ChrisB

I am afraid that it is common practice by the owner (lessor). But should you as a customer (lessee) want to come to an arrangement with another lessee in another location for a couple of weeks! No chance in my experience.

Yuck! Only the fox is worse than that. Seriously I can see all sorts of problems. It is different with the hire boat arrangement but owners will want to return earlier than planned for all sorts of reasons and they want to find their mooring empty. That is before we get into insurance, security codes, keys to the shower block et al.

The Reliant Fox was versatile though.

They were just about the worst thing on four wheels though. The Reliant fox was worse

You are correct BobDog it is a non starter with private marinas. Some large marina companies do however run their own schemes allowing customers to cruise between their facilities. Subletting all be it freemans is an exclusion on every mooring agreement I have ever had for 40+ years

When RA was based at Gays. Mike and the other skipper would always go over and ask them to move outside the stakes if they saw a boat anchored in the channel.

I really love that boat, always loved the high prow stepped hull. If things were different in the family concerning health issues I would be very interested in a project, especially at under £10K http://www.mjlewisboatsales.com/boats/26ft-francis-jones-motor-sailer/

Your fathers boat was beautiful Peter. I found this in Classic Boat archive, I wonder if if was a sister ship. 22-11-10, 15:23 Christian Hobart New User Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 3 Re: Francis Jones Boat Designer I am wondering if anyone can help? I own a Francis Jones designed MFV and I am tryign to find out as much information as I can about her. She is a Haven Class which I would describe as more of a "Gentleman's powered/sailing vessel" than a true MFV. She is 27' by 9'6'' in the beam and round bottomed as is the style of East Coast boats. She has a new Beta Marine 35 hp engine, (very nice and slightly over-powered), which is clearly a replacement for the original engine. I am totally re-building her. I think she sank at one point! Certainly there was a lot of detritus in the bilges and she was in woefully bad order when I bought her which is great in a way as I can fully restore her to her original glory. She was built in 1963 by Clapson and Sons on the Humber river. The sail is really a steadying sail but she is a great design with lots of room below for a family. I am trying to find out absolutly as much as I possibly can about this boat or about Francis Jones himself. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. Yours, Christian Hobart.

Your father'#

I think most folk who make night passages especially at night have picked up a traffic signal by mistake. Thankfully they tell you that you are wrong fairly quickly. The incredibly bright and very high lights at ferry port and container depots are what gets me. Passing Truckline in Poole harbour on a moonless night was a nightmare when I moored at Ridge Wharf near Wareham, you could not see a thing afterwards.

I would like to add one more observation and then I think I am fatigued with this thread even though I was the OP. Oulton is unique in it is a Broad in the centre of a town with all the back scatter of lights you get in towns. These are reflected in the water and make navigation difficult. If you have ever come into a town harbour from the sea on a dark night you will know what I mean. You lose you leading lights and bouyage against McDonalds, Bet Fred and zebra crossings. I think it was entering Newhaven in my Sussex days when one of my leading lights on the mole turned amber then green it was a traffic light. Luckily we had proper visual by that time.

Marshman, I was the one who first posted. Please read that post! I am not saying it would have prevented this accident which I made more than clear if you had read it first. What I am saying is a lit boat is easier to see than an unlit one, even you must see that is fact. All I know about the tragic events of Thursday evening is what has been told to us all by Peter. But one thing is patently clear the poor fellow did not see that boat until it was too bl**dy late.

But if you saw a white light and you were going full chat in a powerful planing boat, would you throttle back? I know I would with my family on board. If you are the type that keeps them wide open nothing will help you. If a light is shown, be it a riding light, cabin light, all round or even your navs in these days of low drain LEDs you are more likely to be seen than having none. Or am I missing something here.

In my sailing days I always carried a powerful lantern torch to light up my sails on night passage. More likely to be seen than the nav lights.

I was last there in 2011. We walked down river after lunch at the Butt. It was not quite so picturesque as it once was.

Jack Francis Jones, one and the same. Dirk Bogarde and he were close friends. JFJ's mother bought a large house in Waldringfield on return from Wales and the two sons converted the garage block to operate from. Thanks for that Peter most interesting.

Before our time Peter but Dirk Bogarde spent time there. His friend in those days was the yacht designer Jack Jones brother of the Broker George Jones who owned The Peter Duck of Ransome fame. Jack is famous for having two draftsmen who went on to be famous in their own right Kim Holman and Peter Brown. We are talking just after WW2 so even before your and mine time.

Never knew that they were that close!

Both the Orwell and Deben are fine Suffolk rivers with watering holes that have much history. The Maybush at Walderingfield was inhabited by some of our most famous East Coast yacht designers as well as some famous for treading the boards. I always liked the Ramsholt Arms. I was last there in 2011 and it had gone to the dogs. I hope it has got back on it's feet because it is also a good anchorage and you can do with a drink if you get Deben bar wrong. Bar as at the entrance of a river or harbour not what you prop up!

Not to forget the waveney going to Bungay. Talking of interesting watersheds and this has been reported in many inland waterway journals the source of the Waveney and Little Ouse are within a few hundred metres. This few hundred metres is all that stops Norfolk being an island. It is said that in the late 1700s there were plans to canalize these so they could be joined. If that had happened and remained open a boat on The Broads of 6'10" beam could have travelled anywhere in the UK and wider ones many hundreds of miles.

I am sorry, I got called away. So I can see the EA perhaps being a little worried about disturbing seventy plus years of silt because of what it potentially contains. We all remember that any dredging in Hickling would bring an end to the world as we know it, digging up a couple of miles of old river bed! Who Knows! I have never seen any enviromental impact reports although I do follow the EAWA www.eawa.co.uk

If only. Being serious though, I do have a reservation about this work. The land rises behind my house to the bank that forms the horizon. Then there are fields for between half to a mile sloping to the river Ant/canal. This land would have been grazing in years gone by but is now intensively farmed as one crop is harvested another goes in. The problem is the land is actually poor and very sandy. Vast quantities of nitrogen, defoliator, and insectiside are used to make it productive. The bank behind the barley stubble in this photo is the watershed. Our run off, septic tanks etc end up in the North Sea or Mundesley Beck and then the sea. Over that bank it also ends up in the North Sea but via The Ant, Barton Broad and the Bure. Not much of a rise but it is the difference between directly to sea or via The Broads.

Could make a very interesting programme. But the pastel pants and jacket would have to go! Or be made a more generous fit, let us say.

Mine is a reprint of 1904, there were then only four working locks. Upper and lower Swafield had been abandoned in 1893.

So having now found time to consult my Bradshaws, there were six locks on the canal (although one could say not a really true canal as they canalised the existing River Ant) HONING, BRIGATE mill, EBRIDGE mill, BACTON WOOD mill, SWAFIELD LOWER, SWAYFIELD UPPER. Six locks in under 9 miles no wonder they were short of water.