Wonderful Idea!

I have just seen an advert in Canal Boat for BWML Marinas. They tell us that having a mooring in one of their marinas entitles the boater to visit any of their other marinas free of charge, subject to space being available and pre-booking.

Now here's the idea: how about BW giving any holder of a long term mooring license the facility to use any other long term mooring site for overnight mooring while out cruising? Subject, of course, to availability and the requirement to move on should the usual incumbent appear.

This could save a lot of congestion at those 'honey pot' sites we so often hear about as long term morings are often only just outside the visitor mooring zones.

Winter Moorings

British Waterways winter moorings go on sale from today. I followed the link and did a search for 'Banbury' returning one result for Banbury Tramway at a price of £8.66 per metre per month.

I recently won a BW moorings auction for £1070 per annum for an 18 metre berth. That is £4.95 per metre a month. Didn't I do well being the only bidder!

Come on British Waterways: that surely is the market value you should be offering the moorings at.

Mooring Prices RIsing

Recession or not it appears that mooring prics continue to rise.

The auction has just closed for a mooring on our site. The highest bid received was £2151 against a guide price of £1650. A similar mooring in Cropredy closed at £2050.

There are no facilities at these moorings. Water is half a mile away. All we have are rings to tie to, and they are in the wrong place for the length of our boat!

It is all about supply and demand even in a recession. Those who can afford it will always outbid those who can't.

Where are you all?

The Moorings Consultation report has been published by BW and can be read here. Letting of moorings by auction is to stay but will be changed to an open auction system similar to eBay. BW could have saved themselves considerable expense and web development costs by becoming an eBay mooring shop!

BW are giving further consideration to letting moorings by length rather than by the berth which is what I have seen as the greatest unfairness in the present system.

One great surprise is the paltry response. From 32,000 licenced boats on the system only 13 current boat owners and 9 prospective moorers bothered to put in a comment. Are the other 31,978 all sipping gin and tonic in a marina?