Dinghy trolleys (long story)

I always borrow a certain trolley to wheel my dinghy over to the crane where we launch into the river. It leans against the wall and the distance is merely a few feet. I keep meaning to ask the owner wherer he got it from everytime I see him. There isn't enough storage at the club for everyone to have their own trolley.
What really bugs me is the people who borrow my mooring when I am away and muck it up. I leave my lines neatly coiled and cable tied on top so they don't foul the riser, but they come and pull them about, even lose the pick up buoy !!!
Now I make sure I always leave my tender on the buoy.

I agree.. a bottle of decent plonk to Trevor and no more hiding other people's trolleys..and good luck in wherever you get sent to...
 
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However

Has it always been Trevor's tender, or did he "acquire" it at the same time as his new dinghy?

If the latter I have much sympathy with Guapa and total lack of respect for Trevor!
 
snowleopard said:
A large sector of the population are extremely posessive and regard any unauthorised use of their property with great indignation. You have only to look at the number of driveways with notices saying 'no turning'. What possible harm can it do for someone to use the entrance of a drive to do a 3-point turn but to many people it is a almost a personal assault.
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On the yard that I refer to there is a fecking big pothole caused by tossers doing three point turns, where the wheels dig in as they do their three point turns. Ive had it mended 3 times at a not inconsiderable cost. But of course in this New Labour world of ours everyone has rights! Let me see now, on this thread alone, use other peeps trolley, use other peeps property to turn around, use other peeps moorings, where does it stop? Using similar reasoning why not just take a boat? Seriously!
Stu
 
Guapa said:
Scotland Yard's crying out for people like you ;):p
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All gone quiet now, but reading your blog, I felt really depressed after! What a catalogue of misfortunes, but looking at the pix of the engine am not surprised,( hope you didnt put the corugated and garden hose pipes on?) how lucky am I in being able to fix em! Know what to look for etc.
You need to get a new "best" friend like me!! Feed me beer and I fix!!
Stu
 
Guapa said:
Middle class, eh... never been called that before.
Who says 'social mobility' is dead?

Anyway, it seems pretty unanimous - Trevor's in good company.
And yep, I shouldn't have hidden the trolley under our dinghy. Way OTT.

Just a few questions for the 'buy your own' brigade:

1. Have you never picked up a vacant swinging mooring? Maybe just for lunch, or even overnight. I mean it's not yours, it's not like you've paid for it?
Ours often gets picked up - sometimes within minutes of us casting off. Do I mind? Why should I? It's not like I'm using it while I'm sailing. I used to just shout to the new resident that we would be back at such and such a time and that was the end of it. In future I will now protest in the strongest possible terms and report him somewhere.

2. There are between 30 and 40 tenders parked out there, yet there are only 5 or 6 trolleys to be found (locked or otherwise). How does everyone else launch? Am I really the only cad out there to 'borrow' a trolley? Given the fact that most boat owners seem to be old codgers and that some of the tenders are older and heavier than ours I find that hard to believe.

Anyway; Trevor can relax. We sailed over the weekend and by the looks of it Guapa will be spending the next 8 to 12 months on the hard somewhere (depending on whether I go to Afghanistan or Kosovo) and upon my heroes return I'll procure a trolley and, of course, lock and chain it up. After all, I wouldn't want the riff-raff using it.
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Considering Trevor made no comment until you tried to hide his trolley (an action often a precurser to theft) it is really not surprising most agree with him. As for your comment on picking up others moorings no I have not picked up any one elses mooring without their permision. When I did use a swinging mooring though I did have a trolley for my dinghy and it was never locked and was always returned to it's starting place by those who used it and I never complained.


Good luck on your deployment though I fail to see what that realy has to do with you trying to take over some one elses trolley
 
Talk about turning in other people's driveways reminded me of an incident we had a couple of years ago.

We live at the end of an unmade track which goes nowhere much beyond us and where the occasional person who ventures far enough off road sometimes needs to turn around.

We have a drainage system which, I think, was inspired by the film The Third Man. There are at least two chambers with ladders built into the walls where one could spend a happy few hours pottering around underground, assuming one were that way inclined.

At the moment in question the inspection cover for one of these needed replacing and the chamber was temporarily covered by a board. This one is near the end of our drive.

I was pottering around, cutting the grass when I saw a car backing into the drive. I realised that the driver was heading for the top of the inspection chamber and ran, arms waving to alert him to the danger. No doubt thinking I was in full anti-trespass, vigilante mode he panicked and did what I was trying to help him avoid: namely, to put his rear wheel onto the board.

Which did not support the weight of the car!

"Yer'll be a wanting some help with that then," sez I, as he revved in vain to escape.
 
Guapa said:
I used 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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You are 100% wrong.

There are very few (if any) people who would willing fork out the spondullicks for a dinghy trolley and have all and sundry use it to their hearts content, wearing it out etc and not contributing to purchase/upkeep etc.

It is his trolley, not yours.

You Guapa, IMHO, therefore owe Trevor at least one decent bottle of scotch for each year that you used it without his permission. This is cheaper tan buying your own trolley.

In addition, you owe him an apology which should be given when you hand over the Scotch..
 
I'm of the church that believes 'Trevor' has recently appropriated it for himself and is staking a claim. Someone called Trevor is obviously a dirty rotten swine. The correct response is "No. That's old Jethro's trolley and he left it to the mooring association's members in his will, afore he died of them seaweed enemas the barmaid in the Goat and Beard used to administer for ten bob a shot."
 
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Of course it was Trevor's and ownership confers exclusive rights, but isn't it a bit mean spirited to actually exercise that right. We all waive rights all the time to make the world run more smoothly. We don't have to let people turn right in front of us in traffic, but we do.

It is absurd to extrapolate the arguments along the lines of "if I let people turn in my driveway then I have to let them park there" or "if they use my dinghy trolley then why not my boat". There is no marginal cost to using a dinghy trolley. It has already been bought. It will eventually decay and fall apart not through use, but through exposure to the elements.

I just can't see the "it's mine, and even if there is no cost to me and no inconvenience, no one else is using it" point of view. It's just mean.
 
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