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Well what a weekend that was. The weather for East Coast boating has been truly miserable in general during July but weekends like this stick in the memory and carry you through the poor weather. Our weekend consisted of our usual drive to the boat on Friday night, now less than three hours in comparison with almost four to Burgh Castle. A run round to Wrabness on Saturday, picked up a couple of buoys (ooh er Matron) took the tenders to the beach and had a BBQ and some liquid refreshment. Watched a beautiful sunset, tenders back to the boat where Rachel & Tina had a very odd drink, and spent a peaceful night moored on the buoys. A couple of looks in the night to check the depth under the boats at LW, a very misty start in the early hours but the mist was soon burned off by the sun to reveal a scorcher. PM we watched the sea display for Harwich Sea Festival. It was a long time coming but lets hope for some more like this one before the year is out.

Presumably those that sold out to 'international' business's were happy to do so either because they ran a successful business and were happy to get a good price for the business or ran an unsuccessful business and were happy to sell and 'get out'. If it were the former (and I don't see any signs of that today) why not buy it back cheap from the 'international' company and make it successful again, its amazing what can be done. I've seen business's bought back by the same people for a fraction of what they were paid for it. If it were the latter then maybe there was not a profit to be made from the business in the first place. Seems to me you have to be a fairly committed individual to want to invest in a hire yard. The cost of upgrading an ageing fleet is significant with a diminishing market, increasing costs and a customer base that will have less money in its pockets in the coming years, and the return from which you could probably get from a bank with no risk. Not a recipe that would attract me, so maybe you have to have the scale of some of the larger companies to make it work or do what Len Funnell is doing and have a diverse range of business's e.g. holiday cottages, Private Marina's, Day Boats and from the sounds of it one or two hire craft. It is not an easy way to make a living for small yards and I take my hat of to those that do it and do it well, they are truly committed in my view. Anyway back to Simon's original point........ we are seeing reductions at Supermarkets but then there is competition and they can use fuel as a loss leader. Most yards will have to work through fuel bought at higher price before they are able to order from suppliers at a lower price and pass this onto customers. Of course all of them will have sold stocks bought pre increases to customers at a lower price until this lower price fuel was exhausted won't they

RN&SYC looks 'cosy' Simon http://www.rnsyc.org.uk/netcam.htm

Thanks for the update Nigel Yes you are right it is a bit of a ships graveyard and not much of an advert for the area for first time visitors entering the Broads from sea via Lowestoft.

You don't if you have any sense, mind you it would make Ferry Gliding straight forward :-D The 6kt will be on Springs and the ebb.

Here's an illustrated one I prepared earlier :-D viewtopic.php?f=37&t=305&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=10 Latest Update

