JanetAnne

You could always type it after the 21:00 watershed?

Just to further the above warning... these 'agencies' will also renew your vehicle tax, organise your sorn, book your driving test etc etc. They do not break the law as they provide a service as in they do actually renew your vehicle tax or whatever for you and pay dvla accordingly. Yes, dvla are aware but no fraud exists and so no crime is committed. They look so official that you are convinced you are using the genuine site until you are charged for it. If you are ever not sure then check the cost of what you are wanting to buy first. That way, when you get to the paying bit, you will instantly notice if the figures are not right. There is good news though. I seriously doubt anybody will ever try to be the Broads Authority

Having seen all those lovely woodworking tools I thought you'd like to see this one.Its a Stanley 113 plane and is marked up "Stanley Rule & Level Co." Its not the most comfortable tool to use (so I am told, he always gets a blister) but it gets used often. In fact we used it this week for shaping the insides of my roof beams, for which it is an excellent plane.

That would surely depend on the quality of the ply? There are many small boats and loads of sailing dinghy out there that are made purely of ply and they seem to float. Where you run very quickly into ttrouble is where faced chipboard bulkheads are used. Because fibreglass boats were never expected to get wet inside chipboard was used by some builders instead of marine ply. Now that does soak like a sponge! Once those engines have been run and had a heat cycle through them I would have thought the boat would be a very viable proposition for someone. You would be amazed at what will clean and dry out and be perfectly useable again, even electronics. Don't leave it all too wet for too long though. In my experience, the hardest thing to dry out is the cushions. They seem to soak up water like a ..... erm,.... sponge!

Lets just say l can have a rather blinkered approach to old wooden boats... Having said that, on an icy winters morning when your body heat has condensed all night and frozen to the ceiling, at the point it starts to defrost and drip on you those nice soft dry headlinings start to look really cozy!!

Or go for something a bit more traditional.....? Headlinings Bulkheads And hull linings Then again perhaps I am slightly bias

Wow! I remember Hilda as well. And then there was David the landlord who must have been one of the most miserable hosts in the industry... By the way chaps, if you do manage to get back to 'real' pubs I have a few bags of sawdust here for the floors that I could happily donate to the cause.

Wrc is token operated but you could always grab a token a few days in advance? As for diesel, how about brimming the tank at the last available chance and just covering the cost of used fuel with the next occupants. I'm sure there must be some understanding for such a situation...

Oh good effort Mr Falcon Sir!

Melted Iain, melted! The chocolate thing only started when I moved here to be honest. I think I may be comfort eating. I have noticed that they keep measuring me and comparing me with the width of the door frame though! GracIe, its a date!

"Its 'just' a small percentage so it wont cost me too much" Its just another small percentage on top of last years and the years before etc etc. Meanwhile the rivers get 'just a bit' shallower and we run aground 'just a bit' more. And it all gets 'just a bit' more intolerable It's good to see that nowhere is yet too shallow for the rangers launches to get to.....

Oh Alan, I do so hope you are wrong. I'm cute, cuddly, pleasing on the eye, I handle beautifully, I'm cozy inside, warm, pretty and, well, I'm a woodie.... it dont get much better than that! My humans love me, they didnt need to tie me to the bench when we were flooded , did they? They could have got rid of me then! Yes, I am expensive at times, us woodies can be, I reckon we cost about the equivalent to own and maintain as a new family car every three years and there are many who pay that happily without thinking about it. But what we do, and this is something you may not have considered young man, is we bring lots of people into our owners lives and cause friendships to be made. You can not moor a woodie anywhere without someone coming up for a look, a chat, a tour, or a photo opportunity. We are very popular out on the river as well, its hard to go anywhere without a camera going click in our direction. What more could you want from a boat eh? I tell you, more people need a woodie to love and cherish. At the end of the day its my current owners turn to look after a piece of broadland history for the future. Good job they dont mind the occasional whiff of chocolate though

During my restoration my humans found evidence of a fire that had taken place sometime in my past. Some information came to light recently from a chap who was moored next to me in one of my sister ships just before the fire happened. I was 'Highlight 6' at the time and he was aboard 'Highlight 5'. He remembers it well because Herbert Woods thought it was his boat that had gone up and not me! He thinks it was 1980 but may have been a year either way. We were moored on the Wherry Hotel for the day and I caught fire shortly after he left whilst still moored there. So my question is, Does anyone have any info on this event? I have trawled the internet but just cant turn up anything, not that I am any good at 'googling' really which is why I am asking. Here's a couple of snaps of the remnants of the damage. You can see the blackened bits and hasty repairs to get me back up and running again. I say hasty but they did last me 30 years! it must have been quite a show though... There is, of course, choccys as a reward for information received

I always thought bow ropes were cut to a max length so that they finished just short of the prop. That way, if one does 'escape' it wont end up needing a diver to retrieve it.

If ya are still stuck in bed tomorrow Mr Pesky One, let me know. My humans are up there checking up on one of my good friends and would be happy to pop along and take the preverbial.... Do you need a chocolate parcel delivered? Would it help? Shall I tell Scoot for you? I bet he's got a wicked sense of humour on him. Anyway, enough of that. You get that back working again chap and enjoy yourselves.

Its one of those sticky out of the water thingys next to a bridge that you get up close to, sigh and (in the case of Potter more than most) turn back and head back down the river from.

We are getting close to reaching the bottom of our epoxy barrel so to speak which means its time to order some more. Of course the low oil prices have not filtered down to the world of epoxy which means an eye watering £360 again for West System There do seem to more and more manufacturers of epoxy these days and so I wondered whether anyone out there had experience of them for comparison or do we just adopt a 'better the devil you know' stance and buy West again? Dont get me wrong, we are very happy with the product - my new decks look fabulous - we just need to be sure we are getting the best value when 'managing' a somewhat overspent budget!

Maintain it and you will never need to be rich enough to restore it young Alan! Rakes Retreat just oozes character doesnt she? And as for all those seemly original interior fixtures and fittings... drool Going to enjoy meeting her one day

The way this global warming is going I may well be afloat before then! Launch date is 6th May.... just how much of me will be at the launch is debatable though!

Peter, you old sage! As you well know, we dont have all that wet canvas to dry and so we dont need something to dry it from. In my world something similar to this is more than adequate for my drying needs... When I am afloat you will have to come aboard for hot chocolate... you'll soon see the light

While you were all out enjoying the last days of this rather nice indian summer my humans were busy working away on my restoration again. Over the time there had been much discussion about my f'wd window and all sorts of ideas have been and gone whilst they came to a decission. Finally they got their act together and, armed with some ply to make templates with, they cut and trimmed and cut again until they came up with this. Its only templates but I thought you'd like to have a look. The single window is the original.... Of course the up side is we gain a nice shelf to keep choccys on.....

Come back Eddie, all is forgiven. What happened to freedom of speech in this country?

Anything that could house a chocolate machine would be a welcome addition above my waterline you wee scamp Does it come in mahogany?

Oh good find Arthur! If I could find one of those I'd go as far to consider having davits fitted!!!