Vaughan

But we now have something else to concern us! I see in the EDP that a Rufous Bush Chat has been sighted on the North Norfolk Coast. Quite what sort of expert was needed to actually notice one of these things, I can't think but apparently the last time one of them was seen on our shores it was pecking the foil off school milk bottles. So what must now be done to protect this visitor? Will we see Rufous Bush Chat bridges being built over the NDR, on its predicted migratory flight path? Or will vital road improvements to the Acle Straight be held up for another 4 years in case the little ***** wants to set up home with us on the Halvergate Marshes? Maybe it should be encouraged to come and live on Gt Hoveton, where Natural England are already in place to spend whatever public funds are necessary to "protect" it and Bewilderwood can sell "spot the Bush Chat" paddle board outings? As long as it doesn't start eating the fleas, which have got the next ten years to get on with eating the algae? Maybe soon, we can text £2 a month to RUFOUS and will send us a Christmas card?

Good for them. I hope their challenge succeeds. Challenges back in the 60s, to open HGB to navigation, did not succeed and it was a quango that blocked them. I can't remember what Natural England was called back then, but "a rose by any other name . . ". From what I have seen on the Broads, green algae is cured by improved water quality, not fleas. So if you want to keep HGB as a closed off stagnant pond, so be it. If they want to get the fish out of it, let the otters in it. Better still, keep all the otters in it and control them on the rest of the river system. That will give the fish stocks a much better chance! This may seem a frivolous remark but if you are going to mess about with the balance of Nature, where do you stop? A 100 million pound benefit to the Broads economy from angling? Really? Sounds as though they can afford the legal fees, then!

And I would raise a glass to you, if I knew who you are. I realise that Social media means that one can post under a pseudonym and remain anonymous, if one does not have the confidence to be identified, when giving an opinion. Your posts have been seen , for the first time, over several threads over the last couple of days and yet your profile shows over 700 posts since you "joined" in April. Another very well known member has just changed her "name" for very good reasons, and we all knew who she was anyway! So she was welcome to do so and had the courtesy to explain her reason to us. Would you care to offer the same courtesy, and introduce your new identity to us, on the forum? That way, your posts would have continuity, and would mean more to us, if we knew who we were talking to? I see that StubbleStagg has suddenly disappeared. St Matthew 11 vs. 13. To save you looking it up, I quote : And said unto him, art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

And I would raise a glass to you, if I knew who you are. I realise that Social media means that one can post under a pseudonym and remain anonymous, if one does not have the confidence to be identified, when giving an opinion. Your posts have been seen , for the first time, over several threads over the last couple of days and yet your profile shows over 700 posts since you "joined" in April. Another very well known member has just changed her "name" for very good reasons, and we all knew who she was anyway! So she was welcome to do so and had the courtesy to explain her reason to us. Would you care to offer the same courtesy, and introduce your new identity to us, on the forum? That way, your posts would have continuity, and would mean more to us, if we knew who we were talking to?

That was my impression of her, as well, the last time we met, when she threw me off the moorings, for putting my mooring lines on the wrong posts. As I was in company with two other big hire boats, she lost quite a bit of business that night!

Blimey! I'm glad they don't have any hire boats up there!

I am glad you take comfort from that thought. The reality, should it ever be imposed, may be something quite different. The Merchant of Venice, Act II scene VII - All that glisters is not gold. Alternative translation : Please take back your golden bangle ; my wrist is turning green!

Whilst there are also those who are prepared to stand up for maintaining that normal. I am hoping to give you a serious answer to your post, as I do very much understand your feelings. A very large element of this forum concerns the simple pleasure that we all get from our cruise blogs and our shared experiences in the place that we all love, whether as residents, or as regular visitors. I feel, in that sense, that "stakeholder" doesn't just mean financial. There is, however, the continuing question of the future of the Broads (which are not natural) and any threat that there may be to the area. This is something that the forum must also address, as one of the only places left where we can address it, and where our feelings might perhaps be heard where it matters. The Broads are only here today because they have been fought for, down the years, by those who were prepared to stand up for them. I am privileged to have known most of those people, post War, and I know what a tremendous effort was involved. The River Commissioners were simply a body of local businessmen and professionals who gave of their time. The big influence and financial support of the main hire agencies is no longer there. And I don't just mean in river tolls! Blakes ran two Broads themselves, and several moorings, including GYYS. Their grant aid to local charities and associations was a very large annual sum. All that is gone now and even the "voices" of the Broads Society and the owners' associations, seem to have caught a sore throat. So I see this forum as a very important vehicle of public discussion and concern. The Broads now, are run by an assortment of quangos and a couple of very powerful charities with their own agendas. It is quite possible that they may need to be held to public account in future. In my experience, I feel that I "did my bit" for the Broads during my years in business there : I think I can say I put into it as much as I took from it, which perhaps we should all try to do, in our various ways. Whilst we all enjoy things as they are now, and hope it may continue, I am very glad to see that there are still those few who are prepared to fight for it!

