grendel

I still remember my first trial run at Marthams (a good few years back) I was asked had I hired a boat before (yes once) and did I have any experience- well I had helmed Broad Ambition once too, at which point they showed me how to start the engine, stepped off and pushed me off the quay heading and said- we will meet you at the bridge- so you could say the trial run was them watching from the bridge while you came downriver, and how you handled the mooring while they came aboard.

ah, but unless there is a breach of the bylaws hire yards should not be giving out hirers contact details as that would be a breach of GDPR. unless the broads authority made the hire companies responsible for issuing the surveys.

of course it is quite possible that the person that was asked did not get a trial run, most yards now will just take the skipper of the boat out on the trial run while the rest of the crew remain ashore (probably they will quote covid regulations as a reason for this) so if the crew member questioned is not the skipper they may well say they didnt get a trial run, most yards are insisting on the trial run, no opt out, Barnes certainly did last october, despite many of the skippers and crew having way more experience than those showing them how to do it (we had 3 fully experienced skippers just aboard Broad Ambition)

I reckon Water Rail could just squeeze under at that.- well maybe a couple extra inches to be on the safe side, but she only needs 5'11" at the highest point under wroxham, and I believe the gauge is set for the height at a certain width.

I would have thought that to be complete the survey by the rangers should have included private boaters.

a friend of mine used one in his office chairs as it was a lot easier than heating his whole office space, he did a modification to run it from a mains adaptor (12V 5A output) I also made one for my daughter, for her office chair when she works from home.

bump

I was shown a trick, using the car seat heaters you can get really cheap, and that is that you dont need to heat the room if you heat the person, so put down your pad heater, plug it into 12v and sit on it, this makes you warm, and they only draw about 60W or so. heres one you can get from b&q for just £15 and only draws 45W https://www.diy.com/departments/luxury-heated-car-seat-cushion-heater-aftermarket-universal-fit-12v-cold-winter/5060497645103_BQ.prd?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA7t6sBhAiEiwAsaieYmRk0HIVAJpW33--70WkDfKPeDCPa1OVwJg3SBG6Hfy03G-NiB73jhoCTDQQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

we have 2 500W ceramic fan heaters on Water rail, that can just plug into a socket directly, they are tiny, but do heat the space quite quickly (its not a big space though.)

at the moment I am using both to heat the house, a small 650W ceramic fan heater and a 500W oil filled radiator downstairs, the fan heater has a thermostat that is set to 19 deg C and comes on a few times an hour, the oil filled radiator also has a thermostat, but seems to be on longer (so the thermostat may be set slightly higher, either way between the 2 of them they are keeping my house warm, upstairs i have a 1500W oil filled radiator, set on the 500W setting at 20 degrees, and that is keeping upstairs nice and warm, this cuts in and out around every 10 minutes.

well the timber has arrived and been dropped off at the front of the house, later I need to move it to the back garden, then it looks like this weekend will see the start of building the new 'shed'. the driver assisted with the unloading, and my neighbour stood at his front door and gawped at the timber arriving (he is very good at gawping as he was hanging out of the window gawping as i removed the remains of the old gazebo.)

I suppose if they are no longer devoting time and space to building new boats, then they dont need as much space as before just to haul out and maintain those boats they do have, if the new build work is farmed out then some of the original space becomes redundant (though they will surely lose the skill sets that building boats gains). Anyway thats their plan, so they must think its the right thing for them, whereas Horning Pleasure craft under Clive seem to have a different plan, which seems to work well for them.

possibly stokesby ferry?

would they not require a planning application for change of use- the current application clearly states free 24 hour moorings (at the acle site), so it would be a change of use to start charging for them if the current application was accepted.

I did see there is a smallish wet shed/workshop planned at Acle, as well as a note on the visitor moorings diesel and pumpout, plus a sign for a diesel tank. but suppose those 12 day boats were all electric?

at acle I dont see any additional hire boat moorings - https://planning.broads-authority.gov.uk/PublicAccessDocs/planningDocs.aspx?doc=/sites/planning/2023/Documents/Development Control/BA20230444FUL/8407 P.02B Proposed Site Block Plan.pdf 48 new private moorings, 12 day boat moorings and 12 visitor moorings in the old basin, well I suppose if they are selling off half their fleet it makes sense to provide new private moorings for the new owners. on a good note it does say 10 free side on moorings on rising pontoons along the bank, now that makes sense, as the wear and tear on the pilings will be less and floating pontoons are easier to maintain. plus moving the entrance further from the bridge makes sense in a safety aspect.

only because where did you get that picture of me in the hot tub, unless it was just as the roof blew off?

no, this is the shed for the hot tub, the man shed(s) will be extended off of this at a later date.

And the year is gong out with a Bang, last nights hooligan level winds have dismantled the remains of my gazebo, damaged in one of the previous storms, then cobbled back together in the hope of lasting until better weather, so a couple of hours of careful deconstruction this morning, the thin tube frame is dead as are the plastic joining pieces. so I have been online to my local timber merchant and for £266 I have ordered the wood necessary to rebuild the structure, 10 times stronger. ( a heavy duty Gazebo in a similar size was £299), plus with a solid structure i can mount the solar panels on top. exterior treated construction grade timber and osb sheeting will be delivered in the new year (later i can install insulation and clad the inside too.)

to start the year off here are the topics postponed from this Friday to give everyone a chance to brush up their knowledge i present the topics for this coming fridays quiz -- January 5th 2024 1. Cryptic Cathedrals 2. Christmas 3. Christmas Music Break to recover and refresh your glasses 4. 12 days 5. Youtube Boats 6. Christmas Leftovers Start 8,30 ish in the chatroom http://www.nbnchat.com/chat Enter your User Name but leave password blank

A new quiz thread for 2024 in remembrance of UncleMike

Due to lack of participants we have postponed the quiz until next Friday.

bump - starting shortly

clearly in the past the northern waters would have dropped just as fast as the southern ones are, so this clearly highlights the fact that something is slowing down the natural drainage from the northern side I do wonder about the depths on the lower Bure at low tide, its a shame as if it had been high season with the normal numbers of boats, then dozen of boats running aground would have bolstered the argument that it was due to a lack of dredging, but since we are in the winter season, not many will be travelling the lower bure. boats running aground would have highlighted the lack of dredging by the Broads Authority (enough to maintain the navigation) it would be interesting to note the speed of the ebb at Great Yarmouth. this does however tend to point the finger away from the new bridge at Great Yarmouth as if that was holding the water back then the southern side would not have seen such low tides.

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