C.Ricko

Moonfleet Marine.. (other side of river) as taken from the roof of the shed (green blister hangar at Richardsons)

Well with a tender called that she must have been Bubble Gap? Bubble Gap was sold mid 90s for about £17,500 I had never and have never seen a boat in such fine condition, when the owner left her he would open all the drawers, lift the bunks and rope the doors open and leave all the windows open.

I think I know, but are you asking Terry? is she the one which is now in Loddon who lived in our shed for years?

I saw her on the Waveny last October I did not take a second look as I thought she was fiberglass! I think her name is 'No pekin' and her bootline is black Rushleen was taken from Wayford to Horning for a quote and then took back I do not know wether a start has been made.. 15 odd years ago she was getting in a state, we bought her,one of our blokes (Gerry Thrower) put some planks in her and we sold her on again, she was still blue then.

http://www.horning.org.uk/boatsearch.ph ... current=no

Hi, is she Caroleen or Rushleen? probably Caroleen as Rushleen has been knocking about here for ages unless she went away and came back in a rough state... Both built by Sabberton. in saying that she is either Rushleen or neither!

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!! I got it all wrong Broadsman 1 (with the painted hull) caught fire at the yard on the riverbank. Ted Piggin put the fire out with a powder extinguisher but she recaught and burned up she did have a Gray motor but was probably changed to a Ford watermota.

Ok Jonny, I suppose it is hard not to (disclaimer.. other boatyards are available)

Hello all, I am not here to flog holidays but if you fancy starting from Stalham or Acle give our booking office a ring 0844 7705213 or do a search on http://www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk/ or simply request a brochure to have a look. wherever you go from have a great time. Hi allaboard, you posted before me! simple answer is no. sorry but even I was not allowed! you could ask the booking girls what boats do allow dogs and see if there is one you might like.

Terry, I recon you know the answer but are just testing me Luckily I think I know a bit about this... They were renamed Broadsman 1 and 2. As you say, No2 caught fire at Hunsett Mill, I think she had a Graymarine motor. I nearly suggested that it was one of them in the pic but the chances of being wrong were too great!

Hi Jonny, I'm not restoring it for the museeum, it is mine, the engines next to it belong to the museeum. I will get a better picture,as she is a nice launch, Ranger has different lines as does Golden dawn the tow boat from Hearts which I think were the same.

Hi Rod, the van is the GRP van from before the white Mondeo estate which has also now expired! we have been taking bits off it but now yeilds no more useful parts. Robin is still with us on 3 days. As you say, the Dinghey Hangar is the grey blister hanagar as you go up to the point, next to the gas compound and battery shed. this picture is of the fiberglass repair shop in the corner of the 'Ponderosa' we have other stores full of moulds for them to use, we dont throw much away!

Rummage is one word, but the stuff has not been there long enough to give me any suprises (6 months) I have another shed full of arcade machines and carpet which is next to be cleared then all the stuff from the Dinghey hangar can go in there (bit of a roundabout) the boat had been sold once but we took it back when we got told the engine did not run (2.2 not installed at the time!) got told to burn it but me being me put her in the shed, I gave up trying to find a good home to give her to and have decided to keep her as I allways liked her and she does have lovely lines. at one time she had a set of screens fitted which I bust one side off on a Tobago weeks after they had been made also one time I went to Cockshoot broad on a breakdown and the steering cable fell off, I reversed her all the way back with no steering 8-) she also gave a great rooster tail!

John, you are right, people know we have stuff and we are often glad we kept it ourselves, we sent some BMC 2.5 pushrods to Australia in December, bloke reconed he had tried everywhere. I am putting a 2.5 IN my boat here are some more photos of a shed full. This shed is called the 'Dinghey Hangar' there used to be a slip the other end but we pulled it up years ago when we ran Broads holidays from there. I had cleared the shed out in the summer, it was full of a childrens soft play area, the interior of a pub we cleared and contents of a bakery no sooner had it been cleared it was filled with dingheys which were stored in the Wet Shed which needed to emptied for work. The boat is Hornings Ex tow boat which I cant let go and 'Bobbys Diner' burger van gets rented out in Hemsby for the summer. The engines in front of the Tow boat are being stored for the Museeum of the Broads.

