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Vaughan last won the day on March 17
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Don''t let that lot anywhere near your boat!!!!!
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In this picture, from 1948, Morning Flight has just been towed under the bridge, with all the superstructure stripped off and is being converted into a houseboat. Behind her, there are cruisers moored on Hazells yard, as well as the old houseboat that I think they lived in at one time. I am afraid I am pretty sure I don't have any others of the yard itself but if I come across anything I will post it.
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No, it certainly wasn't, as Morning Flight had her engines and stern gear taken out by the boatyard in Rochester where father bought her. He gave them all the machinery in return for hauling her out for repairs and painting and then towing her from the Medway to Gt Yarmouth. Many years later, he rather ruefully reflected that he had given away three Rolls Royce Merlin engines! I don't remember the propellor from "my time" but it could perhaps have come from one of the old motor wherries at May Gurneys, on Griffin Lane. The shed looks much as I remember it and the site looks good too. I wish you well!
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Afraid I can't find any photos of Hazell's cruisers but they had about 3 of them and they looked more or less like this. I notice they were no longer members of Blakes by 1939. Which, as I remember them from the 50s, does not surprise me!
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Good morning and welcome to the forum. Welcome also, to Thorpe Island! To introduce myself, I am the son of Cmdr and Mrs Ashby, who owned Hearts Cruisers from 1947 to 1966. They then continued to run it it for several years on behalf of Jenners and then Ladbrokes. They finally moved off the island in 1989. It is worth remembering that the Island was created by the building of the railway in 1844. Before then, it was the south bank of the main river and was thus part of the meadows on the Crown Point estate. Since then it has been owned, in strips, by the houses opposite along the Thorpe road. In your case, the land was owned by Steward and Pattesons brewery, who owned the pub, then called the Thorpe Gardens. Up until the 50s, the land was a boatyard run by the Hazell brothers, who had been members of Blakes well before the war. They ceased their activity in the mid 50s and the yard, with its slipway and boatshed, was rented by the then landlord of the pub, Tony Loweth. In the mid 70's it was taken over by Brian Coley, who by then was the manager of Hearts, which was then owned by Pennant Holidays. Brian used it for private boat repairs and also built a couple of launches in the shed. Who has owned it in the interim, since Brian died, I don't know. I have not heard it called Fields before, as Stephen Fields' yard was out on the main river on the other side of the railway bridge, where there is still a large old slipway and there used to be a boatshed. It is now part of the land owned by the boatyard and marina, in a basin behind the Frostbites Sailing Club. In the 1800s, Stephen Field had a yard on the Wensum by Cow Tower, where he was a neighbour of John Loynes, before John moved to Wroxham. He built and hired rowing skiffs and half-deck yachts. When he moved his business to Thorpe he also built a wherry on the slipway. He later ceded his business to John Hart, who was then the Landlord of the Three Tuns. The Rushcutters has had several different names in the past! John then hired out the skiffs from the pub, using the long boatshed which was part of the building in those days. After the railway was built, John moved his business over to the island, where he created the yard of J. Hart and son, which later became G. Hart and sons. When my parents bought it, they re-mamed it Hearts Cruisers, although the hire boats had always had their "Heart" names. Several generations of the Hart family lived in a bungalow on the island, which is now the site of the old office building. So you can trace the history of the land's use as a boatyard for quite a long way back! In the history section of this forum there is a thread called Vaughan's posts of memories of Thorpe, which you might find interesting for a bit more history of the island and of the other yards, Jenners and A.G.Ward. p.s. I have just looked up Blakes catalogue of 1916, where both Hart and son, and G. Hazell, are listed as member boatyards.
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Yes, and in which case it would be rare to have colour photos. I imagine this might have been printed by Jarrolds, in Norwich.
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Hmm . . . Possibly another "clone" then. It was fairly common in those days for yards to copy the designs of others. I know for a fact that Stalham Yacht Station's big old cruisers, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, were direct copies of a Brooms Admiral!
