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StillCruising
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Posts posted by StillCruising
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Mmmmm I remember it well. We had Benmore that year. Judging by the clothes it must have been before the summer really heated up. I also remember filling up my MG with petrol and later in the day an alarmed neighbour knocked on the door to tell me that there was fuel coming out of the filler when it had expanded in the heat. I had to go and pick up the girl friend then drive to the pub just to reduce the level in the tank, a right hardship !
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Hell Fire Norfolk Nog is Mrs N related to Imelda Marcos ?
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Wyndam. Well I suppose somebody had to ask, when it went in the mud weight was naked save for a coat of blue paint.
Hylander. They did have a lead, at the time we getting ready to go to the pub and believed that the dog was on board, what they hadn't realised was that when they shut the front door the slide bolt had stopped it shutting property and it started to open enough for the dog to escape unnoticed.
We both love dogs and we used to take our Doberman on the boat but with the wisdom of the years ours was always tethered if the canopy was open or on a lead when ashore. In the end he became to arthritic that we could not get on and off or handle the internal stairs and his boating days were over (at 60Kg I couldn't lift him), sadly he died 18 months later. On the up side we do have a bit more room in the bed now.
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To my mind the responsibility entirely lay with Railtrack. Like many structures of similar vintage the bridges were massively over engineered and took a lot more and heavier loads than they do today. The problem is that because they were so well built in the first place they have not had sufficient maintenance and we have now ended up with the problems that require large amounts of money to fix and provide a reliable service to both train and river users as they did in the past.
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I don’t usually do ‘Holiday Tales’ but we are just back from a few days afloat which included an ‘interesting’ stop at Ranworth. We arrived around mid afternoon and there was only one space left at the end of the front moorings, the wind was blowing across and after three attempts at stern mooring with the wind blowing the bow round we were successful on the fourth attempt and were grateful for the assistance of two gents that took our lines and tied off whilst I dropped the mud weight. With us squared up there was one mooring post and about three feet of key heading visible from the water. During the rest of the afternoon there was a steady stream of boats cruising along the moorings in the hope that someone might be leaving and saw that although there was not enough room at the end to more a boat of any size especially with the side wind blowing. Eventually up turn a party of middle aged blokes on Tobago 2 and decide to have a go at mooring their 12ft wide boat on a 3ft key heading with one post. After a lot of revving and shouting of directions from their crew together with the effect of the wind they managed to crunch into us and took a chunk out of the side of Evesham Light moored on the first of the side moorings in the process. One of the blokes then got ashore and tried to pull it in which was never going to happen, I asked the bloke on the rope what make then think that they could moor a 12ft boat in a 3ft space (think car park scene at the start of Police Academy 1) and was told in no uncertain terms that it was my fault and that I should have moved over to let them in, a bit tricky when we were fender to fender with the next boat. After a lot of moaning they eventually gave up and moored where there was now a space down the side.
The wind started to drop and a small hired Bounty type bathtub with a young couple and a dog tried to more and were successful in getting in square to the key heading so that they had a least part of the stern against it and we gave them some advice about the use of the mud weigh to hold the front which was politely accepted. It turned out the their dog was only six month old and was shall I say adventurous, not only running round they decks but ours as well !. This was not a problem until it obviously caught the smell of food from our oven and literally dived through the open window onto swimbos lap ! . I picked up the dog and asked the couple if they had lost something, they were mortified but we all had a good laugh about it and they went off to The Maltsters.
During the later part of the afternoon we say a two Richos boats with youngsters onboard which were obviously together had cruised the moorings but eventually rafted together out in the broad. However one of them together with the crew of the other returned later obviously intent on mooring and came up with the bright idea of mooring stern to Evesham Light as you can imagine this was not well received by those on board but as luck would have it the couple with the Bounty just returned and were going to leave. The crew told us that they were going to the Maltsters and were not stopping all night but did we think it was possible to moor next to us in place of the now departed Bounty. Even though the wind had stopped it was a tricky manoeuvre with a large boat but the helm made a pretty decent job of it and willingly took advice on roping up and mud weighting. They returned later from the pub, thanked us for our help and apart from nearly leaving one girl behind, left without incident to re-raft up in the broad.
The rest of the night was uneventful but in the morning when we were leaving we had to get the now very stuck in mud weight up. The dammed thing defied all the tugging that I could muster (which wasn’t much) so we decided to ‘drive it out’, swimbo selected forward and with a few revs we were off. After about 40 ft to be clear of other boats she dropped the throttle and I stated to pull in the rope, not my most favourite job I have to say. After a lot of heaving (and swearing) the mud weight came into sight but somehow it looked totally different to when I chucked it in, not because it was covered in disgusting slimy goo but because it was wearing a pair of red checked underpants !. Over the years of broads boating I have dragged many things from the water but never a pair of pants in the event they were returned to the watery depths.
