Now back from an excellent Thames trip.....BUT !

[oldgit]

Really enjoyed the entire thing and really would like to say all the lockies were 100% helpful.
This last trip however has bought home fully the narrowboat problem.
B1 gave me some advance hints about where to moor in Staines in order to collect a couple of friends who were coming to visit.
Coming up stream the first smaller mooring was taken up entirely by a single large narrowboat.
The second larger mooring was entirely taken up by two mid sized narrowboats.
Moorings outside the Slug and Lettuce did have a few cruisers but mixed in were.....two small narrowboats.
For those who know the area,we were forced to pick up our passengers by sticking our nose in where the stream enters the river leaving them to scramble aboard in a very undignified manner.
We noted several narrowboats taking up long bits of the more remote public moorings,which were still there when we came back down a few days later.
About time you changed your tariff system to the one in use on the Medway,based on overall length.
On our way

The Thames at night.

 

[SailorBill]

If you were just picking up a couple of friends why didn't you raft up to one of the narrowboats for a minute while they stepped aboard?

 

[macnorton]

Quite a few of the nb's round about are 60 ft and have two occupants who have no wish to use the local pubs but insist on the right to moor outside them.
There are a number of places round the rivers where the landlord has altered some moorings so they can only have cruisers on them (who tend to spend far more in the pub and quite often have children.)
I think proportionaly less nb's with crt registrations would welcome anyone alongside but most of the local boats would.
Not having a pop at canal based nb's but it does give me the hump when I can't stop because some selfish boat owner refuses to leave his cheap Asda wine for two mins and move his boat up a bit so we can stop for a pint.
I think more riverside public houses will have to consider building moorings that only suit cruisers as it cost a lot in terms of lost trade.

 

[oldgit]

If you were just picking up a couple of friends why didn't you raft up to one of the narrowboats for a minute while they stepped aboard?

First of all no one aboard.
Very reluctant to come alongside and disturb a thousand and one flower pots/half a dozen watering cans/3 bags of coal and fine selection of logs etc, plus considerable gap between narrow boat roof and deck of my boat,it simply was not going to happen.
Have no problem with narrowboats,just please pay the same as me for your 40ft of bankside !

 

[boatone]

Lots of issues here. Simply not enough mooring space on the Thames, particularly in popular places, and enough selfish people to make sure that what space there is can't be used as efficiently as possible because they won't shove up or raft when it makes sense. At Hampton Court last Friday there were enough spaces of 10-20 feet between boats to provide room for at least 4 more 32 footers if people had just been prepared to move up and close the gaps. Not all NB's either, quite a few cruisers guilty one of which flatly refused to move up or back a little to make room for me to get in even when I asked politely. Same thing happened at Cookham earlier in the week - "sorry mate, having our lunch".

The River Thames Alliance have a moorings sub group that seems to be spending most of its time trying to get mooring authorities to harmonise their approach to charges and overstaying. What we really need is competition for us to stay places where we can spend our money, not a cosy cartel intent on raising charges to the highest common denominator. Not sure the overstayers issue is such a big deal as its being made out to be, either. If they move 'em on someone else will quickly take their place and there still won't be room for me when I get there.

As for helping local economies, my observations are that cruiser owners eat out far more frequently than the NB'ers who tend to cook on board.

The very idea of linear bankside mooring when space is so tight is stupid. It wouldn't take a lot to drive some piles (oh dear, that would be "accommodations") and convert to stern-to mooring which would probably triple the number of boats that can be accommodated in many places.

On the coast and the Broads, rafting and stern to mooring is commonplace so why can't the Thames and its boaters realise there is a way to improve matters?

Now, about speeding ……..

 

[watson1959]

Really enjoyed the entire thing and really would like to say all the lockies were 100% helpful.

I'm really, really, REALLY biting my tongue........

My experience has been 100% positive up until one particular recent event ......which surprised my boatload as well as the others in the lock. Nevertheless I'm not sticking my neck out or I will be a marked man

 

[oldgit]

I'm really, really, REALLY biting my tongue........

My experience has been 100% positive up until one particular recent event ......which surprised my boatload as well as the others in the lock. Nevertheless I'm not sticking my neck out or I will be a marked man

Oooo.......Do tell !

 

[boatone]

Have no problem with narrowboats,just please pay the same as me for your 40ft of bankside !

All that will do is put a few more quid in the pockets of the mooring provider (if they can be bothered to collect it) without doing anything to ease the mooring availability issue. Oh, and the moorings at Staines are actually free

Oh, just occurred to me that you may be talking about licence fees - surely you're not suggesting they should cost more, are you ?

