vanessan

Robin - Glad you didn't suggest White Star line to Herbert Woods!

I moor at NYS about 5/6 times a year, I have to have my fix of the city quite regularly as it is a super place to visit. We always make sure we are not there between Thursday and Sunday as the weekends are best avoided being the noisiest time. You are right about the road, it is noticeably noisy during the day and evening but I can honestly say it has never bothered me overnight. (Having said that, I am always pleased to get back to more 'rural' moorings.) There have been many scare stories over the years but you can moor up securely using loops for your ropes and a dropped mudweight and the gates are locked between 8pm and 8am, access being with the padlock code the BA ranger provides you with when you pay him. Currently the overnight fee is £12. I think I am right in saying that daytime moooring ends at 5pm but during bank holiday week available moorings might be hard to find elsewhere later into the evening - but you never know! Hope this helps.

Norwich City 3 Wolves 1, not quite so boring yesterday!

I have some really boring pictures on my walls at home and I purchased an incredibly boring calendar for 2017 too. I guess we forumites lead very boring lives!!! Long may it (they) last.

Good on you for coming clean on this Spider, I for one am glad that it wasn't Creative having recommended them previously. Whilst I can appreciate your reasons for not wanting to name the other company, it might be useful if you did so members are aware and can avoid if they want to.

Sad tales about Creative and their current policies and communication (or lack of!). Means I will refrain from recommending them again until I know they have got back to their winning ways.

Thanks Alan, I should have searched a bit better shouldn't I?!

Creative did a lot of work for us a few years back, canopies and upholstery work. What they did was excellent and very competitively priced. I know of others too who have been very satisfied with their work and would be happy to recommend them. Shame they are overloaded with work at the moment........!

Thank you for the update on Creative Covers Andy, they have obviously bitten off more than they can chew and that's a shame for a business that had built itself from scratch. I hope they manage to sort out their priorities and get back on an even keel. Seems it might be a problem to get work done in the short term, would it be possible to create a list of sailmakers, repairers etc as this is a question that gets asked from time to time?

I think the Broom's smaller boats like Torvill have pushpit rails. We had called in at Broom's for water one day last year and a boat had been returned by a hirer after only a couple of days of the week's hire. Apart from a couple of scrapes, the pushpit rail had received a severe wallop and was badly bent and wrenched from its fixings. The guy at Broom's thought it probably happened when leaving a mooring. The hirers decided boating wasn't for them!

Creative Covers really do excellent work but they have become very difficult to contact. I believe that much of their work has been picked up through 'word of mouth'. I also learnt a little while ago that they were doing a substantial amount of work for Freedom. If that is still the case, I would guess that this will be a very busy time of year for them as boats are being refurbished for the 2017 season. It's a shame if they are losing business through lack of communication channels.

MM has nailed it! But what a good thing JM posted the topic, it's these sort of posts that give us something to chew over this time of year when it is fairly quiet. Thank goodness Broads boating is not to everybody's taste, there would never be sufficient BA Rangers to police the system! And how about moorings and rubbish disposal...................?!!

Many boaters go through their boating life without ever wearing a life jacket/bouyancy aid - I did until recently. I realised that, as I was getting older, my mobility was getting a bit iffy with joints not behaving like they used to. I now wear a LJ when mooring etc, for my peace of mind and the skipper's!

EDP 8th November 2016. Mark Wakelin launched the Great Yare Ferry Company just over a year ago from River Green, in Thorpe St Andrew. The hourly service takes people from the banks of the River Yare across to Whitlingham Country Park and into the city. But Mr Wakelin has now decided to shut down the operation due to what he calls “unfair” pricing of new river tolls. He said: “I never set this up to make money, but I also didn’t do it to be made a monkey of by the Broads Authority. “On the 22nd day of the season this year, the total of all my takings equalled my annual toll. “You don’t have to be a business man to realise this does not make sense.” The 62-year-old said he paid around £625 each year in river tolls, Under the new changes, Mr Wakelin claimed that while his toll would remain the same, hire boats of the same size will pay significantly less – despite making more money.

Fourplay!

I think the ticket office idea was linked to the ferry being run by Mark Wakelin (?) from Thorpe Green but I believe he has now pulled out in protest at the tolls revamp. I'm sure I read that somewhere, no doubt someone can confirm - or otherwise.

Many years ago we had a cairn terrier who, like most dogs, was adept at clearing the floor of any dropped food etc. On one occasion my great-aunt managed to empty her full glass of gin and tonic on the floor. We didn't know until we found the dog standing over something licking furiously. Then he sat down and continued licking, then he lay down - still licking. We finally realised what he was enjoying but too late, he had cleared the lot. He didn't move from that spot, just keeled over and slept for hours! No harmful effects luckily but he did seem to have a smile on his face for the next day or so. Watch out for slippery decks when dogs are on board. We have found that wet towels are ideal to stop paws slipping and provide grip when getting on and off the boat.

Sorry to hear the sad news. My own Dad passed away last year aged 95, it is so hard to accept they've gone. Now you have Bill to worry about. It never rains but it pours does it! The post from Wildfuzz is so true.

So our tolls will be reduced in 2020 then? Mind you, by then most of us will probably need 2nd mortgages to fund them anyway!

Brilliant suggestion - gets my vote.

Like others I never met Iain but I always enjoyed his posts and his banter. He will be sadly missed on this forum. A true Broads addict.

And if anybody really needs telling, March is Pull's Ferry, Norwich. Taken 12 May this year at 9.30pm. Edited to add: super calendar, thanks to all concerned.

A Christmas morning sail could be very interesting!

Yes but I don't suppose we'll notice it for a while yet. The shortest day/winter solstice also marks the start of winter.

To put it in simple english, it is when the sun's daily maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest. That point was at 10.44am. What would we do without Wikipedia?!!