TheQ

Hmm I don;t know whether I've done the list before but..IIRC. Learnt to drive in a Hillman avanger 5 speed, Failed my first test because the car they gave me for the test was 4 speed and I went for 5th.. Passed the second test OK but had to wait 6 months for it, the waiting list for tests was that long in Weston super mare at the time. First car Austin 1300 had it a year.. too much welding needed doing. Second Car, ford anglia van many miles in that, But I think it used as much oil as petrol, 3rd Ford Zodiac, good car but it went the way of many V4 engined ones, warped heads. 4th, Wolsely 1885, loved that car, again did many miles until a drunk driver pulled out in front of me at Lanark race course. 5th Mini Van I needed another car in a hurry, still, like all old type minis it handled well. 6th car, Triumph 1500 FWD many more miles, clutch went the Christmas eve, which left me with no food for christmas day as I was supposed to be driving home to Scotland that day. fixed the car OK. 7th Car Chrysler alpine 1300 fwd, took me all over the country, towed a Lysander 17ft sailing cruiser over a lot of it too..(outer hebridies to Norfolk!!!) 8th and 9th Cars triumph 2000s good cars but the towing of boats snapped the body shell between the back axles. 10th Bedford ambulance.. half converted to a motor home.. 11th yugo,, remember them? not very good had the same time as the bedford. 12th KIA Pride. very reliable 13th Landrover 110 still got that. 14th Kia Rio still got that, also very reliable. Just begining to think of a replacement for the Rio as it's now heading for 120,000miles from new..

The forecast for the start is now a southerly, 7mph gusting 10 mph, this would mean the unusual sight in this race of the boats tacking down ( long tack on the Horning side, short tack back to the trees,) from the Swan to the Ferry Inn. This may be a blessing as in the light winds they should at least keep moving. The Ant could be fun though, a run up to the turning point, but lots of short tacks on the way back. There will also be a lot of tacking down to the lower Bure bouy. But it will be a run / reach all the way back up to Hickling. There is of course the problem of a sea breeze, with the sun being hot enough, that could generate North Easterly breeze fighting the southerly then anything can happen, normally it might just stop the wind mid saturday afternoon.. Sunday now forecast around a 15mph southerly, once past Thurne mouth that will help the boats homeward...

if it's fixed down then it should be included in the length * width . if it's a folder then it doesn't, same applies to davits.. Interpretation 4 In these Byelaws, unless the context otherwise requires: “The Authority” means the Broads Authority. “Extreme Beam” means the full width of a vessel at its widest part and includes fixed fendering. “Length” means the full length of a vessel and includes any fixed fendering, bowsprit and any davits which are not retractable. “Pleasure Vessel” means any vessel used for sport or recreation whether hired or privately owned and includes a houseboat. “Vessel” includes a sailboard.

Water Rail and crew have the problem of counting them all out and counting them all back. Where as the crew and me up at Hickling only have the job of counting them round one mark. Also I suspect if we get the forecast light winds, I'll see a lot less boats getting as far as us..

Providing my new tablet computer doesn't commit sucide like last years, I should get the odd picture coming to this thread from Hickling Broad. I might be able to put in the odd report as to when boats start arriving at guardships, depending on how busy I get..

As mentioned, weather permitting 11:00 first start, there are around 100 entries so with about 10 boats in a start maybe 10 starts at 5 minute intervals. But there is normally an extra 15 minute gap in the middle to allow boats to clear. So the last start should be just after 12:00. The bad news is the temperature forecast is up to 26C and the windspeed down to 9 mph.. It could be another slow race...

That sounds like you crossed Connel Bridge, Originally a road rail bridge like Sutton. it was built for the now, long gone, Ballachulish branch line. crossed it once myself when Our ferry from Oban broke down and we had to drive up to Mallaig to catch another one..

The Boats have started arriving... They are now forecasting up to 22C, up to 13mph South Westerly at the start, moving round to southerly overnight 15 to 18mph for the last boats to finish. The more westerly the better for the start, to get them down the street..

The wind forecast has changed, it's back to a traditional south westerly 10mph with 22C forecast, suntan cream is required.. That direction makes it easy to sail up the ant to Ludham bridge if you can get to Ant mouth before the tide gets too bad against you. The cameras round the course on the HSC website are all on except Hickling sailing clubs. I'm sure that will be sorted soon.

The wind forecast has now changed to a South westerly about 10mph, if this is correct, the starting boats will go down the left hand bank into the motoring traffic through Horning, as that will be the only place there will be any wind. All we can do is to recommend that unless there is a totally free of boats area on the opposite side, stay on the right hand bank, slow to a near halt, let them go round you, then go forward till you find the next group of sailing boats and do it all again.

The show went well and we were extremely busy until the down pours occurred, it's always a surprise that the public won't go out to an indoor event if it's raining. It was nice to meet Vaughan, though as I was busy throughout the day, there wasn't much time to pull up a sandbag and tell stories. I did some carpentry and polystyrene carving /placing / gluing before the show opened, then cleared the snowstorm before the public arrived. So during the show I then plastered the new hillside, and did some general touching up of paintwork . Much interuppted by talking to the public. My spiel was mostly the history of the layout, then if they were interested, on into methods of baseboard and scenic construction. Some demonstrations of static grass application were carried out. This being the first time being displayed and transported in its current format , some damage occurred. So changes to the transport carriages will be needed, 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. Tiree layout has / will have 3 modules fitted permanently to mobile carriages, that worked well, and three plug in modules clamped between. It was the supports the plug in modules that failed, and also three of six small ( 3 inches wide 3ft long) scenic inserts were damaged when they rolled over in transit, so some sort of holder is required.. The next couple of club evenings will be spent doing the required changes.. A picture of Tiree at the show. The right hand side as you look at it gained a hillside during the show.

