JennyMorgan

I well remember a school-boy joke. what's brown and comes steaming out of Cowes? The Isle of Wight Ferry! Only that are no longer brown. By the way, Yarmouth IOW has a double tide. just to confuse holiday makers.

Judging by the pictures that we see most summers of stranded boats then yes, it does matter. Personally I have done just as I have suggested with a boat that ran aground near Oulton Broad, we got her off, if we hadn't, it was a spring tide, then she would probably have been there a long time. Very often we can help ourselves, if we know what to do. Perhaps others have useful hints or suggestions for this or other mishaps.

In this case run aground as this boat has: Was searching for something else & found this one. Running onto the bank like this is easily done, especially at high water. These folk are doing right by rocking the boat but if the tide is going out then they probably need another boat to give them a pull whilst they continue to rock and they need to get a move on! If the tide is still coming in, which I doubt, then no need to panic. However everything about this picture suggest its top of the tide so for those of you who don't know what to do then the engine needs to be in reverse and, apart from the 'driver', everyone as near to the stern/back as possible and keep rocking. If there is no tow forthcoming and the engine won't budge it then there is one last but drastic solution, the strongest crew member to jump over the front/bow, their shoulder as low as possible against the sharp end and push. It can be really surprising how easily a boat can slide off the bank with a well applied shoulder. The reed growth suggests that the water will be cold though. Is the tide going down? It is if it's flowing TOWARDS Gt Yarmouth!

This is what can be achieved if you try hard enough! In the meantime develop an eye for skips, tis amazing what some folk throw out. Good luck to the BIL & yourself.

Belt sander, sacrilege & vandalism! A panel scraper, even a piece of broken glass is the real way, really enhances the grain. I see that the graffiti vandals have had a go at one of your drums. You really should have considered our sensibilities and turned the drum around !

http://www.suffolkgazette.com/news/prehistoric-monster/

http://inflation.stephenmorley.org/ You can all work it out!

On one occasion we were crossing the North Sea when we could see the loom of the lighthouses from both countries, that made navigation a doddle, the stars were down to both horizons and we had the real bonus of the brilliant phosphorescence in our wash. that in itself was sheer magic. On an another occasion we crossed Breydon with a hunter's moon behind us, as we passed one post the light from the moon picked up the next one, once again another magic night. It's not uncommon for there to be phosphorescence on Breydon, if you are lucky, but it won't match that seen on the open sea.

Lot to be said for minimal light pollution. Owners of riverside properties garlanded with security lighting please take note.

Ta FTM, not Broads then, no wonder I hadn't heard of it. Coincidentally my rowing boat is named Jenny Wren.

Agreed, a town planner is not what the Broads needs but one is most definitely required in Scunny.

I was trying to be diplomatic. Okay, I'll shut up!

Many a truth word spoke in jest !

The story goes deeper than most of us know, if I believe the whispers that are going along the rhond. Intransigence, but by whom? In a nutshell I really don't think that anyone is entirely blameless on this one.

Poppy, do you really tow your dinghy that way? I've tried it at sea, great, but on the Broads not so good. When going about the strain falls onto the windward quarter when tacking and I've found that that can put me in irons when the wind is low. On a MAFI it makes perfect sense but of course hire yards don't supply enough string for doing things properly. Just an idea for some folk who's dinghy might have a deep fore-foot and no skeg aft, sometimes such boats tow better stern first, worth sucking and seeing..

I saw this badge on E-Bay, purportedly a 'Broads' badge, does anyone have any recollections of this one? New one on me, apparently these badges were given to children.

It's always easy to comment in hindsight but with the dredging work associated with the flood alleviation scheme it would have been perfectly feasible to have created mooring bays. However folk appear to insist on 24hr style hard banks to moor against but in reality all we really need are mooring posts/dolphins to moor between. Ah well, nobody listened to me back then so why should they now?

The only real solution to the mooring shortage & tacking yachts is to restrict the hours that motor boats may navigate. Pub opening times when Broads yacht owners are most likely to be moored up would seem entirely logical.

Some things never change!

Have a peep at the Heybridge Roach, very tasty and no battles with termites: http://www.anglia-yacht.co.uk/brokerage/index.html

I well remember parking in such a manner, getting stuck and having to walk a few miles to find a phone box, calling home and suggesting to my father that he brings a tow rope from the boatshed. Thankfully dad saw the funny side of it all!

Yep, great wasn't it!

A couple of Party Sevens on the backseat and young ladies loosing their inhibitions after only three Babyshams, cod & six on the way home, I only very vaguely remember those days!

Fred, I was the licencee at the Waveney Inn back in the 1970s and around the Broads it was eleven o'clock back then. I suppose I was seventeen when I went to college in the 1960's and it was also eleven then. I don't actually know when the Broads adopted eleven o'clock closing, presumably because it's a holiday area but it must be at least fifty years ago.

I now have visions of tractors and combines, along with those incredibly drafty Landrovers, bombing through the streets of Thorpe in the early hours, just before eleven, Tropical Lynda's hair & dress blowing in the wind. Yes, a misspent youth!