NeilB

Waiting for taxi to Landvetter airport and then onto Heathrow. Spent all week in Sweden playing with boats containing lots of interesting things! Straight up to the boat, picking up some new rhond anchors along the way. Replacing the domestic batteries, residing the fridge/ freezer are planned for the weekend.

I'm going to be at Ranworth Island on the Friday, I'll be solo but as long as I can pressgang a couple of crew to assist I'm quite happy to collect on the Saturday morning and return on the Sunday afternoon.

@CambridgeCabby when would the gazebo need collecting from Horning? Would it fit where the black blob is?

I drove to the Swan in Horning the evening of 2nd March for an overnight stay and collected the keys on 3rd March for a long weekend. No real plans, just give her a bit of a clean, cruise about for a few days to see what needs doing etc. Home mooring is in Stalham but on the 1st night I only made it as far as Neatishead, spent a couple of hours in the White Horse and thanks to Russell, (The Admiral), I’m now into the Whisky Cask cider! As usual the food was fantastic and I’m afraid to say made 2 of my other 3 meals out appear mediocre in comparison. RR has a warm air Eberspacher with a broken thermostat so it’s either on or off, she also has a Webasto hot water system with a 7-day timer feeding the calorifier and 4 radiators. Plus I was plugged into the electric post so was nice and warm! As I went to bed I discovered a problem with the front curtains, they are the usual curtain hooks and rail at the top and bottom tucks into an elastic curtain rope which stretches across the bottom. All sounds fine except the curtains were barely long enough and slightest touch caused the 2 central ones to untuck themselves and swing out. It took a few attempts to get into bed and the curtains to stay in place, this is where the evenings cider consumption was not helpful…. I apologise to my neighbours that evening who may have been confused by the twin moons on show …. The next day was spent cruising to Ranworth, more cleaning, sorting, measuring etc followed by a meal in the Maltsters. As I was moored stern on I left the curtains to do as they pleased!! I had a closer look at the transom cut out, it appears the previous owner attacked it with some enthusiasm. They found an appropriate size lump of key heading which was then jammed into place and smothered with a mixture of white resin mixed with mayonnaise, marzipan and cream cheese - I think another saw will have to be involved in fixing this area! Wasn’t sure where to head for on Saturday 5th but managed to snag a mooring on Horning Staithe. I removed the 2 x huge TV aerials and pulled up some floorboards to check out what was lying around, you can see the forward aerial in the first photo. RR has separate Shoreline fridge and freezers, I’d never tried the freezer until now but it did’nt want to work. Turns out the cable size is too small and it’s seeing a voltage drop, the fridge seems to be working fine off the same feed but I guess the compressor doesn’t need as much power to cool than to freeze. Another item to go on the list, hopefully done in time for the NBN meet as somewhere to keep the ice we’ll need for the heatwave that weekend…! Off to the New Inn this evening which was OK and I will probably try again, don’t think I’ll be back to the Swan for a while though… I was making lists of jobs to do and money to spend, things like LED lights as some had been replaced and some had not. A couple of windows leaked so will have to be removed and re-sealed, some of Captain Tollys Creeping Crack Cure seems to have done the trick for now though! On the Sunday I just headed back to Stalham and then straight home as I had a list of things to order. Not sure when the next instalment will be as have boring domestic / work stuff to sort out, plus I’m in Sweden all next week, this was made worse due to BA cancelling a flight so not returning until Saturday morning on a bank holiday!

