Gretzky

Very sad news. He moored his boat just round the corner from ours. Really nice guy. RIP

Yim Siam Thai is worth a visit, we have been about 3 times this year enjoy every visit.

I have a Bayliner with the same config, i.e. a 1-2-both-off master switch. The battery charger when on shore power charges both battey banks. On side 1 I have 3 x 110 Ah batteries and on 2 just a single 110 Ah battery, we bassically just just bank one all the time, but should we ever run that bank too low, I just switch to bank 2 to fire up the engine. Having said that once I upgraded to 3x110Ah batteries I have never run the bank so low I could not start the engine, even after a cold winters night with TV, heating, lighting and fridge on. I found just 1 110 Ah battery just wasnt enough for us.

Mercrusier 5.7 by the looks of it. Basically a marinized small block Chevy. Check the auto choke is not sticking, also they don’t like running cold, does it idle once its warmed up? There should be a water separating fuel filter in the fuel line, worth a check, just take it off an pour the contents into a glass jar and let it settle out, any water will sit on the bottom. Other than that could be a blockage in the idle circuit in the carb, they are not too complicated to strip and clean blow the jets out with a can of carb cleaner. Once warm it should idle about 650-700 rpm. If it is stalling going into gear there is an interrupter micro switch on the gear shifter, this intentionally stalls the engine for a fraction of a second while going in to gear, may need adjusting. After all that I guess it probably an electric fuel pump, so check the connections for any corrosion. (been there done that :D)

We have a Petrol powered Bayliner (285), and had Diesel heating fitted by Boulters about 10 years ago. They fitted a 40ltr Diesel tank in the engine bay on the port side away from the engine etc. The Eberspaecher heater is fitted in the locker under the helm seat away from the engine bay and heating ducts and outlets run to the mid birth, main cabin and upper seating area. Works great, we use the boat all year round and never been cold even when surrounded by snow and ice outside. Back in the day before low sulphur diesel we ran it on Paraffin but these days we just run it on diesel. I stripped it down and overhauled it about a year ago after about 9 years of use, the burn chamber was completely clean no soot or anything. The Eberspacher has a 7 day timer and in the winter we just set it come on automatically about 6:30am so when we crawl out of bed everything is already lovely and warm.

Since we move to the Broads we have been moored in Horning Village marina, nice marina, good location for us anyway. Its not to the standards of Burton waters, no showers / toilets etc but we have those on board. It is about as secure as as anthing due to there being no land access. That is the only down side, no land access, you have row over but to be fair we dont find it an issue. There is a water taxi service in day hours and rowing boats for use of marina users. We do have water and electricity on our mooring and most of the mooring do too if not all. Some mooring have decking space etc too.

We moored on one of our favorite wild moorings on the Ant a couple of years ago only to find toilet paper and... well number 2's all over. what is wrong with some people! They could have at least dug a hole and covered it up.

Its just a shot of the hotel, a very close up shot of the hotel!

Summercraft's boats are always well turned out and really well looked after.

The guy that hit us, was travelling at river speed, not attempting a mooring, he was not under any sort pressure or in a situation that required help, he was, or more to the point should have been just travelling down the river. The problem was the helm was too busy taking selfies instead of steering the boat, as such he hit us while were moored! Hire boat or private boat it doesn’t matter he was not keeping an adequate watch. The lesson here is if you are at the helm, that should be your primary focus.

A quick update, Richardsons sorted the damage to our boat, very happy with the work they did. But having said that I would rather not have to go though it all again!

I used to feel a little guilty using the bins in Horning as we have mooring in Horning and the sign say for the use of visting boats only. That is until recently when I saw a resident dumping his home waste even a table that was obviously way too big to have ever even been used on a boat! As far as the Swan goes, it s great pub out of season, during the season we always steer clear as they always seem to maintain the same staffing levels (or close to) even in high season. I guess extra staff are a drain on the profit margin, so the customers let face if most holiday makers may only use a said pub once probably not return even if the service was top notch, and just cross it off the re-visit list but by then the pub has their money or am I being cinical? As to the free parking Horning PC has recently maked off about a third of the what was availble free paring on the staith as disabled parking, they really do seem to have a problem with visitors for some unknown reason, remeber "planter gate" a couple of years ago when Horning PC thought for some reason it would be a good idea to put planters all along the access road via the staith to prevent parking too. It seems strange to me for a village that relies on the tourist trade to try as hard as possible to stop people visting the village.

If you are not sure, ask George at Ludham Bridge boat yard they will help you.

Sad news, Lauda was totaly focused on his goals a real aspriational figure.

Often see them on the Ant, upstream from Barton, usually just a blue flash as they fly across the river. Stunning shot, well done.