JennyMorgan

Also good to see a sailing boat or three!

Seriously though, Alec Hampton did, I'm sure, have badges so you might be lucky.

A couple of hundred quid, okay?

Welcome Frank, how annoying! At Least it'll probably be an easy job to do.

Donkey Style!

Agree with the heat option. However, instead of grease on the wood I'd be tempted to use vaseline, cheap in the Pound Shop.

Not the first D for Darby badge that I have seen for sale but certainly nowhere near that price! People have shown that they are prepared to pay silly money for these badges so now other folk are more than happy to charge accordingly!

There are some good bits in Essex, honestly!

Watched it, seriously under impressed! The big bird in gold, mind boggling!

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/boat-explodes-griffin-marina-thorpe-st-andrew-1-5842294

As if!

Arguably they ensure that boats are insured and certified for the benefit of other users of a contiguous water. Some might also suggest that it ensures an income stream for Authority aspirations but of course that would be a totally spurious suggestion!

Regretfully, Ray, it depends on the Authority having a home address, one that isn't c/o the local harbour master for example. It's not unheard of for boat-owners to walk away from their responsibilities.

Re fire-wrecks, I suppose it's a case of the Authorities sitting tight and waiting for the owner or his insurance company to remove the wreck. Should that not happen then I suppose it will be removed by the Authority & at the expense of us toll payers. That will probably depend on when they have a suitable workboat in the area.

Just a guess, bilge or engine compartment heater?

Robin, when in Norfolk do as Norfolk does!

Perhaps not a boat, maybe vandals have struck.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/fire-boat-blaze-norwich-thorpe-saint-andrew-1-5841436

Ron Wilkinson was an adventurous businessman although I don't think that he made a fortune. Friends and I bought the pub off him, it was all pretty rough. When he had the Waveney Inn he installed a section of airliner, actually the linings of the cabin, in the back bar of the pub, behind the stage. He bought in a microwave, new techknowledgey back then, and served actual airline meals on trays. You booked your meal and when you 'flight' was called you boarded the 'airliner'! Very popular it was too.

If I drive to the WRC then I tend to head that way from Haddiscoe rather than Gillingham, darn sight easier.

Indeed it did but it died a natural death being too far from a railway station at a time when trains were more or less synonymous with Broads Holidays. Later on Fowlers of Oulton Broad moved there with its fleet of 18 boats. That wasn't a huge success mainly because of being cut off from the outside world, no nearby pool of suitable staff, that there were far easier ways of making money, marina, pub and caravan site, plus a healthy offer from Ripplecraft of Somerleyton for the boats to be moved there which we gladly accepted. A new hire yard, with customers arriving by car rather than train, must surely stand a good chance of success, I wish James & Co well.

It's surely up to syndicate owners whether they have a dog or no dog policy but as much as I like most dogs I wouldn't wish to hire from a yard or syndicate that allows dogs. Doesn't effect me, thankfully, but a sniff of a flea and I know folk that immediately start scratching!

Got permission for 'yurts' too!

That it is an appallingly badly written article aside, the picture clearly shows a boat on fire from stem to stern. There might be some life left in the hull but I rather fear that she's an obvious write-off thus little that we can do as a community.