Vaughan

So what? Are we now supposed to report back to the forum with our comments, because we have seen someone, on an internet webcam, sitting on the riverbank having a beer? We are never going to get back to normal, as Broads lovers, if we behave like this.

I strongly object to this. If we are ever going to get the Norfolk Broads back running again, we are not going to do it by making assumptions about what we might - or might not - have seen on some-one else's webcam. We don't even know if the person concerned (who we are told has been hidden) is actually the owner, or anything to do with the property. And do we actually suggest that someone is at risk of catching some virus, because of what we see (or don't actually see) in this webcam screenshot? Do please let's concentrate on the "end game".

I have no memory of that occasion. I am not sure where they had locked me away - probably in the British Prep School system. Only to be let out at weekends!

The launching of "Her Majesty" at Herbert Woods in 1952 (I think). The well-dressed couple on the corner of the quay to the left, are my parents!

Can't remember who built her but the hull looks like Herbert Woods. Rather like "Her Majesty" of Broads Tours. She was used as a motor houseboat for attending sailing regattas, hence the railings all around the cabin roof, where people used to sit to watch the racing. There was no steering from inside : just the wheel on the aft bulkhead where the skipper stood in all weathers. Inside the aft door was an engine room, with two small petrol engines.

Pear drops? I think that tells us that he might be "on" the varnish fumes!

Poor old Doris. I remember her well. She used to be immaculate, with leaded-light windows, and a full time skipper.

That is always another option but I had some Ratio point levers from a previous layout, where I used them very successfully for working signals, so I thought I'd try this! It seems to work for the moment, but we shall see! The camera can be very cruel to small-scale modellers - you spend ages making something and when you are finished you think "that looks great". Then you take a close up photo and you see it "warts and all"!

This actually shows how the early motor cruisers were not much more than converted yachts. You can even see how the low, white part of the hull looks like a yacht, with an extra varnished part on top. The steering wheel is just a simple affair on the bulkhead and the canopy performs the same role as the awning over the aft well of a yacht. In the cabin are two berths either side of a central table, just like a yacht. This boat was obviously not a converted yacht, but you can see where the design came from!

I assume BA 461 is in case you lose it overboard?

Excuse me, I didn't know we were discussing "single handed" where any safety equipment would have to be rigged for use before you "buggered in" in the first place. There is a hire company in France which equips its boats with aluminium ladders with a non slip plate surface on one side. So they can be used as a ladder, or a gangplank. Very useful!

Marshman and I were actually offering sound advice based on experience but as you wish . . . .

From memory, this looks like one of the "Alice" class from Richardsons, called Brer Rabbit, March hare, Mad Hatter, etc. I think they originally came from Leo Robinsons at Oulton. There were also Tweedledum and Tweedledee, which Richardsons took out of the fleet in the 60's and used them as tow boats.

That is nowhere near as quirky as it sounds and they are often carried on canal barges. If you tie the top of the ladder to the cabin top handrail and let it lean out over the side, then someone in the water can simply walk up the ladder and step off onto the deck!

Here is an update from the "lockdown" workshop. I have finally got the pointwork laid down and although I can see a lot of my own mistakes, I don't think it is too bad. I can now stand the baseboard on end (screwed to a roof beam) to do the wiring loom underneath. The switch blades of the points have to be held closed against a spring and then held open by tension on a lever. Electric point motors won't do this, so I made up a mechanism from brass strip, brass rod and bearing bushes that are normally for making model locomotives. I have a lot of old "train set" type track left over from a previous layout, and it is very handy to use as a wiring bus, for tag soldering all the track connections. I wire up each section of track separately so as to allow for expansion of the rails in extremes of temperature. When you are working in a garage or a loft, this is very important! The points are worked by twine, on manual levers and in front of them are the double throw switches for changing the polarity of the point crossings - or "frogs". Getting this right drives you crazy and if you have ever tried it, it is just as difficult as wiring one-way light switches on your stairs! I have a feeling I may have to use stronger and stiffer twine to make the points reliable but they work for the moment. Next job is to wire up the base-boards on either side, which will be much easier, and then I can actually run some trains to see if works. I have had a good poke about with an Ohm-meter and it looks as though it should be all right! Next time I report I might actually be "playing trains"!

Prince Philip's rank in 1947 was Lieutenant (RN) and his substantive rank now is Admiral of the Fleet. For many years until his retirement he was Colonel in Chief of the Grenadier Guards and that is the uniform we see him in here. By the way, the Queen is laughing because she had just walked past and didn't recognise him! I don't think honorary colonels are called colonel, but they are referred to as such. "Our Colonel in Chief" is always toasted after "The Queen" at regimental mess dinner nights. I hope that helps to answer Paul's question. The thread has suffered what we would call a "flanking skirmish" since then but perhaps I can also clear up some mis-understanding? During my time in the Army I became friends with Col. Reggie Steward of the Army Careers Office in Norwich - in the days when Norwich had one - and he told me that of the very few young men who actually apply for an officer career only one 1 in 400 get through the selection and training to earn a Commission. The military academy at Sandhurst trains royal princes (and princesses) from Commonwealth and other countries all over the World including, infamously, Idi Amin and Muammar Gaddafi although we were told they didn't complete the course! I did my training with 2 foreign princes, 3 sons of Commonwealth government and 3 relatives of the British royal family. I can assure you none of them got a softer ride than the rest of us. In fact, they probably got it worse. And I would have been proud to serve beside any one of them.

Six campaign Stars, which represent every Naval theatre of the second World War, except one. My opinion is as it always was. My remark was a sign that I did not wish to rise to your bait. I still don't now.

I wonder where he got the Mention in Dispatches from then? Or the Greek War Medal, in recognition of his bravery during the Italian invasion of Greece in 1941?

They had "babies heads" as well !

If only you knew.

A good example is Prince William, whose military rank is Major, in the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals) but who also has the honorary rank of Colonel in Chief of the Irish Guards.

You mean "Ooh aah - Jim lad!" and "Avast heaving!" or what the BBC Radiophonic Workshop used to call "Days of Sail" sound effects. For those who may not have heard of them, they were using what amounted to a Moog Synthesiser before it had even been invented and composed - among other things - the theme music to "Doctor Who".

My father always used to say that when he died, they would have to take his liver out and beat it to death with a stick!

Here is a scan from the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, revised 1979 : I think that should explain it. The asterisk * on the term "fake" goes on to say : A fake is one of the turns of a rope when stowed or coiled. The term "flake" has been used incorrectly in the past. All the same, I think what my father was taught in 1936, still holds good today!

This is also why when you buy a new coil of rope, you always take the rope from the centre of the coil and not from the outside.