dnks34

Again on the subject of fuel, there was one yard I hired from who made clear on handover that their boat must not be filled up with fuel from any other yard or supplier claiming it would not be good quality and would damage their engine. They were absolutely adamant of this. Having bought fuel at many places on the broads with my own boat since and never once suffered any engine damage I can only think there was some other (likely financial) reason for this.

In my opinion if I was hiring I would rather pay for what I used. Fuel tanks are probably 200 - 250 ltrs in size on hire boats, maybe more. If they are allowing a full tank in the price on each hire imagine how much they could inflate prices by and what a winner they are on when many hirers probably wont even use half the tank! On the other hand I was never really keen on the dip stick and estimate method of fuel calculation either. Id rather see a boat filled up on my return and it all squared up equally, we all know whats been reported/suggested over the years!

I know what you mean Riyad but that does still seem an awful lot of fuel, were you suprised by it when you returned the boat to Richo's?

Wow, 180ltrs is a massive amount of fuel to use in a week! How far did you go......rotterdam and back?! Ranworth Breeze is fitted with a more powerful engine so likely to use more fuel than your standard hire cruiser engine especially if whizzing across Breydon!

Regarding licencing and towing weights I have looked into this a number of times in the past and this is how I have interpreted the official information available. I passed my test in 1998 so do not have automatic right to a B + E (car and trailer) however, It reads that aslong as the MAMs of vehicle and trailer do not exceed a combined weight of 3500kg and the MAM weight of trailer does not exceed MAM of towing vehicle then on my B licence I can tow within those limits. This then means that in most cases a car for instance a Volvo V70 and a single axle 4/5berth caravan can easily be towed within those limits on a B licence. Work that out! Furthermore, I have a bus licence (D) yet cannot drive a 7.5ton box lorry/van. A standard 49 or 57 seater coach is roughly 12.5ton empty, loaded with pax and lugguage it might come in just under/over 20ton. Yet I cant drive a 7.5ton box van......stupid much??! (And that 7.5ton is MAM maximum authorised mass)

I dont know exactly what Arabella's airdraft is (i have tried to find out online) but with that design I'd have thought there will be times Somerleyton will need to open to pass through. Whenever we go into Norwich we always seem to only just get under trowse with a few inches to spare, our boat is 8ft 6!

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That does makes more sense in that case then Jonzo

Do we know if Ruby Tuesday was an NYA stock boat or have they actually had to buy it from a customer.

Fuel is so cheap in America it was something like $2.40 a gallon when we there (and that price is high by normal US standards) we did over 700 miles in it and only spent around $70 on fuel!

Back in 2004 we hired Supermoore from Moores when she was still fairly new, im not sure what engine they had in her but when we took her across breydon she really was motoring! Just recently we visited florida and I hired a car with a 5.3L V8, you dont need it but boy was it a fun drive!

The Shannon/Erne takes a degree of ability in order to navigate it safely. If some folk cant even manage breydon without coming to grief imagine the trouble they could get themselves in to over there! I still wouldnt feel comfortable sending those lacking in ability out with oars for the week let alone an 85hp engine!

I remember seeing a few of the Haines on the Erne in the late 90s! What about the engine at 85hp? Do you think it will need to be turned down a bit?!

Completely agree Jonzo, whilst they are still comparably big boats atleast the likes of richardsons commodore and the highliners etc were designed for use on the broads.

Oh i thought it was just being used as the example! ouch with a 229k price tag its going to take a good few seasons for that to earn its keep! Was there not another company called Posh Boats who used to hire out a plush private spec vessel a few years back? If memory serves that ended up badly damaged after running aground on breydon didnt it?

Can i just clarify is it actually Ruby Tuesday they are putting out on hire or are they just using that as an example at this stage?

With the Ant theres a handy bridge in the way but what if a hirer of Moneypenny decides to ignore the restrictions and go up the Chet anyway, which in my opinion is more than likely going to happen. Theres some very narrow areas on the chet and also in Chedgrave due to moored vessels. Im all for progress and these nice boats but its some of the people put in charge of them that concern me!

They are both nice looking boats but I suspect the larger haines shell may suffer with airdraft issues, Ruby Tuesday is shown as 9ft 6in on NYA listing which isnt ideal for hire i wouldnt have thought.

Its likely that in most retail environments your going to be on film anyway, employee and customer so to take that a step further is going to put employees backs up in my opinion. I do think that any company feeling the need to use mystery shoppers will have fundamental management problems going on and any issues with staff are probably deeper than just those at the coal face. A company can become obsessed with knowing exactly what its employees are getting up to at all times and in most cases it destroys moral and that negativity will get paid onward by the staff. I have worked for a few companies who have done an excellent job of making a workplace miserable.

Thanks for the infomation Alan. I do accept the need for Network Rail to maintain the swing bridges (with a stick of dynamite each if I had my way) But.....both closed at the same time, for almost 10 days.........Staff holidays possibly? Network Rail penny pinching (just speculation but how would anyone know!) Any necessary closure should be kept to an absolute minimum. I know its quiet at this time of year but some of us might still have had plans.

I do think this is a good thing, especially the Co alarms for obvious reasons but knowing how many false alarms i get from my own smoke alarm (every time i open the oven door) I fear moorings will be awash with people frantically trying to shut the bloody smoke alarms up!!

Aslong as you bring your ropes through the eyes on the posts and back to the boat (preferably to a river sided cleat) and put your mudweight down just incase you are paid a nocturnal visit by a Norwich numpty then you should be ok. I would also not leave any valuables on display just so as not to invite any unwanted attention! Just good common sense precautions we all take in our every day lives. Boats being untied in Norwich is thankfully a rare occurance, the last time we stayed overnight (last summer) it was a Thursday and we had no issues at all. Yes its noisier with passers by and vehicles etc but its a city, its part of its charm. The park on the opposite bank to the yacht station is lovely to walk through but beware they get locked at 8pm! Visit Cow Tower, As has been said the walk up to Tombland via the Cathedral grounds is pleasant also. Avoid mooring near to the Foundry Bridge or the bus stop, further up toward Bishopsbridge is better. I didnt think I would sleep well at all in Norwich but the ambient light from the street lighting gives you a good impression of anyone moving nearby because of the shadows! Infact i slept like a baby and woke up in exactly the same place the next morning!

Do you use a seperate booster, if not getting one may help. It sounds like it could be a weak signal or possibly something else in the environment affecting it, trees are a pain when you want a good reliable picture!

Barnes advertise themselves as "Barnes Brinkcraft" not "Barnes Brink Craft" so it would be "BB" not "BBC" !!!!!

Could have been, the hose was yellow and im sure there was a sign at the tap, all the other hoses in the visitor areas were blue. I felt it was a cost saving measure! You even had to use your own hose on the private moorings no hoses where supplied there either!