, if somewhat ugly and quite heavy rigid tender that does the job and resides in SYH's dinghy park.
So far, so good.
However, we do not have a dinghy trolley to launch or recover our dinghy (slipway). The last four years this has never been a problem as there are always several trolleys about. One in particular could have been made for us. Every week we launched/recovered our dinghy and returned the trolley to where we found it. And every week we found it where we left it the last time.
And I must admit, we have come to regard this trolley as 'ours' - sort of like adopting a stray cat.
Anyway, over the last few weeks, things seem to have changed. 'Our' dinghy had disappeared. Shock - horror. Other trolleys suddenly were all chained up. Has there been a crime wave I was not aware of? Then my youngest tracked down 'our' trolley - hidden behind a shed. We launch and recover and return the trolley to the place where it was usually parked all these years.
Next week, and the week after that it's a game of 'look for the trolley'. My youngest was getting very good at it. But a pattern was emerging - every time the trolley (which by the looks of it has been around since before the Bismarck) could be found next to a shining new Walker Bay dinghy.
Whilst it may have been fun, I was getting slightly peeved. FFS, leave the trolley alone - stop hiding it. So next time we returned we parked the trolley underneath our upturned tender. There!
Yesterday - first sail in about three weeks. The trolley's gone
Enters stage left (by way of a note): Trevor. How dare we... His property... Pay for your own... I have reported... I got his drift. Trevor was not a happy camper. Never realised what a master criminal I was before.
I left Trevor a note - thanking him for the use of his trolley over the past four years - seemingly without complaints, and enquired about his sudden urge to hide it or make it unavailable.
I know, and always have known, it was not my trolley (not mine as in I haven't paid for it), but we've never damaged or abused it; just launched/recovered and returned it to where I found it. Five minutes each way was all it took. I've regarded it like picking up a vacant mooring for lunch and always ready to go at a moments notice should the real owner return. Where's the harm?
So, what's the view of the panel? Am I a dastardly cad without any respect for other peoples property and do I owe the rightly aggrieved Trevor a humble apology? Or is Trevor a selfish little so and so with no understanding of the concept of being helpful?
We're lucky to park on a very nice swinging mooring on the Orwell. Of course, this means a dinghy ride to the boat. Sometimes very wet, at other times a relaxing prequel or sequel to a nice sail.
We've got this very useful, if somewhat ugly and quite heavy rigid tender that does the job and resides in SYH's dinghy park.
So far, so good.
However, we do not have a dinghy trolley to launch or recover our dinghy (slipway). The last four years this has never been a problem as there are always several trolleys about. One in particular could have been made for us. Every week we launched/recovered our dinghy and returned the trolley to where we found it. And every week we found it where we left it the last time.
And I must admit, we have come to regard this trolley as 'ours' - sort of like adopting a stray cat.
Anyway, over the last few weeks, things seem to have changed. 'Our' dinghy had disappeared. Shock - horror. Other trolleys suddenly were all chained up. Has there been a crime wave I was not aware of? Then my youngest tracked down 'our' trolley - hidden behind a shed. We launch and recover and return the trolley to the place where it was usually parked all these years.
Next week, and the week after that it's a game of 'look for the trolley'. My youngest was getting very good at it. But a pattern was emerging - every time the trolley (which by the looks of it has been around since before the Bismarck) could be found next to a shining new Walker Bay dinghy.
Whilst it may have been fun, I was getting slightly peeved. FFS, leave the trolley alone - stop hiding it. So next time we returned we parked the trolley underneath our upturned tender. There!
Yesterday - first sail in about three weeks. The trolley's gone
Enters stage left (by way of a note): Trevor. How dare we... His property... Pay for your own... I have reported... I got his drift. Trevor was not a happy camper. Never realised what a master criminal I was before.I left Trevor a note - thanking him for the use of his trolley over the past four years - seemingly without complaints, and enquired about his sudden urge to hide it or make it unavailable.
I know, and always have known, it was not my trolley (not mine as in I haven't paid for it), but we've never damaged or abused it; just launched/recovered and returned it to where I found it. Five minutes each way was all it took. I've regarded it like picking up a vacant mooring for lunch and always ready to go at a moments notice should the real owner return. Where's the harm?
So, what's the view of the panel? Am I a dastardly cad without any respect for other peoples property and do I owe the rightly aggrieved Trevor a humble apology? Or is Trevor a selfish little so and so with no understanding of the concept of being helpful?
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