Wild Moorings

[marshman]

Sad to see, but courtesy, I suspect, of one of our benevolent (!) landowners we seem to have lost two more of our wild moorings.

On the big bends opposite Horning Hall and under the trees they are closing those two pleasant moorings and the dreaded signs "PRIVATE" have appeared.

It is just possible that they are raising the bank as they have put "scaffold" boards in and dredged the river and put the soil behind, thereby raising the bank as I suspect it overtops there on the highest tides and floods into the marshes which they cut regularly. 

But you can almost guarantee those boards will stay - sadly! I have to say that I am not certain of the ownership but I think I can make a damn good guess!!!

[Andrewcook]

Hi any Wild mooring is useful but beware of Tree Roots that can Damage your Boat as to some Land Owners could be putting in Banks for a purpose I.e private moorings or such to make it pay for their land.

[kpnut]

They put a big pile of brash in there last winter to block them, but it inevitably got moved and used as firewood. Some of the existing trees look very charred.
What a shame, they’ve always looked really nice and I’ve never managed to catch them free, but perhaps they’ve had ‘human waste issues’ like I read on another site about another nearby wild mooring. 
If that were the case, I just wish folk would respect places they are given permission, either overtly or indirectly, to use. 

[MauriceMynah]

"Human waste issues" as kpnut so tactfully puts it was my first guess too.

I rarely moor at wild moorings nowadays for just that reason. Last time I nearly threw up at one on the Ant it was so disgusting.

I can think of no effective measures to stop people doing this, but the more it happens, the more moorings we will lose in this way. I sometimes wonder who thinks such behaviour is acceptable.

[marshman]

Yes I can agree with the human waste issue becoming a real issue - not wishing to discuss it at length but its hardly surprising given the number of day boats, canoeists, and paddle boarders.

I suppose too they are raising the bank a further 6/8 inches in both areas but its those b****y signs that get up my nose!!!

[Wussername]

Sorry, bit confused, What signs?

[Meantime]

I'm guessing the ones that say to quote Marshman "PRIVATE"

[grendel]

one of these days i will get a boat and name it Private, think of all the moorings that will be available 

[Wussername]

I suspected that was the sign.

Landowners have a responsibility to themselves. To maintain thier lands for thier future. I understand that.

They also need to recognise that they need to acknowledge our support and our appreciation. We need a common understanding, respect, unfortunately lacking to the detriment of the common cause. That needs to be addressed by us all.

Who is able to task this idea? I do not know.

What I do know, however, is that a forum, this forum,  has the ability to identify the problem. Not able to solve it, but, perhaps attract the attention of those responsible, with authority, to offer guidance, commitment to a solution.

[mikeyboy1966]

I know nothing of your existing CooP groups on the broads,

on the river Gt Ouse we have GOBA,

they negotiate with land owners and use the the funds raised from member ship to lease moorings and represent the interests of boaters.

perhaps,as private boat and syndicate boat owners you should try to start and organise together a similar thing,

on the broads you seem to be losing moorings whilst river traffic increases in the summer.

as a recognised group you would stand a better chance of being listened to by BA  etc etc

 

[FlyingFortress]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

one of these days i will get a boat and name it Private, think of all the moorings that will be available 

Used to a boat moored at Potter called " No Mooring". Always used to make me 

[CambridgeCabby]

44 minutes ago, mikeyboy1966 said:

I know nothing of your existing CooP groups on the broads,

on the river Gt Ouse we have GOBA,

they negotiate with land owners and use the the funds raised from member ship to lease moorings and represent the interests of boaters.

perhaps,as private boat and syndicate boat owners you should try to start and organise together a similar thing,

on the broads you seem to be losing moorings whilst river traffic increases in the summer.

as a recognised group you would stand a better chance of being listened to by BA  etc etc

 

Whilst I can see the merits of such a scheme , the Broads have a much higher ratio of hire craft than the Ouse and the creation of such a scheme would only fuel the us and them culture and if the private fleet did indeed club together to try and bid for these moorings I’m in no doubt in my mind that certain large land owners would start a bidding competition between such a body and the hire operators.

What we can do , as responsible river users and boaters is respect any wild moorings we do frequent and leave them in the condition we would like to find them .

[FlyingFortress]

39 minutes ago, mikeyboy1966 said:

I know nothing of your existing CooP groups on the broads,

on the river Gt Ouse we have GOBA,

they negotiate with land owners and use the the funds raised from member ship to lease moorings and represent the interests of boaters.

perhaps,as private boat and syndicate boat owners you should try to start and organise together a similar thing,

on the broads you seem to be losing moorings whilst river traffic increases in the summer.

as a recognised group you would stand a better chance of being listened to by BA  etc etc

 

Good  and interesting point that you have made this work.

As one or two members on here may remember this was tried a few years ago but ended up a failure.

I think myself and another esteemed member on here could go into details of why our attempt to set up a rival organisation to the NSBA failed but it would be long and boring.

