Plastering boats with vegetation

WHILE I appreciate Keith Gudgin's environmental concerns over CaRT grass cutting debris ending up in the canal, my objection to CaRT contractors' practices is to their regular plastering of moored boats with strimmed vegetation., writes Dave Chipchase.

This is very difficult to remove entirely and cannot be good for paintwork.

Inappropriate

I understand the need to maintain the towpath for access, but it seems to me that use of a crude implement like a strimmer against an expensively maintained boat is quite inappropriate.

At my CaRT Long Term mooring, I have tried cutting a 30cm wide stretch of the grass along the towpath edge adjacent to my boat myself, in the hope that the next visit of the contractors would not require them to use their strimmer against my boat. But to no avail: all I got was shaved grass suitable for a bowling green.

Eminently sensible

I note that further along the canal, the towpath moorings managed by the adjacent boatyard have been left with a 50cm wide uncut edge at the request of the owner. This seems eminently sensible. It looks better, is surely better environmentally, and avoids the ugly and damaging effect of dead vegetation stuck all over moored boats.