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JennyMorgan

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Posts posted by JennyMorgan

    The Future Of Broads Sailing??

    in Broads Chat

    Posted

    17 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

    River Cruisers are also designed to pass under Broads bridges and must be capable of living on board, when cruising.  I am sure the class will always want to keep those traditions as well.

    As to 50MPH on Oulton Broad, that is not new either!  My old friend Tom Percival used to lap the course there in a powerboat race at 125MPH.  But the course was closed to the navigation of course.  Does this technology mean that sailing races will now require a similar closure to other traffic?

    Re passing under bridges, perhaps not so much a problem in itself but with the mast down we now have one RCC that is effectively over ninety feet long passing through Gt Yarmouth! 

    Re closing the navigation whilst sailing boats race, heaven forbid! That possibility has been mooted by one particular CEO but it was not widely supported, unsurprisingly.

    I have long held the belief that there should be a 'sports Broad' for such activities, that was not a part of the navigation thus could be reserved for sole use activities. A national water sports centre on the lines of Holme Pierrepont Country Park perhaps. Don't see it happening but it could have been good.  

    • Like 2

    The Future Of Broads Sailing??

    in Broads Chat

    Posted

    On the Broads we have both heritage and tradition in our sailing but despite that we also have brave souls who turn their back on all that and resolutely push the boundaries. Only on the Broads will you regularly see 100 year old boats competing against modern, state of the art creations. Mind you, will these modern boats boats be around in one hundred years? Maybe not, they are simply steps on the development ladder so to speak, towards 'better' boats. With the twists and turns that are so characteristic of the Broads there can be no doubt that sailing efficiency is important, but how far will offshore influence go in determining how Broads sailing boats progress? Granted that the Broads, in practical terms, will perhaps keep a cap on the extremes, or will it? Ten years ago no one would have envisaged 80' tall, carbon masts. Whilst a 50 m.p.h. sailing cruiser is perfectly feasible it would undoubtedly be entirely impractical, but modern development sailing cruisers are rarely designed for cruising! Now, take a peep at the developments within the America's Cup, I wonder how much of this will filter through to the next generation of Broads sailing boats? We already see foiled sailing dinghies on the Broads, and very exciting they are too! At the moment there are no speed limits on Broads sailing boats, yet. Marvel at the following video, Wroxham or Oulton Broad in a few years time perhaps. Who knows what will be sliding out of a Broads boatshed in years to come?

     

    • Like 3

    The Charm Of The Norfolk Broads

    in Broads Chat

    Posted

    Perhaps they were just too nice to throw out!

    Charles Hannaford was never going to be accredited as one of the great Broads artists but he certainly created some charming pictures. Probably painted just for the joy of it, to please himself, and why not? A very competent amateur, his accuracy in depicting boats was sometimes poor though.

     

    • Like 1

    Environment Bill

    in Speakers' Corner:

    Posted

    Regarding industrial contamination, already mentioned, perhaps there is a case for substantial government grants in order to encourage the use of brownfield sites.  We have acres and acres of contaminated brownfield sites besides Lowestoft Harbour, not only that but there is a mile or more of breathtakingly expensive iron shuttering that needs replacing before any building work can commence.  That, and the huge cost of asbestos removal, makes for very, very expensive building land when compared with greenfield sites.

    • Like 2

    Environment Bill

    in Speakers' Corner:

    Posted

    15 hours ago, floydraser said:

    Near me, Asda built a head office for the George brand around 1990. In 2010 they tore it down and built a bigger one. Disaster for the environment but we got to share offices with some rather attractive young women during the build. :default_norty:

    Were said young ladies apt to having their bottoms double patted, Asda style?

    That aside, many modern, commercial buildings are built with a twenty or twenty five year life expectancy. Built to be written down to zero value and then replaced. 

    Women Boat Building

    in Broads Chat

    Posted

    I suspect that yard owners have steered clear of lady boatbuilders. There would be a danger of excess curtains and shoe storage and why would anyone buy a glossy, pink gin palace adorned with frills and fancies?

