Vaughan

Best results I've seen were from a Thunderflash, tied to a brick . . . .

I quote "From Russia with love" at 18 minutes into the film. It's there, on Youtube.

Dangle the bottle over the side on a length of string. Even James Bond (Sean Connery) did that and he seemed to have success in his amorous intentions!

Especially as that junction over the bridge is on the only slight bend in the whole of the Acle Straight, so there is also a lack of vision. Add to that, that the whole marsh is in a "frost hollow" which will cause black ice and it is not a good place to be, in the early hours of a January morning!

We haven't seen photos of the engine mounting, or the propellor end, where I assume the shaft is running in a cutless bearing, supported by a P bracket or a skeg. I also assume that this boat has a short shaft, with no Plummer block to support it. This is a good example of why what we call the "inboard bearing" is not a bearing at all, but a water seal, known as a "stern gland". The shaft is not designed to "run" in the stern gland. Which means it is always vital that the engine is properly aligned to the shaft. In a GRP boat, this alignment should always be done when the boat is floating, and not out in a boatshed. By the way, that looks like a most excellent braized repair to a casting which may not be available any more!

Sorry to be over a year late replying, but it seems they had over a page to themselves, in Hoseasons brochure of 1971.

That doesn't say the half of it! Back in the late 60s when the pub was heaving, if you wanted to turn right across the traffic, on the Acle straight, at night, to enter that pub on your way from Yarmouth, you were almost literally taking your life into your own hands!

I hope that (in particular your last line) does not refer to me? In which case I suggest you read my posts on this thread again. Anyway, this is a forum, where we all respect and have the right, to our own opinions. So what is yours? Are you saying that anyone on a boat from now on, should be obliged to wear a lifejacket? By Law? And does that include a photo we have seen posted on another thread today, of a paddle board being towed across Salhouse Broad behind a large (and obviously private) open launch, with one man at the helm and another man standing on the board? Where neither of the two appear to be wearing anything but swimming trunks?

Depends who you are listening to. BBC Look East, when reporting on the recent tragedy in GYYS, said that this was the first death on the Broads from a boating accident in the last 4 years. I don't know how accurate that is or what was their source, but that is what they said. Exactly! And that sort of bad press has caused this effect before, on the Broads.

And if you had been there (as I was) to see the amount of safety kit, voluntary rescue squads, specialised offroad vehicles, RIBs, marshalls in yellow jackets, BA ranger's launches and a police launch, resulting in the effective closure of the navigation to other users, you would see some of what I mean by a Nanny State.

With respect, that is not a fair analogy. I am not advocating suicide as an adjunct to the simple choice of not wearing a lifejacket. If a load of supposedly otherwise responsible adults can go swimming around in the navigation towing orange party balloons, between Burgh St Peter and Beccles and there seems to be no law against it, then I don't feel the need to wear a lifejacket on the same river in a boat. Statistics will always show (without my help) how safe the Broads have been for decades. The imposition of yet another law to tell us how to be safe is all part of a creeping malaise, otherwise known as a Nanny State. We either resist that where it is sensible to do so, or we end up just being herded around like the sheep that we have become.

Sorry, I may have pressed the wrong button! I was going to say that it is the case, and has been for quite a long time. I have spent most of my career in the hire boat business and am well aware of the safety aspect of wearing a life jacket. I myself always wear one in a strong current, which means anywhere between Stracey Arms and Reedham or St Olaves. It's what my mother always taught me. Just a minute though! This is a matter of personal choice and it must always remain so. You are not going to infect anyone else with anything because you have decided that, having been made aware of the potential risk, you have chosen not to do so. These days we are already forced to walk out in public cowering behind the disposable nappies which hide our faces from each other and the hi-viz jacket has become an essential fashion accessory even if you are out in the middle of a field picking strawberries! This is what always used to be known as a free country. It is not China or North Korea. If the day ever comes when I am obliged by some new law to wear a lifejacket on the River Ant in a motor cruiser, I shall sell my boat and depart altogether from the Broads.

Good grief!

This is why boats with hydraulic thrusters usually have the tick-over set at 1000 revs, to stop them stalling when thrusting in neutral. This high speed is not a problem as hydraulic drive has a very soft gear change. You will get a bit of a "thump" which comes from the electric control valve on the hydraulic pump. The thrusters make a grating noise from the prop gearbox but then so do electric ones! The big advantage is that there is no overheating and no current drain on the alternator. If you wish, you can sit in the middle of a basin all afternoon with your finger on the switch and go round in ever decreasing circles - a bit like the Rare Japanese Oozlum Bird! Building a boat with hydraulic drive is expensive but very well worth it, especially if you are operating hire boats on rivers and canals with a lot of locks. All of the boats built by Crown Cruisers and Port and Haylett (Connoisseur) were hydraulic. Once you have the drive installed, you can then tap off it for a bow thruster, or an anchor winch. We were even experimenting with a fridge freezer, powered by a hydraulic heat pump. Peachments also make a hydraulic generator, for powering 220V air conditioning when the engine is running. In the evening, you plug the aircon into the shore power. I agree with Andy that it is very difficult to retro-fit a bow thruster to a boat already built and on some designs, such as the Bounty 37, it is almost impossible, although I have seen it done!

One would hope so! When I was doing trial runs on the Broads I always told people, when going south, to try to go under Acle Bridge at the time of low water in the yacht station. That should get them there about half an hour after slack. I tried it again last year, and it still works well!

