dnks34

What about this as a scenario The fuel duty cut isn’t reflected in the price by retailers and when the fuel duty is increased again the 5p cut is added on to the price that was never reduced anyway meaning Mr Sunak has actually set the stage for a 5p increase in the future. They must think we are all daft! In seriousness I have read in the press retailers wont show the cut for a while as the fuel they have in stock will be liable for the full rate of duty.

We live in a greedy cash hungry world and it gets worse as time goes on. Anything we cant live without is fair game for price gouging, fuels, rents now gas and electricity. It hasn't always been this way.

What do we suppose might happen immediately after fuel duty is reduced (if it is). Retailers will just add it back on again……..we wont ever win!

Doing the maths at 2.60 per hour over 24hrs for an 8 hour shift it equates to around £7.80 per hour. I don’t know what the working hours or job role the 2.60 per hour is actually for but this is less than UK minimum wage however its dressed up. If its supposed to be Officers pay its an absolute disgrace!

Thats a real pain!

If the thermostat is housed inside the actual heat exchanger itself (as it was on my nanni 50hp) be very careful removing the bolts. I forget if there were 4 or 6 but each one sheered and the complete heat exchanger had to come off for repair. Luckily it was coming off anyway as it was cracked. Hopefully you wont have the same trouble.

Is it one of these? https://www.norfolkboatsales.co.uk/inventory/?post=10526

With the amount a bricklayer can earn in a day what prospects are needed! My neighbours a bricklayer and he seems to do very nicely out of it indeed!

I was referring to the part about opening the bridge being an inconvenience. As opening the bridge for navigation is an obligation going back years that last statement says quite a lot about the mindset of the organisation.

This is unbelievable!

I have not studied the timetable but google tells me Norwich to Lowestoft gets 21 Trains per day. By my reckoning thats 42 crossings at Somerleyton Bridge and 42 times the Level Crossing Barriers close at Oulton Broad North Station. Passenger numbers before Covid I had read previously to be around 750k per annum which dropped to over 400k during last year, Im not sure if numbers are recovering this year. As Fred says the trains always look empty and I have to agree. Maybe there are too many trains on the service.

A bus from Lowestoft to Reedham probably wouldn’t be practical. To get a bus to Reedham from Lowestoft your almost going in to Norwich or Great Yarmouth depending on which way round you go. That is unless the Reedham Ferry is used. A bus to directly to Norwich or Great Yarmouth would be best which already operate on a daily basis. The Lowestoft to Norwich line is clearly important to some but in my opinion its operation in these modern times has become a thorn in the side of this area.

The line over Somerleyton Bridge causes more inconvenience to non rail users than to just the boating community. Road traffic through Oulton Broad continues to queue nose to tail most of the day. Traffic will back up down Gorleston Road, Beccles Road, Cotmer Road, Victoria Road and Normanston Drive in some places for up to a mile. With repeated rail crossing closures for what seem like an eternity the traffic seldom gets chance to clear.

If the engine was in a boat that was needed out on hire it most likely would have been sorted in a matter of days. I had been considering taking a look at what Richardsons had on offer ex hire wise but not after reading this. The engine failing is unfortunate but leaving a customer over a month with no resolution is very very poor in my opinion.

Not wanting to contradict anyone but we once had our shaft repacked by a reputable boatyard in Horning and we could never get it adjusted just right. After putting up with it for a number of years we repacked it again ourselves when we had the boat out over a winter and found 3 and a half rings in the gland. This was a head scratcher as the boatyard had also supposedly had the shaft out before they repacked it. We used 3 rings, cut at an angle and spaced the joints and it was absolutely perfect from then on. We got the packing from ASAP in Beccles as it was our nearest place.

I have the same impression of the Lounge, for such a big boat its too compact. I do like the tinted glass and much prefer the bonded glass rather than glass in metal frames. It looks better and in the long term should leak less!

£3146 is not far off what it used to cost us to keep an 8 Berth boat moored & tolled on the Broads for use all year round, purchase price aside of course. Commodore looks a decent boat but it doesn’t represent good value to me. Its Norfolk not Monte Carlo. If the hire yards intend to claw back covid’s losses over the next few years by increasing overall prices Broads holidays may well become less attractive.

The boat I pay a Toll on is in storage adjacent to Lake Lothing. I will pay the Toll if and when I decide if Its going to be used this year. Theres absolutely nothing vindictive about that.

I don't plan on making any bookings of any description until some kind of normality returns to the world. Im not paying over the odds to go away just for the sake of it. If that takes another few years then so be it. I might as well save the cash or put it to other more beneficial uses for the time being.

They may be trying to claw back last years losses whilst also taking advantage of fewer people holidaying abroad this year.

If your neighbour had the engine running unnecessarily at thar hour I could understand your point of view but in my opinion hearing a heater going is just all part of being on a boat at that time of year.

I would not be prepared to take on any of those wrecked hulls as a project even if it were given to me for free. Especially having seen what had actually happened to them. I wouldn’t even be prepared to hire one should any miraculously reappear on hire!

I heard they are looking for somewhere to keep some new boats going seriously cheap in France

A killing off of the hire industry will only end up costing the private owner more and I dont think anyone wants that. I do think that there is a possibility albeit small that at-least one of the accidents last year may have had a different outcome with better training or awareness and knowledge of boatmanship and water safety. Im not however agreeing that the burden of any further training should fall solely on the BA and the cost passed on to the Toll payer. Surely that is the responsibility of the person hiring out the boat and the responsibility of the person(s) hiring it to act responsibly and also make some effort in educating themselves before taking control of a boat when knowing they have minimal or no experience. Even with all the training and every box ticked there will still be accidents, boats and water are dangerous that much should be obvious. I don’t accept nobody trained me to be a valid excuse, there is enough literature already out there, go and read it!

We can do nothing about it but all threads like this actually achieve is paving the way for the next years 4% increase let alone this one. The BA needs to learn to live within its means. Year on year increases at the levels they are in my opinion demonstrate failings within. Whether that be financial incompetence or an intent to show blatant contempt for Toll payers we will never know but one things for sure, keep massaging their EGO each year and nothing will ever change. God forbid one year they might actually acknowledge how much Toll payers have been hammered in the last 10 years and impose a less insulting increase. Pigs might fly. How much did the Acle fantasy project waste as one example. Its such wastage Toll payers will inevitably be picking up the tab for let alone training the drunken holiday makers not to put themselves in harms way.