Paul

Whilst I object strongly to the Broads being called a National Park that does not make me support this current action in any way, and I am surprised you are Peter. Poppy has the right of it as far as I see, the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend. If this was being fought just over the name then more power to it, but it is easy to see that it is not. The couple concerned are not bringing this action because they object to the National Park name, but to try and force the Broads Authority into adopting full National Park status, especially the Sandford Principle before they do. These people are, in my opinion, conservationists of the very worse kind, using their wealth and influence to try and force their preferences on everyone else, preferences that would see the absolute prioritization of conservation at the cost of all else, including navigation. A totally odious attitude. Again, just my opinion and Mother always told me to share. This situation was inevtiable when the authority took the decision to misrepresent the broads by calling it something that it is not. Somebody, somewhere was bound to stick their head above the parapet and mount a formal challenge, and now many tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds will be spend on the legal framework, not only by the authority in mounting their defence, but by the country as a whole putting this through the high court. I think the only people who will not be out of pocket will be the claimants, you can bet your bottom dollar that some organisation or another who share their opinions are bankrolling this fiasco, one which does not want to be seen to be publicly active in the matter. Now I wonder who that might be ......

Quite right too, been there, done that, wear the t-shirt and bear the scars. Never, never again. In fact it was such a traumatic experience, and such a rubbish car that I still maintain that every living Renault director should be stood against a wall and subjected to 24 hours of non stop Justin Bieber. Poppy, I do hope you are not buying your new C5, much cheaper to build your own from the myriad of parts available by the side of most motorways whaich have fallen off others. In fact it used to be standard practice amongst Citroen dealers to have a dustpan and brush and pile of sawdust ready in the showroom, to clean up whenever somebody took delivery of a new model.

thats probably, next to how long is a piece of string, the most unanswerable question, as .mkv files can use any of a number of video and audio compression codecs. I know a lot of LG and Samsung TV's state that they can play .mkv movies but in reality can't, or play them without sound, because the codec used to create the files is not supported by the TV. I think short of plugging it in and trying you will not get a definitive answer. It might be safer to convert them to a more standard format, or as suggested earlier take DVD's.

regulations require any rail bridge struck by a vehicle to be examined before trains run over them again. 8'3 is not too difficult at thorpe, as long as you get the tides right. We used to take an Aquafibre 37 in with an air draft of 8'5 regularly, though we never stayed, just a drive through on the last of the falling tide, and be sure to be out again before the tide went slack (on that part of the Yare, the river height starts rising before the tide starts to flood)

pretty much everything imagineable has been listed at least once, but I'll give you my list anyway. You say this is a regional magazine, so my ideal read would go along the lines of News, whats happened around the waterway since the previous issue, whats coming up, works, restrictions etc. Reviews, new products (which can often be tied to advertising revenue), new boats, used boats. Cater for all tastes and all budgets. Again this can often be linked to advertising revenue with a local broker. A feature about part of the waterway, whats around the river, facilities for visitors, local business and attractions A feature from another waterway, boaters generally will be interested about boating on other waterways. Perhaps a readers boating tale, reports from trade fairs, boat shows etc perhaps a "me and my boat" feature. how to features and restorations brokers lists and adverts and of course, the infamous readers offer!

Glad things are looking up Jon. It was good to meet you last week, even if I wasn't your man from Beccles! I hope he turned up by the way. Thanks for the advice, very useful.

I perhaps should have posted here, but if you look at my thread "A Whisper On The Wind", there are strong, very strong rumours around that the Berney will reopen next week. The problem regarding any potential sale is that the shop, land and moorings are not included, makes the sale al,ost unviable.

thats because more than that I don't know by the way, I'm not trying to be all cryptic and mysterious.

had a ride up the Yare today, deals are in the process of being struck, or trying to be. If it happens it could almost be operated as an outside bar from another hostelry. more than that I can't say right now.

... suggests that the Berney Arms may reopen next week. Not, as far as I understand a long term solution, more like a seasonal stop gap.