No surprise there then! Boy oh boy you know the leftie rhetoric shame they don't match the facts You talk about pensioners and fighting in two world wars in which case why did the good comrade abolish the 10p tax rate that really helped pensioners, oh and funny how winter fuel payments have not been index linked If we are talking equality and fairness lets adopt a flat rate tax so tnat we all pay the same that seems fair. And if you were wondering why our site "Red Robbo" is puffing his chest out have a look at the article attached especially the bit about Unions. SOME uninions have been instructed to increase their profile with members now as they feel they have an opportunity to show they have teeth and prove their worth now THEIR government are on the ropes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The idea behind Gordon Brown's 'rules' Gordon Brown’s rules were always pretty arbitrary. And they were always going to be easy to fiddle. I’m sure you have a rough idea of what the rules are, but just for posterity’s sake, here they are. The basic idea is that the government borrows only to ‘invest’ over an economic cycle. It has to balance its books over the business cycle as a whole. Meanwhile, the ‘sustainable investment rule’ means it has to keep debt to a ‘prudent level’. At the moment, public borrowing isn’t meant to rise above 40% in each year of the current cycle. To put it more simply, the rules were meant to ensure that the government – unlike Labour governments in the past – wouldn’t simply tax the blazes out of the electorate and then pump the cash indiscriminately into the public sector. Past Labour governments have run the economy like a drunk with a stolen credit card, merrily buying round after round for his fair weather friends until he realises he’s spent so much that he can’t pay the bill. At which point he and his friends are all thrown out of the bar. This carelessness has, in the past, tended to end up in a sterling crisis. And that memory was one of the things that kept Labour out of power for so long up until 1997. Mr Brown wanted to get rid of that impression. Hence the rules. These made it sound as if he at least had some understanding that balancing a budget was important, and that getting some sort of return for the money spent on the public sector was needed. The rules gave the idea that there was some sort of restriction on government spending, exactly what the public and the City needed to hear. And why it's all meaningless in practice... Of course, in reality, there was no restriction at all. The Government gets to decide when the economic cycle begins and ends. So in practise, they can spend as much as they want, as long as they can still pretend that it’ll all balance out come the end of the cycle. But despite the incredible degree of flexibility built into these ‘rules’ – perhaps it should have been called the Golden Guideline – the Government is still on course to bust them. And now we’re heading for recession. That means the tax take is going to fall, but at the same time, the Government feels it can’t stop spending, because that would make the downturn even worse (although the idea of cutting taxes to boost consumer incomes doesn’t seem to have occurred to them). So the rules are being revised. We don’t know exactly how yet – that’ll probably be announced in the pre-Budget statement in autumn. The Chancellor will probably try to flannel his way out of trouble by saying that the current economic cycle is over, and so we need new rules for a new cycle. But the long and the short of it is that the Government will be allowed to borrow more money. Never mind that borrowing and spending too much is what got us all into this trouble in the first place. Even assuming that borrowing more to spend is the right thing to do, what is the money going to be spent on? Most of it has been blown on adding layer upon layer of bureaucracy to the public sector. How many more quangos do we need? Why borrow more money when you could save a pile and lose nothing at all by simply taking a metaphorical axe to anyone with the word “co-ordinator†in their job title? Why the unions are excited about higher Government borrowing That’s not the way the Government thinks sadly. And there’s no chance of it changing its tune for as long as it’s reliant on the unions for its funding. And now that they realise the Government is going to borrow more money, the unions are cawing like baby chicks at the sight of a worm. Tony Woodley of Unite tells The Telegraph: “We are not going to let a pay cut be imposed on our members purely because of an economic crisis coming from elsewhere in the world. If a change to the Government’s borrowing rules makes that easier then so much the better.†And Adam Lent of the TUC has a great idea. “Given that one way to boost the economy is to ensure public servants have higher pay – it might be worth considering borrowing extra to afford this.†That’s a cracker, Adam. Tell you what, another way to boost the economy would be to deposit quarter of a billion pounds sterling in my bank account. I promise to blow the lot on flat-screen TVs and buy-to-let flats, and will only keep a small 10% consultancy fee for my pains. The unions know they’ve got it made - but only until the general election in 2010. So expect them to step up the pressure between now and then – it’s much harder to reverse a pay deal once it’s been made. So that’s one more thing for the Bank of England to worry about. And for Mr Brown? Well, the rocks he founded his Chancellorship on, his Golden Rules, have now crumbled, along with any reputation for good governance he had left. As The Times puts it, regardless of how they spin it: “for the financial credibility of Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, this is not the end of the beginning. It is The End.â€

Looking at the weather you are in danger of spoiling your reputation Vulcan will be a sight to see. Hope it all goes well.

Best of luck Simon - what are you plans?

Thanks Nigel there are a few on here that would be interested in any information you can find on both bridges

Thanks Jill, When will they get that Rail Swing Bridge completed It is taking some time and reducing the air draft significantly

Andy many thanks for the update and photo's. We may call on your 'local' knowledge for pilotage on the Ore It was pretty gusty but at least with it predominantly being offshore it was not too bad although Sunday had a bit more South in it. Thanks again.

You have been truly spoilt on the Southern Broads Jimbo A crystal ball fitted next to the helm can work wonders

No where very exotic to warrant that sort of weather, on the coast not far from Barcelona.

Looks like one of the Smacks Ian. Was that the weekend they were racing?

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A couple from the first week where we were able to get up the Orwell, nice and calm when beyond Languard was 'snotty'

Crikey conspiracy theories rule OK :-D :-D And a Martian shot JFK Rod my off button is still there also but don't worry in 'conspiracy world' the capitalists are going to remove them Bring back Lenin

Well its good to see Prudence (sorry Gordy) is about to change his 'Golden Rules' to allow more borrowing. The Golden Rules which were trumpeted so often and so loudly suddenly are not important at all. As I said in an earlier post if they had put money aside instead of squandering it there would be no need to borrow as it could come from reserves. As was said in another placed Gordy "did not fix the roof when the sun was shining" as a result we are all getting wet Get ready for more taxes come the autumn. By the way Flanaguff you mentioned pensioners as a rightly needy group. Tell me who was it that taxed pension funds to the tune of £ 5 billion per year removing all confidenve and who decided to remove the 10p tax rate for the lowest paid - They don't strike me as policy's designed to help the needy.

Give us a wave Third Mate if you see us, or give me a shout if you need a tow off

My point precisely but an enquiry has found the FSA wanting. I take your point re Directors of Northern Rock but what other private company is bailed out with Tax Payers money due to FSA and Directors mismanagement. That decision was the governments and many independent experts lay the blame of this fiasco at the feet of the good comrade.

Talking of weather our last minute overseas dash for some respite from the weather was not a total escape. We had this The Dinghy was sucked off a Balcony 300yds away. The Plastic partition between the balcony's looked like it had been machine gunned but was the result of Golf Ball sized hail. Note the Navigation Buoy pulled up of the sea bed and washed up on the beach The water was still there the next morning.