Just a little hint of tomorrow's open day

An updated BBC report of the vandalisum https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-48348512 Just a note , some papers have been "emphasising" the maleness of railway Modelling. One of the clubs that had a layout destroyed was St Neots MRC, whose Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Exhibition Manager are..... All women.. We have several women in Broadland MRC.

I could do that on the base of the keel on my mini sailiing keelboat...

One of the traders has now totalled up and he has damage in excess of £20,000 (many years of display models destroyed)

Not in the Outer Hebridies, from having BBC1 405 line badly. They got colour, 625 line, BBC2, ITV, and Channel 4 all at the same time... about 1981

There is nothing official about a name. Tell the Broads Authority the new name when you register your ownership. Tell your insurer when you get the insurance. Change the name on the boat when you get the chance.

The last time I looked the club had appealed for £500 pounds and have so far generated.... £87,000 including £10,000 from Sir Rod Stewart .(who has 2 model railways 1 in the USA and 1 in the UK), £5000 from https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ many other clubs, modellers and widows of Modellers. The Club now have a major headache sorting out the distribution of money,. Many clubs like ours Broadland Model Railway club have contributed. Although most clubs are run on a shoestring, Half the profits from our own show at Aylsham go to the Aylsham ladies (Formerly Aylsham British Legion ladies section) who run the tea bar for us at the show and that gets distributed to charity. Shows themsleves are reducing partly because halls are getting more expensive to hire. Our own Show at Aylsham in October, couldn't go on without the sponsorship of the Bure Valley Railway which effectively pays for the hall. Also partly because of ageing membership, clubs are struggling. This year the Waveny and District Model railway club have had to cancel their well regarded show at st Felix Schoolo after 30 years running, because the club members consider themselves no longer up to the task . This is why we have our own open day at Hoveton on Sunday, it's to try to gain more members. There is a lot of effort in running a show, BMRC is already looking at layouts for the 2021 show and we haven't had 2019s show yet (it's on the 5th of October). The Show committee have to chose a selection of layouts from childrens Thomas come and play, to fine scale modelling, from micro layouts to very large and try to get a good balance of styles. Qualified First Aiders, Pat testing, layout recruiment, Tea Bar, electrical supplies. all need sorting. The Night before our show we clear 100 chairs and a stage from the hall, mark out the floor plan for each layout and traders place, providing tables and chairs as required. Our own layouts, any local traders and visiting layouts may chose to come in with the last being around 20:00. Then the morning of the show, it's all hands to getting the rest of the traders and layouts in from 07:00 till opening at 10:00. 16 :00 close of show. Help all the layouts and traders out, remove all the markers from the floor and electrical supplies. Hoover up, relay all the chairs and stage. Take our own layouts, tables and equipment back to the MRC. During the next week, clear the "wreakage" from the club floor where everything has been dumped. De brief meeting.. Start planning on the next years show,... and get on with some modelling..

We need a GROAN button...

A keel resists in the water side ways push of the air against the sails . I won't go further than that as the maths of it are frightening to me.. Note you almost never sail with the sails dead on the centre line, just with the back end of the sail out away from the wind a little. Getting that angle right gives you the forward propulsion when close hauled. "CLOSE HAULED" with the sail as near to the centre of the boat as possible while still sailing forward.. This is the most used position of sails on a river when sailing into the wind, If the wind is straight down the river towards you. You gradually get pushed towards one bank as you go forward. This is where the skill comes in. Getting the angle of the sail, and the boat right for best progress against the wind. If you hold on to that too long, you either end up stalling the boat with the sail flapping about over fore and aft, because you've tried to avoid hitting the bank with boat side or keel depending on depth. OR you hit the bank. both of which may cause damage but will stop your forward progression. A good sailer will judge it correctly and tack (TACK= wind passing through dead ahead to the other side of the boat) just before either stalling or hitting the bank occurs. At this point you confuse the mafi's by crossing the river in front of them..and then you do the same when you get to the other side of the river. If the wind is not dead ahead, then the mainsail can be further out allowing you to sail straight down the river, however you are continually adjusting the sail and rudder to maintain speed as the Wind angle changes, as the river bends and to avoid other boats who may have right of way over you. You may have to Gybe, Gybe is the wind changing from one side to the other across the back of the boat as you change direction. This can be quite hair raising , as the boom may swing violently from one side to the other with a crash..don't get your head in the way of it occuring.. And finally. now I've bored you to tears, may I suggest coming to our Next open day at Horning Sailing club which will be early May next year, probably in conjunction with the Horning Boat Show. The club will take you out for free, on an experience sail of half an hour ish up and down the river..

But ideally you realy want something a lot smoother like these,, the numbers being the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (American ) who ran lots of aero dynamic tests to produce the best shapes. NACA 0012 being the general use best shape for boats according to most authorities. 12 being 12% thick compare to the fore and aft length. The top one on this drawing being NACA 10

Dinghies often have a drop keel but without the bulb on the bottom. as they are proportionately smaller and can lift their keel easily to remove weed or clear and obstruction. Hydrodynamics, they should be like a double sided Aircraft wing, as aircraft have wings hold you up, where boat keels produce forward motion against water on both tacks. these are from an explanation on keel shapes for dinghy drop keels 1 being the worst shape, 4 being the best of those shown.

Here is an image of a modern drop keel, totally unsuitable for the broads too deep and weed would catch round the bulb .

Here is one version of a swing keel, they have the advantage if you hit something they swing up without damage.

A fixed keel on most broads boats looks something like this.. note Broad boats "fin Keels " tend to be longer fore and aft and shorter vertically due the the need to keep them less than about 3ft 6 inches.