Meantime

Yes, there are three mooring spaces at Worlingham, 3 at North Cove and if you discount the demasting section, about three just below Beccles new bridge at the BA mooring. However the reality is that at the moment only 6 of those moorings are ever available. The same three boats bouncing around between those three moorings. Mainly moving just between Worlingham and North Cove and using tenders to visit Beccles. Moorings along this stretch are scarce enough as it is, without three being effectively constantly taken.

I don't think I've ever paid for water by card, it's normally free, or a donation or coin operated. Pumpouts I generally pay by card. At least one place, they don't accept cash, that was Brooms Brundall.

Glad to hear your ok. I'm actually wondering if slippery mud was to blame, or was it Griff's blade of grass up to it's old tricks again?

There is a good team at St Olaves and I believe John Spruce is certainly authorised to work on site there and may even work for the marina now. Natasha could do a lot worse than let him take a look over the boat. In terms of Natasha's original request St Olaves probably fits the bill, onsite laundry facilties, electric and water, plus it's about a mile walk to Haddiscoe station if she needs to commute into Norwich or further afield by train.

The pump out at the WRC is token operated, but they do prefer to do the pump out for you. They are not keen on you buying tokens and taking them away to use at your leisure. I think they have a shortage of tokens. Pump out is £25, and it is a very good pump but is time limited, so not really enough time for a flush, which is probably why they prefer to do it for you. They probably end up using tow tokens, I don't know for sure. We were lucky enough recently to have phoned ahead and been told it would be open till 4pm on a Saturday. When we turned up we were told it closed earlier on a Saturday. Explained the situation, that we had phoned ahead. Turns out it is was a central Tingdene number and they didn't know the times of the WRC. They searched around and managed to find a token for us and as a gesture of goodwill didn't charge us if we didn't mind operating it ourself, which we didn't have a problem with.

I feel really sorry for Natasha who started this thread. Perhaps its time for the mods to prune out anything not directly related to Natasha's original request to one of the hundreds of other threads that have already discussed the other issues ad infinitum? I know we have a tendency to wander off topic, but this is not a good welcome to a new member!

A lot of local authorities in London have resident permit parking areas and usually you get given a number of visitor permits. When your visitor turns up, you simply circle the day, month and year and write a time on the permit. Any car parked in the zone without a residents, or visitors permit correctly filled in gets a parking ticket. All it would need is a check when the BA rangers turn up to do their mooring post checks and if any boat hasn't got a correctly displayed ticket, they get a fine. It might rely on some honesty and is not perfect, but its a possible solution. Hire boats would be exempt in view of having paid a larger toll. You also have to remember I placed that solution in the group that don't have a home berth, but who do play nicely and legally. The examples you gave probably belong to group 3, or in the case of the "one" boat, group 4. It was never suggested as a solution for those groups. If the boat isn't licensed it won't have been issued with any mooring permits and therefore shouldn't use any BA mooring. That is a perfect example of what I was saying, not lumping all groups or solutions together. There is never going to be a one size fits all solution to these problems.

I think the answer is that we need to stop discussing this issue in broad strokes. We need to understand that liveaboards come in various forms and each need to be treated respectfully and there is perhaps a different solution for each. I think there are broadly three groups and the solutions for one, may not fit the other for whatever reason, but lumping all together risks alienating certain groups who don't all want to be tarred with the same brush. 1. Those who want a residential mooring, which I believe is where this thread started before it got derailed slightly. There should be marina berths for those who want to liveaboard full time. There should be the usual facilties as well as somewhere to receive post. This group want to pay their way, have a fully insured, licensed and BSS certified boat. We have several members here in this group who we frequently upset whenever this subject is raised. I agree with Vaughan (who saw that coming) that the BA should do what they can to facilitate such marina berths. However, I also feel that marinas need to be receptive as well. James had planning for 12 berths for a trial period I believe at the WRC. Then the marina was sold to Tingdene and it was their decision not to pursue extending the planning period and gave notice to their resident berth holders. 2. Those who don't want a home berth, or cannot afford a home berth, but still play by all the rules. The boat is insured, licensed and BSS certified. I'm not sure if we still have any members in this group, but by and large I think any that do join, end up leaving before too long as a result of these discussions. I think this is often a lifestyle choice to live like that, but do also accept that for some they might feel it is there only option, even if in reality there are other options out there. My own views are that an uplift to the license for boats without a home berth wouldn't be out of order in recognition of the extra pressure they put on the resources funded by the BA, in much the same way as hire boats pay more. Or as I've suggested before when you renew your license you get given 30 24hr mooring permits where you write the time and date you arrive at the mooring and its valid for one use, with extra bundles of 30 being purchased if you make more use of the BA moorings. 3. Those who don't want a home berth, don't insure, license of BSS toll their boat. There maybe some who simply cannot afford to insure, license and BSS their boat, but there are also others who just simply refuse to conform. This group are generally the ones that give all liveaboards a bad name, and they shouldn't. We should be clear about which group we are talking about when having these discussions. In my opinion the BA should provide more help to those in group 1 to aid marinas to provide residential berths if they want to. Group 2 are pretty much self sufficient and play by the rules. It's those in group 3 that the BA probably need to concentrate some effort to ensure their boats are at least compliant for the system, and if finances dictate that they cannot be, then assistance from other external agencies should be sought. No one should be forced to live an an uninsured, unlicensed boat because they have no other viable alternative. Local authorities need to step in with support and emergency housing. As I write this, there is perhaps a fourth group, those that will not abide by the law, do not want to be helped and in fact go out of their way to generate mess and be abusive. Very few and far between, but they exist and perhaps do the most damage to the reputation of liveaboard boaters.

