BryanW

Before this week the only type I had come across were the bronze tube type and I have had to get a lot of weed out of these in the past. Totally agree that oil and water does not really require checking and I never have after the first couple of days once I knew that that no oil or water was being used. Mind you, talking about maintenance we did have a 'fan' belt fail a few years ago (thus no coolant water or alternator) which I felt was down to poor maintenance, obviously the yard hadn't even looked at it for some time since it was totally shredded.

My father taught me in an old (not sure if it was pre-war or just post) Hillman Minx that would slip out of 3rd gear on the overrun which it duly did on my test, but I did pass 1st time even though I ran over a kerb on a left turn due to the gear slipping. I had been driving milk floats (electric and ic) and tractors for some years ago through. Robin, don't let anybody tell you that driving a car is like driving a boat, cars steer from the front (unless it is a dumper truck).

There were a couple of things I forgot: The bow mooring ropes are a very good length for a hire boat, probably only just short enough not to reach the prop which made my wife's life a lot easier. The Water Tank Gauge only reads with the engine running but the Holding Tank Gauge does read continuously

The dip stick on the Gala Girls was a real pain in the butt to get at, right on the outboard side of the engine bay and under the side deck (traverse Nanni with hydraulic drive. With Royall Satin I was always worried that I was going to drop the weed filter cap in the bilge because of where it was. Couldn't agree more. In fact we changed from Royall Velvet II to Encore when Barnes took Royalls over on the basis that the bed was as shown on Barnes' boat plan. That is why I slept in the Saloon. From what people have said about Silverline boats I suspect that Encore has been built to a slightly lower spec with regard to the interior fit out. Still a very nice boat we would highly recommend it and the yard.

Don't know Helen, if this is the case then I would expect a lot of call-outs if you go to Coltishall or venture to Dilham. Maybe they are fitted with a self cleaning filter or it has a very large surface area, maybe one of our boat surveyors may be able to answer this. In the past I have certainly had to clean the filter on many occasions.

This is the video of the exterior & interior, excuse the 'lived in' look but it was.

Never had a problem with those fitted on Gala Girl 2 & 3 but they are much slower and a different design and there is easy access to the Chain Locker.

