JennyMorgan

No fast sports boats creating waves and giving them some excitement!!

So we've met!?

Just keeping an eye on things you understand! The miserable old sod in the companionway, can't think who he might be though although I could make a guess! It's well out of copyright, prints up nicely.

Shoulders back, stomach in!

RYA dayboat certificates then? Vaughan, I see where you are coming from. My suggestion was intended for those organizations that flourish on tick boxes rather than experience. .

If I did that certainly wasn't my intention! I'll have to have a look.

Like you, Fred, I don't know the detail. It is only right that the BA is to be reacting to this summer's accidents and the general need for safety awareness. Whether the industry will welcome their well intended interference is another issue! I think that we'll both agree that there are some privateers who would benefit from both boat handling and safety advice. Perhaps someone needs to take the lead, it might as well be the BA.

Has anyone here suggested that boatyard staff do a PB2 course?

For all that, Fred, there is a case to be made that it should be funded by the hireboat industry, if it is aimed solely at hirers. If the aim is to produce a general boat handling and information website available to all then the 20K would seem very reasonable as a cost sharing exercise.

https://www.rya.org.uk/courses-training/courses/powerboat/Pages/level-2.aspx The above looks reasonable to me. I now have a picture of a weekly 'wherry' race, spoil lighters/mud barges, planing under Potter Bridge! Whatever, the syllabus appears to be relevant. Would you. could you pass, be honest now? Problem being that experience has no quantifiable qualification, unlike an RYA certificate.

Must also have had a brown rinse back in those days!

That's not the diminutive Vaughan Ashby as I remember him from our mutual schooldays!

i might be wrong but I believe that all the Navigation Rangers have to achieve said RYA certificate, as has the CEO.

Reckon forum members could moor four abreast across the mouth of your dyke. A full English would be appreciated before eight o'clock!

When officialdom wades in then it all becomes a tick box exercise where experience counts for little.

RYA dayboat certificates then?

Fred, you too are quite right. The criticisms by the various Nav Com members was that the reserve was unreasonably large, without purpose and some of it should be released, which is now happening. Pushing did become shove though!

Prices do seem to be very inconsistent. Some good stuff there!

What is forgotten, or at least ignored by some at Yare House, is that for many of us this is our home, not just a career path with a healthy pension and perhaps an undeserved gong at the end of it.

In fairness a great deal of money is spent wisely and that deserves both respect and support. Agreed though, the whims are the problem. I might be wrong on this but as far as public bodies are concerned, is a CEO's remuneration, in part, based on the size of his workforce? In the private sector the reward often comes from controlling costs but in the public sector it appears to be the other way around. Just a thought.

It's not just the issue of antisocial behavior by the few, it is also the issue of the occasional saturation boating for which the North Rivers is gaining deserved infamy. Long may the Upper Thurne remain an antidote to Horning and Wroxham on a sunny Bank holiday Monday!

It has maintained a healthy reserve, to such an extent that the Nav Com complained & demanded that some of it was spent. Also, as I have said on numerous occasions, our toll pays out about 50% towards overheads thus releasing money elsewhere. Then, of course, we have the thorny topic of unnecessary BNP road signs, BNP station signs and BNP murals. There is also that laughable Acle vanity project, the much vaunted, oversized BNP visitor centre that was too big for the building site. Thankfully it came to nothing but with officer time and prize money must have cost well in excess of £100,000.00. The BA may not appear to be awash with money, but they certainly know how to waste it, when it suits the agenda.

You make a very valid point with the above. I'll make another, when I visit Hickling by boat I take away memories but I leave nothing behind, not even my wash. The point at issue is that the river above Yarmouth is demonstrably shallower than it was and the knock on effect is that the the tidal flush is reduced meaning that less and less boats can access such as Hickling. Certain BA officers have in the past suggested that the Upper Thurne should be boat free. No, I don't want to see Heigham Sound reduced to M25 at leaving off time status but I do want to see it available to those who appreciate it for what it is. Potter Bridge is low and air draft is lessening. I don't advocate removing or lifting the bridge but the limited traffic that does access Hickling is doing no harm. I don't see that there would be any gain in further limiting access. For people to be able to enjoy and savour the magic of Hickling requires access and access by boat doesn't even leave footprints.

Perhaps I should rephrase my question! Conservation and exclusion by strategic neglect?