JawsOrca

Mum, Dave named the boat Orca (I had to let him do this one as I'd done the others).. he likes the film Jaws so he named it after the boat in there.. I wanted to call it "Blood, Sweat and Tears" as that's pretty much what these projects are like!

Thanks David and Iain!, It does look really nice and we've done well to match the grain I think. These photos don't do justice Hopefully we will get the wheel and throttle back in this week/weekend. We are trying to plan a sea trail in jan/feb time Mark, We may be happy to help next year if we have some spare time

Thanks guys Today we carried on with the wheelhouse walls... and thankfully its "Finished!!" (the walls that is).. we got 3 coats of varnish on it so dave will do a couple more in the week then leave it! We decided to put a gloss varnish on it as the grain looks soo good.. Unfortunately my camera phones not quite captured it (I probably need a new one).. But now this is done the dashboard can be put together and get all the running gear and equipment done.. (It really looks neat). Also today we found the leak on the windows in the front cabin and fixed it!.. One screw! It tightened down ok and fixed! Phrew! We also measured and outsourced the timber mouldings to the yacht clubs commodore who has a timber workshop at home and kindly offered to do the mouldings for the inside for us .. Finally we measured the swimdeck and we decided we will make it ourselves although it's dearer than buying, it will be stronger and should look better! Pics attached.

Thanks Grace I've forgotten how much we had to do to get it back to good! Your right about the kindness! Considering they have driven so far out of their way too nutters .. I'll find a way of repaying them (Although Steve just message me anytime if you need a hand please!

Hi All, Nice to go back to the back after our weekend away!.. Although a really frosty day, but thankfully the canopy, aka greenhouse, works well and the boat was nice and warm! Thankfully also in the week dave had expoxied the wheelhouse panels and they had dried! He was already putting these up when I got over (an hour after him!). So today we finished these off and made a good dent in the trimmings.. it looks good a bit old fashioned but still nice. Just after lunch we had a visit from Steve and debs (SteveandDebs), Steve had soo kindly saw my last post about not getting any woodfordes wherry that he kindly offered to grab some for me! Very kind of you Steve (and Debs for being dragged around the brewery shop!).. Really nice to met you both to.. Thanks again for doing this! Really kind! Finally today is our first anniversary with the boat we took ownership of it this weekend last year! (And the weather was just the same!). So happy anniversary to "Orca", a lot has happened in a year.. Below is just a quick round up of the last 12 months and here's to the next year !

Or just stay in the pub all day Dave

Thanks for this Iain.. I'd love to get back up there for hogmanay but this pesky boat needs finishing (at least it needs finishing now though!). This is good news for Scotland. Lets hope the rest of the UK follows soon. I for one won't get anywhere near the car if I have a drink but I rarely drink anyway so get legless on one (well giddy)! In my eyes drink driving is disgusting, there are no excuses and anyone caught doing so should be heavy penalised (same for drugs) sorry but thats MHO.. I must admit part of the pleasure of norfolk is not having the car and being able to drink more and I admit I do have a drink at lunchtime (although I generally sober off a long time before we switch the engine on even if others are sober). As others have mentioned there is huge difference between 70mph and 4mph. I agree that if the helmsman is wasted and causing a (potential) harm to people or property there should be tough consequences (and I thought there are now aren't there?) but I don't think it should be as tough as this Scottish law. (Although if it was it wouldn't bother me too much as I'll just stay in the pub longer and relax for longer! ).

but wise choice.. At least everyone (including me) has a full year to get some pictures and looking at some of the images submitted on this thread I'm sure it's going to be a really good calendar! Thanks to you both for getting this far though.

and welcome from me. Sorry to about your problems this year. Hopefully next year is a good one

Our first time was 99 I think.. Mum was too much of a wimp and wouldn't let dad take us on a boat when we were kids (Despite I'm sure, dads best attempts).. I was 17 in 99 ( ) we booked easter as Daves birthday was in the march and he was 18 so his name was on the booking! We went for a silver melody from silvercraft because I couldn't stand bathtubs (No harm intended) and like motor boat looking boats and it had a nice classic look. We got the national express up from London.. it took forever! We arrived and you could see the look of terror on the faces of the the guys at silverline! The boat looked huge.. Thankfully Dave wimped out and let me drive it (considering I hadn't even started to learn to drive a car).. we did ok; ((me), beached it at how hill (mooring up too quick).. (me) Hit the corner of ludham bridge, (Dave) got it parallel to the entrance at herbert woods!! (I remind him of this each time we go in there!).. (Erm me) t-boned a fishing boat at yarmouth trying to turn around.. (we) did the ropes too tight at oulton and had to cut them before it ripped off the aft cleats! We got back to the yard and booked two weeks in the summer with alpha craft (never went back to Silverline for some reason?! - Probably too ashamed!) We had 3 weeks a year for 5 years before buying our own boat(s) and sailing around medway...Looking forward to 2015 back on our own motor boat and it has a wheel and not a tiller! (But will miss the flybridge and the propshaft drive)... (Mum marthams was our last hireboat which when you had snow goose I think - That meant we was away from the broads for 8 years geez!)..

