JennyMorgan

You'd be pretty much into the senile decay bracket if you can remember Dick Barton, Dan Dare and Horace Batchelor!

RYA prop guard advice: https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge-advice/safe-boating/look-after-yourself/equipment-for-uk-pleasure-vessels/Pages/prop-guards.aspx

I see cages fitted on RNLI RIBs so presumably they can be fitted.

There has been more than one Broads boat ruined by the removal of bulkheads in the name of rampant open planning . The downsides of open planning often manifest themselves when a boat is slipped and the lack of internal support becomes expensively obvious.

Vaughan, memories, this clip includes Horace Batchelor at 17.04 minutes into the program. Ex WD earphones prevented overheating under the sheets!

If that is what it takes to prevent people reversing over a crew member then so be it.

Don't you politely mean 'catering for the lowest common denominator'? Even that would be unfair because no one on this earth can know everything. Put me on a boat and I would feel entirely at home. Put me on a horse and I would feel lost, probably literally too! I might do what I think to be entirely sensible yet a horse person might accuse me, probably rightly, of being a raving idiot, like what we do bumbling numpties on boats!

Having seen Chameleon moored nearby I can only say 'what a lovely boat'!

Agreed but facts is facts, there have been some horrendous incidents this year and at least one prop related death. Eventually, perhaps, we shall be told just how many of these casualties involved new comers to boating. I have recently been involved in winding up two estates and dealing with banks. In dealing with banks, Lloyds and Barclays. I have had to listen to and view several related video presentations. I have then had to sign declarations to the effect that I had seen the presentations, that I understood them and was offered the opportunity to ask questions. Annoying, perhaps, but wholly understandable in this day and age.

Really don't know how that happened!

How true it is I don't know, but apparently the yards reckon on an 80% increase on first time boaters this year, normally c30% p.a. This suggests a 50% increase over the annual norm. Staycation or the BNP lie? Whatever, give or take a percentage digit or two. Travel writers in such as the Guardian have plugged Norfolk ad nauseum this year. I don't know the answer, indeed does anybody? However, I do have some ideas. One being that boatyards hold lectures on boat handling in one of their boatsheds or in a marquee. These could be run on a continuous basis, on a loop so to speak, starting every half an hour. Hirers would have to be signed off before picking up their boats, a condition of hire. Something needs to be done, there is an admitted desire at Yare House to increase visitor numbers and it is inevitable that that number will include the innocently ignorant of boating issues.

I grew up both in and out of boats, can swim, sometimes wear a buoyancy aid, am still alive, just.

We did, this afternoon, at their Beccles branch.

Over Christmas, excess sprout assisted and with the Breydon tide under me I just might make 3.0001 m.p.h.!

https://www.xmasclock.com/

So long as you know what you are doing!!

Couldn't agree more. Public bodies forcing their idealistic agendas onto an unappreciative general public is fast becoming a pandemic and equally unwelcome.

Some of us Old Gits enjoy our kayaks too but I do draw the line at a paddleboard!

In a perfect world!!

In regard to my speed I generally carry a small, handheld E-Trax gps. Cheep as chips now but it does the job, it tells me what my speed over land is, it keeps the BA off my back! What it doesn't do is tell me my speed through the water, and that is what really matters. This is a debate that predates the BNP lie by a century and will probably continue long after its demise. Maybe satellite controlled speed governors is the answer?

Surely the gin palace/bling boat debate stems around the Broads being unsuitable for them rather than them being unsuitable for the Broads. For gracious living, and copious quaffing, a three decker gin palace, complete with all the electronic toys a boy could wish for, beats a paddleboard hands down! Just the small issues of limited navigation and restrictive moorings.

Only once have I been jumped on for a daytime mooring fee which I refused to pay, explaining that I was waiting for the tide. My explanation was accepted but I was told that I could not land which suited me well enough. Why would I want to land in Yarmouth for heaven's sakes!

I think that also behooves crew members to remain sober. Working on the deck whilst inebriated can be fatal.

A difficult question for which to provide a one size fits all answer! The fearsome dayboats rarely cross Breydon or visit Reedham so being suitably governed down shouldn't be a problem. Bigger boats certainly need some spare welly in order to compensate for wind or tide, I think it would be unsafe to govern them down like the dayboats.