JennyMorgan

Re that damage, we can all have our suspicions but were it just a passing boat, whether power or sail, then I would have expected the damage to run parallel to the water. Plus for something to cut through the gel it would need to be quite sharp. I really don't think the evidence points to any particular type of boat.

Don't blame you for being upset, I would be too. In an ideal world someone will come back and at least apologise. The damage appears to be from something quite sharp so whoever it was, please don't moor besides me! Actually I think that your boat is quite pretty and she's certainly more functional than many boats plus she goes under that bridge, a lot to be said for her! She is a Shetland Speedwell isn't she?

Vaughan, re that keel, almost her final demise, the very final one being triggered by ignition:

It means being fit and not dependent on an electric anchor/mudweight windlass. Quite simply you haul 45 pounds or whatever of muddy old iron onto the front of your boat, lift it up and swing it backwards and forward before lobbing it 15 or 20 feet towards open water. You then pull your boat towards that open water and repeat the operation until you are clear of the waterlilies or whatever. The trick is not to catch the rope around your leg unless you want to follow the weight into the water!

I always reckon that there is one spot that surpasses Rockland and that is Surlingham, not Bargate I hasten to add. An almost primeval area of the Broads. Not even a sniff of formal. That aside, thank you Vaughan, a delightful thread.

Thanks for that link, Bill. I hardly dare read it just in case I change my mind, again!

Whatever gave you that idea?

They can only be checking on the dodgy ones. Doug, aren't you away on a thirty day holiday in the sun?

Interesting one is that, Doug. Without delving I wonder if the BA has the power to ask, after all you have made a declaration. I wonder why they picked on you?

http://broomepitsfishinglakes.co.uk/

I really don't understand the passion that some folk have for carp but if I shared that obsession then I would head towards the Waveney Valley or, if I didn't mind odds similar to a needle in a haystack, then I would head towards the Middle Waveney where 40+ pound fish have been caught in recent years.

In the days of coypu hand fulls of grain thrown on the deck and roof would attract the buggers onboard. As I know to my cost the padding of their feet on the ceiling in the early hours sounded quite eerie. Coypu poo washed off quite easily. Bring back coypu I say!

Gracie, it might also be what triggers him into doing something about it. Wish that I had when I was younger! I was never huge, seventeen stone on a five foot eight inch body, still near gross, but twelve stone would have been better!

There is large, like Grendel and me, then there is super large, or gross. Maybe a member of this forum, perhaps? A self imposed disability in the making? My knees are shot, I wonder if my weight has not contributed. Moral of this story, loose weight, wish that I did when I was younger.

Funny place for 'man-boobs'!

Strange that you should recount that story, Wuss. Not that I would do it myself but I am told that handfuls of fish bits will attract sea-gulls to such an extent that the victim's boat pretty soon resembles a scene from Hitchcock's 'Birds'. Not only that but sea-gull poo is famously glutinous and hard setting.

Clearly you haven't met them all! One or two dodgy ones. P.S, Welcome from me too.

Weight where it's needed, most important, buff on the fore-deck so to speak. I raced an Osprey for a season, my crew was a BIG girl and in a wet wetsuit most impressive. The quip around the club being: Hey, here comes a pair of nipples, and look who's following them! Not sure which was the biggest handful, the Osprey in a blow or the crew!

Perhaps the varying totty designations and qualifications could be a stand alone thread? Galley Totty, forepeak totty, jib sheet totty and deck totty for starters. Personally I always rated heavy weather totty, well built young ladies of ample proportions who's generous attributes helped keep a boat upright when the wind was blowing hard! Force Four Totty. Force Six Totty and so on, Force Eight, phworrr!!

Especially the forthcoming and unjustifiable pension of a certain quango chief executive !

Tolerance is a great leveller. I wouldn't wish to be filthy nor would I ignore the well being of the boat that serves as my home however who am I to judge those who choose that lifestyle? Coincidently I have chosen to adopt a reasonably open mind when it comes to people and in doing so have met some basically good folk , some of whom are very interesting, just that their attitude to life differs from mine.

The South Rivers are NOT the problem that some suggest. The 'problems' of the South tend to be those navigating them. During the week several Hunters sailing boats visited Oulton Broad, these boats sailed all the way from Ludham, without engines, braving the so called problems of the South, and they arrived safely, despite the so called problems. Use the tides and the winds as a friend, not an enemy, simple. Those short mooring posts at Potter are short for a reason, they are stronger that way. There is less leverage should people tie their ropes to the top of them, less chance of them breaking, simple.

My gut feeling is that it is quite simply another level of control which can be wheeled out when all else fails.

I used to sell them, I had the shop at Burgh St Peter. We sold t-shirts when they were adorned with iron-on felt letters. T-Shirts with a boat's name on was a good little earner. The latest thing back in the 1970's!

No question that some traders have both damaged the long term Broads industry and their own reputation by their excessive charges, not least mooring charges.