National inland navigation forum meeting in February

National inland navigation forum meeting NINF met at the St. Pancras Cruising Club in February with all but one of the member bodies represented. This forum continues to be a useful meeting point, bringing together navigational bodies involved with CRT, EA and other navigation authorities. There was much discussion surrounding issues relating to the possibility […]

Loss of facilities

Loss of facilities The boaters’ facilities at Newbold on Avon on the North Oxford canal have closed and all ex-BWML marinas have now stopped offering free facilities to passing boaters. A statement from BWML Sawley Marina read: ‘Since BWML’s affiliation with The Trust is no longer, we aren’t obliged to provide facilities to passing boaters. […]

Boat fires

Boat fires The annual BSS incident report was published in March and provides a summary of the incidents over the last year. A total of 132 boat incidents, based on 124 events, were recorded up until February 2019. In three events, fire affected more than one boat. There were 54 fires and CO incidents on […]

Busy like bees

Busy like bees Chair, Stella Ridgway, attended the last CRT Council meeting February was glorious: unseasonably warm and sunny, and both the birds and trees were slightly confused; an early spring followed by (in Manchester) a month’s rain in two days. There were flood warnings for a lot of rivers and hearing the flood alarms […]

Evidence please

Evidence please Editor Peter Fellows starts surveys of lost facilities and shallow visitor moorings. The warming weather means that many of the estimated 50% of boaters who are leisure cruisers start to gear up for their first outing of the year and the other 50% who live aboard come out of hibernation to enjoy the […]

Carbon Monoxide Alarms Become Mandatory

From 1 April at least one carbon monoxide (CO) alarm became a requirement on nearly all private and non-private boats in scope of the Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) Requirements. BSS Certifications will not be issued to boats without alarms. The new BSS Requirements apply to boats with accommodation spaces i.e. areas within a boat surrounded by […]