Hi, I thought I would dredge this up to post some similar info I posted with Terry on a different thread so as not to 'take over' a different topic. I copied this from an email I wrote to a few people last year and thought some may be interested... It is a list of the wooden boats which built 'RICHARDSONS' I could add row boats, launches and sailing boats another time when I compile it. Mermaid 1-9 built RR Oulton Broad Designed by _ _ _ _ Moxey. Nos 1-3 approx 1 foot shorter. Just Jane, Wayfarer. built RR Oulton Broad Designed by Ken Harrison. Fancy free, Carefree. built RR Oulton Broad Designed by Ken Harrison. Tranquil 1-7 built RR Oulton Broad Designed by Ken Harrison. Voyager 1-2 built RR Oulton Broad Designed by Ken Harrison. Crusader 1-7 built RR Oulton Broad Designed by Ken Harrison. The Following were all based on the 32' plans (Tranquil, Voyager, Crusader) the spaces between the frames widened to make the boats longer some had the foreward frames turned 'inside out' to make more room (swiftway, Broadway, Clarion, and 42 footers) Merlin 1-5 built RR Oulton Broad. No 5 finished Stalham. Minstrel 1 built RR Oulton Broad, finished Stalham. No2 built Stalham. Osprey 1 built RR Oulton Broad, finished Stalham. No2 built Stalham. All of The boats above were built by R Richardson and Son The boat builder in charge was Rugby Aldred. with the exception of two boats all the boats let at Oulton broad were built 'in house', the boats were... 'Macnab' built by Landamore Wroxham originally named 'Wanda' 'Return' built Fletcher Oulton Broad originally named Good Companion. Minstrel 1 (S25) - Osprey 1 (S24) and Merlin 5 (S23) were all finished at Stalham although built in Oulton. In addition to the three boats above, the following boats were built at Stalham and never let from Oulton Broad. Serenade. built RR Stalham. Swiftway. built RR Stalham. Broadway. built RR Stalham. Broadsventure. built RR Stalham. Broadlander. built RR Stalham. Fulmar. built RR Stalham. Pacesetter. built RR Stalham. Sunway. built RR Stalham. Clarion. built RR Stalham. Halcyon, three and a half out of the 4 were built by Ted Piggin at Whispering Reeds before they went bust. we finished that at stalham. Rose marie was built Walter Austrin, not sure of employer but we bought if from John Linford at Sutton Staithe. Sapper / Fusilier / Bombardier built by fletcher at Oulton Broad, we purchaced possibly from Burgh St Peter ( now WRC) Catalina(built for MD Queens moat houses Hotels who we bought it from), Ultima, Solatire, Stalham Vangurad, valentine, valentina, Carousel, Niten, Caprice and Zeta John Linford built. The'Alice in Wonderland' boats. were built by Mr Leyton at Netishead who sold his business to John Linford who in turn sold the boats to us. Broadsman,(bought as Braemar) Elsinore, Goldcrest, Saratoga were built by (Harry) Collins pleasurecraft Oulton Broad. Caroleen, Rushleen. Built Sabberton Wroxham. Highlander built in Beccles by Herbert Freeman. Clearskies poss John Linford. All the above boats are in the 1978 Blakes brochure with the exception of Elsinore, Goldcrest, Saratoga and Rose marie. Mandarin 1-3 built Easticks Acle (originally Vega) Challenger Built Truman Oulton Broad. a few models. 2x Midnight Sun were bought from Mrs Bailey (Sunboats Acle) not sure what we changed names to.

Hi Steve, this is not a hijack : http://www.richardsonsgroup.net/about.aspx dad tells me things every now and then but wont write any thing down, I have been writing bits down, he allways assumed no one was interested but is now realising they are. he also is a bit modest and never thought anything he did was that good as it was just what was going on at the time so some things are only just coming to light. he also binned lots of stuff i would have liked to have now.

Barry, I do have a set of drawings which were sent to me from Canada last year by Ken Harrison who designed 3 classes of dads boats so they could be re drawn. (Carol also was sent copies which are on her Broadland Memories site) I will try and get time to uncover the rest of the lofted frames but there is a slight issue...................

Hello Steve, Not wanting to steal Terrys answer have a look at this thread he started. viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4080 regards.

Hi Barry, not that it makes any difference, but I have allways described them as a 'flaired transom' they were the first wooden boat I recognised and got confused when I realised there were other designs of Windboats, now I just look at the windows.

Hi Terry, Minstrel 1 was finished at Stalham but built in Oulton Broad and possibly Osprey 1 and Merlin 5. (Dad recons Merlins let well as they were the only 9 berth on the Broads) The writing is not Dads, most likely Rugbys. I could not see every marking up there as there is a load of water pumps, webastos and tellys up there amongst other sh1te cluttering up the space. Dad has always said Rugby with the help of a boy could build a boat in 12 weeks, including engineering, electrics, morticed/tennoned doors, dovetailed drawers and some varnishing (Voyager 1 keel laid just before christmas mid 50s went out Easter) there were no other employees there to help apart from Dad who did some of the varnishing. Terry, have you forgotten the Elysians which were built before the Ocean 30s?

Here you are Terry, I now know how Baldric feels when he finds stuff buried in fields I knew this was up there but did not know where, after lots of sweeping dust about I discovered this down the far end, there is a mountain of stuff piled up up there and are probably more drawings under that.

Andy, Another point regarding your boat, she has brown paint under the layers, on the superstructure, this would mean she was one of the fleet rented to John Williams diring the 80s so could be in a catalogue somewhere. (the engine is a BMC 1.8)

Hi Andy, you picked up a good boat there, well worth the money, not sure about the height as it all depends on who made your canopy hoops. I would say that she will not pass under Ludham while raised, I saw a hirer with a 4 inch cut across his forehead who did attempt this

Terry, I am fairly sure all the 'lofted' frames are still up there, (if that is the correct phrase) but I have never looked, it is a bit dusty I will see if I can get up there on tuesday.

No thanks! far too dangerous, I nearly got stuck on the shed roof after taking this one