New Bits for website?

[Ed]

Yes and yes...

we have thought in the past about a "look what I found in the shed" section....and it is a great idea....along with many many others, which one day will see the light of day.

And yes....it is just cripplingly annoying and frustrating when you know of a boat that is rotting and the owner just won't let you help.

I knew of a really quite nice Int Canoe in the boat park of a neighboring boat club. I found the owner one year and asked as it hadn't been on the water for a few years what he was going to do with: "none of your bloody business" fair enough I thought.

A couple of years went by and it was really beginning to get damaged.


At this stage in Bristol, I was blessed with an enormous amount of 'free' inside boat storage (right in the middle of the city as it happened - now very prestigous offices/resturant) so I went and found him again to offer completely free storage of the boat....just so it didn't rot.

Again he told me that he was not interested and if he wanted to leave the boat to rot....then he damn well would.

....and he did.


eib

[Ed]

....sorry....still thinking about it.

I mean it doesn't really matter too much with most dinghies.....but what would happen if the boat in question was a 14 built by Uffa Fox, sailed by Stewart Morris that won 7 POWs in a row. We still couldn't do anything about it!

which is as you say frustrating.

This was kind of one of the ideas that the National Small Boats Register idea (as proposed by NMMC and supported by CVRDA) that could/might be able to prevent....but still I am not sure.

If you had a Rembrandt and you decided you wanted to leave it outside....it would be crying shame, but I don't think anybody could stop you.

Still, it would be great to have a record of as many boats of historic interest as possible, which again....I have always wanted to do...in fact it was one of the key first 'mission's of the cvrda.

cheers

eib

[davidh]

And Andy has just proved the point: The Moth at Weston has been there ages and in all probability will go the way of so many others - like the Int Canoe that was mentioned earlier.
The fact that the owner is known/aware just makes it harder
I'm not sure of Weston SC boatpound charges but I'd expect them to be something in the region of £60 +.....add in some insurance which is supposedly compulsory and you've an outlay more than the value of the boat!
David

[Andy MacLennan]

Yes - it's bloody criminal! Think the problem is that owners still think of their boats as when they bought them all shiny and new. Then, despite the fact they've done nothing but neglect them to the point of destruction, they think they're still worth hundreds of pounds. Unfortunately, by the time they actually discover this isn't the case, it's usually too late for the poor boat to be saved.

[Ed]

Of course, over the years I have bought a few of those boats too....sometimes they went for a song, but more often as you say, I have gone to look at them and had to tell the owner that personally I didn't reckon their pride and joy was worth the cost of going to pick it up.

cheers

eib