I am trying to setup a usercontrol as a base class, so that I can
derive my usercontrols from it.

the base is pretty simple:

Imports System.Xml
Public Class usrBase
   Inherits System.Windows.Forms.UserControl

   Public Overridable Sub MethodA()
   End Sub
End Class

'derived classes
Public Class usrMyControl
     Inherits usrBase
...
...
End Class

The issue is that I can't see my form usrMyControl in the designer
anymore and gives an error that says " The designer must create an
instance of type 'usrBase' but it cannot because the type is declared
as abstract.".

However, I thought the class was only consider "abstract" when the
MustInherit/MustOverride clauses are used, which I'm not using them
here.  Why does it think it is still abstract ?

What am I doing wrong ?   Is there another way to do this ?

Mark