Most places ask how many toilets you have and charge per toilet, which is a con. 2 people on a boat will fill one tank at the same speed, no matter whether they are using one or two toilets. My boat has two toilets which feed into the one tank. When asked the question I always say we use one toilet. No one has ever questioned further, but if they did, then the simple answer is that one of the toilets is in with the shower and therefore often soaking wet, so that is the shower room, the other toilet is the only one used. That may be stretching the truth slightly, but I'm not being conned. If they had to pumpout two tanks, then that would be a different matter.

I've never seen such an unfair bet I bet you get a lot more satisfaction out of yours as well!

It might not be broke, but it also isn't optimal. Over time the first battery will wear quicker and shorten the life of the others and normally by the time you realise, it's too late. Having just replaced the batteries, now seems like the best time to take action to protect your investment. It's worth bearing in mind Vehicle Wiring Products when sourcing parts. They also supply pre crimped battery leads in various sizes and this might be easier than crimping your own. Pre Made Battery Cables

I'm glad all's well that ends well, but this is a timely reminder, especially for those returning to boats alone, whilst slightly inebriated. You can never be too careful. I'm reminded that not too far from there a very experienced Broadsman, a pilot non the less, lost his life in similar circumstances. Whenever we visited The Berney Arms, we were normally the last to leave and stagger back to the boat, but Tracy always made it her responsibility to see us back to the boat and safely back onboard. If you are planning on returning to your boat alone after a few, please consider taking your lifejacket with you if possible.

I started listening to it, but fell asleep!

I guess you never watched Jeremy Beadle then! Mainstream TV used to pay £250 for funny clips of other peoples misfortune. People laugh at other peoples misfortune, they always have, and that's the part that slapstick comedians are often exploiting. How many times have you watched a work colleague do something stupid and tried not to laugh and then once you know they nave calmed down and are ok, everyone laughs about it and takes the Mick for the next few weeks. You see someone slip on a banana skin, it is funny once you know they haven't seriously hurt themselves. Once you know it is only someone's dignity that has been hurt, people laugh at such incidents. The laughing induces endorphins which often reduces the stress in such situations.

Steady on there Vaughan, both voyeurism and being a Peeping Tom in their truest definitions are nasty activities and illegal. You may not agree with people filming in a public place, but it is not illegal. Its a fact of life that cameras are everywhere these days, you cannot even walk down most streets without appearing on someone's door bell video camera. More so when you visit a tourist spot. Try walking across Tower Bridge in London and not appearing in anyone's pictures or videos. Chances are if you trip up and fall over, it will be caught on camera! Someone will laugh at your misfortune. Everywhere I drive my dashcam captures the journey and everyone and everything I drive past. It's not going to change. The only thing you can change is whether or not you choose to take the time to watch the videos on Youtube, Facebook etc, and, or read the comments. It's a fact of life that other people laugh at other people's misfortune. Some comedians make an art form out of this to elicit laughs. Even the Queen had a chuckle when Sir Norman Wisdom pretended to trip up as he walked away from the Queen after his knighthood investiture at Buckingham Palace.