teadaemon

When we hired from Hunter's Yard (or indeed Eastwood Whelpton), the showers at the Lion were one of the highlights of the week, as most of the rest of the week we were restricted to a bowl full of water (heated in the kettle if you were lucky) and baby wipes. I can see why they're not an immediate priority, but if they could be eventually reinstated then they'd be a valuable resource for those without the ability to shower on board. As there were only two or three, they also brought in a fair amount of business from our rather large group, as those of the group not engaged in their ablutions generally took the opportunity to drink in the pub.

Well as I said, unless the structural integrity is compromised in an area that causes the boat to fail a BSS check (such as the gas locker, or the transom for an outboard-powered boat), then it will pass. If I examined a boat with a hole in the bottom big enough to climb through, I'd have to pass it unless there was a specific reason not to do so. I don't think I've ever had to alert the BA directly to an immediately unsafe boat (such as one with a gas or petrol leak), but we do have a procedure to do so if necessary when we find one during an examination, and I'm confident, given my previous dealings with the BA, that they would take appropriate action in that case. Not displaying registration numbers is a byelaw offence, but the lack of registration numbers does not mean that a boat does not have a BSS.

Having worked with other liveaboards on the Broads from time to time, I can assure you that the BA do not turn a blind eye to whether or not they have a BSS. They will try to work with boat owners who're taking steps to be compliant, which I generally see as a good thing, but they will eventually take what action they can against boat owners (liveaboard or not) who try to ignore their legal obligations. Having said that, remember that if I go to do a BSS examination on any boat, the only reason I can fail it is if it fails one or more of the required checks in the BSS. There is no check pertaining to what a boat looks like, or for the most part, for things like it's structural integrity. If all of the relevant parts pass the examination, it gets a pass. Once I've done the examination, I'm not even allowed to refuse to issue the pass if I haven't been paid (which is why some BSS examiners, although not me, will ask for payment in advance from some or all of their customers).

It's worth mentioning that up until 2015, even though XP had been declared 'end of life' by Microsoft, they were happy to provide security updates to the NHS as they were being paid £5.5 million per year to do so. Somebody at the Department of Health decided that this wasn't necessary and ended the contract. This is not actually that unusual a situation, whilst some cashpoints still use XP, a fair number are still running Windows NT 4 service pack 5, which was getting replaced with Windows 2000 back when I was first getting into working in IT (amongst my less useful qualifications I am, or at least was, a Microsoft Certified Professional in Windows NT 4 Workstation and Server). Other large users of NT that pay for support from Microsoft include the US Navy, who use it to control all of the systems on most of their ships.

I've had a quick look at the relevant part of the offending footage. Put it like this, there are good reasons why a similar setup would fail a BSS examination on several counts (and although I've never come across such a setup on the Broads, I know from talking to other examiners that they have found liveaboards on the canals using something like that). Therefore, although I wouldn't want to quantify the risks involved, it's fair to say that the risk is such that it does not meet the minimum safety standards of the navigation authority (in this case the BA). I'm pretty certain that the hire yard's insurers would also not consider it an acceptable risk. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a clause in the hire yard's terms and conditions specifically banning hirers from bringing portable gas appliances on board, and if there isn't, there probably should be. Having said that, how many people actually read all of the terms & conditions they sign up to when they hire a boat? As far as absolute risk goes, I'd actually be more worried by the incident described above where somebody saw a charcoal BBQ being lit inside a boat. In normal use these produce considerable quantities of carbon monoxide (and in fact continue to do so even after the ashes have cooled to ambient temperature), and the risk of developing CO poisoning relatively quickly when one is lit inside a boat is not inconsiderable.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/motoring/boat-weighing-38-000kg-could-cause-delays-for-norfolk-drivers-1-4987900 I've just seen this story on the EDP website, and was wondering if anyone knew anything about the boat, at 5.4m (18 feet) by 27.4m (~90feet) she's a bit big for the Broads. I'm guessing by the destination that she's headed for Oyster Yachts (formerly Landamores).

I admit I may be wrong, but I believe the shoals at Irstead are a continuation of the underwater gravel spit that runs across Hickling Broad, and are presumably the remains of a long-gone river bed running roughly perpendicular to the current channel. I've never run aground on them, but having quanted up that stretch of the Ant a number of times in my youth, it's very obvious when you're going over them, due to the sound transferred up the pole and the very different feel of gravel to the usual mud.

