TheQ

hmm Home via Coltishall tonight then..

That's because safety boats are designed to plane at high speed when needed, when pottering around most of the time their hull shape is most inefficient.

Their Back!!! yep traffic lights in Wroxham, just up hill from the car park.. a few feet down from the last big hole they dug... Looks like part of the road collapsed...

Most punters wouldn't know which way was north or south even if you hit them in the face with a compass..

Yesterday a down river race From Woods Dyke to Thurne Lion Dyke. Woods Dyke was fun, Hire boats doing all sorts of strange things, though luckily, the chaos cleared just before the starts. The big broads cruisers had first start and just disappeared, their tall rigs picking up the wind above the trees. Five minutes later it was a combined keel boat and dinghy start, a White boat, 3 Rebels, several Yeoman, Blue Moon and a lonely Wayfarer. BM made a mid fleet start, and kept up well for the first half mile, then the taller rigs of the big keel boats started to tell and they pulled away, BM stayed with the Wayfarer for some time in a painfully slow race in light winds, once we got past the Horning water works the Wayfarer started to pull away, it is 7% faster on handicap.. Once finally clear of the trees at Ant mouth then BM started to sail better, this weeks modifications included two extra jib sheets to the tip of the jib club, pulling on these allowed a proper goosewing and much better down wind performance.. At Thurne mouth we turned right down to a buoy , rounded that and then tacked back to Thurne Dyke, BM was close enough to the finish to see the last Yeoman finish in the distance and the Wayfarer. After lunch the race back, the wind had got up by this time and pre race it was a bit entertaining. One Broads cruiser stuffed itself into the reeds as the safest place to go. Shortly after as BM proceeded towards Potter to avoid the Broads cruiser starting area. BM found herself between two bowsprits 3-4 foot each side.. Until the windward one tacked BM was trapped, First the leewards boats bowsprit hit the main sail of BM, as they tried to stay off the reeds, then as I steered up to avoid the reeds the outer Boats bowsprit hit BMs mainsail. Some how BM popped out from between the Bowsprits and when I looked back both Broads cruisers had stuffed themselves into the reeds. Shortly after they extracted themselves and all departed safely at the hooter. I put BM into the reeds myself, as I needed to do an adjustment to the rig which I couldn't reach from the seat.. On leaving it was discovered the new jib sheets meant I could goosewing the Jib against the wind and easily backed out of the reeds.. Five minutes later and it was BM's turn to start, no hassles BM made a very good start... First even, yep we were in the lead for about a hundred yards till the entire fleet swept past with their bigger rigs and sail areas.. When we reached the turning mark BM was about 100 yards behind, so then it was tacking up to Thurne Mouth and turn left up the Bure. Long tack, short tack most of the way. In the Strong clear winds the Wayfarer was pulling away, even though they were doing more tacks than BM, once we got to St Benet's straight BM sailed the whole length very Close hauled, no tacks, while the Wayfarer and a couple of other boats ahead could be seen to be tacking often. Not surprisingly BM caught up a lot, and this continued all the way to Cockshoot Dyke, at that point we reached them., and after a couple of attempts, got past before the corner at the start of Horning village. Finally crossing the Woods dyke finishing line about 50yards ahead of the Wayfarer..

hMM so It's the start of the fishing season today.. Sunday is a down river race to Thurne .. All those 40ft+ poles hanging out over the river along St Benets and beyond, I wonder how many fishermen I can catch with my keel..

Not so much road works, But yesterday I was in the Queue from Norwich to the NDR / Horstead roundabout. A big yellow helicopter flew by, then came back , and circled... and circled.. and then landed in the middle of the roundabout with the traffic flowing around it.. Once on the roundabout itself I could see the Horstead road closed by police, then there were ambulances and a fire engine.. The radio later reported a motorcycle accident..

There's a big digger and a dumper in Tescos Stalham PFS, so it is major..

Ah Liz beat me to it.

Just a bump up and reminder of this, the car is loaded and will depart after breakfast. I'm staying here dog sitting, and mowing the grass.

