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Happy

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Posts posted by Happy

  1. 9 hours ago, Davecc said:

     

    Hello,

    My Dad first visited the Broads in the early '50's with a friend. A few years later he went back with his wife(my Mum) aboard an engine-less Gay Lady, which promptly got stuck in the reeds north of Potter Heigham bridge.

    My first, and being the youngest of four kids, my family's first visit was in '64 aboard the stationary MTB Grey Malkin at Brundall. I was in a carrycot being only a few months old. The houseboat came with a nice dinghy(Y137) with a Seagull outboard.

    Our American cousins visited in '69, who occupied the newly built Discovery Bay houseboat in Horning. We hired the soon to be condemned Botany Bay.

    Dates get a little sketchy now;

    Queen of Hearts(Y408) was '72 approximately.

    Waterway V(D482) the following year, possibly.

    Tidecrest from Stalham was definitely '75.

    Bermuda(E479) from FB Wilds in '76.

    A houseboat on a snowy Oulton Broad followed by Star Glory in '77.

    Dad took me and my brother on his own sailing boat in '78.

    Anson Bay houseboat in Horning was around this time.

    Glen Eagle on the Thames in the late '70's

    Treasure Ranger(G799) 1980.

    Not me, but my brother and father attempted to sail Sandstar(M3) sometime in the early '80's.

     

    It gets very hazy now..

    80's+90's – Roncado(P192), Royal Siesta, Tidecrest(again, but a different boat maybe?), Compass Prince 3(J625), Loch Loyal, Lady of the Lake(Topcraft - a Bermuda style with a rooftop steering option), Connoisseur, New Generation

     

    Bahama Major '04

    Fair Duchess '09

    Brink's Duet (me solo) '16

    Radiant Light (Connoisseur) '22

     

    There is probably stuff I've forgotten, and I'm trying to piece it all together with photos and brochures.

    I'll try and put up some photos., or should I use Broadland Memories?

    Cheers.

     

    Hi and welcome.  My first trip was in 1947, also in a carry cot apparently on a sailing boat.  As far as I know despite

    going to the Broads many, many times - it was the first and only sailing boat hire.

    • Like 1
  2. 1 hour ago, StillCruising said:

    When I worked for London Transport in the 70's to get the Leyland Fleetlines started on cold mornings we had a 'starting team' of two men. The procedure was to take of the air intake pipe from the manifold, one man wedged the throttle actuator with a large bar (no air to operate the accelerator) the other man held a lit wax procession flare into the air intake on the manifold. The starter was then pressed until the engine fired at which point the air intake pipe was refitted. As there was so much unburnt diesel in the cylinders that when the engines did fire up the smoke was unbelievable from the 70 plus vehicles. With noting that the old RT's and RM's started with no problems without the above procedures. 

    :default_blink: When I was young - seems a long time ago now, in the winter on building sites they used to soak an old cement bag

    in diesel, lite it and hold over the air filter on dumpers while some poor b....r cranked the engine over!  I assume they start better these days.

    • Like 2
  3. 17 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

    In view of the question of the future of electric boats on the Broads, I am sure a lot of forum members would be very interested to hear why you have made that decision.

    If it hasn't worked for you, will it ever work for other "motor" cruisers on the Broads?

    Edited to add :

    Also interesting that you can get from Stalham to Horning on electrics, but you are not willing (or able?) to go through Yarmouth to Brundall.

    :default_blink:  He has probably been reading all the latest posts regarding Breydon?!

    • Like 2
    • Haha 1
  4. 2 hours ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

    Abandoned boats run aground painted red and green with solar powered flashing lights would sharpen minds. :default_gbxhmm:

    :594c04f0e761f_default_AnimatedGifVehiclessaily:  Would they have to be licenced and have a BSC?  :default_hiding:

  5. 2 hours ago, Mouldy said:

    Bl**dy weather!  Had to send the wheels from my car away for refurbishment last week due to the lacquer flaking from where they’d been diamond cut.  Fortunately, my neighbour’s son has just put new wheels on his VW Golf, so he lent me his original alloys to stand my car on whilst they were away.  I spent a couple of days washing and waxing my car ready for this weeks MoT test, fitted the newly refurbed wheels on Friday and left the car looking shiny and smart, before heading to the boat for the weekend.  We returned home yesterday afternoon to discover that it had rained sand over the weekend, presumably during the thunderstorm on Saturday night and my pristine car looked terrible.  Why oh why did I buy a black car and allow the wife to have a black car, too?

