Email: In wrong environment

I have been a lover of our inland waterways for over 40 years as an angler, hirer, boat builder, share boat manager and private owner and it saddens me that some of the pleasantness and courtesy that we would once offer each other without question and take for granted, seems to have been gradually evaporating over the last few years.

I am a considerate boater and person in general and yet I find it impossible these days to pass a line of moored boats—or even a single boat—it seems without being shouted at to slow down even though I have already done so to little more than a tick-over.

These morons who constantly yell at people for going too fast even when hardly a ripple reaches their boat really are living in the wrong environment, if they want something solid and unmoving they should buy a house!

I also find the snobbery towards hire boaters sickening and hypocritical; most of us had our introduction to the waterways as hirers and if it wasn't for the thousands of hirers and hundreds of hire companies—who pay a premium to be on the water by the way—then our beautiful waterways would still be a dilapidated mess, so the moaning moorers need to tie up, lighten up and shut up.

Alan Simpkins