Jonathan

I use it too; but I will admit that I usually wash the car first to remove the worst of the grit. It does a good job, but needs to be re-done regularly.

There could also be a problem with a poor (corroded?) or loose connection between the battery and the starter or the return path to the battery. This might also explain the "getting worse" symptom. It might be worth just checking the connections are all good prior to replacing parts, but it sounds like you already have a good plan to resolve the problem. I hope you manage to resolve it on Saturday!

Robin, I very much agree with others here. Keep up the good work, and thank you for your dedication! The radio placement is odd. Most car radios have a "remote" option for many functions so that they can be operated from buttons on the steering wheel, so a conveniently placed remote panel would make some sense. Also, it occurred to me that the "engine instrument" screen could be used for a wide-angle rear view when using the inside steering position. Anyway, I don't expect I will be in the queue to hire Rhapsody (simply because of the cost) but the review was very interesting.

Whilst I agree with this, I would add that this is true for dry skin. If you have got wet (which never happens on a boat!) then it is more dangerous. I had a quick google and found the table "Currents Resulting From Electric Shocks" at http://www.mpoweruk.com/shock.htm;this only lists currents at various voltages, 50V being the lowest, so divide by (approximately) 2 for 24V and 4 for 12V systems. There might be better data elsewhere.

Surely, the difficulty here is that there is no “one size fits all” solution. There are people who will understand the concepts of momentum, tides, currents and winds etc., and there are those who will not. Worse still, there are those who will not listen to reason, because they believe that they know better. What is needed are high-level descriptions which explain the concepts to those who will instantly “get it”, and more comprehensive instructions and explanations for those who don’t. Brief instructions would not be enough for the second group, but long detailed descriptions might cause the first group to lose interest and not continue to the end. Electronic gadgets often come with a “quick start” guide, and a user manual. Something similar would be needed here too, but as Dave has already said: “where do you stop?” There are so many things that are obvious to someone that has spent a long time on the broads that come as a surprise to a novice, that choosing what to put in and what to leave out would be quite a task. Then of course, you (or the boatyard hiring out the boats) are leaving yourself open to the accusation that “no-one told me I couldn’t do that” when damage is done, as a result of something that is not mentioned. An interactive presentation might be a compromise! Now that small tablet computers are relatively cheap, and many people have a “smart ‘phone” of some sort (and some boats already have a games console provided), it might be possible to have a PowerPoint style of presentation that allows the user to jump through chapters and look in more detail at some topics. This could link-in to videos showing “how to …” at the appropriate levels. I agree with Frank, there is a lot of information “out there” already, and I would like to think that people will take the trouble to find out and learn the best techniques to use. Unfortunately, we all know that many will not.

p.s. There are several small shops near the pub, including a general store and a Chinese take-away.

I have been to the Recruiting Sargent many times (by road unfortunately). It can get busy as it is popular for food. It is about a mile from the moorings at the Kings Head, but as has been said above, you can get a lot nearer by going up to the Mill (or where the mill was!), although I don't know the state of the weeds there at the moment.

Supplementary question Maurice: Are either of you sounding a horn or waving an arm? ... Wouldn't that help to clarify who is intending to do what?

I agree with what has been said by several others. If you are not in a hurry, or do not wish to view your pictures on a bigger screen within a few seconds of taking them, then there is not much need for one of these. They do eliminate the need to fiddle with the cards, but that is not too much of a chore with most cameras. There is a review here http://www.dpreview.com/articles/4616822206/battle-of-the-wi-fi-cards-eye-fi-vs-transcend which has a few interesting comments, but then the reviewer is a professional photographer and his use is probably different from yours. One final thought. No-one has considered the battery drain. These devices need to run a processor and a radio transmitter (and receiver) which both use quite a bit of power. This will reduce the battery life, or time between charging, quite noticeably. As an analogy, consider how turning WiFi (or bluetooth) on on a mobile phone can flatten the battery.

Hello Alan, Tan, Iain, Maurice and everyone else! I've been reading this forum for a few years, "lurking" in the background, and we have been on several holidays on the broads in that time, so I have found several comments and suggestions helpful. I don't consider myself to be an expert on anything ... particularly things that float ... but having recently joined the forum I thought I might be able to help someone else; hence the above.

Maurice, I know nothing about bow protectors, but propeller blades …. More blades is not necessarily a good thing! Propellers are designed to be efficient in transferring engine thrust to the water and so moving the craft forward (and therefore the water backwards). A particular design will have a pitch and curvature optimised for a particular speed, this is similar to gears in a car, some are better for dragging a heavy weight up a hill at low speed, others for cruising fast on a motorway, in both cases the engine rpm is within a similar range. But you are asking about the number of blades, not its’ pitch; obviously, the more surface area a propeller has the more water it can “push against”, and so the more power it can transfer. You can gain area by increasing the diameter or adding blades. But consider the following: You are travelling at 4kts using 1000 rpm. 4kts is 4 x 6080 feet per hour or (4 x 6080)/60 feet per minute or (4 x 6080)/( 60 x 60) feet per second which is about 6.75 feet, or 80 inches per second. 1000 rpm is 1000/60 rev’s per second which is about 17. That means that in one revolution of the drive shaft the propeller had moved about 5 inches forwards (80/17). I can tell that you are already bored and wondering where this is going, so the point is: If your propeller had just one blade then each time it reaches the same point in the rotation (let’s say vertically up (or down)), then it is meeting water that is 5 inches away from where it last disturbed, and pushed-on, the water. If you have a 2-bladed propeller each blade will cut through the water every 2.5 inches, 4-blades every 1.25 inches etc. The problem is that the passage of the first blade has “disturbed” the water, so a following blade is not so effective, and the closer it follows the less effective it is. From the efficiency point of view a single blade would be best … but you might notice the vibration! Consider how the spitfire (wartime aeroplane) design evolved from 2 to 3, 4 and 5-bladed propellers as power and speeds increased over a few years. Sorry if this has been a bit of a lecture, but I think the bottom line is that for cruising gently on the broads it probably makes no difference!