    A couple of hours this morning has rendered mine looking presentable again and I’ll deal with the wife’s tomorrow.  Deep joy! 🤨

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    :default_icon_cry:  My Jaguar xf is metallic black and looks just the same as yours did but I am going to wait until the wife wants to use it and she will take it for a hand wash and wax due to embarrasment!

  6. 1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

    BA moorings open and now nicely fendered,  elecy posts working and mine with £2.45 on it:default_icon_clap:

    Kings head at belton no longer dog friendly (miserable gits), Queens head fine and carvery looks good.

    Will try fishermans later.

    :default_blink:  Would seem to me that the Kings Head need to get a life!  Friendly dogs welcomed in most pubs.  Lets hope they suffer from it in £'s!

  7. 17 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

    Mooring fees?
     

    Waveney river centre. £25 overnight, elec EXTRA, the pub has a habit of shutting early and no longer offers food, comfy seating removed too. Camping site to close too. I fear we will lose another pub. We used to stop there, especially the Lads week crew - not anymore 

    Griff

    :default_blink:  When we were moored at Beccles this was a regular for us, in the days when Alan looked after the moorings and

    lived on the Dutch barge.  Certainly would not be going there now!  :default_drink_2:

    • Like 2
  8. :default_biggrin:  Well, we don't have a boat anymore so pottered around the garden.  Wife came back from shopping and said 'do you fancy a pint'?  Just got back from my son and his partners pub.  took the dog and had a couple of beers.  Watched him work on his own (unusually busy for that time of day) and quite proud of how he got on!  Just glad to be drinking, not serving!  I fancied a pub once, so glad I did'nt try it!  Cheers.

    • Like 1
  9. 4 minutes ago, DAVIDH said:

    I'm guessing Vaughan refers to the days when the likes of the Sun newspaper offered holiday breaks on the Broads (and other UK holidays) for less than £10. The boatyards, seeing that their business was migrating abroad, presumably welcomed the trade, in the hope that the reduced prices would entice new visitors, who might then become regulars. Not an unreasonable assumption. The low prices brought people to the Broads in masses. Some were wholly unsuited to a holiday getting back to nature, and perhaps expected a completely different type of entertainment. Bad publicity followed with tales of unseemly goings on. Regulars were likely put off by the lurid headlines, and a portion of that market was lost. 

    I do think that the overseas market was actually the bullet to the heart, but the newspaper promotions did more harm than good. I might have completely misinterpreted all this, and if so  I'm sure Vaughan will clarify 

    :default_blink:  I remember seeing some of the boats that were offered - quite grim in my opinion.  I do think it may have put some hirers off forever!  Just my opinion of course.

    • Like 1
  10. 4 minutes ago, Cal said:

    We may not have the boat anymore but we still enjoy a trip to Norfolk when we can in the motorhome.

    This time it was a trip to North Norfolk.

    We left home in Worksop early to avoid the worst of the traffic and after an uneventful run and a pit stop at Farm Cafe for breakfast we were parked up in Wells next the Sea town car park by 9.30am. Far too early to get onto the site we were booked on down the road of course so we had a wander around town and visited the excellent butchers to stock up.

    The weather was lovely so we were surprised to see so few boats in the harbour.

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    The dog looks like he could well deserve the name, bless him!

    • Like 1
  11. 1 hour ago, FairTmiddlin said:

    Romney Marsh used to have a potholing club. Mostly potholed in pubs, but none had underground cellars ?

    Also the Romney Marsh Mountain Rescue Team.  Set up by my mate Mike.  Now departed unfortunately when

    he fell down the cellar steps at his newly aquied pub in Scotland a few years ago

  12. 19 hours ago, andyg said:

    Richardsons spent a lot of money refurbishing them house boats a few years back when they were running the yard. They looked quite smart when finished. They also introduced a couple of rc45s into the fleet of hire boats. Not quite sure what happened there. Glad you enjoyed yourself. 

