johnb

If you are going to pay yours, I will forward mine to my boat for payment, after all what's good for one is good for another. Let BA try and work that one out!

I had an email from BA asking for loads of dosh for my boat toll. Apparently not a scam though. We get the odd scam, but Strows number make me feel quite left out.

Don't worry Peter, because of folk like me and you NHS may have to do more research on Blood Boiling!

I guess some members of my family would have seen it, but they wouldn't have dared telling me about that answer! The Broads/ NP subject is tin hat/all groan and disappear time in our family. I have spent hours and hours and hours trying to explain the Sandford Principle and the ongoing ramifications regarding their rich heritage but ............I just can't understand their attitudes. "Man the barricades?" hmph, more like whimper from the sofa...................You can't get the kids these days.

As a "never hired" perhaps these boats wouldn't cost so much if they didn't have all this stuff on board. I tend to think that the more one hire boat has the more the others have to supply to compete. Would people still hire if all hire boats went back to reasonable basics? I guess horses for courses is correct, but it could be that would be first time hirers are put off by the high end prices, without looking to see if there are cheaper alternatives.

Seems to me this forum ought to have a poets corner (if one existed I promise not to post on it!)

June 23rd for us! Hope not to hear ice scraping though!

Always send emails to the boss at 11pm-they'll be impressed by your dedication! (Write them earlier,just send them then!)

I may have missed something, but like many other "offences" taking place at night, I cannot really see how it will be practical to take proceedings against the offenders. A boat engine may be running next to us on a mooring say 9pm, there may be a number we can ring to report it. Is someone going to attend and enforce the byelaw? The chances are that by the time anyone arrived, the nuisance will have stopped, so probably no-one will arrive. BA may have a word the next day if they can trace the boat, but unlikely they will actually be able to impose any penalty or take them to court, I can see the reason for the humorous comments in some of the above comments. I get very frustrated when laws and bye laws are passed then they become totally unenforceable, the law makers bring the law into disrepute by passing such. It seems that gone are the days when laws were kept just because they were laws. Now it is:"no-one is looking so it's O.K." Or "I don't see the harm...."

Peter, do not give them ideas, not even in jest!!

I think at least if there are signs we can refer to, we have a little more behind us than just being accused of moaning for the sake of it. Most people must know of the dangers of breathing in exhaust fumes. It's the noise that really winds me up though. (Maybe the fumes will put me to sleep and I won't hear the noise!

Should have said the original quotation is "To fresh fields and pastures new" Senator did say where they are going, they were like me, in poetic mood! After all, we are approaching 14th February, when all sensible men "hitched" in some way, should be thinking of suitable verses!

In another thread, Senator has stated that he and his wife are moving their boat to "pastures new". I am sure we all wish them well, however, this didn't seem to me to be a suitably nautical phrase. Can anyone suggest another more relevant to a new start with a boat/ I thought of "To new moorings and calmer waters"

Speedtriple, maybe I am swimming against the tide given the way the thread went off at such a tangent, and most people agree with you. Although not correct or justifiable, I fear that we may end up paying extra just out of sheer desperation to rid ourselves of rubbish or finding mooring places. regarding the yards, there are members here who also own businesses, maybe they will either support my feeling, or put me right. Thanks for your reply.

If I lit a fag And took a drag I’d certainly lag Climbing the crag

Don't worry Iain, there's absolutely no chance.

Well this thread certainly never went the way I thought it may-I'm seriously thinking of taking up smoking!

Perhaps we should ask the question, what or who would go before the boat? Second thoughts, better not!

Thanks everyone for sharing. I have no complaints regarding what my boating costs at the moment, it seems the same for most here. My question was really bound up in all the middle bits: “Is our boating being kind of subsidised by workers and companies who have to keep their charges lower in order to keep the whole thing going?” One company was quoted as only charging £20 an hour which seems very low. Therefore part of the costs of my boating may be being borne by others. Anyway, thanks for your replies.

Given that we all have a different amount of “disposable” income and assuming that for us our boats are not a necessity i.e. they are not our permanent homes, I was wondering how much we are prepared to pay for our boating. (Not actually asking for figures-the BA may be reading this!) and really, what set off my thoughts, what is the Real Cost of boating? Recently I read somewhere that a particular engineering company on the Broads charged only £20 per hour labour. I believe this was for what was probably a skilled, trained and experienced mechanic. I wondered how a company could survive charging so little. A garage will charge £80 an hour for a guy (no disrespect intended) to plug a computer into an engine, which will then tell him which part to replace (rarely mend). When we bought our first boat from a yard, the owner kindly told me to buy certain items from BQ etc. rather from him, as they would be cheaper. Apparently bad business, but it helped us and gave us a loyalty to the yard. In the end, though, does this offset the loss of sales? Do we take advantage of workers who either really enjoy their work and workplace or “it’s this or nothing” to enjoy our boating? Are some companies (probably the smaller ones) just trying to keep going and hoping for a good season? It appears that the Real Cost of boating may need to include a willingness to pay (more in some cases) for overnight mooring. Like it or not, BA are losing moorings, but will probably tell us that if we pay the “Real Cost of moorings” either through tolls or on site then we could have more. Private land owners may be willing to open up land for moorings if they felt that it would be economically viable. We mourn the loss of boatyards, but some of them have probably gone because they couldn’t charge the “Real Cost” even if they were as efficient as possible. Many of us will visit the superstore and stock up with groceries, losing the village stores (and even at one time the Grocery Boat). If we were willing to pay “someone”, we would have more bins to put our rubbish in. Like it or not, this may be added to the Real Cost of boating. I know some of us wouldn’t be able to carry on with boating either hire or owning if all these things went up. Many do support the local infrastructure as much as possible, but discussions often arise regarding buying items from Ebay and such like and where to get the cheapest fuel. I wonder however, whether boating on the Broads is sustainable in the very long term if the above, gloom laden assessment is anywhere near right. I have no economic knowledge apart from our own work and household experience, maybe there is something more to all this than I can see, I did wonder if some companies keep going relying on the value of land, buildings equipment etc., but some of these may only be valuable as long as the whole things keeps going at a certain level. I believe the amount of private boats is increasing. Does this mean that the majority of the responsibility for keeping Broads boating is going to be ours? Hirers, as much as they love the Broads, can always hire somewhere else, less good obviously, but available. I hope this is not seen as doom and gloom! It may read like it, but it is something that I feel myself, and if I want my grandchildren to enjoy what we have had, it’s not only about saving great crested newts and rare species (although if we were prepared to pay……….!) we may need to dig deeper in order to keep the support systems we all enjoy on the Broads. Please let’s not take the bit about the BA and have the usual discussion, that is elsewhere plenty of times. We all know that if they had our priorities they would be very nearly perfect, but we rarely use that argument when it comes to business efficiency. Maybe the whole of the above should be consigned to a non-existent rubbish bin, tell me if so and why, at least I will learn something new.

Monday headlines: "Handcuffed body found in Oulton Broad" Lets hope not!

H.A. ok we believed you the first time!

I want to assure you that I am not afraid of my wife, with or without kitchen utensils. This thread is in the Members Only section isn't it??

Miss Whiplash? I told her it was a new way of mooring the boat with ropes!

And just to add, I really don't want my wife to be asking in a very slow voice: "And just who is Gracie?"