Association of Continuous Cruisers launched

THE Association of Continuous Cruisers (ACC) officially launched at The Birmingham Floating Market last week-end, with the website going live at 6pm and 63 boaters having contacted the association to express interest in joining by midnight.

Pleasure was expressed by Matty Smith, one of its founders who enthused:

"We were completely overwhelmed by the number of responses, the emails kept coming all weekend, and it has given us great confidence that what we are doing is wanted."

Majority retired

We are told it is early days yet to look at figures but one thing that has become obvious straight away is the clear majority of those joining as Full Members state their occupation as retired. This is also balanced by the large number of boaters wanting to join as Associate Members—those who are at present employed or who are out many months of the year, but also have a home mooring on either Canal & River Trust (CaRT) waters or winter elsewhere, with Matty adding:

"Some of these people have very useful skills that they can bring to the new association. It is obvious that many boaters support continuous cruisers."

Open to all

The Association of Continuous Cruisers is aiming to be open to boaters of all types as they represent the primary interest of cruising for all boaters, and it asks for two volunteers to join its council to represent and look after the interests of non continuous cruisers. By Monday evening there were three volunteers wishing to take on this job.

Matty tells us the decision to make the ACC open to non continuous cruisers was the recognition that a lot of boaters spend long periods during the summer on the system and face a lot of the same issues as continuous cruisers such the requirement to find doctors, the requirement to leave a boat for extended periods while away from home mooring to deal with unexpected crises and simple things like finding local launderettes and other facilities in new areas.

Change the perception

Matty goes on to report:

"One of the many things that the ACC is going to address is to try and change some people's perception of Continuous Cruisers as some sort of free-loading group of boaters. Continuous Cruisers bring a lot to the canal system such as reporting potential problems during the winter months to CaRT when the number of boats on the system is drastically reduced.

"Continuous Cruisers support canal side businesses for 12 months a year and like many liveaboards on long term moorings help keep the working coal boats in business. Many Continuous Cruisers contribute extra finance to CaRT by taking winter moorings and the introduction of the new Winter Mooring Permit means that they are now able to keep moving with the option to stay in one location for longer than 14 days without fear of breaking the terms of being a Continuous Cruiser.

"ACC will try and work closely with CaRT and other boating organisations to ensure that they are able to defend the lifestyle they treasure and with other authorities on the wider issues."

Its website is: http://www.associationofcontinuouscruisers.org.uk/