JennyMorgan

Firstly, Jill's winter picture is a cracker! M, I use an outside hosting site to post my pictures. It saves on forum band width and allows for bigger pictures. Thirdly, we're getting there!

The pro and anti brigade, whether BA or private/hire or sail/motor is, to my way of thinking, a perception that is often hard to justify. I know that I get accused of being 'anti BA', but that's simply not so. However I am anti what I judge to be 'anti Broads'. Strowager has stated the obvious that a breakdown call out is more likely to be from a hire yard, that doesn't make him anti hire, surely. Hopefully we can ALL continue to state our opinions without being labelled as pro or anti.

The other day they were sat shoulder to shoulder along that bowsprit, eight or nine of the blessed shy-talks. At least the unmentionable was dropping into the water, the boat will probably run aground on the residue!

Andy, when on the Three Rivers race this year I ended up having a coffee aboard a hire cruiser that I helped moor up. The holidaymakers were a charming young family, seemingly of at least average intelligence and at the end of their first weeks holiday. It really surprised me just how much of what folk like you or I would take for granted was a complete mystery to those lovely folk. Complete innocents afloat, our world was a new, alien one to them. A great adventure and probably a case of ignorance being bliss. I say ignorance but they were hardly ignorant folk, just new to boating, and thoroughly enjoying it.

Steve, do you want me to check out the link?

"You are advised not to pass until the ferry has docked". We know what is meant by 'docked', but does the average first time boat user?

Clive, in the fleet for next year?

I used to sell them, some forty years ago!

We haven't had any winter shots yet so thought I'd dig one out. Any others?

Perhaps some novices quite simply don't recognize unfamiliar hazards as being just that, hazards.

Re fish-finders being little use in shallow waters, point the transducer at the bank rather than the bottom, effectively a side scanner. Makes a nonsense of the screen but nevertheless it tells you where the pike are in the reeds or when there is a shoal of bream ahead.

Give into the inevitable, think of England and go with the flow!

I never log out! Helpful advice to those who do though.

No probs, 'tis a good one! Am sure it will be in finals so to speak. Thanks for making my job harder!!

Us good folk with masts?

I'm aiming to keep the price low. Selling in a shop needs a cost to cover unsold stock plus provide a profit to the retailer but yes, it's perfectly possible.

Back to Steve & Debs original question, do we need one of these radios? To be honest, no. By and large just toys for the boys but useful for boats with masts approaching low bridges. Mind you, some of the inane chatter can be vaguely amusing! I was, for years, an Auxiliary Coastguard and radio watches were a regular duty. Some folk seemed oblivious to the fact that the whole world and their dog could listen in to their conversations. Fishermen, when returning home, are quite good at calling up their womenfolk and telling them of their forthcoming plans in quite graphic terms, if you get my meaning! Yes, there is an entertainment value in having and using VHF, but that really is not what they are for.

Big Spider, might there then be problems if Little Spider has a picture in our calendar but the Big one doesn't? M, my sort of picture, nice one.

I bought a Motorola PMR off e-bay for not many notes, only dedicated power packs were no longer available. I'm no expert but added an external, made up power pack from bits I bought from an electronics gadget shop. I can only guess that I've upped the output somehow because I can communicate a darn site further that a quarter of a mile! Despite that I use VHF much more than I do PMR.

David, love the 'cow' one, so fortunate that the brown one squeezed in between the others.

Thanks, Grendel, very helpful.

Only 40 m.p.h.! Wow!!!

Martin, that 'snap' of the river at Burgh is rather good! I've had several snaps, taken on a point & shoot Kodak Super Crap-py Snappy Camera, used on calendars and in various magazines. It's more the man than it is the camera! I don't know, nor want to know, what sort of camera Spider used for his wonderfully evocative picture of the Three Rivers Race, that's an unimportant incidental.

I wonder if the lack of handrails & H&E, whoops, H&S requirements has something to do with it?

Paul, don't want to be contentious but it was a yard owner who reinforced the need for access by repair teams, plus hire yards make money out of the Broads, sometimes a great deal, private boats don't, just a thought.