Some of you may have noticed I’ve recently moved from Syndicate ownership to full ownership, sometime in the next few months I’ll be moving on board permanently. I’m not going into what started this chain of events, it involves divorce and other nasties that I never thought I’d have to deal with, plus you wouldn’t believe me if I told you! I’ve been mucking around in boats since I was born, I’ve been working on them or in the industry since I was 18, so after recent events I decided now was the time to move onto one. Not the best time to be buying a boat as anything not half sunk was being snapped up within hours for silly prices. After a couple of months driving back and forwards along the A14 / A11 I looked at an Alpha 42 CC which had been used as a liveaboard for 3 years. I was suspicious of the engine as it was nicely warm when I started it but I was planning to replace it anyway, turns out it’s hardly been used for 3 years so after a couple of good runs, filter change and shock dose of Marine 16 it’s now running much better – still going to be changed though! Like everything else it was slightly overpriced, needed work but as the survey showed she was basically solid, still has Osmosis like virtually every other GRP boat but the surveyor was surprised how little there was. Managed to knock a reasonable chunk of money off plus the mooring is paid for until October, which will cover some of the work required and she was all mine! A bit larger than I was planning for but I’m finding the extra space is coming in handy. I know centre cockpits are not the best for liveaboard due to keeping the canopy draught proof, the previous owners had a method of reducing drafts but I’ve noticed several private CC boats now have custom covers so I’ll be looking into this for the autumn onwards. They are my preferred choice though, giving a higher all-round viewpoint while still fitting under most bridges, this one also has the split front screen which makes it much easier to handle on my own. She is still called Rambling Rosie, I’ve no real idea what to call her plus I’ve had enough bad luck recently so changing a boats name is not high on my list of priorities!

The new Faircraft just been added to the NBD website - https://www.broads.co.uk/boats/fair-regal-1/ I quite like the looks of it as well, although mainly because it makes my Alpha 42 CC look pretty!!

£15 to pump each tyre up....

That's just some marketing rubbish to differentiate between the keel cooled and heat exchanger cooled versions.

Here you go - https://betamarine.co.uk/portfolio/beta-85t/ Looks like a different base engine to the 90T.

My dad never liked the A11 and always went via Royston, Haverhill, Bury St Edmunds, Diss. I used to pop up for a couple of days and used the same route as there were some "fun" driving roads in the late 80's / early 90's. One occasion there was a convoy of 3 cars at night exploring the err, higher sections of the speed limit, me in the middle, no idea who was in front. When we reached Bury St Edmunds the car at the back lit up with blue lights so we stopped, he said that was fun lads but to reign it in for the rest of the trip!!!!!

I should probably start my own boaty thread but today was a cruise from Thurne Mill to a nice wild mooring just below Irstead. Spent a few hours scrubbing those pesky black marks from the non slip tread which seems to cover this boat. Just chilling with a beer before lighting the BBQ. Couple of pics of the mooring and beer guarding the cleaned non slip! Back to home mooring in Stalham tomorrow morning, clean through and hopefully away by noon as a few chores to do elsewhere.

Good point, plus I put a pound on electric so have to protect my investment!

Somehow I’ve just managed to moor at Horning Staithe. Still pondering whether to stay here or go and hide somewhere quieter!

Dropped the mud weight on Barton Broad yesterday evening and spent today working. I'll be logging off at 4pm and heading for either a wild mooring on the Bure, or if taken I'll just drop the weight again in Ranworth or Salhouse - decisions, decisions...

I noticed Norfolk Boats Sales listed an Aquafibre Diamond 43 over the weekend for £79,950, it's under offer already!

I think they may be referring to the reciprocal free moorings. I believe you can still pay for a visitor mooring, although like many others I won’t be taking them up in it. the totem pole wild mooring just upstream would be my choice.

I suspect it’s due to the locks for safety reasons. The Thames is usually fairly calm, if it does go into flood some parts make Yarmouth look tame, although hire boats are not allowed to travel unless a suitably experienced skipper is at the helm.

If you go for one of the smaller ones you'll be fine with 2 people, it's just the larger ones have 3 adults as a minimum.

If you ordered the replacement from a Volvo Penta dealer they should also be sending the new bolts, they are part of the replacement pump kit. If not they are p/n 948324

Although Boulters and Sutton Staithe are based up north they do cover all the Broads, think about £150 or so. Not had any dealings with them though.

Haines have access to the moulds as they built one for Kris Cruisers a year or so back - https://www.kriscruisers.co.uk/cruisers/lady-victoria/

£1:50 at Simpson today, ignore the sign that says £1:30, they are going to change it as I was getting excited !

They were swallowed up into the Pennants holiday group along with Earnest Collins, Hearts, Southgates & Herbert Woods in the 80’s. When they went pop the boats were sold off, a few stayed with Herbert Woods for a few years but all gone now.

I'm not back on board until next Thursday night, at least I know what the first job is going to be!!

That’s true, I think it’s just the VAT but that’s plenty!