JawsOrca

(Maurice, welcome removed now. when you type welcome it wont show the banner up.. if you want to use peeps you have to select it from the smiley box )

It's not just a steering wheel for a work boat is it (actually it could be a steering wheel for the old 3 wheel market carts) .. or I'm thinking a valve for something or other.. Is it hydraulic or chain/cable?

Lol you mean I typed all that and only had one weird typo?!! I've edited too so no one else will know what you mean lol We are both a bit relieved, although we think we know what we doing it's nice to know that it's generally ok.. Dave was going to epoxy the whole bit anyway apparently, I just painted it too early!

Thanks Grendal, I try not to look there as I'm bad enough in the normal store. Iain leave me kitchen alone lol.. the surveyor said most new boats have flatpack kitchens lol Ok so survey update. Wasn't too bad. Main recommendation is obviously finish it! He was impressed by the boat and liked the paint finish . One biggy, the hull repair, which to be honest I was really worried about anyway, but simple fix; he told us that it needs a coat of epoxy to seal in the fibres! that's all really, we got tons of paint so will do that soon. He said the repair is stronger than the surrounding hull the replaced transom is also well made (again I was a tad worried) Everything else is fine, electrics, plumbing and gas (we shouldn't have any problems with the BSC ) .. he has advised that we install a secondary CAV fuel (Water separator) filter as we only have the one on the engine, we have a spare so I'm Dave will do that. (Although he did recommend installing a glass bottle one (which is against BSC.. lol he said lots of kind words about the bsc too ) finally he couldn't see any marks on the loo sea cock so we will have a look tomorrow (it was full of stuff) if we can't spot it then I'll get a new brass or DZR one ordered. The hull is as dry as a bone with no osmosis, although he suggest, because of the age we take it out for winter every couple of years to keep it so and/or to stop it needed epoxy coating in the future, which we probably will look at doing. He mentioned a couple of other points which are all jobs left to do like trimming the edges of the plywoods and fitting anodes etc. He has valued the boat favourably too and I'm happy with the value The surveyor is a member of the yacht club so he will keep popping back to update the survey for the insurance company every now and again to keep the insurance policy inline. To be honest I am really pleased he found some things which we missed (and found the bits we knew about) as I was worried it would be a waste of money just to keep an insurance company happy. Plus he looked at more than I expected him to do so all good.. but I still need a drink...

lol i'll let you off. I'll pass on the cd thanks... I've been trying for many years to get "Beat the drum" song out my head after mum used to play it

Oh geez... my post.... Iain but sorry, I can kinda let you get away with the hijack but I can't let you get away with referring to runrig as a "Rock" band?... "Classical Scottish" if anything (Grace I'll deal with you later lol)! (I'm surprised mum not noticed this yet)... David, I can't possibly charge anyone to take a look , (Although for Grace leading Iain to post a runrig video on my post lol) although we would wel-come gifts for the boat. Anyones welcome anytime, if you see us just flag us down.. to be honest we will probably be easily spotted at night on a broad with multicoloured lights lighting up the corner! Ok so we just got back from Ikea with a counter top in the car (it just fitted in the estate car), I hate shopping but Ikea is my weakness although I restrained myself from getting too much stuff for the boat. Although we did get some curtains which we/(someone) can machine up for us and I brought chopping board!! So survey tomorrow and collect the sink! Hopefully the weekend we can get counter top in, finish the gas etc... I'll update tomorrow

Looks good Griff.. I remember going through with Janet (from Marthams... Lovely girl).. I asked the chap what happened to the handrails (Fresh varnish and signs of heavy sanding).. he said "I'll tell you if we get through..."

Oh yuck is that why you scots drink whisky to was down all that haggis?.. the folks like haggis (although mum likes runrig too ) but no thanks that sounds like my nightmare meal!! Have a good one though Thanks David. Good to hear from you! Glad to know I haven't bored you away The end does feel around the corner although it's getting very expensive now which is tough! but it will all be worth while soon and I'm looking forward to many days relaxing aboard though and many wherrys!

