The MSBA is saddened and shocked that local author, Nick “ditch crawler” Ardley, has received a threat to burn his beloved wooden yacht following his expression of anger at boats anchoring overnight in Stangate Creek. Apparently someone believes Nick has “dobbed” them to the police. On his Facebook page, Nick has made it clear that he did not identify any individual or vessel, though at least two dozen were displaying their boat name on AIS on the late May bank holiday, thus incriminating themselves. Many boaters from both the Essex and Kent side of the Estuary have expressed support for Nick and advised him to take the matter to the police immediately. Whatever our views on the practicalities of the current coronavirus laws, such a threat is a serious criminal matter and cannot possibly be condoned.
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Medway and Swale Boating Association
The voice of boating on the tidal Medway and Swale
That is appalling. What are we coming to as a nation. Take care Nick
Whilst I do not condone any threats against Mr Ardley, He did seem to go out of his way to make enemies by writing to various authorities to make sure that they were aware of boats anchoring in Stangate Creek. He seemed to start his campaign on our (LHYC) Facebook Group, as though being the nearest club it was our responsibility to do something about it. My view was, what is it to do with him? With very senior people in Downing Street doing their own thing that contradicted all the “rules” that the rest of us were being expected to abide by, and saying they had done nothing wrong. What harm were these boats doing, and what right does Nick Ardley have trying to get these boats moved on or prosecuted?
I don’t condone threats of any sort but what did you expect. Spare a thought for our MPs who are paid to court controversy, they receive worse on a daily basis.
Isn’t the tax payer burdened enough without the police having to protect self appointed untrained lockdown wardens. There is a difference between being public spirited and interference where it is not welcome or needed.
What’s happening to this nation is that it has become divided as result of ignorance and hysteria. I won’t speculate here as to the cause, suffice to say it is being fuelled by mainstream media and the world and his wife ingesting the poison and regurgitating it on social media with a generous helping of emotion. The sooner folk stop following like sheep, start thinking for themselves and not expressing anger at other folks’ opinions, the better off we’ll all be. I’m not holding my breath.
I will state this one more time:
I have NOT reported anyone to the police.
I did NOT name anyone in my blog (I wonder how many actually read it?)
I have NOT named any vessel. Those have named themselves on AIS, as I understand it.
I said quite clearly that I would all love to go out.
I said, I thought there wasn’t any harm – best form of self distancing provided those rule adhered to, but…
All I did was to ask nicely for all of us to try and abide by what we were asked to do, never mind the ‘Cummings Effect’.
That is all I did.
For this I have been insulted, vilified and a threat made to burn our Whimbrel.
This is NOT funny.