Well you could replace the screws with stayblack stainless steel ones, developed precisely for that purpose by my Mum when she worked at GKN in the 1960s.

No, but the local road network is not particularly conducive to running a business based around the waterways (as I've found). What looks like a reasonable journey as the crow flies can be surprisingly long when you actually have to do it. As an example, I had to drive to somewhere in Suffolk yesterday to pick up a new (to me) piece of machinery. A 60 mile round trip in a straight line, but over 100 miles on the car and 3 hours in reality. Loddon wouldn't be quite so hard to get to, but what makes the journey so long is having to go via Norwich or Yarmouth to get across the Yare (yes you can use the Reedham Ferry, but the roads to it are awful on both sides and the fare is not insignificant, so it doesn't save much time or money). Personally I will cover the whole of the Broads for BSS examinations, but I'm now based pretty much in the middle, being on the edge of Norwich, a mile from the A47. I tried covering the South when I was in Ludham, and frequently I spent longer driving there and back than I did actually doing my job.

Personally, I've always just let mine grow without any pinching out and supported them as required. It's not the neatest solution, but it seems to work for me. All of the tomato family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, etc) will keep going pretty much indefinitely provided they don't suffer from frost, mites, or blight - I've got a couple of chilli plants on the kitchen windowsill that I brought indoors last autumn, they started flowering again in January and one already has a few fruits ready to pick. In this situation, the limiting factor is nutrients, but if you keep feeding them, they keep growing.

Not to mention they have something of a reputation for liking the odd beer or three.

You're quite right, my mistake, I'm blaming the lack of coffee.

I've grown them in the past, even though I don't like them raw (I do however cook with them). I tend to go a little off the beaten track with varieties, I can strongly recommend http://realseeds.co.uk/ if you're looking to try out something unusual (their centiflor tomato really is quite impressive both to grow and to eat - two or three trusses on each plant, but each one has literally hundreds of yellow cherry tomatoes). I've tried some of their peppers too, and those have been very good.

Well according to this advert, the freehold is available: http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/lion-inn-in-thurne-for-sale.aspx

That's because the people trying to run their businesses haven't won the lottery, and thus need to actually make enough of a profit to live on.

A few years ago there was a notorious criminal on the canal network (particularly the Grand Union around Braunston) who went by the name of Mr. Finch, and spent most of his time out of prison breaking into and living on moored boats. He generally took booze, food, warm clothes, and any money he could find, and had some odd habits (like always doing the washing up before he left a boat). When it got too cold in the winter, he'd hand himself in to the local police station, get sent down for a while so he could sleep in the warm and get three meals a day, and carry on as before once he was released. He apparently had a history in the services (don't know which one exactly, but given his noteworthy abilities at escape and evasion, quite possibly paras or marines), so tended only to be caught when it suited him. I do wonder if there's a similar person at work here.

True, but ice carried along by the tide (particularly somewhere like Reedham) has a lot more power behind it than can be produced by a boat's engine, and it's impacting on a boat that's being held in place. The subject of ice and boats gets quite complicated very quickly, and if you look at what boaters in less clement climates have to deal with, our problems with it very rapidly come into perspective. I know Griff has said he's very cautious with ice due to his experience at sea, which is fair, as sea ice is a very different beast to river ice, and often an indication of other problems (let's face it, even in the worst winter we don't come across growlers* on the Broads). *Almost totally submerged lumps of pack ice, which can weigh several hundred tons and are solid enough to rip chunks out of steel ships or wreck propellers and stern gear. Fortunately, at the moment the weather seems to be a bit more mild, and is getting above freezing during the day, so unless there's a big cold snap in the next week and a half, BA should be able to get to Horning without any problem. The last really bad ice we had (when the Bure was frozen solid at Acle Bridge, and I was trying to break ice in Horning with little success) was when we had a period of over a month when temperatures didn't get above freezing at all, even during the day. All this talk of ice does make me want to re-read The Terror by Dan Simmons (a fictionalised account of the loss of Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, I found a recommendation after reading about the discovery of the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror recently).

