The reality of those K&A boats?

BOATER Chris Pink was somewhat concerned by the fact that the BBC film giving a two hours cruised along the Kennet & Avon Canal from Bath is used  by some to show there are 'hundreds of continuous moorers' along the waterway, and supplied us with the following from the Trust.

Canal & River Trust's, Damien Kemp, gave a break-down of the boats on that length of waterway, and though stating that extensive data analysis would be needed to clarify all the other boats sighted he told that for the first four months of this year, 1,157 individual boats were sighted between Bath and the bottom of Caen Hill:

391 are boats without a home mooring.

54 boats had a mooring status unknown.

712 have home moorings or are trailable, of which 58 have home moorings off the K&A.

Longer than permitted

Of the 712 with Home Moorings at least 46 of the boats filmed had permanent, online, moorings, with the majority of others coming out of nearby marinas. On the day of filming our records showed that 32 of the continuous cruisers had been in that area longer than normally permitted (i.e. 14 days in one place) but of those:

15 had winter moorings.

Two had approved overstays (i.e. special dispensation had been given to allow the boater to stay longer than normally permitted).

In contact

15 had stayed longer than allowed and we were in contact with the boaters concerned to remedy the situation.

So, in summary, no, there aren't hundreds of boats that don't move at all on the K&A and we're already working with the small minority that, for whatever reason, aren't following our guidance.