"dave hearnden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Adrian commented > >>Or, better, give them up altogether. They have outlived their >>usefulness, and put undue strain on the system. >> >>Replace them with staggered regional gatherings around the system. >>
>Please explain yourself, They have outlived their usefulness? Waterways World, 2006 November, page 51 >I suppose that is why thery are getting bigger, more traders, more punters >etc. I also >think that you maybe limiting what the festival is about and what its >purpose is. Education to the kids. etc Those aspects are fine. It is making them a destination for visiting boats that is the problem. These boats are now immaterial to the event, as most visitors don't walk the miles necessary along the towpath to see them, and, if they do, can't see most of them anyway as they are usually moored about five abreast. The National is for campaigning. This can be done effectively with selected, invited, boats there that will be of special interest to those who (should) arrive by other means. There is no need for a massed fleet. Focusing on small number of boats would allow the event to be held in centres of population (e.g. London's Isle of Dogs docks) where non-boaters, and their support, can be more easily attracted. >Put undue strain on the system? What making the waterways used, having >work done by the water authority that will allow boats to actually get >through to the festival. The work which might not have been done until much >later in the year. Note "undue". Gradual deterioration of a waterway due to normal use is relatively easy to manage and counter. However, an event which concentrates use without the possibility of normal maintenance per so many boat passages, possibly leading to serious collapse of some structure or water supply problems (yeah, yeah, not this year) really can't be justified if you respect the waterways IMHO. >Adrian when did you last go to a National. Last year. See the article. >Have you been to the trailboat rally, the campaign rally, Little Venice and >all the other little >festivals/rallys around the waterways that have been mentioned on this group >or other groups as well? Yes to many. It is because these work much better as boater gatherings that I am suggesting enhancing annual regional ones of them as a replacement for using the National for this purpose. Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
