senator

Does the broads tours bit not relate to the trip boats they run?

Would love to Simon but we can't come till saturday morning as have to go to my sons football presentation on Friday night, would then have to not just fit but also fetch and even worse pay for a new VHF so Saturday would be gone, would leave Sunday and it would be just your luck for the weather to turn.

Have to admit we had the same service but I think it is to do with the 3 swings a day of the railway bridge more than anything else. Found Yarmouth easier than Lowestoft though, being low air draft like us it was just a quick call on VHF to YH for permision to enter, no bridges to lift or swing and no lock so £10 in pocket. We have only done it once so maybe we were just lucky but we went straight through with no problems at all, maybe one of our regular sea goers could fill in the problems you could encounter coming back that way.

Think they are operating swings on the railway bridge @ 9am, 1pm and 3pm Simon but check with Mutford or Olton Yacht Station, be carefull as you go through, they do not open it completely and there are various bits of tube sticking out. Best to move over to starboard and attack at the angle of the half open bit of bridge.

Simon, Looking good on Dicks forcast, lots of west in the wind direction and only a few showers forcast. Looks like SD is finaly going to taste salt, good luck.

I suppose if they really wanted to find out the information would be logged at the various coastguards around as you called in your destinations, whether they could gain access to that information I dont know. Would only catch you out though if you were like two intrepid explorers from the forum and intended to stay away for more than 30 days in one hit. Good luck with the weekend Simon, hope you get the sea state to go, it has been a long time in the making although I can't understand why after all, whenever you fancy running up your engines you can always just pop out to sea as so often informed by others.

Do you have to do this every time you go out and do they ask you to name your marinas and itinery? Have never actually given it a thought before reading the artical but effectivly it was saying that if you are not in your own Marina you should advise your insurer, so either a string of phone calls to their answer phone or submiting a detailed plan of your intended journey, and then what would happen if you changed your plans by choice or neccessity once out on the water. Maybe just me but I have a deep seated distrust of Insurance companys in todays markets, was different when the man from the pru knocked on the door every week, If you had been with him for 10 years you knew it didn't matter what happened it would be covered, nowadays if you didn't do the dusting on Tuesday your house will not be covered against flood aircraft or earthquake. If they have a way out they will not pay, simple as that.

David, looks like yours is adapted from a sailing policy too, what are you going to use your extra crew for on Biscay?

Ours allows for inland on the broads and upto 12 miles out to sea but I think the problem with customisable policys is the increased risk of them slipping through the net. Noticed something the other day on some marine insurance site, about the moorings. Your policy is costed around the suitability of your home marina so what happensif you are moored in a different marina and something happens, there was also an issue about picking up a mooring bouy. Apparently most policies for motor boats are modified sailing policies, a common clause is the speed clause, a seperation between fast and slow boats, if a boat capable of 7 knots and his friend in his 15 knotter picked up adjacent bouys moored, went to the restraunt only to see the weather blow through a nasty squall. Both boats break there moorings and get smashed on the rocks, despite being insured with the same company on the same policy all be it slightly adapted to take into account the higher speed of one boat, only one is actually covered. What difference it makes if your boat can do 5 or 55 knots when you are tied to a bouy I do not know but that is insurance, the artical did say this is supposedly a common clause so worth checking if you own a faster boat.

That looks a seriously seaworthy bit of kit Jill, you must have had some serious adventures on that

It is nothing special Jonny, mostly industrial in fact there was more to see coming in at Yarmouth, Marinas are nice beach is right next to RNSYC, town in Whitson week was virtually deserted.

We went from Lowestoft last time due to overnighting and hoping for a decent sea the following day, have to say found Lowestoft very preferable over Yarmouth for a stroll round, but there was a lot more to sort out going out of Lowestoft than coming into Yarmouth although the boat we were with did need Haven and Breydon lifting. Was nice to be able to stand on the pier and see the sea before leaving but if you were going straight through then the entrance to Lowestoft in a blow looked a lot more frightening than that of Yarmouth. If we were stupid enough to try I doubt we would have got through it on a force 6 N/E without being smashed on the wall. The other thing we found out is that you get a fair old swell in RNSYC in north Easterlys maybe Haven would have been the better choice given the wind direction, we actually had to move the boat from the end of the visitors pontoon by the entrance where we were rafted on, round to the pontoon in front of the clubhouse after my girlfriend got sea sick.

Have often seen it quoted that Lowestoft is a much better way out than Yarmouth usually with the coment that if it is rough at Yarmouth you have nowhere to go. Obviously you have to go a lot further from the entrance to a mooring but is it just that it is a long trip back up the yare (we clear Haven Bridge at virtually all states of tide) or is there something I am missing?