Thus ended our stay at Ranworth meeting some thoroughly nice and by their own admission ‘complete novice’ young holidaymakers and a brief encounter with a dog.
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Didn't they replace the bearings a few years back, I'm sure that I have a photo of the bridge being opened and closed by a boat permanently stationed at the end of the moorings.
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To find the switched & permanent wire you could use a light bulb with wires attached with one side to a known negative and the other to each of the positives in turn, switching the ignition on and off. The one that makes the light go on and off will be the switched live, the other will be the permanent feed. Better yet get yourself one of those cheep digital multimeters from fleabay or local cheepy shop for the testing and keep it on board for future use. Even after nine years of ownership I'm still trying to fathom out where some of the wires feed from and end up. That said it probably doesn't help that there has obviously been a lot of additions (and subtractions) to the original wiring over the years when the boat was on the French canals which did not conform to any sort of convention.
The current taken from the live feed is a few milliamps and would not drain your battery I would make sure that there is a fuse in the line though. Personally I don't like permanent feeds on a boat and the only thing that is live on Miss Lisa when the isolator is switched off is the bilge pump (through a fuse).
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Hi Ricardo
The inverter is mounted under one of the steps in the cockpit next to the battery locker so that I could keep the wires as short as possible but there is a good chance that people can kick the on/off switch inadvertently and turn it on without realising it. The 12v cables go straight onto the batteries not through the normal boat Isolator as it was too far away and not heavy duty enough to take the maximum potential current draw. At the time I had a spare 700amp isolator hanging around (like you do) so I fitted that making the inverter totally isolated from the rest of the boat when not in use.
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Our 2Kw inverter is connected as in Grendel’s diagram, it is hard wired to the batteries but through an isolator switch and a fuse. The 240v output is not hard wired to the boat, if I need to use it I have a lead that I can plug into on of the inverter 13 amp front sockets and plug into my shore power socket. Using this method there is no risk of any conflict between the inverter 240 volts and shore power. Also having a separate isolator guards against somebody switching the inverter on accidently and drawing the quiescent current.
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When I started work in the early 60’s I was offered an apprenticeship with a very large well known electronics company, which I did not take up and went for a traineeship at a local company that had electronic and mechanical contracts with the MOD.
As part of the traineeship I did five years at collage for one day and two nights a week. It was really interesting work and after I qualified as a test engineer it gave me the opportunity to visit military installations and play with tanks and planes. At 21 I made career switch in the same company into ‘Quality’ firstly as an electrical inspector and then head of department.
After being made redundant I took a short term job as a vehicle electrician with London Transport and ended up staying for 13 years until moving to the south coast and going back into Quality in various positions in various companies.
I have been with the current company in the marine industry for 16years and when I retired I was invited to remain on in a part time basis for two days week , this arrangement has proved mutually beneficial, they keep all my professional experience and as I no longer have the full company responsibly I have far less stress.
Over the years I have also been involved in the setting up and running several small businesses from designing and supplying fault tracing equipment for regional electricity boards to restoring classic cars.
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Back in the day the detector vans did have equipment that could detect the line timebase oscillator from a CRT TV when switched on however it was difficult to use, had a limited range and not directionally accurate. In realty the equipment was rarely switched on, the guys in the vans just had a list of properties that had licences and knocked on the doors of the ones not on the list. They had no powers of entry but were very well trained at getting people to incriminate themselves.
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UK charts don't go back far enough but in the US, Nature Boy by Nat King Cole, quite apt really.
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Welcome to the forum.
We still have our copy of The Complete Guide to the Broads (circa 2009) on the boat. Having the rivers broken up into pages with relevant information is very handy. Of course some of the info is outdated but it's still good for general stuff and as has been said you can gather additional info from other sources.
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Hi CrisB.
As I remember it JM spent some time in the area as well. I don't know how long ago you were last but in the last few years all of the old buildings and workshops have been demolished and replaced with the modern offices and workshops. There is also a development of very expensive holiday flats. The yacht club building by the lock is still there in fact my son had his wedding reception there.
