NeilB

Never cruised the Broads at night as I've always hired. I used to do a some night cruising on the Thames with my own boat and some of Kris Cruisers and loved it, had one of those million candle power hand held torches in case I ever needed it. Only time it was ever used was to flash at the idiot on the narrow boat who was trying to blind me. It was a hire boat and should never have been moving anyway.

Done.

There's absolutely no justification for this behaviour, glad the police are taking this seriously. A swans hiss is generally worse than their peck! Once you've folded their wings and picked them up they are usually very docile. Except for the black swans, never experienced it myself but heard they can be vicious. I used to help Swan Lifeline many years ago, visited their base and had a few hours training.

Wish I could go - I'd love to crew but unfortunately my Mother-in-Law is visiting from Spain this weekend. Unless you can provide a gangplank......

Well done Robin, I'm not at all jealous!

It's probably a VOAC system which was a collaboration between Volvo and Atlas Copco. They were mainly used for construction / forestry equipment but a few found their way onto hire boats, I believe they were more efficient than other versions that were available at the time. I've never seen one fitted to a Penta engine but a few on BMC 2.2 / 2.5's. The question of spares rises it's head every couple of years at work and we usually point people in the direction of Anglian Diesels - http://www.arsangliandiesels.co.uk/index.htm My parents hired Astral Emblem when I was about 15/16 and seem to remember it was quite nippy for a hydraulic powered hire boat !

Thanks for posting as I'd forgotten about this, Wellesbourne and Coventry are both within 15 min so I may try and see it. Despite having tickets I missed the Cosford show as my mum was poorly so had to drive down to sort her house and garden out.

There are several ways I've seen to govern the engine speed. 1. Adjusting the stops on the injection pump - not the best solution. 2. Bracket installed behind throttle control to restrict movement. 3. Move throttle lever so it physically hits the dashboard. (Hope the hirers do not have any allen keys!) There are one or two other methods but these seemed to be the most popular. We used 2 or 3 as they restricted power in forward gear but allowed a little more in reverse for braking. It was also a quick fix if we needed a bit more power to cope with strong steam conditions on the Thames where I worked.

That boat needs it's engine restricting a bit more, unless the idiots on board had worked out how to de-restrict it themselves.

Some more in this thread -

Here's another one from my travels - an Ocean 30 in Puerto Pollensa on Majorca. Needs a bit of a polish though !

Where was this taken then? I'll raise you this picture of a Bounty 37 going through a lock in Warwick on my walk home from work. It still had it's registration number of G829 which was Tahiti 3 from Mixer Marine before heading to Herbert Woods. We hired a Tahiti back in the early eighties, not sure which one though without checking some photos at mums house. Anyone else have photos of Broads boats in far flung places?

My Great Aunt lived on the Ingham Road in Stalham until she passed away in the early nineties. She was relocated there after her bungalow in Sea Palling was badly damaged in the 1953 floods, she was actually rescued by a lifeboat from the roof!! She worked in a mobile butchers van and at Richardson's as a boat cleaner so always knew the local gossip!!

It did get a little bit darker in Warwick, I popped over to the other side of the building to watch it. As this involves walking past the canteen it would have been rude not to stop for a bacon sarnie - So I did !!

I've wondered about the freeboard as well, some of the Thames trip boats do not hang about! Plenty of buoyancy in those pictures though

What you really need is one of these - http://www.runnymedehotel.com/boats/hottug/hiring_the_hottug/ Already available in the UK !

They also used a Freeman, again at Benson ! Richos ran the hire boats at the time.

Not convinced myself, any sea cocks / skin fittings requiring replacement are not going to brand new as per the video. I'd be more convinced if they showed a crusty seized one being removed without disturbing the skin fitting. Also, how would it cope with the attached?

Congratulations Clive, welcome to the 3 kids club!! Mine are now 9, 7 & 16 months. Definitely no more !

The Thames based hire craft often get a lot more damage due to a lot of concrete locks !!

It will be a complete boat, not a shell. English Harbour are actually building the boats at the old Fairline site in Oundle.

I actually liked the wooden hireboats, think the last one we hired was Highlight from Herbert Woods in August 1983 - I was 11 ! The Summercraft boats in particular were probably in better condition than most of the GRP boats !

They have been up for sale for a while, looks like they have found a buyer! I may have been interested but was lacking the 6 lottery numbers required to complete the purchase!!

Friday was a little quiet but today was pretty busy up until I left at 1pm, probably the busiest I've seen it for a few years. Some of this may be due to the Classic Car show. Had a nosey around this but it was mainly high end £100,000 plus cars in better condition than when they left the factory. I'm more the under £1K piece of junk you buy off Ebay when drunk although I'm currently in remission! Nicole on the Sunseeker stand was nice but the Guinness was nicer! The Fairline launch was a little more subdued but 3 new models were announced. One is a revamped T38 and the 2 x new 53's are based on the current 50 hull but stretched a little. Sheerline were there along with 3 boats from Brooms who had a very nice stand. I'm back on the last Sunday and then Monday for packing up so if anyone around Sunday then please pop in and say hi. We are right behind the main entrance so impossible to miss. Clive - I did pop over to say hi but you were off stand and I was about to leave, maybe next time! Think I spoke to Greg Munford?

I've been out on a few Sunseekers and while I'm sure Nicole is very nice I have plans to date a couple of blonde headed Guinesses !