First of all “The Yard”. We had put down on the Arrivals Sheet for 13:00 but since we got to Wroxham at about 10:45 decided to check in at Barnes where a very helpful Receptionist took our mobile number and said she would call us when the boat was ready. We also managed to say hello to Paul (ex Royalls) who seemed quite happy after the upheaval last year. We had some shopping to do at Tesco in Stalham so we went off there (surprised at how crowded it was), after that we went down to Belaugh Staithe to have our sandwiches and a flask of coffee. At about 12:30 we went back to Barnes and located the boat, a cleaner was just finishing off the outside of the windows so once she had finished we went back to the office where we were told we could ‘load up’. Once loaded the office issued our lifejackets gave us the ‘Goody Bag’ and, to our surprise, a vast cardboard box containing a hamper of food, this turned out to be because we had previously been with Royall’s but we were not expecting it. The problem was that we now had too much food so we ended up taking all of our ‘emergency rations’ and some more back home at the end of the week. After a short time an engineer came round to do the handover. Now for some surprises: Engine start procedure - turn the key and the engine will start all of its own once it has run the Pre-heaters. No need to check the Weed Filter, the engineer would not even tell us where it was. No need to check the oil or coolant water levels, again the engineer would not tell us where the header tank was. No slow running ‘standalone’ drinking water filter, all water is filtered. After the engineer had been through the usual things he asked if we wanted a trial run, this was declined so we were on our way shortly afterwards. On our return to the yard, as soon as we had moored the boat our car appeared (driven by an engineer) right behind the boat ready for us. The Diesel tank was refilled and we had only used £30 pounds worth which is probably the least we have ever used so this boat must be pretty economical considering we did use the heating one evening but there again we don’t go haring around, most of the time just 1400 to 1600 rpm. The Boat. This is a brief review of Brinks Encore 1, it will be nowhere near as comprehensive as Robin’s reviews but, hopefully, assist other people to make a decision as to whether to hire her (or not). I will upload a video taken around the boat but this may not be for a few days. There will also be our usual video of the week at a later date. Instrumentation: GPS Speedometer, Rev Counter, Engine Coolant Temperature, Engine Oil Pressure, Diesel Tank Gauge and Water Tank Gauge plus the usual warning lights. The Holding Tank Gauge is in the Bathroom next to the toilet, we did need a pump out about half way through the week. Very powerful Bow Thruster (hydraulic). Solar panels and electric ‘hookup’ cable supplied which we didn’t use, the electric was connected at the yard to give the batteries a good charge. Not sure why the electric ‘hookup’ is supplied since the cooking is gas and all lighting is LED including forward and after wells. Air Draught is 6’ 10” which I think has a good safety factor built in since the old Aquafibre Opals are 6’ 9”, you do have to look in the manual for this information. Mud Weight winch, we had a problem with this whereby it stopped before the Mud Weight reached the bottom at Womack due to a twisted and balled chain (a la Sonnet a few weeks ago), an engineer was with us within half an hour (on Sunday) and sorted this but it was a bit difficult since there is no central access hatch into the Chain Locker. I think that the winch is too fast, not allowing the chain to fall properly. The Throttle is quite sensitive and you need to be careful standing up because you will catch it with your leg it also seems to be set so that if you increase the revs above about 1600rpm then, unless you hold it in position, it seems to want to settle back to 1600rpm. 1400rpm is about 3 to 4mph depending on tide. The engine (Nanni) is fitted aft on hydraulic drive. I did find the Helm seat too low and quite hard, no cushions are supplied so I couldn’t use one of those to increase the height and soften the seat. CO and Smoke Alarms are fitted in the Saloon. Beware the domestic Water tank filler cap, apart from the engraving around the cap there is no differentiation between that and the Diesel tank filler cap, neither need a wrench of any sort. The cooker is a fairly standard domestic gas type with four rings, a medium size oven, a grill and, at the bottom, pan storage space. Two metal oven baking dishes were supplied stored in the oven. The rings, oven and grill are all spark ignition. The fridge is domestic sized and electric. The shower is thermostatically controlled so no more trying to juggle two taps to get the temperature right. The toilet (electric) is fitted with a soft close lid and seat but the seat will not stay up on its own (too close to the side deck), so be aware gentlemen, but it does come down slowly so no damage results. The toilet roll holder has a swivel cover so no need to remove the toilet roll when showering and as the cover is closed it rolls the toilet roll up so long as the roll is fitted to unroll from the top, best idea I’ve seen for years. Heater is an Eberspacher with outlets in the Saloon, Bedroom and Bathroom, this was used on one evening and heated the boat up quickly. The heater seems to be just forward of the helm on the port side with the exhaust on the curve of the bow so no scorching of the boat next door or quay heading. Both the forward and aft doors are double glazed but the windows (apart from the small opening lights in the bathroom and above the cooker) are single glazed. I didn’t like the sliding windows in the bedroom because you cannot leave them open if there is any chance of rain unlike the old ‘scuttle’ windows. Storage space is excellent: Three large drawers in the saloon one good food cupboard, crockery cupboard, cutlery drawer and general utensil drawer plus a large storage space behind the settee back. The bedroom has one large cupboard, three drawers and wardrobe plus two bedside cabinets (at the bottom of the bed). All drawers and cupboard doors are ‘soft close’ We didn’t use the TV apart from to switch it on as a test. The Wi-Fi seemed to work well although, again, it wasn’t used much. I am afraid that I do not like the main bed the way round that it is so I slept on the large pull out in the Saloon leaving the bedroom for my wife. I had taken the precaution of asking for two sets of bedding and making up the Saloon bed was very simple, pull out the seat and the backrest drops down to form a large double bed then just a case of putting the sheet on. The hot water was still slightly warm until the morning, I will qualify that to say that we generally stopped cruising at about mid-day and had showers in the evening with two lots of washing up. Engineer called out on Sunday due to winch problem but the service from him was excellent. Overall very impressed with both the boat and Barnes.

Thank you Fred. I have to admit that the credit for most of the movie sections of my videos must go to my wife, I concentrate on the stills and do all the titles and editing. I have to agree that Russel does waffle a bit but his videos are still very entertaining.

A good few years back we had just arrived at Irstead and moored on the outer section (BA) facing upstream and while I was sorting the mooring ropes out I left the engine running, lo and behold a lady came round from the house that adjoins this part of the staithe and told me in no uncertain terms to turn the engine off because the fumes were affecting their BBQ. I should point out that this was a Summercraft boat with a well maintained engine and you could barely smell the exhaust, I was going to switch off anyway once I was happy with the ropes (I tend to put a Spring on when I moor at Irstead so it did take a bit longer than normal). On another occasion we were moored on the same part of the staithe on a hot June day and some lads came down swimming just in front of us and using the escape ladder to exit the water and then jumping back in. On this occasion the same lady came out and took photographs of the lads and our boat, she didn't say anything but obviously thought they were from our boat. Don't think so providing you pay the mooring fee, I have never seen any signs saying 24hr Mooring.