 

[No Regrets]

This year has been really bad for barges and NB's, who seem to enjoy hogging 70' of real estate each, with virtually no rafting.

We were at the wey junction a month or so ago, the entire mooring was taken by three NB's, all mates, but not enough to raft.

We ended up rafted three boats out, while they took up the rest of the space.

Not impressed at all tbh.....they don't do themselves any favours through this total lack of common sense....

Now for the locks. Why don't they take the decent path, and at least attempt to enter locks in pairs, rather than wasting space?

 

[watson1959]

Oooo.......Do tell !

Not a chance

 

[SailorBill]

The very idea of alongside mooring when space is so tight is stupid.

If that was in reply to me then I never said anything about mooring. I said:

If you were just picking up a couple of friends why didn't you raft up to one of the narrowboats for a minute while they stepped aboard?

In principle I stand by that (although since my post the op has posted why he wouldn't raft up to pick his friends up in this particular instance but I wasn't aware of the full circumstances or difference in size of boats when I made my post because this info wasn't given).

On the coast and the Broads, rafting and stern to mooring is commonplace so why can't the Thames and its boaters realise there is a way to improve matters?

Oh, so when you suggest rafting it's somehow not so stupid

 

[boatone]

If that was in reply to me then I never said anything about mooring……..
Oh, so when you suggest rafting it's somehow not so stupid

My bad probably. I was not referring to your post at all and when I said "alongside mooring" I meant linear mooring bankside, not alongside each other (I have edited my post accordingly). I was suggesting that rafting should be regarded as normal practice in busy locations and not something to be avoided like the plague.

 

[No Regrets]

Bray fully advocate this practise. We are experts in packing a Broom in a Bayliner spot...

 

[oldgit]

"Oh, just occurred to me that you may be talking about licence fees - surely you're not suggesting they should cost more, are you ?"

Blimey you are a bit slow today......
That cubic footage system was designed for when the river was carrying bulk freight not cheap copies of a respectable working vessel.

 

[oldgit]

Bray fully advocate this practise. We are experts in packing a Broom in a Bayliner spot...

Bray fully advocate this practise. We are experts in packing a Broom in a Binliner spot...

?

 

[dash300]

When one considers the boat yards along the Thames who permanently raft out 4/5 boats into the stream and the authorised mooring piles and pontoons reaching far into the Thames, particularly on the lower stretches, it would make sense for certain public linear moorings to be adapted to some form of, lets say, diagonal into stream moorings in order to maximise usage. There used to be some small shorties like that at Kingston once and very useful they were too. 'What's good for the goose' and all that.

 

[liamb]

It's my first time back on the Thames this year and a first for owning a boat but I have been surprised at the amount of narrow boats and barges. Finding a mooring has at times has been a nightmare, my wife uses a wheelchair and getting a mooring where the climb to the bank hasn't been huge has been at times impossible. (Our boat is a Norman 20 so it isn't the tallest).

I pretty much always have to plan where we are going to moor and always pay for moorings as they are generally the best maintained but I think they are far to cheap, as a comparison I can't park my car in the local rural carpark for 12hours for less then a £10 note but havent paid more then this for 24 hours mooring

 

[CJL]

Moor along side em I say!!

They would soon move with your fenders rubbing on their portholes!!

 

[boatone]

…. it would make sense for certain public linear moorings to be adapted to some form of, lets say, diagonal into stream moorings in order to maximise usage. There used to be some small shorties like that at Kingston once and very useful they were too. 'What's good for the goose' and all that.

It would make a lot of sense but unfortunately it would require investment and that is something we can't expect anytime soon.
Agree about Kingston. They were short, as you say, but I often stopped there with my Pedro 36. Now they are fine and last weekend the wall itself was all NB's and only room for about 4 of those in a run that previously could take at least 10 boats moored bow in to the bank.

 

[CX54WEK]

Quite a few of the nb's round about are 60 ft and have two occupants who have no wish to use the local pubs but insist on the right to moor outside them.
There are a number of places round the rivers where the landlord has altered some moorings so they can only have cruisers on them (who tend to spend far more in the pub and quite often have children.)
I think proportionaly less nb's with crt registrations would welcome anyone alongside but most of the local boats would.
Not having a pop at canal based nb's but it does give me the hump when I can't stop because some selfish boat owner refuses to leave his cheap Asda wine for two mins and move his boat up a bit so we can stop for a pint.
I think more riverside public houses will have to consider building moorings that only suit cruisers as it cost a lot in terms of lost trade.

We just raft up to them anyway.

If they ask what we think we are doing we just reply "going to the pub are you coming?"

Seems to work.