Continuous cruiser licence means cruising continuously

I'VE TOLD it before and I've been slated for it, which I expect will happen again here. If you buy a continuous cruiser licence then cruise continuously! Writes John Coxon.

I have to agree with Barry Fowkes when he writes about the boaters complaining they are being prevented from mooring in the same place for six months or so at a time—'All they have to do is get a permanent home mooring like the thousands of other boaters who wish to remain in one place, but of course they will have to pay for it, so prefer to buy just a continuous cruiser licence, though they are certainly not continuous cruisers'.

Illegal continuous moorers

That's right, they most definitely are not continuous cruisers, they most definitely are just illegal continuous moorers, they most definitely are not interested in obeying the rules and are expecting the rest of us to support them in their views.

So they cannot now moor for six months at their favourite place and go to school and work and use the local facilities for free. Well as far as I'm concerned that's just tough!

If they want to stay in one place then they need to get a long term mooring.

I'm fed up with all these so called boaters taking the Michael (I wanted to use another word here but the editor wouldn't have allowed it!). I see the same boats moored in the same place for months on end and nothing seems to get done about it by CaRT.

No sympathy with them

When CaRT do start to put a stop to some of them these continuous moorers go into meltdown because they can no longer just sit in one place to the exclusion of all others! Their bleating falls on deaf ears as us real continuous cruisers have no sympathy with them at all. We're proud to obey the rules!

In 2012 I wanted to visit London and cruise along the Paddington Arm and Regents Canal. I had to visit the city on a train at the time and found myself by the canal at St Pancras and it was totally rammed with continuous moorers. In some places there were four boats across the canal leaving just enough space for a narrowboat to get through. A widebeam would have not been able travel along there. There was nowhere for a visitor to moor at all. There were even boats breasted on the visitor moorings and water point!

That was the end of my plans for a London visit, and that was 10 years ago! The situation has not got any better, in fact as far as can see it has got worse with the cancer of continuous moorers now extending further along both the Grand Union and Stort areas?

CaRT should do something

It's about time CaRT did something about these continuous moorers instead of pandering to them. Start charging them a London rate long term mooring fee plus 20% for administration if they stay in the area for more than the allowed 14 days?

Stop putting in more and more mooring rings and facilities for them. Start taking their licences off of them unless they move. CaRT need to start doing the things they threaten us with all the time and stop pandering to the likes of the National Bargees Travellers Association and such.

CaRT just want it easy, they soon jump on someone who appears to stay in one place for a few extra days, even when they haven't and can prove it like a friend of mine had to recently? But, when it comes to those who just don't care and just sit and sit CaRT seem as if they couldn't be bothered!

Introduce a continuous moorers licence

If they really wanted to clear out the cities then they should start by charging the continuous moorers a high fee for staying there. Introduce a continuous moorers licence at three times the price of a normal one?

That will not only get most of them moving onto long term moorings but will also generate some well needed revenue for CaRT to be able to spend on maintaining the system better.

I don't very often support CaRT but in this I will lend my support to them as much as possible if they started to clear the towpaths of continuous moorers, and not just in the cities!

I've a tip for those continuous moorers who bleat endlessly on about CaRT stopping them mooring. Don't bother, we have no sympathy for you and most of us don't support your point of view on the matter! Obey the rules and we'll support you otherwise you're on your own so just shut up as we don't want to listen to your endless sob stories any more!