vanessan

I believe this has been suggested many times but various reasons put forward for it not being viable ie against marina/boatyard terms and conditions or the berth holder having to return unexpectedly. Thank you Paul for taking the time to put forward your explanations as requested. Much of what you have said is very true and is probably very worthy of a separate debate. Didn’t the 2016 tolls review start to redress the balance? I am beginning to wonder if maybe Paul is trying to get us all in the frame of mind to readily accept large toll increases and share private moorings in order to avoid new ones being required. Maybe he is a BA stooge......................??

Paul - could you please explain where nimbyism comes into this debate? Perhaps also explain why you think that there is a reticence to paying for broads navigation. Nowhere have I seen anyone complaining of having to contribute towards navigation, just one or two grumbles about the way the income is spent. Having just read Vaughan’s post, which crossed with this one, I think I understand a bit better. I would still like an answer to the question anyhow.

I’m not sure I understand this. What ‘massive damage to the infrastructure’?

My point exactly Ricardo - we all do things the way that suits us. This thread seems in some ways to have become something of a point scoring excercise!

Reading over this thread again, I have come to the conclusion that the answer to the topic question ‘do we really need electric posts???’ is - no we don’t. Had Charlie asked ‘do we really want electric posts???’ it seems to me that the answer would probably be yes. I don’t get the impression that anyone totally relies on them, cruising from post to post, rather that they find them useful in many circumstances. We all use our boats in different ways, for different purposes and for different lengths of time, the point is that we all enjoy our time afloat in a way that suits us. (Robin has proved that three times and I don’t think he’s finished yet!) Shore power is still a relatively new thing, particularly for hire boats but I get the impression that the all-singing all-dancing boats will remain popular for some time to come. With apologies to MauriceMynah who actually mentioned the ‘need and want’ aspect quite some time ago!

A female point of view for you. We have shore power and make good use of it. When we arrive at the boat, the first thing to go on is the fridge, without shore power it would mean running the engine for a while and, as we don’t dash straight off, that’s a non-starter. The batteries are on trickle charge when we are away from the boat and during the winter we run a small oil-filled radiator on very low. That has kept us moisture free now for 9 years. The radiator is great too when we arrive in colder weather. We also keep a dust buster fully charged and that is ideal for a quick whizz round the boat every now and again, with 2 dogs it’s very useful.

Now that really is a ‘must have’ for a forum.

Whoops, now you've done it! Be prepared for a few posts on how you don't need tv on a boat!

Can we be quite sure of that? The original intention of the posts was to charge electric boats, mostly day boats I believe. Also to encourage more people to think about greener type boating. It makes me inclined to think the original cost may have come from elsewhere. Be nice to find out, if I can find time I will do so. Even if the costs do come from tolls, there are many private boaters who use the posts. They are there for use even if you don’t want to use them. (That was a general ‘you’ Charlie, not aimed at you specifically.)

It seems that many of today’s hirers want all those items you mention and many private boaters too. It’s a case of moving with the times as has been mentioned before, if the hire companies don’t keep up they will lose business. Nobody is being forced to use electric posts, nobody is being charged to use them if they don’t. People have a choice of how they want to enjoy their time on the water, with all mod cons or back to basic boating.

This is true - at the moment. Over the last couple of years more and more hire boats seem to be using the posts. Either the hire yards are supplying the cables or hirers are finding a way to use their own. As I understand it that is not allowed by law, electric has to be charged at cost.

I think you are all getting bored!

Agreed.

And there’s the problem, too many folk totally incapable of thinking about others. How many times have you heard of someone asking for an engine to be turned off late at night and the abusive response? I wouldn’t mind betting that some of these all singing all dancing boats are hired by first-timers who wouldn’t have a clue as to how the peace was being disturbed by their generator until somebody mentioned it. As others have said, the hire yards cater for what the customer wants and all mod cons seem to be the order of the day for some. Anyone wanting basics can always hire from Hunter’s at Womack.

Too much information Hylander, now you’ve probably got the boys all of a dither!! True words though.

I don’t think it’s really clamouring, rather a ‘nice to have’ sometimes. If you are out on the rivers for 2/3 weeks at a time, being able to plug in could mean not having to travel too far once in a while. Plug in or run the engine? I know which I and others would prefer. We don’t all live close to the Broads and are therefore not able to pop out for the day. It’s horses for courses.

I may be quite wrong about this but isn’t the electric post at Burgh Castle run from a pumping station? There is certainly one nearby.

Good news there from Hylander, fingers crossed it all happens.

At least it created a talking point, right from when the ‘extension’ went up. Not many boats can boast that.

In that case the Broads tide tables booklet (only £1 and has a whole raft of info other than tide details) will be ideal for you. Covers 1April 2018 to 31 March 2019. That, Broadcaster and the apps should give you all you need. Happy boating.

Jeux Sans Frontieres even! Grrr, showing my age now.

In the early days of drones, I had the idea of getting one to use from the boat. It would be flown ahead of us so we could keep an eye on our next planned mooring and see if a space was free. It never happened though.

Yes you can Hylander. Russell’s is open for both and fuel as well. Pumpout was still only £10 last year.

Is there any indication of how it came to sink? (And not just because the water came in!)

Here is the link to Broadcaster http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/news-and-publications/publications-and-reports/tourism-publications-and-reports . Hope it works.