OK not sailing but it is at Dilham NR28 9PT, on the recreation ground to be exact.. Admission: Adults £3, children free open 10:00-16:00. 11th-12th June 2022 Worstead Weavers are having their annual Show, Activities include Sheep-shearing demos Crochet, knitting, spinning, weaving, felting, sewing, dyeing & other rural crafts: demos and “have a go” 'Woolly' animals Entertainments Scrumptious home-made refreshments Tombola and Side Stalls Green woodworking To BUY : fleece, yarn, fabric, equipment, gifts, books Watch out for the Collies... (though dogs are not admittted on the grounds) https://www.worsteadweavers.org.uk/woolly-weekend

You lot are wandering over my life again, went to school in Wiltshire, the outer Hebrides , Inverness.. Dad went to school in Devizes

Nice pictures. A lot of my family were based in and just north of Salisbury, dad was upset when they duelled the 303, tarmacking his favourite wild mushroom picking area.. IoW through to Poole were our summer holiday visit areas..

The provisional results https://horning-sailing.club/racing-results/?fbclid=IwAR1UmriqJcubvwMudlp-GilMynbD8wwc3LRmFSwyMcy-j_5IooYGERL3v2I

My race notes.. plus added bits.. 08:00, at club, Unloaded, got rescue boat out, pulled boat to end of pier, (don't start outboard in muddy shallows) put buoy out decided pier wasn’t long enough, so added 2 pontoons floating to bring the guard ship closer to the buoy. 09:15 all gear sat waiting at end of pier.., BA weed cutter turned up, did various dykes and sides of the deep water channel, then took a couple of turns round our mark... Paddle board course going on in shallows near the Pleasure Boat Inn. 10:15, guardship turns up. After a bit of manoeuvering, mud weight positioning, we got set up. I took an old 23ft aluminium mast , pushed that into the mud and water, so about 5ft of height was lost with that, but the radio aerial was on an 8ft Batten, with overlap, to tie it on, that put the aerial back at 23ft up getting a much better signal. A couple of bits of string to the pontoons stopped it falling in the wind. 11:00, first start. 12:30 first 6 boats at Ludham Couple of Hickling lasers out, one of them keeps falling over. Many boats now through Ludham, wayfarers seem to be doing well. 13:08 early boats that avoided Ludham now past Thurne mouth heading up here. We’ve just shut up all our north facing windows, that wind is getting chilly... The soggy laser has given up.. 13:40 it’s raining, not forecast, and we’ve blue skies.. A surprising amount of boats have gone for it and headed this way first , many more than last year... 14:15:28 first boat, punt 102 round Hickling buoy... First retirement also a punt... Gentleman helm said punt is let's say, extremely experienced, it takes many years to gain that, sadly the wind strength was just too much for him. Punt 49 rounded buoy, went a few yards.. then capsized, righted ok but lost one position.. Reports of a white boat ( Yare and Bure one Design) sinking, rescue boat sent, they hadn’t sunk but were soggy, eventually sorted, but they retired. And enterprise capsized shortly after rounding the mark, they sorted themselves out, and were seen sailing soggily in the direction of Potter Heigham bailing furiously. The enterprise retired at Potter. Had a very mad two hours while the rescue boat was attending the white boat... 17:00 48 boats seen so far many more than I expected, but the higher winds encouraged them this way. The fastest boats are only taking 2.5 hours to get from the top of Hickling broad to the lower Bure buoy. That's 14 miles and includes taking the mast down twice.. 18:00 first boat at Thurne mouth on its way back to Horning... 18:15 paramedic called to Acle bridge, injured hand, 19:00ish lead boat past Ant mouth on the way back to Horning Large amounts of boats heading up from Acle many have already done the Hickling leg. 20:15 only 7 boats not seen at Acle and just seven between there and the lower Bure buoy. Here at Hickling we still await 32 boats. About 21:00 small shower of rain, We await 23 boats Acle awaits 2 boats 22:00 we await 16 boats.. 23:00 a sailfish has lost its mast just up river of Martham, we await 9 boats. It’s getting cold out there occasional short showers of rain. 00:20, all boats left have been to the lower Bure buoy, We still await, 5 boats. 00:35 down to awaiting 3 boats of which 2 are between here and Martham, the third is between Acle and Thurne proceeding in what was called a” stately fashion.”. 05:10 we await one boat.... It’s raining again... 19 boats have RTD so far, 5 DNS 06:19 A search party has set out for .. a search party has found the missing boat, they are being advised they have no chance of finishing would they like to retire... I'd gone to get the Landrover, from car park to quay heading, but when I returned, the OOD, had declared the errant boat OOT. Time to pack away, radio aerial down first, the mast really didn't want to come out of the mud. At this time it started drizzling... Once the guardship had gone I could get the pontoons moved back, a bit more difficult against the wind.. I'd just put the rescue boat away when the Hickling OOD turned up for their racing today.. to get a rescue boat out.... Then to Horning Sailing Club for breakfast, ( served to me by Liz ) unload the gear, boats were still finishing when I left at around 09:30.. As I suspected the provisional results show 3 wayfarers in the top half dozen Boats. The fastest passage trophy to a punt and it can't be far off a record time.

