--- In [email protected], "Ron Jones" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > We went to the festival at Skipton today, and I saved some money! > Firstly the car park we always use (the one on the other side of the canal > from the sani station) was 100% full - we normally use that one as it has > the least number so signs to it, so it is normally easy to find a place to > park, so I used the Tom Tom to go to some nice empty side roads (with no > parking restrictions) near the canal (but one more bridge down), so £3.50 to > me. Then the band was so *loud* in the main arena that SWMBO couldn't stand > it (even the woman we know on the IWA stall was not a happy bunny...), so we > didn't spend shedloads of dosh on the twee canal stalls - well in pocket > now. > Anyway there were plenty of boats, all nicely decorated - piccies will > appear on FUBC later this week. The weather stayed dry all day - remarkable > for a Bank Holiday) I did hear that Sunday was rather damp though... > > > Ron Jones > Process Safety & Development Specialist > Don't repeat history, unreported chemical lab/plant near misses at > http://www.crhf.org.uk > Only two things are certain: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not > certain about the universe. ~ Albert Einstein >
Damp!! Sunday was my only day off over the weekend so we went on Sunday and it hardly stopped raining. I didn't think there were as many Canal orientated stalls as usual, mainly food, perhaps the support for canals and canal restoration is waining in the wake of the various bodies' strive to drive up the cost of boating and therefore those who can afford to boat nowadays. It priced me off the water about two years ago, and I think most people now feel you have to be rich to own and run a boat, a fact bourne out by the average value of boats now used on the canal. In fact, I didn't see a GRP cruiser all day. I do think this is a shame, when I moved on to the canals from lakes and rivers in 1993, boats were cheap (I've never paid more than £1000 for one, my best and most fun boat costing £100 and after some work gave four years of holidays, weekends etc, and in 1993 it cost £2 for a day licence, and my 15 footer cost £175 a year for Licence and £80 a year for the newly introduced Mooring permit. My mooring (farm) was £100 a year including a water tap, and petrol was pretty cheap too. The one thing that never went up was insurance, I last paid £52 a year, which had risen from about £46 which is less than inflation!! Now Day licences are £10 a day, the same boat would cost £300 odd to licence, and the cost of mooring permits has gone up ridiculously, especially with BW's drive to push them up more with the tendering scheme. No, I think they've killed the public's enthusiasm for canals as they are now too inaccessable to the masses from a boating point of view, and the traders have moved on to other boating aspects such as coastal boating which is now thriving and events are much more geared towards this. This is backed up by the type of stalls now seen at the NEC Boat, Caravan, and Leisure show which was mainly geared towards GRP and coastal use, and much less for canals. Skipton also backed this up, unless you wanted a burger, then you had loads of choice. We got very wet though!!