Thanks Polly Hi Iain, Please keep your depression up there we don't need it down here 60mph was plenty! The weather is showing it as it's calming down.. and it's lovely blue sky here in Crawley at the moment (Although a tad cold!).. I suggest you stay in doors and don't go out until easter

Knock down Potter bypass bridge too.... I'd like to think that the majority of comments about bypassing these bridges are said with tongue in cheek and maybe a degree of jealousy for those lucky souls who can get through.. As much as I would love to get through I respect that it's special beyond and therefore it must stay special.. we can't have it all

Matt, I got a letter given me a discount code for a subscription website; subscriptionsave.co.uk.. you may want to contact them admin@subscriptionsave.co.uk is a contact addy.

With daylight. thankfully no damage to the boat That's one strong canopy though.. Hopefully that's the worst winds we get whilst the boats down here..

Thanks All and thanks CheshireCat I think the worst has just gone through, a local online weather station is reporting gust of 60mph, which is still not very strong. Although it was strong enough to destroy our neighbours roof terrace. It even shook our houseboat which weighs many tons and is firmly sitting in the mud (Although that may have been Mary's roof terrace). Orca at present is doing well, the new canopy ties are doing a good job (which I'd so for a £1.50 each).. But I'm awake now like a proper skipper should be..

Quick midweek update. These annoying winds managed to break off the rubber clips from the canopy and the wheelhouse seating area got a little wash! thankfully that's all the damage and expecting damage to these I brought a pack at the weekend so it was an easy fix. Because of the winds the surveyor put back the survey to friday which looks the better day (I dont blame him it's nasty out there). The sink has also finally arrived from germany so I'll grab that friday! Tomorrow we will go over to Ikea and grab the counter top so the weekend we can finally get the kitchen in! During the week Dave has been over working hard, He's finished (I'm liking that word) the diesel systems! and apparently said he's finished (that word again!) the shower tray.

Good questions. Mooring alongside, I wouldn't really do without permission, if there's no space I'd go elsewhere and have done a number of times. Although I'm one for mooring away from people as despite being social on here I'm really an unsociable creature! I admit I would raise an eyebrow if someone moored alongside us and we wasn't there. I would walk carefully across the bow though even trying not to rock the boat and walking quietly. If someone wants to moor alongside and it's smaller or similar I wouldn't hesitate in welcoming them alongside and helping, if it's a bigger boat and I'm sober (The only moorings I'm sociable is next to a pub!) I'd probably swap around and let them come against the bank.. certainly if they are a hireboat as they are on holiday and I'm just chilling/drinking). Mooring stern on, I'm at the wheel and never move but I don't see the need to step on other boats apart from fendering off (after the huge gust of wind blew me off course... ). It wouldn't bother me if someone steps on our boat if they feel the need to though and as a means to protect either boat, I'd be out on the bank to help them too. Half the fun of the broads is that its busy and there are opportunities to be sociable (and places you can run and hide), even watching the newbies learning is fun. I admit though we haven't been up there on our own boat (Mum and Dads still felt like a hireboat - no offence folks lol) so I'm not sure how I will be when we get up there but I know what to expect and I'm looking forward to it..

Hi Stefan, Hopefully this helps: http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/boating/navigating-the-broads/water-depths Enjoy your trip

I'm gonna need a bigger boat (First time I've said that!!).

Oh geez, I must admit these discussions aren't a shining light for the broads, I really dread to think what newcomers must think. Thankfully in real life the broads are welcoming and everyone I've ever met up there have been very pleasant. I do hope that these "negative keyboard warriors" on other places are typical of boat owners and don't get out on their boats much! Clive (and all involved), as I said I think your production is brilliant, personally I think its a huge shame you have found the need to do to produce this as in my opinion this is something the tourism companies/BA should be doing for you. As for content I read it all straight away and I saw no problems (Other than the weight question which you answered ). Keep it up and thanks for marketing the broads as it should be done.

and welcome Andrea.

Geez Robin let me know your supplier! I was ordering oak veneer plywood (WPB (ish) ) for £25 a sheet and I thought that was a good deal! Although we only used about 10 sheets I admit too our kitchen (Mk1 that is.. it will be replaced after a couple of years as it wont last) is a B&Q kitchen lol although it makes too much sense not to! Erm Thanks Iain too.. but I need a year off relaxing after this project!

