JennyMorgan

Thanks, Keith. I note that there is mooring space for approx 30 boats.

Gracie, I must be thick! Could you please provide a link to the details. I've searched Rightmove with no joy whatsoever.

Keith in particular, but also anyone else who knows the answer! Keith, you mention that the tearooms is for sale, but where are particulars available? It's raining hard, I've spent half an hour scanning Rightmove & Google, no relevant results. Any clues, anyone?

I was reckoning on the forty or so that are let out, forty is about right, isn't it?

I read that Norwich is in the National Park, despite being outside the Broads Authority's administrative area! It gets dafter and dafter! http://metro.co.uk/2015/08/17/12-reasons-why-norwich-is-the-best-city-in-the-uk-5341804/ I suppose Gt Yarmouth can now claim to be a National Park too.

Mark, re the ownership of the moorings, not convinced that they are owned by the people at the Mill. Various thoughts and theories on that one, one being that someone is, or has been trying it on. Am sure that it will all now come out in the wash.

Can't see that Potter being 'dry' will help the shed/bungalow holiday trade next year. Perhaps the 'shed' owners should club together & buy their customers a pub. Five grand each should do it!

Any news of the Broads Haven? If it's not open by now then I can't see it opening this year.

Soundings, please don't confuse the work of the Authority with that of the Environment Agency. With regard to the ever increasing number of large, high tech craft, that is down to the hire yards and their perception of customer demand rather than the Authority. Where there is, in my opinion, an error of judgement by the Authority, is their pandering to the owners of these craft. However I understand that there is discussion within as how to milk the owners by readjusting toll calculations for large boats, both hire & private.

Martin, over the last decade there can be little doubt that the pressure to upset the generally reasonable balance that is The Broads has come from the upper echelons of unelected power within the Authority. If you choose to ignore the influence emanating from above then so be it, but the trust has gone, the threat to the balance is clear, if you care to look.

Has it really? Or are most of the substantial improvements, like water quality, really down to the Environment Agency? I can't deny that in many respects things are better but having been involved on the inside I would suggest that many improvements are despite the Authority. I recently noticed on another forum a comment from a visitor about the 'demasting pontoon' at Gt Yarmouth which is 'located between two bridges'! Personally I avoid the damaging 'hard' surfaces at BA 24hr moorings, the grit used is nasty stuff on paint and gelcoat. Plenty of examples, good and bad, but on balance not an altogether impressive record, imho.

Wings? Do hovercraft have them? Hot air might do the job too, if we could find any!!

Interesting quote in the official, Parliamentary records in Hansard: ' . . . for the avoidance of any doubt, the Broads are NOT LEGALLY a national park and DO NOT come under the national park legislation, AND NOR WILL THEY.' This is a quote from 2015 and from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for DEFRA himself. The obvious comment to that is 'if it isn't and won't be a national park then why call it one'?

I sat on a previous toll review & valuewise, based on information supplied by the BA itself, I no longer see the Broads as a cheap waterway, after all there are only 150 odd miles of waterway, the bridges are maintained by Rail Track & county Highways Departments and we only have one 'lock'. A large part of the dredging, water quality and bank work has been done by the Environment Agency. As for the impact of rising tolls, boat insurance etc, there is plenty of evidence to back the fact that smaller cruisers and boats have deserted the Broads in droves. Rise the tolls further and all that will remain are the larger boats, boats that are questionably not best suited to the Broads, large boats that demand extensive moorings. National Parks aren't just about conservation, allegedly they are also about providing space and recreation for us humans, only such as English Nature, or whatever they are called today, seem to have forgotten that 'inconsequential' fact! Should the Broads really only be for the well heeled?

The Broads is only man-made in part, the Waveney is largely natural albeit maintained by man. Oulton Broad was in part a mere although peat digging did extend it. I'm not adverse to the idea of being a National Park, tweaked or not, provided that that status is not used to further upset the balance between boating and conservation. I'm afraid that is one control that the Doctor must be denied. As for supply and demand being controlled by dosh, it is to a degree right now, and it is the big money that is destroying the very character of the Broads as we know it so for that reason I would oppose further control by people's ability to pay. The Authority is struggling with its senior management as are The Broads themselves, in my very honest opinion.

If by too much navigation you, Soundings, mean too many boats, or unsuitable boats, then I can only agree. Problem is just who will decide? Will folk be rationed to specific days on which they can go boating? Horning can be a nightmare, it can be like Tesco on the last payday before Christmas, but what can be done, force half those boats down onto the Southern Broads, heaven forbid? Like most boaters that I know I'm keen on conservation, I want somewhere nice to go boating but, equally, I don't want boating to loose out to conservation. Yes, it is about balance, but if we compare the alacrity with which Oulton Broad is being dredged against the irrational reticence to dredge at Hickling then that balance has not yet been achieved.

It could take off, with an air-cushion such as you would find under a hovercraft. An alternative to the Ice Cream boats!

Personally I believe that we should be preserving & conserving the Broads as the Broads and that means that navigation should take reasonable precedence. If it hadn't been for boats the Broads would not be anything like they are today. Take boats out of the equation, such as at Hoveton Great Broad, and, as has happened, that Broad has deteriorated to a point that it now needs major attention. The Broads, once again, are the Broads. With that in mind our conservation efforts should be with that in mind.

Good for breakfasts too.

Ray, in doing that might there not be a risk that some folk might be put off coming to the Broads?

John, I understand that certain exclusions apply to vintage craft. It all becomes questionable when you think that I can have a fuel tank out in the open on the cockpit floor of my dory yet I can't, or shouldn't, have a similar tank on the open deck of my boat! I raised this with a BA safety officer, no definite answer.

John, entirely right but on many sailing boats, Drascombes and Broads sailing cruisers for example, the provision of a drained locker is completely undesirable and impractical. Deck storage has been recommended to me twice now, two different sources, as being preferable to storage within the cockpit. Fuel storage recommendations, in other areas and to fellow Drascombe owners, has also been for deck rather than lazarette or cockpit storage. Not for me to tell folk what to do but there are some things that can't be done on a low freeboard sailing boat!

John, it was explained to me by a BSS inspector that as long as my 25 litre tank was connected to the engine then that was perfectly acceptable but that a similar tank NOT connected had to be stored on deck or in a drained locker.

Perhaps people run aground because they do not realise the importance of staying within the channel.

You'll need to be on Facebook to see these but worth having a peep at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ludham-Bridge/490341551033500?sk=photos_stream