Can only cruise six miles on annual holiday!

Published: Thursday, 16 August 2018

I am paying nearly £900 for my boat licence but on my annual holiday can only move six miles, writes F.R.Tingle.

I have the disadvantage of moorings on the closed Leeds & Liverpool Canal, plus the added disadvantage of mooring on the six miles summit pound between the chained-up locks of Greenberfield and Barrowford, so there is nowhere I can go for my very much looked-forward-to annual five weeks cruise.

Completely stranded

Allow me to explain.  I purchased the boat six years ago, visit occasionally but use it for the entire August school holidays (I am a teacher) together with my wife, and have enjoyed many canals during this period, even managing the Thames one year, but we are completely stranded by the Canal & River Trust closure of the [Leeds & Liverpool] canal, and firmly believe as we are unable to use the boat we should not be paying for the licence.

I have made a point of visiting other people with boats who are in a similar position, with the general consensus being that the collapsing state of the canals means that these stoppage will become an annual event, and that as there is no guarantee of any canal being passable in a dry summer there is no alternative but to sell.

Pay or cut losses?

And that is the rub.  I find that so many are considering giving up their boats as a result of the closure of so many canals that the bottom is dropping out of the second-hand market, yet what to do? Keep paying for moorings and licence with the hope that the market will pick-up or cut my losses and sell now?