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Series 1 Episode 1 was on the Chichester Canal which is a stone’s throw from where I live. I was doing some consulting work for a company in the black building with the red roof that you can see so had a grandstand view of the proceedings. The canal houses an eclectic mix of floating homes many are essentially large caravans on floats but there is also an ex Cromer lifeboat and some normal boats. Until a few years ago a Dunkirk little ship VERE was there but was sadly lost in the huge boatyard fire on the Isle of Wight where it went for some TLC. There was also an admirals pinnacle FUSIL but that fell into serious disrepair and I believe went to Portsmouth pending restoration. Photos attached (hopefully)
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10 years ago we used to keep a boat a Beccles and the toilet block was pretty bad then, I suspect it was the same building and internals as it was in the early seventies when we first started boating. We were there last august and if anything it was worse, the gents had an awful dank smell and two of the toilets were not working, swimbo wouldn't even go into the ladies. Beccles is a lovely town the marina itself is well maintained and the staff are very helpful. Until the toilet block has been demolished an rebuilt to a decent standard with proper ventilation we will give them a wide berth and use the on-board facilities.
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Our Seamaster 30 is nearly forty years old and has the original gate valve fitted. It is open when we use the boat and closed when we leave and is not stiff to operate. The good thing about gate valves is that unlike ball valves there is no water entrapment when the valve is closed. I have seen a ball valve removed from a boat that sank in the severe winter of 2010 where the water entrapped in the ball froze and fractured. I know that the valve was only changed six months before and I will admit that it looked a bit cheap and nasty but I won't be changing mine any time soon.
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On our last BSS everything passed OK but the examiner thought that the flame on the gas hob was a bit orange. Out came his tools and he stripped the cooker down cleaned out the jets and put it back together again for us, it now gives a perfect flame. Talk about going the extra mile he even came back with a new piece of fuel hose for the Ebber 'because the one on there 'looked a bit tired' even though it was dry with no leaks and had passed the BSS.
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I have just had a look out at East Wittering. Sea dead calm, visibility very poor at a mile at best. So no chance of seeing Indy let alone a photo.
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We seem to be bucking the trend but we have always used Fuel Set which was a PBO best buy (the report is on their website). Its a dispersant rather than a biocide and although not so well know in this county it is used a lot in America. The bottle is cleverly designed with a built in measure making it very easy to use.
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As others have said from an original wish list there are always the compromises. For us the base essentials were centre or rear cockpit, beds that could be made and left in a separate cabins i.e. not open plan, a fully folding soft top and a diesel engine with shaft drive. After some looking around this led us to a length requirement of 26 to 35 feet depending on layout. We eventually found a Seamaster 30 that ticked all boxes but it was sold. Knowing that our ‘dream boat' was something of a rarity both in Norfolk and further afield we eventually settled on a smaller rear cockpit narrower beam boat. This was Ok and we liked the boat especially the shallow draft, and low air draft however Swmbo’s mobility dramatically worsened and because the narrow beam made the boat quite ‘tippy’ getting on and off it became a big problem for her. While we were considering future viability of the boat not one but two Seamaster 30 soft tops came up for sale at the same time. The first we rejected as it had some features that we weren’t too keen on but the other although not in as good condition overall was exactly what we wanted. Due to the rarity (only 6 on the broads) and another person who went on a test drive after us also being very keen there was no real haggling room so we placed a holding deposit pending the boat being lifted for inspection. This revealed a couple of notable faults, one that was easy to fix and one could be put off for a while. We did try to get a price reduction on the basis of the faults found but the seller wouldn’t budge by much so rather than loose the boat we paid up. The first fault was sorted out by myself and we made and continue to make a yearly budget for all the other things that were either required or niceties’ that we wanted. We have now had the boat 8 years and it still serves us well, the separate cabins have allowed our younger guests (grandchildren) to have their own space which is a big advantage. So my thoughts are, try not to set your heart on a rare boat unless you are prepared to wait and possibly pay over the odds, don’t settle for a ‘second choice’ unless you have to and think about your possible requirements for the future.
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A brass compass,
Chelsea14Ian: I also got a lovely book called Spitfire Ace (a channel 4 book).
PS don't forget to switch on the two magnetos and fuel pump before hitting the starter switch. Enjoy your day at Biggin Hill, if you actually want to fly in one come down to Goodwood, not cheap by any means but a terrific experience.
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Beautiful on the outside certainly, but I suspect damaged on the inside from a less than pleasant childhood which probably had an influence on her life choices.
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RIP Christine.
As the song says 'Nothing Has Been Proved'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HOfaSSIVcE
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Getting A Bit 'exclusive'...
in Broads Chat
Posted
Hum. I spotted that too.