Displaying licence

TrueBlue said:
Oy - Watch it!

The navigation was built for barges and the like - not tall shiny bits of ******.

If it wasn't for tinny things passing through, the River would be quite empty.
Click to expand...

And if wasn't for the tall shiny bits of ****** filling marinas and paying licence fees you would't have much of a river to pass through...
 
It's not the NB owners I object to, just their boats and the disproportionate amount of mooring space they take up. 80ft+ on a public mooring with one person on board is a joke. I get the impression it works the other way with narrow boaters, who appear to object to the owners of big expensive boats more than the boats themselves. I can't imagine why:D
 
I understand the problem with NB's taking up so much space, and I do think many should take a bit more trouble arranging rafting with other friends boats.

However, they do at least seem to moor in otherwise inhospitable places where shiny cruisers would not venture, and moor close together, which cruisers certainly do not do very well on the whole.

I think there are lessons to be learnt in either case, besides most boaters are amicable enough to any well presented vessel requesting a raft. I have never refused a well helmed and fendered boat from mooring alongside!

Why is there always a Barge on the Cote Brasserie/Costa Coffee mooring at Windsor though... :confused:
 
I was trying to be nice.

In fairness, I treat NB's with the same contempt as Rentals, Blue Dusters, Bayliners, Outdrives, Bowthrusters, Dirty waterlines, Essex accents, BMW drivers, Faded blue hulls, Barges that moor on my fave place at Costa Windsor, River pikes, Unlicensed boats, Small speedboats which launch at Windsor and do 20+kts, and Cat owners.

See!? I'm nice really.... :-)
 
Good grief!

May have to rethink my plans for a Reading to Windsor trip in a couple of weeks........far too confrontational 'down there' :-)
 
No Regrets said:
I treat NB's with the same contempt as Rentals, Blue Dusters, Bayliners, Outdrives, Bowthrusters, Dirty waterlines, Essex accents, BMW drivers, Faded blue hulls, Barges that moor on my fave place at Costa Windsor, River pikes, Unlicensed boats, Small speedboats which launch at Windsor and do 20+kts, and Cat owners.
Click to expand...

Blimey, glad I didn't bump into you when I came up from Essex in my Bayliner (small speedboatish) with outdrive, faded blue stripe, bowthruster and dirty waterline. I did moor at Costa Windsor, but luckily left the 5 series back at the boat yard.

On the other hand I didn't do 20 knots, did buy a visitor licence and am certainly not an Esox Lucious :D, so I can't be all bad!
 
No Regrets,

Sounds like you are in the market for my boat as it really ticks a lot of those boxes you mentioned......

phoca_thumb_l_imgp8429.jpg


If your interested - www.bayliner185.co.uk
 
boatone said:
Instructions with Licence say should be displayed "in a visible position ideally a forward facing windscreen or surface" - obviously most convenient and easiest to see but in small boats may be impractical - suggest important thing is to be able to produce on demand.
View attachment 45179
However, many boat owners - including me - are convinced that a significant number of boats continue to be unlicensed and "getting away" without paying - loud screams UNFAiR
Why do we believe this? Principally because a) we can see no visible sign of a valid licence on display and b) we see little or no evidence of inspectors out and about on the river making checks.
The EA tell us that the number of boats remaining unlicensed at the end of the year is "very few" - I was actually told not that long ago that in the previous year they had "checked every boat on the river" - you will not be surprised to hear that I took this with a very large pinch of sodium chloride!

Unfortunately, even when an unlicensed craft is detected and challenged the delays between serving notice and bringing to court are considerable and in some cases there may even be disputes or identification problems relating to ownership. It is possible to delay paying right up to the eleventh hour and suffer no penalty unless the case actually gets in front of a court.

It costs a significant amount of money to run the enforcement team which, effectively, comes out of the licence fees the rest of us pay - chicken and egg! However, I am growing increasingly frustrated by the EA's apparent lack of attention to enforcement and believe that there is a significant sum to be collected - perhaps several hundred thousand pounds - which would itself provide the funds to improve the activity.

The only reliable statistic is the number of private powered craft licences issued during a year - about 9,000 in 2013. But nobody - and I mean NOBODY - knows exactly how many boats are on the river.
Click to expand...

(Coming to this a little late as I've been away on my hols...)

From our recent trip up river to Goring and then back down to London for the Tall Ships Regatta, it appears the EA are simply not doing anything about unlicensed boats. I saw a fair number of boats appearing to be unlicensed - Triad for example, not moved in over a decade and by the state of it I very much doubt it could pass a BSS test, so can't possibly have a license. Others just down stream from Tesco at Reading with no license visible. Even saw a couple of boats within site of locks on the lower reaches with nothing newer than a 2012 license displayed - one of them (a small dory) was even tied up at a lock!

I realise that it costs money to run an enforcement team but as Tony rightly points out without active enforcement the number of unlicensed boats will grow from year to year, as owners realise there is no risk to not licensing, so long as you pay just before the case gets to court, if the EA actually bother to try and take it that far. Not licensing has become a win/win situation for the boat owner who doesn't move their boat often - if the EA don't catch you you save tons of ££'s, if they do you simply pay up and benefit from having the money in your bank account for extra time!

I've only used my boat on the river once without a license displayed, many years ago when Easter was early in the year and I'd left the license at home when setting off on our first trip of the year for the Easter holiday. Went through about a dozen locks over the weekend, only asked twice about not having a license - got a nice letter from the EA when I got home reminding me to actually display the license they'd checked I'd bought though!

Hopefully things have changed nowadays, Teddington Lock staff certainly seem to make a habit of asking to see it, despite it being firmly affixed to a forward facing window...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top