I did think that our attempt did give the NSBA a kick up the proverbial, and for a short while they did actually realise that Motor Boats actually use Our Broads as well. 

But in the end our attempt failed and the NSBA reverted back to type and did what it has done for all of my knowledge of the organisation.

I do appreciate that there is quite a large battalion of BA bashers that populate various Broads fora ( I have puzzled for a long time if that is actually a word) but I am not one of them*, but I don't think the current administration could have got away with so much if they had been held accountable by a well populated users organisation such as I and another on here envisioned.

Maybe it's time for a younger generation to take up the cudgels and try again.

I am quite happy to communicate with anyone who tries this and give my opinions that will help them avoid the pitfalls that we encountered.

* By and large I think the BA do a great job with the limited resources they have available but are sometimes misguided.

[mikeyboy1966]

Hire boats,if the owners of said boats are members ,are as welcome to use GOBA moorings as private owners.

if ,as I understand what I read here is true,you seem to be losing moorings on a regular basis,

having an independent association would enable the membership to negotiate with landowners to secure existing moorings and future ones,be it thru paying rents or simply maintaining the river banks.

relying on BA dosnt seem to be working in your favour as boat owners,maybe a more proactive approach would be in your favour.

i ,and many GOBA members for instance,take my cordless strimmer On the boat,

10 mins at the mooring sees everything tidy

[mikeyboy1966]

NSBA?

[mikeyboy1966]

Limited resources is the problem

it doesn’t however stop a group of boat owners approaching a land owner and agreeing to maintain a stretch of river bank as a wild mooring

[FlyingFortress]

thegreenbook.org.uk
http://www.thegreenbook.org.uk
The Norfolk and Suffolk Boating Association

Hope this link works 

 

 

 

[mikeyboy1966]

On GOBA moorings,litter isn’t an issue as I’ve seen,

I’ve never seen any human waste but all boats generally have facilitaties.

BBQ on the ground is the worst I’ve seen,even though the more popular places have numerous bbq stands.

my thoughts remain the same,

if you want to increase semi wild mooring and save the ones you have,

interaction with the riverbank owners thru responsible group contact is the only way forward 

[mikeyboy1966]

9 minutes ago, FlyingFortress said:

thegreenbook.org.uk
http://www.thegreenbook.org.uk
The Norfolk and Suffolk Boating Association

Hope this link works 

 

 

 

I’ll take a better look at the websit when I’ve time,

thanks for the linky

my quick looksee suggests tho that it’s more of a reporting/ news than a proactive organisation?

[Cheesey69]

I guess as the rivers provide less income to the surrounding area I expect to see more of this happening. 
You see it in cites and towns where the river once brought wealth now gets boatyards to houses, moorings to riverside cafes and complaints from residents about eyesores. 
 

[FlyingFortress]

4 minutes ago, mikeyboy1966 said:

Limited resources is the problem

it doesn’t however stop a group of boat owners approaching a land owner and agreeing to maintain a stretch of river bank as a wild mooring

More interesting stuff Mikeyboy.

I just hope your posts do stir up someone to take on what you have said but I 'm afraid that person is not me.

After many years as a Shop Steward for The Pilots at the biggest port in the UK during which time we defeated the European Commission in a frankly ridiculous proposal regarding Pilotage and although I played a very small part in this battle it was me that stood before a Parliamentary Select Committee of UK MPs to put over our case.

Then as Chairman of a residents group in my small village defeated the Country Council over a proposed industrial development.

My fighting days are over.

Defeating The European Commission took up at least 4 years of my time and the Country Council around 5 years. In my spare time I was trying to Chair an association to represent Motor Boat Owners on The Broads and at the same time holding down a full time job.

Then to add insult to injury I was head hunted to fill a senior position in a well known Authority around these parts.

Can you appreciate why I declined and at age 56 decided to see out the rest of my working life just parking the largest ships in The World at The Largest Port in this Country.

Less Stress. 

[FlyingFortress]

Wise words as always Wussername.

Sorry missed your post when making my lengthy reply to Mikeyboy 

[ExSurveyor]

As a forum we are not a campaigning group or a pressure group.

Individual members of course are free to band together independently to follow their own path, under their own banner.

[mikeyboy1966]

12 minutes ago, ExSurveyor said:

As a forum we are not a campaigning group or a pressure group.

Individual members of course are free to band together independently to follow their own path, under their own banner.

My apologies,

As you know,I’m not based on the broads at present.

but my experiences on the Ouse have been very positive.

the positives of boating on the Ouse are purely down to the Goba moorings

the bulk of moorings on the rivers are Goba .

prob 80% ( don’t quote me)

the point is without Goba there would be very few moorings.

who is representing the the interests of the boater on the broads?

genuine question?

[ExSurveyor]

Mikeyboy, no apology necessary, happy for discussions to take place, I just wanted to clarify our position .