Vaughan

Thank you for that Peter. This must have been a harrowing experience for Miles, especially as he seems to have been on board to offer the owner a bit of free technical advice. There is no film of the actual dog so I can't tell if it was the same one that nearly attacked me. I suppose I am lucky in that I was just walking along the pontoon and not actually on board the dog owner's boat. I must say that from what I saw of those moorings and the people living there that morning, if I had bought the boat that was advertised for sale, I would not have kept it there. Sorry, did I say living there? Living on board boats on marina moorings is, of course, not allowed on the Broads. Is it.

I have searched youtube and also a certain forum but cannot find a video about this. Maybe someone can link it here - if allowed? I only ask because I was very nearly savaged by a bull terrier type dog which was loose on the moorings at Sutton Staithe boatyard last year when I was there for the legitimate reason of viewing a boat for sale. The person who appeared to be the dog's owner (when I asked him) turned his back and walked off onto a private boat. I just wondered if it might have been the same one.

It wasn't always controversial. Here is what the old gunboat Morning Flight used to look like. Incidentally, the symbol I use as my avatar is her original Broads river toll disc.

Sorry about the repetition but you must have heard of that Norfolk farmer's expression? It means good old farmyard slurry, ripe for muck spreading!

"Load of old squit".

This has been my own experience, on rescue boats. There were a couple of times though, when I got elderly people out of the water and ashore fast, after they had been knocked down (rather than capsized) in Norfolk Dinghies after a sudden squall. They were only in the water a few moments but if they had not been in lifejackets and I had not got there quick, they would have succumbed very soon to hyperthermia. They were already semi-conscious. And this was on Wroxham Broad in August, believe it or not!

Well well! Perhaps the good Doctor's eco - friendly national park vision needs a bit more thought, on the practicalities?

Basically, I think that we on the NBN are a bit of a niche market, as we either own boats, or are mostly regular hirers. But do we represent the views of Joe Public, the average British tourist, who has been lured away for several decades now by the Mediterranean package beach hotel or the all-inclusive Caribbean cruise? These are no longer available right now, so what is Joe Public going to spend his hard earned holiday cash on this year? Is he going to come to the Broads, knowing that pubs (let's face it) will not be anything like they used to be, apart from all the other "distancing" factors? The boatyards only have the bookings that were taken before the beginning of March and a lot of those have been put off to next year or refunded. So will the rest of the bookings for this season now fill in? Will tourism really take off, or will it belly-flop? As I said, I don't like the signs, as I have seen them before, but I very much hope I am wrong.

Another report from your Canal du Midi correspondent and I am afraid the news is not good. We had a day out in the camper van yesterday and called in at a few of the hire fleet bases. No matter what the agents may say about bookings flooding in, I have always found that the real "proof of the pudding" is to go and see how many boats are still sitting in the yard un-booked in the middle of the week. They can't hide that statistic! Locaboat in Argens have about 5 boats out from a fleet of over 60; Le Boat in Homps have about 5 boats out from about the same number but they share the base with 2 other companies so I can't tell whose boats were actually hired. And then we went to one of the main bases at Port Cassafieres, to see this sad sight : This is the last week in June and this base (of about 90 boats) would normally have just 2 or 3 boats left in it. As it is, the restaurant in the port told us there are only 5 out on hire. Two Germans, two Swiss and one Belgian. No French at all. Although the restaurant was open we were the only customers. Both here and in Homps the bases were totally closed, including reception, with no staff at work and so no-one seeming to make any effort to prepare boats for this weekend. Virus or no, this is now the second week that the canal has been totally open for business; there is no lockdown left in France and the borders are open for the Germans, Swiss, Belgians and Dutch to travel freely. Bookings in what is now the high season would have been made well in advance, unless they have been moved to a later date? But then Le Boat have been saying for some time on their site that they intended opening on the 14th June. There is no government restriction on boat hiring in France any more, so this is not an official reaction : it is a customer reaction. They are staying away, for some reason. In yesterday's local paper there was an article on the effects of the virus on tourism in France, which included this, that I translate for you : The directors of TUI France, the leading tour operator in the country, announced on 17th June that they were shedding up to 583 jobs, which represents two thirds of their personnel in France. Le Boat is owned by TUI and I see that another main base in Trebes is closed down completely. I don't know about the one in Narbonne. I don't how this affects the Broads, where everyone seems to say that bookings are flooding in. I wonder? I don't like the signs of this but I hope very much I am wrong. I suppose in a week's time, we shall start to see how the rest of this season is really going to turn out? I assume this one must be for spares?

