Vaughan

I would recommend the VETUS hand anchor winch which can be used with a chain but also has a capstan drum for winching rope. No wiring, no extra batteries and just a handle to swing back and forth. So you can drop the weight free in the normal way and then if you can't get it up again * you can just take two turns on the capstan drum and wind it up. This way you don't need a chain locker, kinks in the chain or mud in the bilges. Just make sure it is strongly bolted to the deck. * Not sure if I am allowed to say that but it might be an appropriate sentiment!

Very interesting letter from the BHBF. In the c.e.o's report it says that members wanted to retain the extra seasonal rangers in the interest of public safety particularly in light of : 1/. The tragic accident in GYYS in 2020. 2/. The increase in paddle boarding. 3/. The increased risk of climate change. I shall ignore 3 as this is now the blanket excuse for making any changes or spending any money. What precisely can seasonal rangers do about the "risk" of climate change?? So we now need more rangers paid by boat river tolls to look after paddlers and canoes, many of whom pay no toll whatever except to their own associations. And what difference would the presence of an extra ranger have made, to the accident in 2020? Reading further into the report at 4:1, it seems they are being used to go around doing a survey to ask hirers whether they have had a trial run or not. It fact it turns out that 10% of hirers said they had not had a run - although they certainly would have had one if they had asked. Considering that a decent boatyard, even these days, can look at around 30% repeat custom from loyal hirers, I would think 10% is perfectly normal. By the way, it seems 59% of hirers had some sort of run and 10% didn't. So what happened to the other 31%? Are they saying they "don't know" whether they had a run or not? Or is that how the BA do their figures?

They could also "farm it out" to Haines, who would build them lovely boats, but at their own profit. On a yard of that size, it is normal to use your own staff, who you need for maintaining the hire fleet, to build new boats, and thus replace the old ones once they get to their "sell by date". Others have said here that a hire boat can last 40 years - but not 50 years. I disagree with that as I think a hire boat is knackered after 20 years. Would you expect Hertz to hire you a 20 year old car? Richardsons have proved me wrong by maintaining and upgrading their boats so well that they have lasted so long and in such good condition. But they can only do that because they have the extensive facilities to do the work on their yard. If they are now to demolish all this in favour of chalets, wellness sheds and outdoor learning centres that is fine and the BA seem to be delighted at the prospect. But they will no longer be able to look after old hire boats and keep them to the standard we have come to expect, if they pull down all the boat sheds. If that is their choice then I wish them well and I hope that they (and the BA) will turn out to be right. But I don't think it is good for what we call "The Broads".

Also interesting that a previous planning permission by the then tenants of the Acle yard, for glamping pods on the ground behind the river bank, with parking and toilets, was turned down flat by the Highways Authority on the grounds of dangerous access onto an A class trunk road with a 60MPH speed limit. Whilst at the same time, it didn't look as though access to the BA's new project, even closer to the hump bridge on the other side, would be an "issue". I see they have moved the new acesss by a few yards but it doesn't look any less hazardous to me. It will all be all right on the day though, as this application includes a National Park visitor centre.

But they can't do that if they have pulled down all the boat sheds. For that matter, they can't build the shiny new ones, either.

Thurne, coming soon? Surely they already have a lovely new phone box. Funny they don't mention Ranworth Staithe and I thought they had failed to renew the lease on the Whitlingham gravel pits. Or is it all just yet more expensive national park signage?

Provence rosé with lobster? At the least a Vin des Sables du Golf du Lion or at best, a Pouilly Fuissé.

There is a great deal of truth in what you suggest and I agree with ChrisB's assessment as well. It is a large site in a strategic area and if it is no longer viable for the purpose that it was dug out of the marsh for in the first place (and I remember it happening) then we have to move with the new "National Park" times. Many other traditional and famous yards have gone the same way since the 60's, such as Jack Powles in Wroxham. And look what happened to Horning, since the demise of Southgates main yard, H.C. Banham, H.T.Percival, Turners, Chumley and Hawke and others. All now in very different use. The trouble with this new era of National Park thinking - which clearly runs right through this plan like a coal seam - is that it is yet another body blow to cruising on the Broads navigations. They used to say the Broads can only be seen and appreciated when you are out on the water, by boat. Very soon at this rate, they will only be best seen in National Park visitor centres, or phone boxes with clockwork bird noises.

