Vaughan

This is a photo of a face plate where you can see the part numbers. etc., but you can also see the wear from the impeller. In other words it has already been turned over twice and so it is knackered. It looks as though your engine is a Perkins, if I am right? In which case the wear in the shaft seals will be because the pump is not properly aligned with its drive shaft. The raw water pump on a Perkins is driven from the front of the injector pump pinion, on the timing gears. You need to remove the entire timing gear cover from the engine, leaving the pump attached to it, before you strip the pump to change the shaft seals. That way, when you put it back, the pump shaft will still be properly aligned with the timing gears. A misalignment will probably be what has caused the shaft seals to fail. You need to ensure that the pump, when re-fitted, is properly aligned to the drive shaft and I suggest this is best done by a boatyard engineer.

Hopefully, the descriptions already on this thread, should do the trick!

If you are fitting a cleat, make sure it has a thick pad of wood, about a foot square if possible, to bolt through under the deck, and glass it in. The pad can also be made of plywood, laminated to be about an inch thick. There is a surprising amount of strain on a centre cleat, especially when a boat comes past making a wash. Also make sure that the fixing bolts which hold the superstructure mould onto the hull, are in good order in this area.

Just out of interest, I have remembered that, as the district and parish boundaries ran up the old main river through Thorpe, this put Harts Island in the Forehoe and Henstead district, which circled south of Norwich and ran down the Yare through Surlingham, Rockland and Buckenham, before it became part of Loddon District. The word "Flegg" sounds a bit Viking to me - as is Thorpe. Back to the days of the "Danegeld". St Benet's abbey, the peat pits, and all that! Edited to add : It'll all be going back to a peat bog, at this rate!

A lot of hire boats, especially Bounty, had their galleys fitted out with flat-pack kitchen units. So I guess the kitchen sink came with a trap, so they fitted it.

Reading back on my post about the Commissioners, I don't think I actually answered the question! The Commissioners were funded from river tolls but the dredging and flood bank maintenance was also subsidised by the Drainage Boards, who charged drainage rates to local businesses, farmers and landowners. Nowadays the BA does its own river maintenance with its own equipment, but the Commissioners contracted all this out to May Gurneys (ex J.S.Hobrough) on Griffin Lane in Thorpe. The Commissioners had no moorings of their own (except perhaps at Neatishead) and public staithes were run by the local parishes, heavy subsidised by Blakes. Norwich CC ran their yacht station and Yarmouth YS was run by Blakes. Bear in mind that hire boats in those days paid 3 times the toll of a private boat - and there were 3000 hire boats on the Broads. They could afford to pay these tolls as the average hire season then, was 27 weeks. So there was adequate funding and it was well spent, on its specific purpose. This may explain why everyone, including naturalists such as Dr. Ted Ellis and Dr. Martin George (of the Nature Conservancy) knew full well that the Broads had to be commercially successful, in order to be properly maintained. Tell that to the "re-wilders" of the RSPB!

Very well considered post, thank you Robin. I totally agree with you as this is what I have been saying myself. Except I would say that it has been spreading for some time now. I was one of the ones put out of business in the recession of the early 80's, when the BA was brand new. I don't think they made the right decisions then (if they made any) and they have been playing "catch up" on it ever since. I think it becomes a lot clearer, why all those who I remember in the hire business, never wanted the BA in the first place! A good friend of mine, who knows them well, says they suffer from serious "mission creep". Too much empire building, vanity projects and "working with partners" has taken their eye off the ball. And you ask me why I don't like the idea of a National Park??

Sounds good to me! In fact the Broads type filters will always draw water with the cap off as most of the filter tube is designed to be below the water level outside. The Vetus type bowl strainers are a different matter as they are way up high and great care must be taken to get a good seal when putting the lid back on. If they draw a little bit of air then nothing happens. I always put plenty of water pump grease on the rubber O ring seal. The problem of sea cocks sticking is a very real one and great care is needed not to force them. If you break it, that probably means hauling the boat out. In this respect ball valves are less likely to jam than gate valves. Don't forget that if your boat is stored ashore for the winter, the sea cocks must be left open to drain them out. Otherwise they can easily freeze.

I was thinking that they were built about 1990, before I joined the company. We didn't have any blue ones, though.

From the Crown Blue Line brochure of 1999. Photo taken In the port of Aigues Mortes, in the Petit Camargue. By the way, that is Susie and I, driving the boat. In this photo we were NOT driving the boat as we had abandoned the wheel to say "cheers" to the photographer!