Thanks Clive, I agree and take your reply as a no (/kinda but theres better things to be worrying about!). I agree it all adds to the holiday and we have done double moored a few times on the broads and it's something different to do.. all part of the fun! I suspect what we would do if pink champas wanted to moor along side us, I think we would move, mainly for safety of our own boat and it would make more sense for them to be alongside the bank, but I'm sure we would then come alongside them though

Clive sorry but would you be worried about the weight of the outer boat? Say Pink champagne moors against one of your smaller boats. Could the larger boat do any damage to the smaller inner one? Down here there's lots of rafting and it's carefully considered that the lighter one goes on the outside, although they can 5 or 6 deep!

I agree Alan, Safety of the boat and those aboard is the most important aspect. Having read the BSC guide a few times it's clear it's not perfect and a bit stupid in some places but it's a helpful start. With regard to lifebuoys, we will have a houseshoe lifebouy and a decent throwing floating line as this was what we had on our sailing boat, to be honest I'm not sure how useful they will be on the river as I suspect they will just blow/flow straight past anyone! I seem to remember from my dayskipper course that they are recommended but they are only helpful if you can circle around those in the water as so to get them to the poor sod in the water. But still it's a couple of quid from the jumbles so probably a good idea. With regards to gas, we turn it on from the bottle when using and off when we have finished. Even though it has all the the proper taps but I just don't trust it. Smoke alarms and CO2's will be provided and I'll add more fire extinguishers than BSC advises including an automatic one in the engine bay . It's the same on our houseboat. I too don't quite understand why a swimdeck can be anything but positive, it's perfect to protect the prop (on our boat at least), I will allow us to service the prop, It will help recover anyone if they go over (although the worry of the prop would be there), allow us to use the dinghy, hopefully help with stern moorings which are plenty on the broads. We made our swimdeck for about £200 and it seems sturdy enough. The only annoyance is it may hinder certain stern on moorings although we just need to do the ropes to hold us off the bank and it adds expense to the mooring bill and insurance bill! We will (at somepoint!) be adding a fold down ladder on the swimdeck to aid if we fall in (bloody hope we wont!) and we will have the best life-raft in the world, "a dinghy" ... (It does annoy me though why the BA toll a dinghy separately considering how valuable it is in terms of safety, but that's a separate issue!).

Hi, as above it's not a requirement. Here's the guide: http://www.boatsafetyscheme.org/media/180428/bss%20guide%202005%20complete%20web.pdf

This morning started with a urgent tidy up inside. We are hoping to get the boat surveyed this coming week and he needs to see the inside hull (which was full of junk). To be honest I wasn't overly concerned about the survey until I started asking questions and it seems very through, I think we will be ok but time will tell!! There was surprisingly a large amount of random stuff! But nice to have a good clear out. After lunch (that much junk). We moved onto installing the deck outlet for the waste tank and tank vent, it took some work to get the pipes on the tank hosetails but lots of washing up liquid (and swearing) got it done. We tested the loo (It's a strange feeling to see stuff working), we hoped it would work (but suspected it wouldnt), the tank is slightly above the bottom of the too and although we done a loop it's not quite worked (but it washed the loo flooring) so we will need a vented loop installed. We also remade the masthead light, we had a really cheap plastic one which blew away! so my idea was to use some spare stainless bar which we had from the swimdeck and a flagpole mount so it can be taken down, we also used neatly mounted the lighting and it looks better now... much stronger too Dave also cut down the the oak which we got yesterday for the bunk fronts so we can put the inserts to convert the the vee berth into a huge bed and the dinette berth so it can take the table. I also brought too much multicoloured LED lighting so we worked out we should put it in the dinette again under the gunnels which I did and again it looks good.. so we now have a disco (or rave) in the dinette.. (I'm looking forward to seeing the boat look up like a Christmas tree we are mudweighting on a summers night on malthouse broad!! Our friend also come over with some nice P trims for our loo door, he managed to stick them in a steam box and bend them to shape! the will look very nice and neatly finish off the door. He's wants to do things with our table so we may just give him some wood and leave him to it (He's restoring a very nice time smack sailing boat and is a very good chippy). (Oh thankfully the leak which caused us a headache last weekend has been fixed, it was a leaky screw on the wheelhouse roof which amazing ended up in the dinette!) Pics attached. I'll put a post up regards to how we get on with the survey