Kids and boats were made for each other! Like Gracie I started boating before I could walk, and Jamie was the same. Yes, there are dangers and as responsible parents we manage those dangers as best we can, as we do with everything, every day. Jamie has toys onboard which he can play with when he wants to, but most of the time he wants to be sat on deck, with his lifejacket on, watching what is going on. He has been bought up to be an inquisitive, interested child. We select the boat type to make sure there is a reasonably safe place to sit, which isn't a major problem as the styles of boat I like provide that anyway, lifejacket goes on before he leaves the cabin and doesn't come off until he is safely ashore. Children on board are a joy, deny them and you lose that joy from your life. After thirty years of playing serious cricket and boating from one mooring to the next I had forgotten how much fun it is to get a bet and ball and play the game with children, or moor up for an hour or two and play football or Frisbee. In my opinion it is the attitude that children should not be exposed to danger which has led to a generation of mindless, moronic automatons who sit inside all day, in front of a TV, surgically attached to a device of some kind which becomes there only contact with the outside world. Most of them can't spell properly, some can't even speak properly, No, that's not for me, and certainly not for Jamie.

you can buy auto style bulbs, if they suit your fittings, which have resistors fitted to suit cars with can-bus systems to fool the bulb failure warning system into thinking there is a normal bulb in place, but they are more expensive and largely defeat the object of LED lights as they increase the wattage.

It looks very smart, but your paying a big premium for the convenience and there are two concerns. Firstly the panel shown is polycrystaline which are not as efficient, especially in standard daylight as monocrystaline panels. (There is little to choose between them in bright sunlight though). Secondly it uses Lithium-Ion batterys which are integral to the unit. Li-on batteries age quite quickly, are they replaceable? I'm guessing not. I put solar lighting into my top sheds last year, the new laws make putting 240v in from the house quite expensive and it's too far and too much of a pain to keep running an extension. a 20w monocrystaline panel charger cost me £30, a 12v 12ah deep cycle gel battery (as used on mobility scooters) cost me £15 (could have got cheaper but chose Yuasa), an overcharge protector cost £8 (this blocks current from the panel to the battery when the battery voltage reaches 13.6v), 30m of 0.5mm twin core auto cable, inline fuse holder and fuse cost just under £20 (you may not need this much cable!). 6 g4 2w LED's (UK Sourced, could have got cheaper from China) cost me £12 and the holders another £4. I mounted the battery, protector and fuse inside a battery box I already had, but you can buy one for under a tenner, and I used a swith I already had, but that wouldn't cost much. Under £90 and I can replace any part of the system individually should it fail in the future.

If ever you go up to the Highlands, boating in the Great Glen, alongside the Locks at Fort Augustus you will find the eponymous public house, which upon it's shelves has row after row of great Scotch Whiskys. When we first went that way we assigned a "passage crew" to see the boat through the first half of the flight, whilst we retired to the pub. We were due to take over when they passed the pub, which is roughly half way up. Sadly, the lure of the Whiskys, some costing manys tens of pounds a nip took over, and tied to the boat the other half of the crew could do little about it. We were not popular for the rest of that day, and pretty broke for the rest of the week!

What! Tragedy! One of my earliest memories is of Barsham Faire, from the very early 1970s. I didn't know what it was, couldn't place the memory at all until I saw those posters, they nagged at me until the dawn of the www and I could research it. It would be nice to think that something like that could work again, but sadly I doubt it, a remnant of a time which has slipped away. Sad that the situation at the Locks has changed, as how it was was close to perfect, I doubt these changes will see an improvement, I just hope down the line it doesn't jeopordise the long term future of the Locks, which always seemed pretty secure under GJ You can keep your wheat beer btw, and your Jenny Morgan too. Gone Fishing was a mans drink!

I'm going to upset you all, but the best Whisky comes from Wales (unlike me, I hasten to add). Penderyn is superb. I think it's down to all that sheep wee filtering through the peat bog.