Just seen the pictures on a Facebook page.

Hi Robin Watched your review and was very surprised at your comment that there are no stern fenders, I would worry when stern moored with that low stern possibly catching under the quay heading, I'm especially thinking Womack Staithe where I have seen the water rise and fall considerably. Also, you did well at Ranworth although I couldn't agree more that the Throttle would have been better on the other side, I also noticed that you had to stand on the 'sun lounger' to exit from the helm. I still think that the old Diamonds were better in this respect having steps on the port side.

Hi Simon All I'm seeing are external computer generated pictures not even any mooring ropes on board.

Hi Timbo You are welcome to use any of my videos on YouTube four of which are linked below and there are others (search for "Bryan Willmore" on YouTube). I have also attached some photographs, these are low quality versions, higher quality available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuuFBaNaemY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS25BRyDRxI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSWWJCze0NI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI3fWPlSP4A

A question for the yards; has this problem become worse since CDW replaced a security deposit? My opinion is that a large security deposit (maybe £500) reserved against a credit card number would actually make people more careful. I believe that this is the system used on the continent maybe Vaughan can comment.

Couldn't agree more but any ventilator in these positions would need to be very low profile in order for the sliding roofs to clear them. Having hired this class of boat many times my main complaint in this area is that the window above the hob is directly opposite the heads door and this window is not frosted and, of course, no curtain since the hob is beneath it meaning that you can't come out after a shower naked. We have usually used the table cloth temporally stuck on the deck heading with duct tape over the window when we have a shower. Although the windows are darkened on Encore as far as I can see from the photographs this window is still not frosted. With one yard I continuously told them every year about this but nothing was ever done.

Hmm! Having seen these pictures I'm not too sure of some of the interior design features but we've booked it now so will reserve judgement until June.

Last night I got around to watching a programme from BBC4 entitled "Britain In Focus: A Photographic History" that had broadcast on Monday evening. The interesting point was that for a short while they were talking about a photographer (and showing his photographs) called Peter Henry Emerson who had published a book in 1886 of photographs entitled "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads". If you get the chance of catching the program up on iPlayer and are interested in photography as well as The Broads then it's well worth a watch.

Hi Helen For 'Royalty Free' music I use "Incompetech" at http://incompetech.com/music/ just make sure that you follow the instructions on this page http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/faq.html to credit the music on a rolling title at the end of the video. I have had problems, like Robin, with commercial music on videos I have uploaded to YouTube which I hadn't originally intended to. For editing it depends if you are using PC or Mac, for Mac the cheapest and easiest option is iMovie or if you want something more complex DaVinci Resolve (FREE) on the Mac App Store or Final Cut Pro (not free) which is what I use. Sorry I can't help with Windows PCs.

Phil at Barnes has added this in a discussion on Serenade so I thought I would copy it to this thread. "17 hours ago, barnesPhil said: Just to clarify the Encore's will have a gas cooker. I am quite sure that is a 4 ring hob with separate oven and grill. They also have a basic microwave and domestic type mains fridge. The spec has quite a large battery for a boat of the size about 8 kw. I would not expect you to have any problems."

Hi Phil You are an absolute star. I was wondering how you would get sufficient batteries in a 29ft boat without sinking it but it would have been good for Potter Heigham Bridge. Once again many thanks and as Jonzo says don't worry about being techie.

Hi Phil Pleased to hear this, we have Encore booked in June and assume that the electrics will be much the same as Serenade, I was a little concerned since we have never had a boat with electric cooking before. I know you're busy but just a quick question; is the Combi Oven Microwave, Grill and Convection?

Hi Phil Really like it but my only comment is; is there a sensor (or 2) in the seat so that it will only operate when nobody is sitting on it (as in car seats for the seat belts)?

Just seen Jonzo's post, yes but DVD/Blu-Rays have copy protection built in.

Only one I can think of do do all that is the Arcam Solo Movie 2.1 (http://www.arcam.co.uk/products,Solo,Movie-System,solomovie2.htm#techspecs ) but it's not cheap and probably far too big and power hungry. Would have thought a car type unit (would do everything apart from DVD/Blu-Ray) and then a small DVD/Blu-Ray player. There are TVs with players built in but limited on screen size. Alternatively, if you have a good 4G connection then use Netflix etc.