As you say, these new moorings will probably be filled by second-hand hire boats. At Richardsons I have counted 242 private mooring spaces on the new plan, including those in the wet shed today. I don't know how many private moorings they have there already but let's say there will be an increase of 100 boats. Where will they come from? It's hard to get exact figures but I think I am safe in saying that a large hire boat ( say over 38ft) pays £1200 more in river toll than a private boat. So, including the 50 new moorings at Acle, my "ball park" figure would be a loss of well over £100,000 a year in river tolls to the BA. That is, of course, if they don't lay up the spare hire fleet on shore while they are being sold and don't pay any toll at all. It would not be the first time - or even the second - that a large chunk of Richardsons' fleet have ended up in the nettles behind the engineer's shop. In that case, 100 boats laid up would be a potential loss to the BA of over £200,000 a year. And where are all these new moorings going to get service? Diesel for instance, or toilet pumpouts? I don't see any planned facilities at either Stalham or Acle. And where can they be hauled out, for winter maintenance? On the Acle moorings I don't think there are even enough spaces for all the boat owners to park their cars. Excuse me but I now begin to understand why the CEO, as a member of the BA nav committee, has not appeared to be making a lot of noise about toll increases. Probably keeping his head down!

Sure, but it doesn't look to me as though this is going to be the major Broads hire fleet any more, in a few short years. So what effect will that have on income to the navigation (river tolls) or to the infrastructure of Broads river cruising? I "see the signs" and I don't like them.

If you are running even a reduced fleet, of 130 boats at an average 6 berths in 3 cabins, that is the logistical equivalent of running a hotel with 400 bedrooms. In addition it is self catering, so facilities must be there to clean and store kitchen utensils. Dirty pots and frying pans will simply be replaced on the day and then cleaned in the stores during the week. Linen may be shopped out but you still need a large amount of storage space to stock it, and sort it into stacks, ready for each boat departure. Cleaners don't just step onto a boat and start cleaning : they have to have a large workshop to store all the materials, as well as an upholstery shop for quick repairs to mattresses and curtains. Servicing engines means workshops. To do the repairs as well as to have a large stores for all the spare parts that are necessary. If something breaks down on a hire boat, there is no excuse for saying "we have ordered the part and it should be delivered next Monday". The part has to be there : on the yard, ready for use. Boat repairs need a lot of materials : wood, paint, varnish, GRP matt and resin, etc., a lot of which is flammable and hazardous. This needs safe storage as per the Factories Act. This also means another separate workshop for the boatbuilders and laminators. The shed that will be left is called "The Ponderosa" because of the nicknames that a lot of the staff had in the old days, (such as "Hoss" and "The Wonder Horse") but is nowhere near the operating basins and was meant for winter maintenance. The reason why Richardsons' hire boats always look so clean and tidy is because they are all hauled out in winter to be repaired and re-painted. If all the facilities I have noted above will now also have to have space in that shed, then there won't be much left for boat maintenance in winter. When I worked for Richardsons back in the mid 70s as assistant yard manager to Gerry Thrower, the main part of my job was to ensure the efficient repair and preparation of the boats on turn-round days, which were Saturday and Thursday. And that was when half the fleet were still wooden boats. I would not like to have that job now, under the new plans for the facilities. I still think we are looking at a long term plan to get out of cruiser hiring.

You're not the only one, Garry!

Well well. My immediate reaction is - how are they going to maintain their hire fleet or service it on turn-round days, if they are pulling down all but one of the boatsheds? I see that there will be moorings for 130 "charter craft" which is well less than half of what the site had originally. So where will all the cleaners be, or the linen store? Or the engineers' shops? As a hire fleet operator, I think I am looking at a long term plan to get out of hiring weekly cruisers. Watch this space. I notice that both plans, for Stalham and Acle include a National Park day visitor centre. No doubt a great help when getting planning permission out of the BA.

Excuse me if I group your three posts into one reply! I have always, on the forum, referred to the re-claimed lowlands in the lower reaches of the Broads as grazing meadows. The whole point here, is that re-claimed wet grassland used for cattle grazing is not badly affected by occasional brackish water flooding. You can get the cattle back on the fields very soon after and the grass will not suffer much. The Norfolk Broads area has traditionally been given over to dairy and beef cattle produce. Ah, but! The farmers began to find they weren't making money out of dairy any more and so they wanted to grow arable crops. But the problem here is that salt water flooding will ruin "arable" land for about 3 to 5 years afterwards. So the farmers deliberately lobbied parliament to have the EA (or whatever name it was, then) to have the river banks built up to protect their fields. As they have largely gone back back now, to dairy cattle rather than arable, especially around the Bure, there should be no reason why the EA cannot make gaps in these flood banks to re-create the traditional grazing meadows, which can flood during surge tides. The Dutch taught us how to do this when they reclaimed the whole area hundreds of years ago. But now we have agencies, authorities, alliances, committees and assorted experts, who are all convinced that they know better.

