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boatone

boatone

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www.tmba.org.uk
Anyone read this mag?

I bought a copy yesterday as there is an article on the Thames I thought might be interesting.

In the event, I may well be reaching for my pen and paper to respond to a totally biased and misleading piece that unfortunately sums up all that is bad about narrow boats invading the Thames. It also claims that 70% of boats on the river are now narrow boats.

Sad to say that my recent two week cruise to Abingdon and back confirmed my views (and many others I think) that the influx of narrow boats is becoming a nuisance to established Thames users. God help us later this month when the IWA festival is held at Beale Park and no doubt they will be around for weeks before and afterwards as many of them are retired continuous cruisers.

I have established that a narrow boat owner with an 11 metre boat registered on British Waterways pays only around £75 on top of their BW licence for the Gold licence which gives them unrestricted access to the Thames. My licence costs me over £400 for the same facility. Time to seriously start kicking up stink. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
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I have established that a narrow boat owner with an 11 metre boat registered on British Waterways pays only around £75 on top of their BW licence for the Gold licence which gives them unrestricted access to the Thames. My licence costs me over £400 for the same facility. Time to seriously start kicking up stink.
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Yup, EA are too expensive:-) I saw the article in WH Smiths a couple of days back and thought it was utter tosh. As a result of it being tosh a sale was not made. I do buy WW now and again, some of the historic articles can be quite fascinating.
 
Much as I detest the infestation of Narrow Boats on the Thames. They also amaze me. They take over where-ever they go and get concessions real boats could never get. Funding for this that and the other Surrey County Council give them £150,000 pa they get sponsorship from HSBC (to name but two), they are allowed to set up semi-residential moorings seemingly at will.
Years ago it was illegal to be a Poof, then it became legal,soon it will be compulsory. Maybe a similar situation will happen with boats. Real boats made illegal and Narrow Boats made compulsory. Rather like the Ramblers they seem to have powers way beyond their percentage of the population.
 
Narrowboats are not the perceived boat of the "rich". Despite the fact that a good new one will cost >£1K per foot! They also have the heritage industry behind them in a manner not shared by owners of plastic cruisers. I used to have a plastic cruiser based on the K&A and noticed a difference.
 
I am sick of subsidising narrow boats! 80% or more do not pay mooring fees yet they use all the facilities.If someone owns an end of garden mooring they pay 50% of the mooring fee, so surely moving narrow boat owners should pay at least this.they are supposed to stop no longer than 48hrs. in a spot, but do they, like hell they do! I went passed the Museum gardens at York and the whole of the moorings were taken up by 5 narrow boats with 10 people on board.
 
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Narrowboats are not the perceived boat of the "rich".

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You have a good point there and one that had not occurred to me. In other words the narrowboater is perceived a bit like the working mens club member enjoying a quaint hobby whereas the cruiser owner is a gin palace snob sort of character?

So whats to be done?
 
I think it goes beyond that. Most people who are not boaties, have been brought up on tv and books which romanticise the notion of narrowboaters in a way that other boats aren't
 
The most annoying thing is they seem to travel in 2's. When 2 70ft boats moor up they take up the entire mooring, and of course they never raft up.

There are now many narrowboats on the Anglian waterways and we have the pleasure (?) of the IWA festival next year.
 
There are two or three of the blighters on the Norfolk Broads to. Is this the thin end of the wedge?

One of them, moored between Acle and Gt. Yarmouth proudly proclaims on it's side "Norfolk Navigation" as is traditional on the ditches to tell everybody where the boat comes from. No no no! It is The Norfolk Broads and always will be.

It always gives me a chuckle every time I pass it on what is a fairly uninteresting piece of river.

Regards.

Alan.
 
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