I've done a certain amount of icebreaking in GRP vessels, with ice so thick that it eventually stopped all progress (and in trying to break it up in the dyke before we set off, I swung a 22kg mudweight to about 15 feet above ice level, it dropped with a thud, and made no appreciable dent in the ice). The GRP in question, despite us backing off and making multiple attempts to maintain progress, suffered no discernible damage whatsoever. I suspect that had we continued all day into ice this thick (4-6 inches) we may have begun to damage the laminate, but I'm not certain. Given that a ferrocement (of which seacrete is a trademarked name used by Windboats) hull is immensely strong when built properly, I'd expect the hull itself (as opposed to the paintwork) to get through totally unscathed in any conditions where the boat was able to make progress, as would a steel hull. Incidentally, I've heard all the stories about steel vessels on the canals icebreaking and damaging GRP or wooden vessels by pushing sheets of ice in to them. (In some of these stories the GRP hull was apparently 'sliced in two'.) Despite talking to a lot of boat owners and surveyors over the years, I have never yet come across anyone who had actually seen such a thing with their own eyes, or dealt with the aftermath. I have also never seen any photographic evidence relating to such an event. Whilst something like that may have happened, I'm now firmly of the opinion that until I actually see some evidence, I don't believe those stories. I have seen evidence of damage to the bows of wooden craft caused by icebreaking, which took the form of the wood being worn away around the waterline. My opinion would be that some sort of V-shaped ice board, similar to Robin's suggestion, in contact with the bows and points on either beam (obviously with padding to avoid paintwork damage) would be a usable option for making progress in ice up to a couple of inches thick. After that, you start to need a properly shaped ice breaking hull that rides on to the ice and breaks it with the weight of the boat from above, rather than just using brute force.

Royalls actually have (or had, and Barnes now have), one of the few covered slipways large enough to slip and work on a 60' Wherry (it's where Solace went for her annual fettling). The yard might be small, but it's about the only way Barnes were going to get any more room for expansion in Hoveton, therefore it's no surprise to me that they went for it when the opportunity arose.

You don't need a boatyard (particularly one with bad road access the wrong side of a level crossing, and at severe risk of flooding) in order to build boats. You just need a unit or two on an industrial estate or something similar. Richardson's did it when they built the Horizoncraft fleet at Catfield (and still own and rent out the buildings there), and indeed Aquafibre were based away from the waterside in Rackheath. There's also the small matter that by moving away from the water, the local planning authority becomes Norfolk County Council rather than the Broads Authority, which might bring advantages. If that's the part of the business they wish to concentrate on, then actually selling the yard and going elsewhere makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.

Currently resting, as the acting profession put it, but still a Boat Safety Scheme Examiner at the moment (at least in theory, it being the quietest time of the year for BSS work). Looks like I'll probably go back to working in education in some capacity, unless anyone happens to make me a better offer.

I think this came up on the thread about the boats being for sale, but my experience of Alphacraft built boats is that they vary considerably in build quality, sometimes in fairly important areas.As with any boat, worth getting a good surveyor to look at one before you part with your cash (not me any more, I've got out of that business). With any boat that needs work, try to get a realistic idea of what a refurb will cost, add it to the purchase price, and see if you still have a bargain. Most of the time it's easier and cheaper to buy a boat that's already in reasonably good order, and needs only a couple of things done at most to customise it to your requirements. £750k sounds like a reasonable price for the yard, compared to others that have been on the market recently. Another £750k for those boats is highly optimistic in my humble opinion. Unless I happen to find a very rich investor, I'm not going to be in the market for it (although if such an investor asked, I'd potentially be interested in running it for them).

I strongly suspect that if BB are buying Royalls yard, it's a case of buy it now or not at all. In that situation, if they're able to do so without actually bankrupting themselves in the process, then it's probably a sound business decision, even if they're not doing as well as they'd like at the moment. They are of course one of the big players in the Broads boating industry, so the pressures on them probably aren't as large as on some of the smaller businesses in the same market.

As I understand the situation, it's similar to how third party insurance on your car works. In other words, in the situation you describe, their insurance company would have to pay out to you, but they'd then they'd be perfectly entitled to sue the hirers in order to recover what they'd paid out.

No you're not.