Abandoned Boats On The Ant?

[750XL]

We spent a lot of time up the river Ant on our holiday as we really enjoy the wild moorings on offer up there.

Noticed there seemed to be quite a few boats in popular 'wild moorings' that almost looked abandoned, or if they were lived on, were in a bit of a sorry state. We even saw one near the free moorings at Paddy's Lane with some sort of self built floating pontoon on the back of it (generally filled with rubbish).

Never really noticed these boats in the past, is it a new thing? Or am I just becoming more observant these days

[Broads01]

Alas, it's been happening for a while. This thread talks about Johnny Crowes staithe which is one of the Ant's popular wild mooring spots 

 

[Vaughan]

2 hours ago, 750XL said:

We even saw one near the free moorings at Paddy's Lane with some sort of self built floating pontoon on the back of it (generally filled with rubbish).

Now, I wonder who that could have been . . . .

[YnysMon]

There was one boat we passed on the Ant that seems to have built a sort of decking area on the bank. A boat on another wild mooring looked abandoned when we passed yesterday, but had smoke from their chimney today. It’s difficult sometimes to tell which boats are still being lived on and which are abandoned.

There do seem to be more of them, though compared to a couple of years back there are fewer above Barton Broad and more on the lower portion nearer How Hill.

Not sure what any of that tells us, except that more people seem to be struggling to cope with life nowadays.