Inflatables on the River Wey

[resnova]

Hi all,

Hope your keeping safe.

I am trying to find out why they won't allow inflatables on the Wey. I sent them a massage asking and they quoted ' that they create a type of wash that causes particular damage and erosion to the river banks'.
But i can take a boat similar to a Cheverton that puts out a lot more wash. As a experiment i took my Honwave out. Ticking over there is only a ripple.

It's such a shame that we can't explore this waterway as our main boat is to big.

Any thoughts??

Kind regards

 

[Wavey]

I live next to the Wey and didn’t know inflatables weren’t allowed. I have seen the odd one around so presume they must have been unlicensed. Seems a strange boat to outlaw given the wide assortment of craft they obviously do allow.

 

[duncan99210]

The licence conditions are pretty specific in forbidding motorised inflatables, ribs and jetskis. The licence is here https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/ri...dune-wharf/documents/2020-visitor-licence.pdf.
Given that inflatables have been listed together with ribs and jetskis, I’d say that this prohibition is likely a result of persistent misbehaviour by folks operating the forbidden craft on the waterway.
I agree with the op that it’s well easy to operate an inflatable with virtually no wake but it’s also very easy to try and go just that little bit faster which then generates a wake which not only damages the canal banks but has the potential to be hazardous to other users such as canoes and kayaks. Hence the ban.