Selfish moorers and water points

IN THE cold weather, many selfish boaters, not wanting the hassle of moving to take on water, moor on water points, and cause problems to those who play by the rules.

One such boater wanting water, Amy Dickerson, after being iced in on the Peak Forest Canal, desperately short of water, decided to take her boat Black Bryony the short distance from her mooring to the water point at Whaley Bridge, and here is her story:

Moored on the water point

With the thaw the Whaley Arm was free of ice—so I untied my boat, put the tunnel light on, made sure the cat was in, my dog sat on the stern all excited, so off we set. Went gingerly past the sunken boat to arrive at Whaley Basin to find a 'Problem' or a narrowboat called Not Another Problem moored on the water point.

I put my boat alongside this Problem and wrapped twice on the roof, then drifted out into the middle of the basin. A guy comes out and I explained politely that I need to use the water point and do a pump out, and that they should not moor up on water points. The visitor moorings here are empty.

Hurling abuse

This guy tells me that he can't navigate the boat, but there is someone on board who can. The navigator comes out and starts hurling abuse at me telling me he has heard enough from me, threatening me with assault, and calling me an 'arsehole'. I told him if he continued to threaten and verbally abuse me I would phone the police. But abuse continues, I go in my boat, get my phone and decide to phone a friend who came down immediately and thanks to him I could get on with the chores safely after they moved their boat.

The reason I didn't phone the police is that I am on my own and had no witnesses. There were three of them and they could easily have changed the facts around and say I had threatened them. One of the problems of travelling alone is that the law does not protect you against false accusations because you do not have a witness to back your story.

Difficult to get water

What I would like to ask is how many water points are out of use by boats being moored on them? Especially since it is difficult enough to get water for many boaters at the moment with the severe weather conditions.

Here on the Peak Forest Canal I know of another boat moored on the water point at Bugsworth Basin. On the Macclesfield Canal I was told this morning of a boat sitting on the water point at Marple. Around here it is clearly a 'Problem' rather than Not Another Problem.