Fairly strong northerly with a bit of West. 'm now stood half way down the pier, on the Hickling broad camera unfortunately I can't get a signal any further out than that, I've extended the pier, using two more floating pontoons, the buoy is in the broad awaiting custom. The competitors have to drop a numbered tag in the basket on the buoy as they go round. Sit and rest time till the guardship turns up.

The final bump up of the year, the forecast hasn't changed except for a degree or two more temperature.

The final pre race notes of the year, Forecast is, 16mph from the north with the occasional hint of westerly, Weybourne has 20mph forecast, so out Hickling way it will be a little stronger. The temperature max 16 Saturday, 15 Sunday, but dropping to 6C overnight, pretty chilly... Just a little bit of drizzle in the silly hours of the night.. Good luck to the competitors, see you at Hickling..

My introduction to the race about 1981 I came down to the club to see what was going on and they said "can you help in the kitchens for a short time?"... Most of the fleet promptly sailed round the corner and I washed up around 150 sets of plates knives forks etc...

I'm pleased to announce that Broadland Model Railway club will be holding an Open day at the Poppy Centre, aka Stalham community Gym , on the 28th August. The entrance fee I think will be about £3 to cover the hall hire costs, (accompanied children free) We hope in future to expand this into a full show... Provisionally we are also looking at having Something at Hoveton in the spring of 2023 If you've never heard of the Poppy Centre http://www.thepoppycentre.co.uk/ it's off Brumstead rd in Stalham, I think most visitors will come in off the A149 on Stepping stone lane, then turn right towards Stalham on Brumstead rd, then turn right onto recreation road to the hall.

Thanks for doing that, Sadly I'll be out in Hickling broad at that time and won't get my breaky till I bring the buoy back which is likely to be around 10:00..

My day Sunday, a down river race to Thurne and back, Blue Moon performed better than before, but there are improvements to be made. Discovered I need a most important accessory..... A beer can holder.. Hot work yesterday, so I opened a can of Coke, mainsheet one hand, tiller the other... Nowhere to put down the can... Saw Broad Ambition twice, a ranger giving someone grief about speeding in the 6 MPH area. Next weekend, Guardship duties on Hickling Broad for the 3 Rivers Race..

Latest forecast northerly with a hint of west in it at 18-21mph, a near perfect wind for getting the boats out through Horning. Though getting up the Ant will be fun tacking up the river.. the first sailing cruiser is already moored at the club waiting..

5 days to go till the start at 10:00 at Horning on Saturday.. Well just after my last message the forecast changed to a northerly with a hint of west in it.. and so it remains, this is perfect for the start as most of the boats will keep to the right hand bank though the village with the wind behind them. Temperature hasn't improved 13C forecast.

It's not just the broads, https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/20156564.stag-party-sink-canal-boat-droitwich-lock/