New guidance for continuous cruisers

12th Oct 2011

British Waterways is today publishing updated, more concise mooring guidance for boats without a home mooring.

The existing 2004 ‘mooring guidance for continuous cruisers’ has been refined to be more easily understood and to reflect the Judgment in the case of British Waterways v Davies, in which the Court found that moving up and down within a 10 mile stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal with no home mooring did not amount to bona fide navigation.

Bona fide navigation

British Waterways has drafted updated guidance, following professional legal advice, including from Leading Counsel, and also sought input from national boating organisations.

In particular the new, shorter, guidance explains what is meant by bona fide navigation and seeks to clarify the nature of the movement that must take place.

Sally Ash, head of boating at British Waterways, said; “The existing guidance needed updating in light of the increasing number of boats without a home mooring and to reflect the Judgment in the case of British Waterways v Davies, which was heard in Bristol County Court.
Input from boaters

“We welcome genuine continuous cruising on our canals and rivers and very much hope that the refined guidance will remove much of the confusion and ambiguity around this subject. Importantly, we’ve actively sought the views of leading organisations within the boating community and the National Association of Boat Owners in particular made several constructive suggestions which we have been pleased to incorporate.

The guidance is a schedule of the licence terms and conditions which have been updated accordingly. It can also be found at www.britishwaterways.co.uk/mooringguidance. For those without internet access, paper copies are available by calling BW Customer Services on 01923 201120.

Extract from Waterscape.com