NeilB

Yours look like the"S" rating which equates to Light Duty Commercial. If Yanmar have different service items for leisure and commercial use no wonder they are so expensive ! Not sure about Yanmar but VP offer the choice of green or white on all engines from D3 to D16 regardless of use so colour is not always an indicator. Some areas like the USA prefer white engines while other countries are not bothered.

As others have stated the river around Henley week is heaving with long queues at locks. However, the majority of locks below Oxford now have power 24/7 so are fairly easy to operate. We always recommended people pass though Henley early morning to avoid the queues, once a couple of locks past it quietens down. Datchet to Henley is a fairly long day but not an unusual distance.

Definitely Kris Cruisers for both day and longer hires. I'm probably biased as I worked there for 10 years but as Vaughan says there's not much left on the Thames now. Hobbs have some day boats which are very basic but do have a couple of nice Linssens for hire.

Working for Volvo Penta can be tough at times!! At Seawork all week.

Low tides last week and probably this week as well. Seawork was delayed a week due to low tides in Southampton and another week due to clashing with another show.

Remember being cast adrift at Thorpe many, many years ago as a teenager with my parents. Mum came into my cabin to wake me so I could help dad. Apparently I said ok, turned over and went straight back to sleep!! Must have been over 30 years ago now!

This was a few years ago now in the US, pretty sure they all received injuries and some were quite severe. Doing those sorts of speeds you want to be strapped in with some safety gear. A bikini doesn't cut it - especially with my figure !!! :-)

If everyone switched to electric cars by say 2030, or trucks, buses or boats etc. Where is all the energy going to come from to power the fast chargers required for commercial use? How “green” will they be? The National Grid would have a meltdown !! I believe coal power stations are being phased out or converted to gas and their input to the power grid is the lowest it’s ever been. There have also been some planning restrictions lifted which will enable more windfarms to be constructed but this will all take time and is not enough. Electromobility is the new buzz word, there’s a serious amount of development and big advances going on behind the scenes in all automotive areas but infrastructure development seems inadequate. I’ve no idea what the answer is and I hope someone in government is taking a long term view ! I

Your memory is still good ! I have a picture somewhere of myself as a 4 year old in a Loynes dayboat with a red ensign. Yes, colour film was around then so it’s definitely red !!

I've done this many times on the Thames when it's in flood, stronger flow than the tides at Yarmouth. In everything from a 25ft Hampton to a 44ft Bounty, loads of different styles in-between and the odd narrow boat as well. You only need small rudder movements and only for a short period before returning to straight ahead. You need to keep the angle fairly shallow, too steep and the boat starts going backwards and you loose control. When getting closer to the bank steer the opposite direction slightly to cancel the sideways movement. You can always practise somewhere where the flow is strong but away from the bank, other boats etc to see how your boat handles. All will do it but some are more responsive than others. I've seen a Dutch barge go through a bridge backwards in a strong flow and maintain perfect control - I've never handled anything that big so the bridge may have ended up as a pile of rubble if I tried !!

Hot and sunny in Warwick !

Garmin have a remote you can use if you don't like the touchscreens, can also vouch for their customer service.

We knew the owners of Bure Croft and LL Cruisers many years ago before Summercraft bought them. Directly behind Cambridge Cabby's boat was the slipway and LL Cruisers boatshed where Bure Bank now sits. Early 80's Faircraft had their boatyard in the same dyke along with Falcon and it was still quiet ! I was only a young teenager but helped wash boats for use of LL's sailing dinghy !

Some were built by Cheeseman Rollo on the Thames, late 70,s / early 80's. Had 2 where I worked and I think Bridge Boats in reading had a couple. No idea where the EBay one comes from but I think it has the same dashboard and throttle as the Cheeseman Rollo boats, they had BMC 1.8's as well. One of them sank in Windsor with water about a foot above the cockpit floor, I was one of the 2 people who raised it. Oddly enough I'm pretty sure it was Vaughan who drove the crane from Staines to Datchet to lift it out the water ! Was back on hire the following week.

Hi Robin, you could have waited a while longer and purchased this one!! Speed boat, hot tub, car and a helicopter. What more could you want? Perhaps stabilisers looking at the draft and height above water but perhaps best not to go there! Sorry, couldn’t resist but it does look impressive! https://www.theyachtmarket.com/boats_for_sale/1600051/?searchid=15302121&page=5

That would explain why they have been up for sale for so long!!

Waterside marine sales at Potter have an AF Pearl 38 and a few other Centre cockpit boats for sale. Norfolk boats sales had a Pearl as well, ex Moore’s.

I see Vaughan is on the wine already !

Hope you all have a good time. Sadly having to co-ordinate 2 x jobs, 3 x kids, 2 x cats and a dog we keep missing it this !

Yes, Ad blue. The gases all exit through the exhaust. You won’t see this in leisure boats for a long time, if at all.

For engines in leisure boats under 24m the current UK and EU emission regulation is RCD 2 which was introduced on new engines from January 2017. A review of this should be completed by the end of 2022 but how the UK will handle this remains to be seen due to Brexit. There are other regulations for new engines larger than 130kW for commercial use but unlikely to affect the Broads. The next big one is IMO Tier III which is global, it’s being phased in now depending on installed power, vessel size, location etc and will be fully implemented by 1st Jan 2021. Recreational boats less than 24m are not affected. Engines that are affected will be using exhaust systems similar to the one below, nothing new as they have been used by trucks for years. As to the future, well the buzzword at the moment is electromobility, we already have electric cars and buses with trucks from 2019. It may take a few years but it will eventually reach the Broads.

Very good Chris, for number 5 when you walk up to security make sure you have a pronounced limp as it helps ! As an exhibiter here’s my version. 1. A nice lady at work books the appropriate nights at the Grand Harbour Hotel. Nice hotel but has pictures of some grumpy chef all over the place putting you off your food ! 2. Drive car to concierge who takes keys and probably dumps car in a back street as their car park is now part of the show. 3. Blag another staff members room number so you can wrangle a breakfast. 4. Walk over road to stand and discover no one has emptied bins, cleaned glass, dusted, topped up brochures etc. 5. Stand on aching feet all day awaiting someone to dump a bag of oily 40 year old engine parts on a nice clean white counter 6. When show quietens head over to the “secret” Guinness bar with the real stuff from Ireland. 7. On way back to hotel pop into the Dancing Man brewery for a quick one ! 8. By 9pm realise we’re still in the Dancing Man but hungry so try and find somewhere who can feed us. 9. No idea what happened next - honest!! 10. Wake up next morning and say “ I’m never doing that again”. Repeat for however many days you are there for. 11. Last morning at checkout enquire why you have 14 breakfasts on the room number when you only stayed 4 nights and where is my car? 12. Last half hour of last day wander round seeing how many freebies or deals you can get. 13. Spend 5 hours sat on the M3 / A34 at 15mph. 14. Receive abuse from wife as I’ve been enjoying myself and getting a suntan etc, etc

That's a bit of a trek, our lot moan if they have to walk more than 10 minutes !!! Mind you it does have a slipway, you could borrow Rascals jet rib to commute in !!

Where on earth is that?!

As I get older I realise that most people are just winging it, including me !