Bridge hopping: why moving a few hundred yards does not work

It is the most common misunderstanding on the network, and it is an expensive one to hold, because people who believe it think they are complying right up until their renewal is refused.

Why the count does not save you

The requirement is not that you move often. It is that the boat is used for bona fide navigation — a genuine journey. Moving twenty times between two points a mile apart is twenty movements and no journey.

This is why the Trust assesses range of movement rather than distance travelled. Range is the gap between the extremes of where you have been, and it is specifically the measure that shuttling cannot inflate.

What counts as a different place

There is no published distance, which is uncomfortable but true. The working test is whether an ordinary person would say you had moved to a different neighbourhood — not whether you can see your last mooring from your new one.

What actually satisfies it

A pattern that goes somewhere. The Trust has indicated that a range under about twenty miles across a licence period is unlikely to satisfy it. That is guidance rather than a rule, but it tells you the scale being looked for.

If your winter plan is to stay near work, or school, or a hospital, that is an entirely human thing to need — but it is worth understanding that the licence you hold does not accommodate it, and talking to the Trust about your circumstances is a better position than hoping the pattern goes unnoticed.