From your photo, it looks as though a twin Morse control would fit into the same place.

Neutrality, down the years, has always been a most difficult position to maintain. Especially if you are perched up on a fence! I am sorry if I misunderstood your posts but they gave me the impression that you see the videos as a threat. Indeed, I still have that impression, and I agree with what you have just said about education.

I don't know the Good Doctor and have never met him but I did meet Aitken Clark now and again. He may have been a bit of a cold fish at times but he seemed to know what was needed of him. The demise of the River Commissioners and the rise of the new BA was not widely appreciated at the time, by those of my father's generation who had worked hard, from all viewpoints, to make the Broads into what we now know today, since the last War. Everyone worked together for a common aim, including naturalists such as Ted Ellis, who clearly understood that the Broads are not "natural" and have to be commercial, in order to be maintained. He was not short in saying so, either. In Blakes in those days, we laughingly used to think of it as more of a League of Gentlemen than a multi-million pound business. Which it was, even then. Public grant money for national parks and the like is going to be in very short supply in the years to come, post COVID. We are heading for what will probably be a crippling recession. River tolls from navigation will suddenly become of vital importance. Those with wonderful and political visions for the Broads, should perhaps be careful what they wish for, in these times.

I think it was Oscar Wilde, who called fox hunting the pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable.

I wasn't going to mention that !

When reading your posts, Peter, I think we should all remember that as an ex member yourself, you have far more actual experience of the inner workings of the BA than we do. A couple of years ago, I counted 5 other ex members who I know personally and have spoken to about this. They all expressed the same opinion as yourself. Funny, that! It is certain that promoted activities such as canoe-ing, paddle-boarding and pram pushing are pretty well maintenance free : you don't need any dredging of a navigation, or overnight moorings for a paddle board! You don't even have to keep that navigation "open". All you would need is national park style "public right of access". In other words, yet more car parks and public toilets. I am often left wondering what would actually happen if the Broads really was closed to pleasure boat navigation, both power and sail? Sail means dredging, remember. What would happen to it, with not enough income to maintain it? Would it, as I fear, become just a glorified wildlife reserve, from which the public would be kept off? That is certainly the published vision of the RSPB! I was going to say "bird" reserve but I think that, left to his own heavily protected devices, the otter would soon put paid to the birds! I am certainly very aware of the potential threat to the future of the Broads and Floydraser clearly sees these videos as a threat as well. Society is changing and the public way of life is changing. The "paddle boarder" may well be someone with a lot of political clout, in years to come. So is this "for marketing purposes"? Or is it insidious and grossly biased political education of youth? It certainly wouldn't sell me a Broads holiday but I somehow don't think that was the point of it!

So, I have watched it. It was either that or Songs of Praise and even that nowadays, is more concerned with its agenda message, than actual "songs of praise". It is only a couple of minutes so I have watched it several times. I have noticed a few things, not necessarily in order of appearance : When we get the title on screen "Welcome to the Broads National park", it appears over an aerial view of the Whitlingham gravel pits. That should tell us something, for a start! Gillingham Dam in Beccles, when flooded in mid winter, is neither a lake, nor a Broad. Just a flooded marsh road. Nice shots of the Yare Navigation Race but that only happens on one day a year, so hardly "typical". Same applies to regatta sailing on Black Horse Broad. Fallow deer stags, galloping over a stubble field, in open country? When did you last see that from your holiday cruiser? Five white horses, rolling in the mud on heathland? Breckland, maybe, but not Broadland. So not typical! Distance swimming on the Waveney is hardly typical either! I thought burning off reed stubble was no longer allowed, on the Broads? I did see that the paddle boarders were in lifejackets and appeared to be supervised. They were also filmed in quiet waters around Coltishall, which are suitable for that activity. I am left wondering what this is supposed to represent? If it is someone's vision of the Broads, then it is not mine! So is it a mis-representation? Perhaps that is the question.

Oh No! Have I got to watch this as well? All right then, I'll do it after lunch . . .

I also noticed that, whilst the interview with the BA ranger was fine in itself, he was carefully positioned on the start line of the Buckenham Sailing Club on a part of the river which has little or no boat traffic at times, with the camera angle specially arranged to show all the "national park" style pedestrian ramblers on the Wherryman's Way footpath. We used to say "the camera never lies", but it can certainly only see what it wants to see.