I think robin has a very valid point.. I see a gap in a "Motorboat" magazine for everyday boaters.. MBO is almost there and I like it but it's now electronic and I hate electronic books at the moment (Plus it falls short on some of the practicable tips and its far too salty).. Salty motor boats have the over the top magazines and I can't imagine any "normal boaters" read these. Canals have a ton of canal mags. Salty rags have PBO.. I'm guessing the majority of inland boats in the UK are in the broads and fens though (Followed closely by Thames?) so by all means we need a Practicable motorboater mag which captures all these core regions.. (but don't be forgetting us Broads boaters!!)..

Hi Duncan, To get you started.. here's my text from the AA post before. Good luck! keep us updated: I like features such as; new boat reviews (but river boats really not sea boats.. the odd sea boat review is a nice to see but not frequently) motorboat owner do a good job at reviewing older boats which is really interesting as the majority of broads owners aren't bling boat owners.. so to read about older boats, which is probably what we will invest in one day, is a better idea...(they have a freeman 23 write up this month!) Things like local business insight (like a behind the scenes of broadland businesses). Pub reviews would be interesting (anywhere between medway and north norfolk - We've been to a few anyway but still!! ). I do enjoy reading about new toys but only cheap ones (We don't need plotters!) and things that will really help me.. (Cookers, loo reviews etc.. things we may upgrade over time), I also enjoy reading about distant places as there is more to the east coast but don't make it the biggest feature. General broads/East coast news (although it needs to be up to date).. insights into Broadsbeat and the BA would be interesting.. also hireboat news would probably be interesting (New hire boats reviews)..I like the mishaps photos in pbo and MBO.. what's coming up, what can I do when I'm up next (a bit like broadcaster which is always an interesting read).. what happened reviews (Horning boat show review etc).. good old competitions... Things on this forum which are popular are things like wayford bridges blog, insights into Clive Richardsons boat builds, (restoration projects )...

Thank Grace. Really sucks! Although had a bit of a rest and the hotel had wherry so I downed a few! We only made it to loddon really and neither moorings there looked too impressive (the signs on the walls telling people that theres been lots of break ins didn't help either).. I think it's really too early still.. I think we need the boat 90% finished and a BSC in hand so we can go and look and take any moorings there and then. It still seems silly saying "we are possibly maybe looking for a mooring sometime next year.." So I think back up sometime in feb/march time.

So weekend was a bit of a nightmare; We arrived in loddon and the cars battery warning light came on.. so we had a quick walk around and then decided to at least head to the hotel in lowestoft were we stayed the night before getting the car recovered on the back of a low loader! (poor RAC!).. it took 3.5 hours though as the driver barely hit 40mph even on the duel carriageways! Of the the trade counter today and an uprated alternator came in at shy of £300! although it should last now.. but once we got that changed we noticed the wheel moves about too much.. another £50 saw replacement of the lower suspension arm.. (we really should have stayed here and worked on the boat!!) but feels like a new car now lol!! but such a shame.. didn't get any shopping and mum and dad aren't going back up so anyone's going up so I'll have to order my box on wherry for xmas online now!

Thanks guys we are just off (back monday so should miss the bridge chaos - Possibility?!!). Mustn't forget the shopping list!

Hi Alan, She's only four feet tall even a decent seat wouldn't help ! (At least she put this picture on instead dad or me!) that inside helm is as close to useless as you can get though but its still a welcome addition when its raining outside (although I've sat on the upper helm even through heavy rain humming "I will not be moved!").

Hi All, Is anyone in St Olaves Marina? and will be there the weekend? I'm trying to get hold of some friends who are in there but their phones are off and wonder if you can pass a message If so please PM me.. Thanks, Alan

I found that picture on mums facebook....

Couple more just to wind them up! (Yup dad is is swearing..!)

Behave grace lol.. here's mum and dad beside the boat when we picked it up.. 2 years ago..

Iain, I think you need to get some whiskey down to John to keep him going! Sounds fun John, hopefully the cost is bearable... Hopefully you can downgrade it when your test box comes off... least as you say we found it and no harm done.. (Sorry to post publicly that but I wasnt sure I could get to the PM box obviously). good luck

Sorry John Looks like its only on the profile side of things though if that helps..

This time next month.. I'll have all those presents..

Thoughts are with you all Jon

John, I keep getting, trying to access my profile (I was trying to show mum how to update her picture). Resource Limit Is Reached The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it exceeded resource limit. Please try again later.