How hard can it be to find a CRT mooring?

One of the reasons for putting solar panels on the boat was so we don't have to rely on a marina with electricity for our mooring. At the moment, while Ally and Ben are still notionally on board, Jubilee is in Thrupp Wharf Marina at Castlethorpe on the GU. But the time will come (won't it?) when they clear their stuff off and we can have it back. Then we might want to find somewhere cheaper/more convenient/with more facilities.

I've been struggling with the CRT online mooring finder. Why can it not be simpler? First there's the auction system for long term moorings. These seem to be for three years, but you have to search through everything until you find that particular fact, right at the end. It seems as though you can leave before the three years is up, but there's no word on any penalty for doing so.

Then there are the short term moorings, with a completely different system of finding out what is available. At least with the long term moorings you can scroll through all the available options, of which there aren't many unless your boat is 20 feet long. Oh, sorry CRT, 6.096 metres. But to try to find a short term mooring - which seems to be one of three, six or nine months' duration - you have to enter your boat's length and beam; choose a duration; then select a possible mooring from a drop-down menu. Then a message comes up to say that that particular mooring is not available. Well, why include it in the drop-down menu, then?

I did once find a page showing mooring prices per metre, but I can't see it any more.

And why, oh why, does every length have to be in METRES? The canal system was built in feet and inches (and furlongs and miles). Locks are nominally in feet and inches. No-one looking for a narrowboat says to her/himself, "I think I'd like a 17.6784m boat". A boatbuilder might well specify dimensions in mm, but for things such as length and beam these will have been converted from feet and inches.

Even the IWA has been sucked in to this back door metrication, as you will know if you've booked a mooring at a National Festival (remember those?).

Rant over.