Well hats off to you guys, Lowestoft to Yarmouth was exciting to us, one day we would like to do the Dutch waterways and even that elusive trip to fill up at the home of eurofiz, hope you will be taking some proper beer to show the locals what they are missing. Till then I will be pooring over charts and tide tables, planning the next trip to the dizzy distances of southwold, we are leaving from Yarmouth to double the distance :-D will be looking out to sea though and thinking about the proper passage makers amoungst us

Bit different for us Jonny, if it rains the screens mist up so we can't see, or we get wet. but when it rains you get limited visability, the wildlife stops, everything gets damp and you sit behind a windscreen and under a roof instead of enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. can't understand why people moan about the rain. Simon, good luck with the planned outing this weekend, hope you finaly get to make it through the pierheads, the 7 knot run to the first bouy is magical, full of excitment and adrenalin, if only every time was like the first we would never again touch land. Perry, do I sense another adventure, where are you and our techical guru off to now?

Just noticed on another thread that a member posted saying Aston were soon to close. What a shame this is, another hire fleet gone from the south, does anyone know the reason? is it retirment and time to cash in on the assets or is it just that the hire business is so bad now that it is another yard that just cant make ends meet? Would I be right in saying that apart from a couple of non affiliated yards in Loddon just about all that is left on the south now is 3 or 4 at Brundal?

Don't mind at all, did post last night but the connection crashed when I pressed send, As to the dinks this is a possible, there were some very slight dinks on both props which amounted to little more than a slight burr, I filed them off rather than sending the props away to steel developments. Maybe I should have sent them off to have the pitch checked and get them proffesionally done. For now I will live with them as it has no effect for 99% of my boating time but I would like to say thank you for everyones head scratching and brain stormming. As an aside I am now thinking of fitting a silt light to White Lady for use in the marina at anything short of half tide, hopefully though the prommised dredging will have been done by the time I get back there. Ian

Great pictures Perry and how much more proof can you have that the south isn't all about reeds. Ian

Now hub slip is something I had not considered David but again how likely is it that both hubs would slip to the same degree? Anything breaking the water flow would have to be well forward or repeated in front of both props. Only thing I can think of that has altered below the water line is the thickness of the antifoul as it has had another coat on for this year, could this really cause a major difference?

Hi All, As to the outdrives there is a counter rotating and a standard rotation drive but only the one leg has actually been removed so it is not possible that they have been put back on the wrong way round. A posibility would be that the props are on the wrong way but I was carefull to ensure they went back on the right way round, if they were wrong I would have thought the drop off in performance would have been a lot more, maybe someone could clarify this? the pitch is 15 x 19 so sorry about that Simon missed the 1 and they are single props. as only one leg has been messed with then the gearing would have only altered one side and the engines are both running to the same revs. It would certainly appear to be the props not creating as actual push rather than mechanical fault. Big groan as I put this because it should have been in from the start. with the legs trimmed fully in the engines still only pull 4300 RPM it is when they are trimmed out slightly that the increased revs happen without any increased speed, previously you needed to run a couple of degrees to get the speed. Would just run legs in but she then has a habbit of digging in and putting her self at a very alarming angle of heel. It appears that the props are cavitating a bit but the mystery is why would they suddenly start to do it.

Thanks Jonny, will have a read

Revs would be down and not up Jill, if it was fuel.

Jonny, there are 2 rev counters and it would be unlikely that they have both become wrong by the same amount. Simon, Engines are 3 litre Mercruisers on Alpha 1 gen 2 legs, giving 135hp each on 15 x 9 props, boat weight is virtually 3000kg dry. David, that is what I was saying the engines would pull the higher revs on a cold day not the hotter one. Will find out whitson if a longer run on the plane improves things but both engines are pulling the same sort of revs so it is common to both outdrives, I would think more likely to be a boat issue than a drive one, other than the props I can't think of anything else that would effect both engines.

WOT at Poole and previously on Breydon was around 4300 RPM the max on the engines is 4800 RPM, that is why I say it is as if the props just arn't grabbing the water as well and appear to be slipping, maybe if I had a longer run then the boat would catch up, I did come off the plane at least 5 times on the run accross in both directions but she seemed to have stopped accelerating where as before there was a fairly hearty pull up to the mid 30s. Trim tabs were fully up so same as before legs were trimmed out by a couple of degrees. Would the cold day theory not have resulted in more power from the engines so in effect higher RPM than the hot day? 80% of the fuel is less than 2 weeks old, looks like I could be scrapping the weight redistribution but think the biggest part of the weight in the boat centres around the tanks, all midships but have the Holding tank in front of the fuel tank and the water tank above the fuel tank but at the stern end of it. on this run the fuel was full (65 Gallons) but the water was empty (25 gallons) and the holding tank 50% full (20 gallons) as the boat is only 3 tons empty and 26'6 long then I suppose even a slight variation over the 4'6" area that encompasses the tanks could well totally change the attitude of the boat.

Speed is measured by GPS and padle wheel which tend to agree at speed, there was possibly slightly less water in Breydon this time but not a lot. the reason for me questioning the props was that at anything other then legs hard in they seemed to be slipping in the water, with both engines easily pulling 4750 rpm compared to 4300 rpm that was previously recorded at both poole and previous runs. When she first came to the broads she would pull around 31-32 on Breydon but through the year the speed increased, if anything she has had weight moved forward progresively through the time in an attempt to keep her on the plane at a lower speed, she did stay on at 19 knots, just. This is a couple less than previous but still higher than others are expieriencing with the same type of boat.