ChrisB

I did say "some" Peter. Acle Bridge to just short of Womack is the best river sailing on the North Broads. The south is I agree better river sailing overall but lacks the open waters of the likes of Barton and Hickling.

It would make a very nice marina exclusively for sailing craft opening up as it does to some of the best "reach" sailing on the Broads. By "reach" I mean in both sense of the word, the point of sail and stretch of river.

Of coarse we all think of Richardsons Boating. They are however big players in other forms of holiday and leisure as far south as Bracklesham Bay in West Sussex.

Did Sutton Staithe also expand the number of moorings? And the wayford area and above has good number of craft, not forgetting Coxs. It is only guess work but I would think there will be about 1500 boats north of Irstead. That is over 10% of all registered boats using the Ant before the rest start visiting, as they will, if only to get to Tesco. Tuesday on the Ant can be as bad as Friday and Saturday as the food brought from home runs out and they make for Stalham.

Who earned less in their career than some of these earn in a week.

The beach is beautiful as described but you have to be very careful. There are very strong tidal streams long the beach which cause lows and banks. Should you wish to enter the water do so at Sea Palling where the water is sheltered by artificial reefs and there are RNLI lifeguards on duty.

I stick to rugby. Union or league much more gentile. And the fans are such nice people. Never played football as both my schools were rugby schools, don't understand the finer points of football so don't watch it. Certainly don't understand why it attracts such violence. Unless it is fueled by alcohol.

Horsey is much better than West Somerton. Cross the road, make sure you have complete control of any young children as the willow can make crossing need careful attention. And just follow the path across the field towards the gap in the "Marram Hills" you will pick up a track to the Horsey Gap entrance to the beach. Keep on the track on the way back and you can refresh at the Nelson Head! It is about 20 minutes if fit 30 if not, a bit longer for small children.

Bob has raised a very important issue here. When you do not have a flat ceiling, but, say an apex, like in many loft conversions you can get something called "heat shielding" Hot air from central heating goes right up into the apex and smoke rising from combustion may not penetrate this layer of hot air but run along it as though it were a glass ceiling. Smoke detectors, especially ionisation types should not be placed high up in an apex for this reason. There used to be a test rig at the Fire Training College, Morton-in-Marsh that demonstrated this brilliantly.

18 inches above your head is spot on. But for the sake of a few quid why not leave it where it is and have an additional one above your berth.

PS. As I said before dont mount CO detection too close to your appliance as many do emit CO on start up, this is especially true of some of the more traditional "Taylors" type stoves where pre-heating with meths is used before the parafin will fully vaporise. Difficult on a small craft but a min of one metre from hob or oven should suffice.

Griff's answer is absolutely correct, but manufacturers instructions tend to assume a cube. You may have to interpret them as a near as possible solution in boats where the configuration of galleys, berths and cabins is endless.

As a general rule smoke detectors should be ceiling mounted making sure that no hanging bulkheads or beams mask them or stop smoke reaching them. CO detectors should be vertical mounted about 200mm below the ceiling except when the area is used for sleeping in and then about 400mm above pillow height would be about right. CO is very slightly lighter than air and if it can not escape upwards the build up comes lower and lower with tragic consequences for those lay prone asleep.

Don't know why it posted and would not let me say: Ionisation are good at small airbourne particles hence going off with toast and grilled bacon but Optical are much better at the slow smouldering of electrical wiring, foam etc. Given the nature of the dc electrics in boats I would always go the optical route. But there are other forms of protection, We fitted linear to the engine rooms of superyachts in the past.

Actually the Alpha particles are absorbed within the detector, the gammas escape and are considered harmless in the concentration given off. Within the industry it is still advised not to site any product produced from source Plutonium 241(Americium 241 is produced in a reactor from Plutonium 241) close to bed heads or over school desks etc. That is why the industry standard is now optical, heat or combined optical/heat. They cost more but are not prone to going of if you make a bit of toast! (Hence folk remove the battery) Recently there has been alot of discussion about disposal. It was always considered safe to put in household rubbish, but the vry low cost of ionisation makes people change them every time they decorate. And with landfill becoming concentrated in fewer sites! Talk has been of having dedicated skips for them at recyle centres for incineration. Any detector is better than none but I still would recommend Optical for the few extra pounds. You will make toast, grill pork chops and not have to fan the detector of heavens forbid remove the battery!

Both the Kidde and Fire angel combined smoke/CO are very good products. I only have a very small boat but if I wished to protect a large 30ft+ boat my preference would be a Heat Enhanced Optical smoke detector and a dedicated CO detector. My reason for this choice is with the low head room in boats ionisation as combined usually are, employ a radioactive source, today this is usually Americium 241 which is pretty tame by the old radium standards but are designed assuming a ceiling height of 8ft. Ionisation should certainly not be fitted above your head where you my be for a long period ie above your bunk.

The problem on small leisure boats is that unlike the security business which is 12v DC most fire and gas dectection for permanent hard wiring are 24v DC.

On the subject of the danger of incomplete combustion, Wood Burners if incorrectly installed can be a very dangerous source of CO. One has to remember that air is only 21% oxygen at sea level so only 21% of the capacity of a boat or room is any good for combustion.

I am not that well up on combustion! Having been retired for 10 years but for the last 10 years of my career I worked for the Swiss Company that invented the original cold cathode ionisation detector and a range of gas detection. Now part of Siemens. During the Second World War, the Swiss Government, though neutral were very worried about Hitler resorting to the use of poison gas. They employed a Physicist, Dr Smilie to work on gas detection. At the time he failed to come up with the pelistor type gas detection and worked on the twin chamber principle with (heavens forbid) radium as an ionisation source. Being a 80 to 100 a day man in his lab he invented the ionisation smoke detector really as an accident. He later founded Cerberus which became a world leaded in all forms of detection financed by UBS. In 1998 UBS wished to return to a core business model of banking and disposed of their industrial holdings. Cerberus became part of Siemens Building Technologies some two years later.

PS. It is also worth noting that many butane/propane appliances emit a small amount of CO on start-up. So correct siting of the detector is important. Siting it above or too near your cooker will be a cause of false alarms. This is where the digital type that monitor the actual min/max level of CO are useful.

It worth checking what type of roof vents are fitted to any boat that you are going too occupy. Older craft often have the mushroom type vents which are fine but can be closed. Given that CO is very slightly lighter than air, the ventair/ventilite type that provide permanent ventilation are a safer solution. On the premise that prevention is best incoming ventilation is vital. Much is made of heating systems, generators etc. But remember your hob and oven are just as lethal if they are operating starved of oxygen because door louvres and other entrances of fresh air are covered. I have seen on more than one occasion a set of wet weather gear hanging on a door and blocking louvres. Like Siddy I carry a Kidde 7DCO which is always in my grab bag for use on my own boat and when I travel. They are usually less than £20, have a ten year warranty and I change the 3 AA batteries on my birthday each year. Everyone should have one! Remember that BSS is just a moment in time thing and does in no way guarantee a boat is safe. Everyone strips their boat to the basics for the test day! What creeps back in over the next four years is anyone's guess.

One, should of course, never speculate in these matters but it appears to have all the makings of yet another boating CO tragedy. Whatever the cause, tragic.

Good job no hills got in the way then!

I would not think it a Panhard as they were considered a more up market product until killed of by Peugeot Citroen. There name still survives in military vehicles a bit like Allard and Alvis did here.

France has produced over fifty different micro cars, many you could jump in and drive without a licence. Vespa also produced a car called the 400 that was popular in France.