Retirement with No Problem

Moored Great Barford Old Lock, River Gt Ouse

I am at a loss with this one!

I did my bit of putting the masking tape as straight as I could along the edge of the non-slip bit on the roof, and came indoors while Vic got to work with the paint pot and brush.

These proposed changes to our licence fee will mean we will have to pay 127% more than we do now because we are rated as ‘base rate’ for our licence at the moment.  This is because BW have dropped their “Business Rate” and renamed it “Higher Rate”, proposing to stick all hire boats, shared owner boats and continuous cruisers, ie, those with no permanent mooring like us into it.  Having said that, the proposal document does say “and possible reclassification of continuous cruising boats”.  So they seem not to be too sure whether they will or won’t..

I fully understand the problems throughout the boating community.. If a boat is kept in a Private Marina, yep sure they are not actually on the waterways as much as we are.. If they keep that boat for 6 months in a Marina I am wondering if they would pay a 6 month licence at a ‘base rate’ then 6 months at ‘higher rate’.. If this is the case, then those who do that are going to be horribly out of pocket.. you pay more than the percentage of the annual rate by buying a licence for any period shorter than a year!

It’s a mad world sometimes… and British Waterways have to extract money out of us all..fair enough!

I been doing a bit of pencilling today.. figures.  It has been on my mind, you see, all this licence stuff.  Well year to date today we have managed to travel 785 miles with 422 locks in the way.  In terms of lock miles (adding them both together) that equates to 1,207 lock miles.  It is then easy to work out how many lock miles a day that is.. answer 3.3 lock miles a day.  So that is what we did on average per day over the last year.. Oh what a wonderful speed for retired people!  So for that NP is proposed to be classed as ‘higher rate’ boat  

I had a look at what a hire boat might do and got a bit of a shock!

According to the Proposal Document, a hire boat is in use for around 130–150 days per year.. that is, lets say, errrr 20 weeks or so.  Look at all the places they can go on the nicely laid out web pages of Black Prince Narrowboats for example.  I hired a narrowboat for many years before purchasing NP, and ‘did’ the rings rushing around all over the place (A bit longer in the tooth now for all that! )  The rings are lots of miles and loads of locks.. and how about the Thames Ring.. From Holiday UK 

 This superb route includes many excellent one week cruise sections. The Ring itself can be covered in a very energetic two week cruise, but three weeks will allow time to explore a route covering canals, the River Thames, Oxford and many scenic villages.

Distance, Time, and Locks
Full Ring: 245 miles, about 115 hours cruising, 175 locks.

WOW that is energetic.. and it got me thinking.. so the pencil scribbled on..

The actual potential of a hire boat over 20 weeks if it were to ‘do’ the Thames Ring 10 times…

Don’t need to find my calculator.. average in one year then 2,450 miles and 1,750 locks that is 4,200 lock miles!

Now this is why I am at a loss with this stuff.  Yes the ‘round in rings’ hire boat, worked out in rather a ‘tongue in the cheek way’, is a higher rater.. but it is proposed that NP with her 1,207 lock miles is a higher rater as well!

There has to be a better way for British Waterways to please us all.  I shall keep thinking about how they can.