    No actual hire boats now just cottages and 5 house boats which as you say are still in good  condition.  They also have

    quite a fleet of day and picnic boats, again all in great condition.  A nice very friendly yard.

     

    • Like 2
  13. Now feeling too old for actual 'real boating' anymore we were looking to hire a houseboat on the Broads.  Fortunately a member posted

    something on here in January mentionig Simpsons boatyard at Stalham Staithe.  I 'phoned them and booked a week from 8 April on Maud.

    That was the good news!  On the way from Folkestone in Kent we stopped off at Stanstead Services.  Comming out the traffic was so busy

    that it took us 30 minutes to re-join the M11.  As soon as we rejoined the main traffic the car came up with 'low coolant' - back to hard shoulder.

    The AA sent a recovery truck to get us off the motorway within an hour.  He took us to a services about 15 miles away and an AA man came to look at the car.

    Whilst he poured water into the header tank it was pooring out from somewhere that could not be seen.  He asked us whether we wanted to be relayed back

    to Kent or on to Norfolk.  We were on holiday so decided on Norfolk.  After two hours and now dark the recovery truck arrived and we arrived at the boatyard at

    22.15.  Fortunately we had a key to gain entry and the accomadation was warm and clean.

    The following morning (Saturday) I spent hours trying to arrange a repair but all the places I found were shut until Monday!  Sequal to this was that the car was

    relayed to a Jaguar specialist about 20 miles away on Tuesday for repair and we got it back on Thursday afternoon.  I had never been to Stalham before but the Swan became our 'local'

    Great food and drinks.  All the staff loverly.

    Anyway:  the house boat and yard were brilliant.  Did a lot more walking than usual and will certainly be booking again.  With hopefully no breakdowns next time.

    • Like 9
  14. 1 hour ago, Bluebell said:

    I can’t get my boat anywhere near “my local friendly farmer’s” oil tank…:4_joy:

    :default_biggrin:  We had a good customer (friend) who contracted to a large concern that were changing all their red diesel fired heating over to kerosene boilers.  They had hundreds of gallons of 'red' available free for our liesure use on the understanding we did not sell it.  I did not have to buy diesel for our twin engined boats for a number of years.

    • Like 1
  15. 1 hour ago, webntweb said:

    I had a Sunbeam Stiletto (Imp variant) for about 10 years and remember having the overheating problem with the blocked radiator core.

    Apart from that I can't remember having any trouble with that engine.

    The engines mentioned in the Seamaster advert are probably KF4s.

    I had a Stilletto from brand new.  Brilliant little motor but suffered from overheating within about 3 months from purchase. The main dealer could not sort it (it was one of the first) so part exed it for a VX 4.90 when it was about 9 months old!

     

    • Like 1
  16. 24 minutes ago, NeilB said:

    After a few weeks of back and forth, survey etc I'm now the owner of an Alpha Craft 42 centre cockpit.  Needs a few things doing so managed to knock a reasonable amount of the asking price but nothing major. 

    Up on Thursday for a good rummage around and already planning on what else I can waste my money on boat wise.

    :default_biggrin: 'Photos please.  You know most of us are nosey b.....s'!

    • Like 1
  17. 12 minutes ago, andyg said:

    Hi guys, apart from the yacht station are there any moorings below the bridge in Beccles, IE a pub etc, but still in the village. We are on a week's cruise in May and I've decided to concentrate on the southen rivers. We've done the the northern network to death the last few years and I wouldn't say its getting boring. But a change wouldn't hurt. Loddon is on my list along with a visit to the new Inn at Rockland. There's a curry house in Norwich we want to re visit, so an overnight at commissioner cut will be had. I'm gonna give Oulton broad a miss as I've never really enjoyed an overnight stop. Any other nice overnight stops you could think might be worth a go I'd appreciate the heads up. Thanks 👌 

    :default_beerchug:  Will you be able to get under the bridge?  Moorings at the swimming pool and further on to the Locks pub.  Enjoy.

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