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Category: EA and others
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A Zoom-based meeting of this valuable forum brought together representatives of NABO, RBOA, CBOA, DBA, TBA, HNBC, IWA, AWCC and the General Secretary, Michael Stimpson.

The meeting agreed to reappoint Michael and thanked him for his valuable work over the past year. The finances were also reported on and with little expenditure on meetings, the financial position is sound. It was agreed to pay towards the cost of the ZOOM facilities being used.

Read more: National Inland Navigation Forum (NINF) AGM & Meeting: 20th February 2021

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Category: Boater Safety
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The Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) has decided to carry out an online survey of all boat owners. The survey will be live during March 2021. The purpose of the survey is to understand more about boat owners opinions on some important issues related to boat ownership, safety and also collect ideas for what could be improved. It’s important that we all share both the positives and the negatives. The survey is currently being developed by the BSS. They have confirmed that the results will be analysed independently and the findings of the research shared with boat owners before the Summer.


NABO will act as the go-between with the BSS and we will retain responsibility for contacting you about the survey.  We will send you messages between now and the survey launch to explain a bit more about how the survey works. Your access to the survey will be through a link which we will send to you in March. As NABO plays an important role in the BSS scheme, with representatives on all its committees, we hope all our members will participate.

Mike Rodd

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Category: NN Editorials
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Editor, Peter Fellows, has spotted inconsistencies in the way that boaters are being treated.

Despite it being midwinter with a national lockdown in place – or on reflection, perhaps because of this – I’ve received a bountiful crop of contributions for this issue. Clearly, people are thinking about boating even though they are unable to do so. Which raises the question of why has boating been suspended, when being on a moving boat is one of the safest places to be in a pandemic? And if navigation authorities consider fishing to be a legitimate form of exercise, why do they think that boating isn’t? If any of the senior managers who make such decisions had tried to ascend flights of locks on the Rochdale or Huddersfield Narrow – or, for that matter, battled stiff paddles and unyielding gates across the system – they would know that boating certainly is exercise. Instead, liveaboards are forced to moor up, alongside crowded towpaths in some areas, as visitors respond to CRT’s exhortations to exercise by the waterways.

Read more: Lockdown blues

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Category: NN Chairman's Column
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A time of change - from navigation authorities to electric boating, Mike Rodd sees a busy year ahead for NABO.

Well, at least we did have some time, pre-Christmas, to get out on our boats before the next full lockdown took over. Ours being down in South Wales means that we are continually caught by the infuriating Cardiff Assembly trying to prove its manhood by doing something slightly different from Westminster – with really silly results for us who live in one area but boat in the other! Of course, we all know how serious all this is, so we just hope that the vaccine will mean that we will soon see a sensible way ahead for all of us.

I would like to start by saying how wonderful it is to see the many new faces on your Council – not just the people who are new to NABO’s Council, but also those who have already been very active within the organisation. This allows us to do even more by way of acting as a prime representative for all boaters. And that is so important right at this moment – with CRT currently undertaking two important ‘so-called’ consultations. (‘So-called’ because so often they seem to be mere formalities, with CRT having pretty well decided the way ahead, but needing to be seen to take user suggestions on board.) In this issue, you will see details regarding the extensive work we have undertaken in preparing our submissions, outlining our major concerns about many aspects of recent consultations. They will have impacts on all of us, so please do read our submissions, as well as our comments on the T&C’s readability.

Read more: A time of change