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Looking again at Oulton Broad, I see that the yacht moored on the central pontoon is the famous River Cruiser no 7, "Forester". There also seem to be a lot of yachts moored on the buoys outside Trumans yard and the maltings. So I would guess this was taken during Oulton regatta week. Moored to the left is one of the Foam class from Jack Powles and on the other side are a couple of varnished Windboats. A lot of yards had their boats in varnish in those days but in the Ludham bridge photo, the boat coming in to moor, towing a dinghy, seems to be a Herbert Woods Delight, in varnish. I don't remember that!
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What a lovely memento and thanks a lot for posting it. For a date, I think it is pretty old, probably the early 50s. I notice no boatyard buildings in the photo of Ludham bridge and It also seems to be before the boatyard development, at Acle. There is a predominance, it seems, of yachts over motor boats and a lot of those smaller cruiser designs were gone before the start of the 60s. In fact, a large proportion of the boats were built before the war. At Acle I notice a Sabrina class yacht and the ex Gorleston lifeboat, "Friend of All Nations". One of the boats at Salhouse is the 5 or 6 of Hearts, also built pre-war. At Oulton, there are still rowing skiffs for hire. And look at all those boats moored on mud weights, on Malthouse Broad. What strikes me most is the river banks. All the popular moorings were just earth banks, with a footpath through the grass along the top of the bank. Hence the expression "along the rhond". I like the cattle, grazing on the bank at Thurne, right next to Curtis's Stores on the staithe. Quite a common sight then and you had to watch out for deep holes in the bank, where their hooves had sunk into the soft earth. This was the Broads of my childhood and it was a wonderful place. I sometimes feel privileged to be old enough to remember it when it was at its best.
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This is a blow-up of my avatar, which is the first river toll disc on the old gunboat, Morning Flight. This was the river toll, for a 72ft houseboat!
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This lamentable impasse is known as "might is right" and it happens all over the Broads wherever a boater is confronted, in an isolated spot with no witnesses, by two or more burly and thoroughly offensive individuals. There is usually no choice but to go and find somewhere else to moor. 1/. The Ant is a navigation, so fishermen have no priority over river traffic. 2/. They are correct that this part of the mooring is not BA. It is, however, the parish staithe for the use of boats and I cannot believe that the parish would have sold fishing rights to these two "beasts of burden" to the exclusion of those who have the right to moor boats on the staithe. 3/. Forgive my ignorance, but is fishing still allowed at this time of year? 4/. One of the men pushed the bow of the boat off but he did not interfere with mooring lines, so that may not be an offence. What most clearly is an offence, with video evidence is, at the very least, "conduct likely to cause a breach of The Peace" and should certainly be reported to the Police.
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They won't see the canal look like this again for another 50 years, even though they have re-planted a lot of areas - with more or less success. There is still a lot of dispute about the cause of this fungus and whether it could have been treated. It is strange that trees along roads which run alongside the canal only 50 yards away are still there un-affected. And yet they insist the disease was not transmitted by the water! Very bad for business I am afraid. Tourism on the canal has slumped in the last few years.
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DIY Anti Fouling - How Hard Can It Be ?
Vaughan replied to Bikertov's topic in Technical Questions and Answers
They are perfect for sanding, as they never mist up inside. They also give perfect protection if you happen to get hit in the face by a flying angle grinder, as I did once! I bought mine in a secondhand militaria shop in Hingham, complete with spare filters. -
Classic Broads River Cruisers such as Maidie, Ladybird and Raisena - among many others - draw 4' 6" or more. These are traditional Broads boats built before the war. The pleasure wherry Solace ran hard aground in the lower Bure on her way to Oulton regatta a couple of years ago. A trading wherry such as Albion would draw 7ft when loaded and nowadays, I guess she draws around 5 feet. Sorry, but if a Norfolk wherry can no longer make passage on the main rivers without grounding in the channel, then the BA are not fulfilling their obligation to maintain "The Navigation".
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DAFFODILLS. This is how the forum swear filter translates the word I actually wanted to use.