    Seriously though, several ladies are learning the trade at Lowestoft's boat building training centre. Also at Robin's boatyard on Lake Lothing the boat painter is very definitely female!  Our man's world is being infiltrated!

    • Haha 1

    Cafe To Be Demolished

    in Broads Chat

    Posted

    My understanding is that the original agreement was for Dunes to open at Acle for one year as a means of assessing the viability of a catering outlet at that location. It was also suggested, at the time, that the building itself had a very limited, remaining life span, that being, in part, the justification for the construction of the proposed Acle Debacle. 

    Since then I have heard absolutely zero on this topic. I would like to think that the Dunes people now have some form of security but I suspect that you know who is still clutching at straws in regard to his grandiose ambitions. 

     

    Environment Bill

    in Speakers' Corner:

    Posted

    16 minutes ago, Helian said:

    I am genuinely shocked at the amount of new houses being built on farm land around Brundall / Blofield, Poringland / Stoke holy Cross and doubtless other fringes of Norwich.

    It's the same at Burgh Castle and Bradwell next to Gt Yarmouth. Identical boxes flying up at great speed with little or no prospects of jobs for the new inhabitants. 

    • Like 2

    Environment Bill

    in Speakers' Corner:

    Posted

    1 minute ago, floydraser said:

    However, looking at the georeference history map it would seem that all those old factories are relatively recent? 

    Most are, and built when asbestos was king. Apart from the old silk factory I believe that all the big industrial units are post WW2. Brooke Marine was built on a previous shipyard, at a time when industrial contamination was either ignored, or quite simply buried. Some of the old paint factory premises predate the war but most of those building were modified, asbestos roofs for example. 

    Environment Bill

    in Speakers' Corner:

    Posted

    3 hours ago, floydraser said:

    What about that big old place in Lowestoft between the marina and the council offices?

    Three problems there, one being the huge, even vast amounts of asbestos to be disposed of. When the factories and wood stores were built asbestos was seen as being harmless, there are acres of the stuff.

    Two, much of that land is liable to flooding.

    Three, the rise and fall of the tides makes providing moorings for yer average yacht rather expensive due to the angle of dangle on access ramps, especially, at low water.

    The asbestos disposal has been costed at many millions of pounds and when that total was divided by the number of homes planned for the site it was realised that that put very many tens of thousands onto the eventual price of each house.  

    Contamination of some brown field sites is proving hideously expensive to rectify.

     

    Environment Bill

    in Speakers' Corner:

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Vaughan said:

    The best way to preserve and enhance our English countryside, is to stop building dormitory towns all over it.

    I wholeheartedly agree but many people clamour to escape the cities, understandable, and want to live in Norfolk or Suffolk, equally understandable. Our villages have become dormitories, no longer the communities of old. If I take Beccles as an example I'm as likely to hear an Essex whine as I am a sing-song Suffolk mumble. What is the answer, apart from elocution lessons and mass sterilization? Personally I rather like the reality that Norfolk and Suffolk generally makes immigrants welcome. I agree that there is a cost to that welcome but more than that I would hate to see the barriers go up. 

    • Like 1

    Cafe To Be Demolished

    in Broads Chat

    Posted

    44 minutes ago, RS2021 said:

    They're moving to Acle Bridge. Hope that's secure from coastal erosion!

    There might still be unwelcome erosion, the cafe being knocked down to make way for the proposed BNP mega shed.

    A Favourite Memory

    in Broads Chat

    Posted

    My first memory of life was being carried aboard my father's new sailing boat by my mother. Access to the boat was along a wobbly ligger and I suspect that my habitually anxious mother had held me very tight before placing me amongst the spare sails and sail bags in the forepeak. Perhaps the sound of water running along the hull was akin to being back in the womb! I related that experience to my mother many years later, she remembered it too and was really surprised that I also remembered, after all I was only a baby in arms. Perhaps my mother's anxiety imprinted itself upon me.  Needless to say, the sound of water running along the waterline, especially on a chine or clencher built, wooden hull, is to this day one of life's real pleasures. 

    • Like 6
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