This is clearly an advert for paddle boarding sponsored by BA and the Heritage Lottery Fund, among others. Vanessan has already noted that boatyards and hire fleets are not mentioned despite their tourist stake and the hundreds of local people that they employ. I wouldn't actually disagree with any of it, but it has no balance. I would definitely call this "national park" thinking. Presumably aimed at schools? I noted a few comments during the film : Farms are good things because they sell farm produce in the local area. Do we congratulate the BA for that? What used to be a dairy farm is now doing holiday cottages and wedding events. Best use of our natural countryside? The paddle board company are good for local employment as they take on a couple of casual paddle board cleaners in summer. Farmers are diversifying. Most of them around the NDR by selling their land for housing. Let's hope the BA will at least prevent that, in its planning area! Finally, I loved some of the remarks made by the "tourist" that they chose, in her barn cottage : The Broads is so flat, it's very good for the baby's pram. She visited the Whitlingham gravel pits and Wroxham Barns, where "we saw the farm animals". They hired a day boat and went to a pub. She brings revenue to the area, as they paid for car parking and bought ice creams. I am now going back into my garage to play trains.

There is no problem. The prevailing wind will usually be blowing across the dyke. So all you have to do is turn your boat to leeward and stick the bow through the cabin window of a boat moored on the leeward bank, in order to hold your bow in place. With the wheel hard over, continue in ahead gear until the stern has come round "across the wind". Wait until the wind has blown you round far enough, back out of the other boat's window, select "opposite lock", go ahead and continue on your philanthropic way. I believe there are some yards on the Broads who teach this manoeuvre on the trial run.

I am not sure how to put this, as I am always glad to answer questions and enter discussions about boat maintenance, and even maritime regulations. I see it as something that I can contribute, in return for all that the forum gives me. There are limits however, beyond which it becomes an imposition. I have been approached a few times recently by members who hope I can sort out all their problems with their boat in France, or when bringing their boat to France. I only say this because, no matter how politely I try put it when I refuse, this can so easily offend. This may be because people are not able to travel to France so easily themselves during the COVID crisis but I am long retired now and simply cannot be expected to act as a benevolent local agent. France is a very large country and I am not a journeyman winterising mechanic, an agent for procuring moorings, a certified marine surveyor, a sales broker, an intercession service for local authority registration problems, an international transport manager, a crane hirer or a customs freight forwarding agent. I advise members who are thinking of taking their boat to France that Brexit will make no difference to the maritime and local laws that have existed there for decades. If your boat is not built ERCD Cat. D., it will still need to conform to the old French standard, known as "5ième catégorie Mer" or it will not be allowed to navigate. There is no comparable British building standard that the French will accept. You will also need a French inland skipper's licence, called a "Permis Fluvial". RYA Yacht Masters is not accepted on French waterways. If the boat is not British Registered with Lloyds List it will have no status in France after a few months. Short visit tolls only, are allowed for visiting boats that are not registered in International Maritime Law. If you are going to cross the Channel for a summer or more in France on your boat, you should not do so without obtaining a "Carnet de Passage en Douanes" from UK customs before you set out. Otherwise when you come back again to continue your cruise, you may well find your boat chained to the bank by the Gendarmerie in the nice little village on the canal where you left it!

That is indeed very good news.

Better ask Timbo. I think he would have us believe his ancestor, Swene Forkbeard, walked across there to get to Lincolnshire! I have to put a little "twist" in from time to time, seeing as I have just had a pillar drill named after me!

It's a very good point though - you would never see a flood in a country churchyard, "back in the day". Beneath those rugged elms ; by yonder yew tree's shade, where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap ; Each in his narrow cell forever laid ; the rude forefathers of the hamlet, sleep. Gray's Elegy.

This reminds me of the old story of a Vicar, newly appointed to a Norfolk country parish. When he arrived, the vicarage garden was totally overgrown and more like a jungle. With all the work he had to do, getting settled into a new parish, he needed help with it. So the churchwarden recommended old "Billy Wossnairme" from the village, who could come round and and sort out the garden, for a few Bob an hour. Old Billy took a look and said "well at least oi 'er got meself a fresh start!" A couple of weeks later the vicar came to see old Billy to see how he was getting on. "Oh Billy, you have made such a difference! That is splendid." "Isn't it marvellous what can be achieved, when God and Man work together?" To which old Billy replied - "If you say so vicar, but yew orter a seen it when God had it to his-self!"

Here is the Challenger, from Blakes catalogue of 1964. There were two of these but they were not quite the same design and only one had the little front open cockpit, with a windscreen and canvas cover. I always thought that must have been a great place for young children.