I think £3.5k sounds reasonable, given that it states to cover Mooring, Tolls, Insurance and Basic Maintenance. Tolls I'm guessing at around £310 a year, Inurance £150, mooring £1500 which leaves £1500 for the maintenance. Of course, you can spend pretty much what you want and when costs are being shared then it is easy to let them run away to some extent. Some syndicates feel the need to keep the boat in as new condition which inevitably incurs a premium cost but that is not really appropriate in this case. Others allow the boat to grow old gracefully which saves massive amounts of money but the value of the capital investment will of course diminish. Whether an extra regular payment should be made to build a capital reserve or sinking fund is a matter of debate or personal choice.

I've made this point before but worth saying again that reception can vary dramatically between devices, in fact reception can be effected more by the device than the network. iPhones tend to have very poor reception, though I have no idea about the latest incarnation as I don't know anyone silly enough to pay all that money. Sony and Nokia devices tend to have very good reception. For data reception a mifi device tends to give much better reception than a mobile phone or a usb dongle and can be positioned to get the best receptiion without the need to browae the web and post to your favourite forum without having to stand on one leg on the cabin roof. Try and get one with the facility to use an external antenna which can improve reception as much as six fold.

thanks for that, I had a feeling that anti foul was a bit nasty. I do have an air fed full face respirator but will happily go down the scraping route. Once all the anti foul is removed the plan is to sand, fill, sand again, fill again, sand again (repeat as necessary) then finish above the waterline with a nice bright red gloss finish and below the waterline with either a deep red or black anti foul. The biggest issue I can see is the joint between hull and topsides which is currently exposed. It's an advantage in that I can repaint easily but refinishing will be tricky as the standoff varies wildly along the length. In places the joint stands over an inch from the hull, in others less than a quarter.

And with regards to recoating, I'm looking at either Hempel or International, any comments on either?

Thanks folks, and other than the obvious cautions of fine particles etc when rubbing down GRP, is there anything I need to be concerned about when sanding. It will be machine sanded. Can I sand the anti foul back or is there some ingeneous way of removing it that I only fathom out when I have just about finished?

Once we have the boat off it's trailer we will need to improve it's appearance. Hopefully a good scrub wll suffice for the topside but can anyone recommend a product to scrub it with. It could probably do with something very slightly abrasive. Is there a T-Cut equivalent for polishing GRP? The hull will be rubbed down, any slight defects filled, sanded and then painted. Again, any recommendations for suitable products? I'm thinking she will have to have a decent undercoat after which a nice, bright red top coat as I believe that was one of the original colours offered by Bradwell from new. Is there a decent 1 part top coat or am I resigned to using two-pack? After that it will be antifoul. Again, product recomendations would be most welcome. Also, can anyone offer any guesses as to how much paint I'll need for an 18ft trailer sailer? Will 2.5 liters be enough, or is that too much?

Just to bear out my point, here is a photo taken on the River Yare, in October 2013. As you can see, the photo shopping to make it look sunny and dry was awesome. I'm especially proud of the fake oakleys. As for the wind and tide, they were so sever I had to hand the helm to my three year old son.......

There does seem to be an assumption, misplaced in my opinion, and most common amongst owners that hire yards, especially the bigger ones take the booking, bank the cash, chuck the customer on the boat send them on their way and couldn't give two hoots what happens afterwards. I think that is very unfair. I don't know of any boatyard that isn't concerned what is happening to their boats, which after all are a valuable business asset and responsible for providing the company it's income. I've hired from Richardsons, Herbert Woods and Barnes Brinkcraft, three of the biggest yards (as well as many, many smaller ones over thirty odd years) and never have I come across that attitude. They may have a more regimented system for doing things but I have never left a hire yard without that yard being confident of my ability to use the boat properly, both in terms of helming and maintenance. The response from Herbert Woods demonstrates the yards concern over the use of boats whilst out on hire but the key point is Amanda's comment that they are reliant on we, the public at large to make them aware of any misdemeanours so that they can act.