I have just remembered another factor, which may well be having its effect on the high water in the rivers. Wherever you look in Norfolk these days, they are building yet another vast dormitory housing estate, or out of town retail park. Including what they call the "growth triangle" which will quite soon fill in the whole area between Norwich, Acle and Wroxham. But what does all this building actually mean? Thousands of acres of tarmac or stone flagging, so that rainwater which used to irrigate what used to be farming countryside, now runs off into the drains and into the river system. Recently, all new planning permission in Norfolk was halted, because of this very problem. Unfortunately, it now seems to have been allowed again.

Sorry, but this, to me, explains exactly why the local population and Broads related businesses were so strongly against the idea of a flood barrier, "back in the 70s" and voted it out. And sure enough, now what have we got? The "unforeseen consequences" of a whole lot of experts and their extensive consultation. Which I take to mean "working with collaborative partners". "Kirk to Enterprise - one to beam up"!

Very interesting. So my silly question is : If they saw the need to keep drag lines on stand by for drainage purposes in the 70s, why aren't they still there now and why aren't they dredging? What is different between now and the 70s? Apart from all the water lying trapped all over Potter Heigham and Wroxham, of course. . . .

Pressure relief valve. And yes, you can use PTFE but pipework in a boat is normally done with compression fittings, using a copper or brass olive to make the seal. In that case you do not put any other sealant, tape or compound in the fitting, but rely on the olive to do what it is supposed to do.

Thanks for that Colin, and a very Happy New Year to all residents and friends on the island. Looks like a typical winter spring tide in Thorpe, from my memory. By the way, what happened to Thorpe Council's great ideas for letting out that part of the Green in front of the church, as private moorings? Don't seem to have had any takers?

So do I. Over the years I have found that a lot of this boils downs to "Who owns the rivers, then? You on your boat or me, with my rights to fish where I please?". Someone has also posed the question "Who pays for the navigation?" Fishermen pay for a licence (to some quango or another) but does this pay for the maintenance of the waterway in which they fish? By the way, a little question of definition : These long poles that we are talking about are called "Perch poles". Does this mean they are specially adapted for the catching of Perch - which are (or at least were) common on the Broads - or does it refer to the French word "perche" which means to reach out over a distance, especially when referring to a crane jib or a derrick?

I have just been reminded, by PM, of the previous history behind this news. I have wonderful childhood memories of the Beauchamp Arms in the days when it was owned by Wolff and Andrée Chater who were great friends of my parents and who, I believe, had come to Norfolk after being displaced from their homeland during WW 11. Gilbert Wright was the local landowner and farmer and his son Paul started up the boatyard and became very well known as a builder of racing dinghies. He was also the founder of the Buckenham Sailing Club, of which my parents were original members. It is in this spirit that I wish all the best to a venture that may promote leisure boating on a very important cruising location on the south rivers. It seems that the new owners did not make a success of their previous venture on the Broads. Let us hope, all the same, that this new effort will be a benefit to all who cruise the south rivers and wish to see better facilities there.

I agree but all the same this is not a spring tide. We are on neap tides at the moment.

Very good news! All best wishes for the future.

Let's get back to the start of this discussion, which was MM's questions about the safety of his new heating system. Before I retired I was technical director for a company running over 450 Broads type hire boats on European waterways, for over 20 years. In all that time, how many of our customers were killed or otherwise suffered symptoms which could in any way be related to noxious fumes given off by a diesel or gas fired blown air heating system? Answer : Zero.

I can certainly agree with that, but not with the rest of your post. Which is exactly what turbo charging is all about. Have you considered what "compression ignition" basically means? Well, in my years of stripping down heaters and servicing them I have never found this problem. The burner units are usually clean. This may be why Webasto (diesel) and Trumatic (gas) heaters are now factory sealed and cannot be "got into" for cleaning or maintenance as there is no need. What you may be confusing, is the need for modern appliances to be room sealed. That is, that they draw their combustion air from outside the boat and exhaust their fumes outside as well, usually from a flue pipe which has inner and outer pipes. The centre one for the exhaust and the outer for the admission air - which has the effect of cooling the exhaust at the same time. This is just what you will find in your house, if you have gas or oil fired central heating. Please don't let's get into a flap about blown air heaters - either gas or diesel. If they are installed properly as a room sealed unit, they are not going to "creep up on you" in the night. The possible effect of their exhaust on other boats, moored together stern on, is maybe another matter!