JennyMorgan

David, perhaps they know where the boats are going, or will offer suitable alternatives in the New Year?

We are heading that way, that's for sure.

That's not the name of the yard that I understand to be closing at the end of the season.

Good to see that the UK fans weren't kicking the living daylights out of other nationals!

Don't know if this is accurate: http://www.mynorfolkbroadsboating.co.uk/norfolk broads water and electric points.html Having now read it I'd suggest it's pretty good, but not perfect. For example doesn't Waveney River Centre and City Boats need updating?

It would be interesting to know what the toll receipts are this year. I do know that there are scores of empty mooring buoys on Oulton, once there was a long waiting list. I also see, as I motor around, numerous small cruisers sat in people's driveways and gardens, all with a fair coating of algae and with increasingly out of date toll discs on them. As I pootle about the Broad I see more and more boats that never, ever leave their moorings. A friend of mine bought an extremely nice old 'woody' from Wayford, for under half the asking price. bargains are out there. I know of several boats that have moved from Oulton Broad to Lowestoft Harbour, fed up with the high tolls now being charged. Are things nice and rosy on the Broads?

Pull the plug out? Gone are the days when there was a handy pump-out facility every few miles. The lonely one on Oulton Broad might be open, if you are lucky. With a yard going at Reedham I wonder what will happen there next year? Down South there is Maffets, Brooms and the Waveney River Centre for sure, hopefully Freedom will continue, but off the top of my head I don't know of any others where hire boats can go.

I'm not sure that I'll shed any tears over Sid Fillery leaving the Lion, however I do hope that it will remain as a pub. Indeed I would welcome a new landlord, be able to put the Lion back on my list of pubs to visit. It's not so much the issue of less hireboats, in my opinion, but rather the one of less yards. It's all very well Clive having 700 plus boats at Stalham, for example, more a case of where will they moor? The old system of being able to moor at other Blakes or Hoseasons yards may well still exist, but where are those yards now? Centralisation of the big fleets makes good business sense, but it leaves far fewer moorings for their customers. I know that Clive has issues with the hire-boat toll multiplier but there is a strong case for an increase, in my opinion, to provide sufficient moorings for the hire fleets.

Doug, perhaps the bloke didn't know what a main was nor how one should ease one, simple terms that we take for granted. For some strange and inexplicable reason your posting reminds me of a paragraph in the Art of Coarse Sailing where a boat was sailing with a free wind and the wife calls out to hubby, 'but darling, we tacked up here last year'. I often wonder if my father related that, and other stores, to the writer, unless it's a regular occurrence.

With an ever decreasing list of hire-yards we will obviously loose moorings for the hire-fleets. The mooring and service network that was once provided by the hire-yards is diminishing fast, in some areas, such as Oulton Broad, to absolutely nil.

I notice on dear ol' FaceBook that a yard at Reedham and one other, location unknown, are closing at the end of the 2016 season. How long before we are down to just the big four or five?

They did at least two, one of which was 1976.

Whilst I do use a feeder in the river I find that a float works a treat on my local broad. At the moment am having success by fishing the margins and shallows. Agreed that 'reds' are favourite, bread is good too.

Vaughan, I have checked online with my local record office which has a picture of the Arrows over OB in 1976. Unfortunately that picture is not online. 1976 could well be the second visit.

If you want more bream then head towards the River Waveney, they are being very obliging right now!

A few years ago a motor cruiser was stuck in a reed bed at Oulton Broad. Nothing unusual in that, far from it infact, but this one called upon a mere sailing boat for help! Well, no one else was available but me. What made me laugh was that the lady onboard turned to the man and demanded to know why that Drascombe, mine, could sail so well and their's couldn't. I don't know the answer to that one but it made me smile to think that had become the issue rather than why who ever was steering had gone into the reeds. Anyway, I picked their line up, joined it to my anchor warp and sailed across to a nearby quay heading where I tied up. Using my anchor winch I pulled the stern of the boat round so she was at right angles to the bank. Got the crew to rock her and eventually she slid out of the reeds, easy! Nice thing about the Broads, most people are happy to help. after all it can happen to anyone of us, even me!

The hirers were told to stay ON the right so ON they went!

Here is an undated, not very good quality snap of the Arrows over Oulton Broad. Here they are going North to South across the Broad. It was when they went West to East along the Broad that they flew under the roof height of the buildings on the right. Don't know which year this was, sorry.

I knew Martin through my time on the Committee of the Broads Society. As Poppy has written, a decent bloke. To that I would add that I found him to be an articulate, wholly courteous, natural gentleman. Some years ago we, as a committee, visited Cantley Sugar factory as part of a planning consultation. I rather suspect that the management of the factory was expecting a rough ride from a bunch of green welly wearing conservationists. However Martin quickly put their minds at rest, assuring them that the Society was wholly supportive of the factory, an important part of the industrial history and development of the Broads. Martin was a realist, an intellectual man who understood the Broads and Broads people. I'm glad that I knew him. A Broadsman of the highest calibre.

Now is the time to book your Christmas holiday afloat!

My most endearing memory of the Arrows at Oulton Broad was me standing outside the old shop at Burgh St Peter when it was on the riverbank. On the opposite bank was a solitary and relatively low tree. An aircraft came in from behind the shop, flying low and blasting across the river. I am convinced that it was no higher than the top of that low tree and I well remember small branches and twigs being blasted back at the shop. No damage but it was as thrilling as it was alarming.

Ditto. Have a son-in-law who works in the CGI industry & he is worried.

Locally I pay £3.00 a pint.

Vaughan, the use of the 'dead' ground, as you call it, was low over the marshes and I do mean low. We probably had as much of an airshow at Burgh St Peter as you guys did at the WOBYC. I do remember the sailing club being asked not to be sailing when the Arrows were performing. In return an assurance was given that the aircraft would come in spectacularly low, which they did. At that time an uncle of mine was an air-vice marshall, never asked but I often wondered if his presence on the bank might not have had its advantages. One perk for us was that the Arrow's commentator came to Oulton Broad by helicopter and that he needed somewhere to land. We offered the use of our garden in return for a trip for my wife and I. That trip was a memorable low level blast along the Waveney.