JanetAnne

Aha found the piccy! My first night was back in 1972 (gulp) aboard this... Somewhere in mums loft is a cine film of the holiday which I must liberate!

Not my first night on the broads but one of the more memorable was being moored on the quayhead along from Martham Boats waiting to be lifted out. Its quite exposed along there and the wind always blows across the fields no matter what the weather is doing elsewhere in the country. Anyway, it was late October and had been raining all day just to make everything nice and slippery before the wind got up about towards midnight. It blew an absolute hooley of course. The boat was being thrown against the quay with the fenders screaming and then back out into the river ready for the next assult. I was in the front cabin in the berth that 'didnt leak as much as the rest of them' (new cabin sides were on the list to do once out the water) listening to the wind howling, the fenders playing football against the hull constantly and the drip drip into the saucepans in the bed opposite me! The first attention getter was the sound of splintering wood from the aft deck. Up and out into the cockpit to discover the aft spring lines cleat had pulled out of the already rotten deck (also on the list, lol) but confident the doubler would hold on the 'good' side. The bigger crash was the dinghy, previously taken out the water and on the bank, catching the hull as it was returned to from where it came. I didnt get up figuring I wasnt about to chase it down the river in the pitch black. It had a name on it, someone would find it in the morning. Then the canopy on the yacht behind me let go turning into a proper flappy thing partially attached to a flappy thing. I have never been so keen to see daylight. The following morning I found the dinghy. It must have landed on its side in the water because it was sunk under the boat. The only clue was its painter that had caught a mooring rope on the way past and was somewhat tight leading into the water. Of course, the day before, I had removed all the bouyancy tank lids to dry the condensation out ready to trailer it home... typical eh? All in all an excellent night

It was Ellie twisting his arm to film young beauties that caused the injury in the first place

Checking for osmosis is part of the survey for all craft - even woodies. Otherwise there would be no point in going to all the trouble of fibreglass sheathing dodgy hulls....

Welcome to the NBF

There are many boats out there that have had expensive repairs to osmosis following which they haven't sunk. There are large numbers of boats out there that have had cheaper repairs to osmosis and they didnt sink either. Then there are the boats whose osmosis was left untreated. They also remained afloat. There are very very few examples of osmosis actually sinking a boat.... yet. Polyester mite on the other hand... Osmosis is, however, a useful bargaining tool.

Shall I bring a chocolate fountain so we can make it more palatable?

I believe it's a risk that can be managed by consulting the appropriate health and safety bod. Now the risk has been identified you will be pleased to hear that they will protect you from the wetness until the water is turned into dry water and you can be trusted to go near it again.

My mother in law is quite happy to take those type of calls and can keep them talking for hours. She has Alzheimer's...

Boiling water is risk on a boat especially one underway. So, having identified the risk it must be time to remove all the kettles or nail them down! Am I the only one on here fed up with having other people think for me

I'd forgotten yours. Lol Wow! How cool can you get them to run? Are we talking chilled or ice cube making?

A couple of years ago I had an Isotherm that kept refusing to cool properly. Couldn't find anyone to repair it but the local caravan dealer suggested giving it a good shake. They have a problem with vans sitting in long term storage and the gas settling. So I took it out, carefully turned it upside down and back a few times and then left it overnight. Next day I reconnected it and it worked fine. Still is. Of course any fridge shaking is at your own risk but in my case it was either shake it or bin it so I had little to lose.

I am one of the lucky ones who grew up amongst the hire fleets in the 70's. At the end of each season I got to take a couple of mates for a week on one of the boats. I usually managed to beg, borrow or steal Emerald (Newson Boats if you want to look it up) and am sat here now realising my first week away we were all age 15! The following year was Topaz and then Emerald again in 1980. We even left our bikes in the customers car park.

At the point they condemned London Rascal to the 'no longer a suitable hirer' bin the whole policy lost any credibility.

As a rule of thumb I believe that your mudweight should come in exactly the right size to be a- just not quite heavy enough to hold the boat and b- just too heavy to haul back aboard once you realise a!

I'd heard that rumour as well

As long as they can be seen by the ranger there is no specific requirement to stick them to the hull. There are many yachts out there with their number hanging from the bowsprit and cruisers with numbers hanging from pulpits.

Maybe Doug is flushed with success?

Or the magic roundabout in Hemel Hempstead, now so famous it has its own Wikipedia page!!

well spotted Peter

Now if that is one of the Waveney Princess class (later the Aston Cairn class) one of the four definately still exists as I have mentioned elsewhere at times... And if its the shorter Waveney/Broadland Lion class we have one of those as well... lol. Sorry about the second picture, its all I have with me!

Yep, and if he'd re-thought that 20 times he would still have written it

Teddies have rights too you know

When they recently renumbered the A12 heading north from Lowestoft into the A47 they sent a man out covered in high vis in a transit with stickers and a step ladder. No renewal of signs, just a simple sticker with the new info stuck over the old. Cheap and effective. Maybe someone should give BA the number of the sticker suppliers?

We used to be able to cope with anything. Now elf and safety stops us.