Tell me about it!

Quite ridiculous. When a rescue boat is in a rescue situation, there is a life to be saved. Right then and there. Surely that still has priority over some nominally chosen "social distance"? Out in the open air, on the river? At least I hope so! How do the Hemsby Lifeboat get on with all this? Fish them out of the water on the end of a long pole? Or perhaps tow them back in to the bank? I am starting to despair of this sort of nonsense.

This sounds like the 4 sided flapper valve that is in the flange of the outlet pipe at the bottom back of the the toilet. The valve is known in French as a bec de canard - or duck's beak. When you see it, you will see why! You just undo the two nuts that hold the flange coupling and it comes apart easily. You may also need a new piston seal. All these come in the standard kit.

It just pumps out the bowl, with no rinsing water. This is where a new flapper valve at the back will give you stronger pumping.

While you are at it, well worth getting a joint and valve kit for the toilet, especially the 4 sided flapper valve on the outlet at the back, which tends to get a bit "furred up" over time and then doesn't close properly. Also an opportunity to clean and grease the pump piston and shaft.

Away you go then! No-one's stopping you. Just take another look at the photos, to see that the freeboard is underwater and there are no decks, as such. And once you have done it, who is going to pay for your efforts?

The impression I get from that article is that the man who died was not, himself, a boat owner?

I am not sure I would like to be offered the job of re-floating that, in its present location! Floating reed beds all around, no road access, no hardstanding for a crane, and water too shallow to approach with a barge or wherry. It would have to be done with divers building a plywood coffer-dam all round it, before pumping it out. That all assumes it hasn't got a hole in the bottom, or if it is indeed Seacrete, that the hull has not cracked apart at one of the corners. It has been known before! And then what to do with it? I very much doubt that the slip at Sutton Staithe would handle it, so maybe Richardsons. Would they really want to be involved in a job like that? The fact remains, it is not sunk in the navigation, so it is not a BA obligation. If the land-owner objects to its presence, they can pursue the boat owner through the courts. Which would be rather akin to tilting at windmills. Anyone else got any good ideas?

Compression ignition.

They haven't fallen away yet, as the market has not yet been flooded by second hand hire boats up for sale. I am afraid it is rather too early to try and prove the doomsters wrong at this point.

Along with Nobby Clark's "Nutty Slack". So all that huge array of panels is just to top it up, and it still needs a battery charge overnight? I would have thought a rig like that ought to do about 15 knots on a fine day, with a catamaran hull?

Three very good points, all in one short paragraph. I do very much hope this is not an indication that national park thinking is going to "shine through" the clouds of this crisis? I don't know this boat as it is "after my time" on the Broads but this thread is indicating a total waste of time in these circumstances. How is social distancing ever going to allow this trip boat at this time?

According to the culture secretary on TV last night, there is no conformation of any tourist businesses being able to open on July 4th.

Driving past the triple locks at the Pont Rouge near Carcassonne yesterday I saw boats out on hire, from Locaboat, Le Boat, Happimag and Les Canalous, so the season is under way. Not very many yet - driving past the bases I would say Locaboat have 5 or 6 boats out in Argens and Le Boat probably no more than that in Homps, so the season still has a long way to pick up from! They will be missing the UK customers (about 20%) as well as Australians and Americans but should now be no problem for the Germans and the Swiss, who are the main customer base. The French are only about 15% and those mainly in the off season. By the way from next week in France it will once again be illegal to keep a child of any age out of school. Thought I'd mention it . . .

I just thought that telling PW how to handle a fish might be a bit like trying to tell Griff which end of a shotgun points away from you!