Thursday, December 11, 2008

British Waterway mooring tenders

I placed a bid on a BW mooring this afternoon to see if I could get myself a mooring. I am in two minds about having a mooring at all, because I just feel if you pay a fortune for a mooring, you should use it.. but then that means your not cruising around the network visiting all those nice little village pubs and meeting lots of fellow boaters :)

So, my plan was to try and get a cheap mooring that I can use for the winter and for the odd month here and there where I want to keep Sirius local to my bricks and mortar home.. (yes, sorry boating friends.. I still live in solid ground most of the time)

There are moorings in Reading near the IDR (ring road bridge) which to be honest, are not the best moorings, obviously noisey from the bridge and also the area is not the best, I've often wondered if the boats there get any trouble... I guess I should really pop along and ask them.

270 people had apparently viewed the tender (probably 10 of those viewings was myself and my friends) and there was apparently no-one on the waiting list for the mooring, and, I was the only one to put in a tender.

BW say that the reserve price is set to ensure they cover their costs for the mooring, now what could those ongoing costs be at this mooring? There are no services provided, it's next to a public footpath which is presumably tender by the local council... so.. we're talking about looking after the rings that Sirius would be tide onto?! Surely these don't need a lot of ongoing maintainence?

So.. I put a bid in for £300 / PA yes, I know, it's about 20% of their asking price of £1500... but come on.. that mooring does not cost £1500 to maintain PA! And another mooring on the same site went for £752 and that was above the reserve price, so, any guesses what I should have bid?

If it was a popular mooring I could understand the price, but, it's really not...

Come on BW.. cut me some slack and let me have a cheap mooring so I can use it for a few months here and there... the rest of the time.. you already have my £1052 / PA license fee!