I can't resist posting this, on the day that two more European countries are on the "naughty list" for quarantine and hundreds of thousands more Brits are scrambling for tickets on what is left of the airline industry. Two days ago the French set up testing stations in a resort on the south coast and immediately, 105 people tested positive for the virus in the famous naturist resort of Cap d'Agde, near Beziers. This is an entire seaside town where everyone goes around "in the noddy" on the beach, in restaurants, bars, supermarkets and, of course, in all the nightclubs - or "boîtes de nuit". I find this laughably predictable, in that nothing will ever stop the French from closing down all their industries, factories, businesses and even, hotels and restaurants, in northern France, and charging off down the motorways, where those who have not died in pile-ups en route, can enjoy a month or more on a beach before they all have to go back to what they call work. More importantly, none of those who tested positive for these tests were actual residents of the Cap d'Agde; none of them were showing symptoms; none of them were hospitalised; all of them were under 40 and above all - there are no recorded deaths. I have read that "Covid related" deaths in France, during the whole week that led to the imposition of quarantine by the UK, were eight. I say again : eight. Meantime this random test has resulted in the Prefect imposing the wearing of masks (anywhere outdoors) in the whole of the Cap d'Agde as well as the nearby village resorts. This will include Le Boat's second largest base on the Canal Du Midi, at Port Cassafières. I suggest that we will never come to terms properly with this virus until the Great Heaving Public stop insisting on charging off to exotic beaches for what they still think is their inalienable right to a Summer Holiday. I am just left wondering, in all my innocence, what all these naturists do with their facemasks, when they are not wearing them?

You will probably be told this on the boat hand-over, but you only use the thruster when the boat stationary. It is for moving the bow into the bank when mooring up, or moving it out from the bank when leaving a mooring. It is also very useful when doing a 180 turn in the river. It is not for steering.

Taking your questions in order : The landowner closed off the broad by fencing across it, a long time ago, as they said it had "fallen into disuse". The same applied to Black Horse Broad (Little Hoveton), Cockshoot, and Ranworth Inner Broad. After the War, a campaign led by Herbert Woods was successful in re-opening Black Horse, but not Ranworth inner or HGB. Blakes took out the lease on Malthouse Broad in the late 40s, otherwise that would also be closed today. I don't think the broad has ever been dredged since the War and I remember canoe-ing across it (dodging the gamekeeper) in the 50s, when it was very shallow, especially in Hudson's Bay. This revolves around the law of tidal water, which is determined by the line drawn on the Ordnance Survey map. In the 50s this line was at the downstream entrance of HGB, so in law, Blofeld owned the bottom of the broad and also the water in it. He did not own the water in Black Horse Broad as it was tidal, and this is how Herbert Woods won his case. This also means that Ranworth Inner Broad is closed illegally, as it is tidal water. Nowadays, the official tide line has moved upriver to just north of Wroxham Broad, which means that HGB is tidal and should be open to navigation across it. The problem, of course, is who is willing to spend enough money to prove this in court? Meantime, a lot of public money seems to be proposed, for improvements to a piece of "English Nature" which will still remain closed to the public, who will be paying for it.

Members are welcome to correct me but I am sure I have missed something, in all this : What is the plausible benefit of this grand scheme, to the tax payer, the toll payer, the yachtsman, the fisherman or even any other pedestrian visitors of the "national park" persuasion? Hoveton Great Broad (HGB) is part of an ancient navigation that has been deliberately allowed to become closed off to to any public access ever since well before the last War, despite great efforts by such as Herbert Woods, Jack Powles, Jimmy Hoseason and my own father, to re-open it, in the same way that was successful, in the case of Hoveton Little Broad. It is the private domain of the landed gentry, even though recent changes in the official Ordnance Survey tide line mean that it is now tidal water and therefore closed illegally. Why does all this public money and disruption to the balance of nature have to be involved, in what simply amounts to cleaning the water in the Blofeld family's private garden pond?

We on this forum don't know anything more about prices for next season than the boatyards themselves.

I can't help you a great deal but I know that when Richardsons were building a lot of boats in 1976, they sourced all their Formica faced plywood from Ipswich Plastics.

I would never pretend to know anything about fishing but I do know that the best way to improve water quality and promote weed growth on an almost enclosed broad with no tidal flow through it, is to remove accumulated bottom silt by mud pumping. Just as they did with spectacular success on Cockshoot Broad in the 60s. The difference is almost instantaneous as the weed grows back at once. You don't have wait 8 or 10 years as seems to be the case with this grand scheme to play with the balance of nature. But then, what would I know? I haven't got an "Ology".

There is something about not being allowed in a dinghy when it is being towed but that may be a hire boat condition, rather than a bye-law. The danger, with a wooden dinghy, is that if you stand too near the bow your weight may bring the bow down and cause the dinghy to "porpoise". With an inflatable, that is not so much of a risk. I wouldn't know, I never did it myself, as a boy . . . .

Ships are held at anchor by the length of chain, not the anchor itself. Usually the chain is three times the depth of water. The anchor is designed to pull itself into the seabed when it is pulled by the chain, so it is anchoring the chain, not the ship. Most "grounds" for anchoring are sand or gravel bottoms, so the bottom of Barton Broad would not be appropriate!

But it does stop you losing the picture on the TV when the boat swings round . . .