This boat appeared on the moorings where we live, on the Canal du Midi a few days ago and seems to be there for the winter. The canal closes this weekend and certain areas will then be drained for maintenance. I assume this is a stretch where they know the canal will not be drained. It was drained last year, for a lot of bank maintenance. The boat is built on the Alpha 42 mould (which was the Wilds Caribbean) but with a greatly modified superstructure, to do away with the sliding canopy, giving a comfortable saloon interior, and adding a large upper sundeck with upper steering position. The boats were actually moulded like this and then fitted out inside by Crown Cruisers, to what we called Crown Class standard, using top quality faced plywood and teak trim, spindled on the yard at Somerleyton. In the CBL brochure, they were called Concorde and there were only about 8 of them built. The Toulouse registration means she was probably hired from our base in Castelnaudary but I notice a tunnel searchlight on the cabin top which may mean she had been further north, perhaps in the Nivernais. Someone has bought an ex hire boat which is a perfect choice for cruising anywhere on the French canals. I hope I may get the chance to meet the owners, during this winter.

I have commented before that the trouble with good satire, is that it gets rather too close to the truth!

The Rivers Bure and Waveney Commissioners were a subdivision of the Gt Yarmouth Port and Haven Commissioners, who were also responsible for the Yare, as it was a sea navigation to the port of Norwich. They were a voluntary body of local people, who simply drew a small director's fee and did it because they were genuinely involved in and concerned with, the Broads. Their Chairman in the 60's was Desmond Truman, boatbuilder of Oulton Broad and another was Martin Broom. Others were professionals, such as Standley Bushell and Jimmy Hipwell (who was Sheriff of Norwich) and Ian Mackintosh, of Rountree Mackintosh in Norwich (and Aquafibre). I think Lady Mayhew was another. The actual running of the operation was effectively in the hands of the Chief River Inspector, Charles Collier. They were responsible for the maintenance of the navigation, which included dredging in conjunction with the needs of the local Drainage Boards. The running of the countryside itself was in the hands of the Rural District Councils, one of the biggest being Blofield and Flegg. "Flegg Island" is the large area of high ground in the middle of the Broads area, "the great estuary", stretching from Reedham to Thorpe, northwards up beyond Thurne and over towards Ranworth and Horning. Doesn't sound much like the Broads Authority, does it?

Thank you for that Simon. If Richardsons' prices ever get back to a reasonable level, I am sure we will. At least I have all my happy memories of - literally - a lifetime in the boating holiday business. I grew up in the days when the Broads really was a different place. Still very much like Coot Club, in fact. At least no Quango can take that away from me!

By the way, this 10% increase would have meant, for me, a rise of more than £160 over two years. Wasn't it a very well known member of the Authority itself, who announced last year that "it is only a round of drinks"? He must drink with a lot of friends, in his yacht club.

I think perhaps it is time I owned up and admitted that I have already decided to get out, while the going is good. Susie and I sold our boat at the end of June. I have already posted here on the forum that I have no faith in the future of the Broads at this rate and if nothing is done about the attitude of the BA (and the RSPB for that matter) then it is only going to get worse. There is a very old saying in the Navy, that goes right back to Nelson's days : Isn't it funny how the rats always know when to desert a sinking ship?

The race will start at Woods Dyke, go on down the Bure past Thurne Mouth if weather permits and will then finish on the Thurne at Coldharbour Farm. Prize giving will be later on Womack Staithe, so there may be a fleet of classic boats to see there, later this evening. Wish I could be there!

Well, I have finally sat down and waded through the report, and one or two things stick out for me : What has the cost of maintaining Mutford Lock (and its increase) got to do with a Broads river toll? Why does an MAIB report on a fatality in Gt Yarmouth have to result in a large increase in rangers and patrolling, on the Broads themselves? What is it that they think they are trying to protect us from? And conversely, why do they now think it might be "safe" to reduce the coverage again? Legal fees have overspent by £16,251 due to the cost of negotiating the lease of Reedham Quay. So what are the full costs of this negotiation so far? Given that they haven't even managed to conclude the deal yet? Sounds as though the mooring charges at Reedham are going to have to be very expensive, just to cover the costs of getting permission to charge them! Doesn't sound to me as though they are looking at a profit, there. Like Mouldy, I don't know who they surveyed to find that tolls were only 10% of costs for a boat, but it wasn't me. My river toll this year amounts to 21.2% of my fixed costs, including a figure for routine maintenance but not including fuel. At this rate next year, the toll will be 23% of costs if the rest stays the same. That is if the cost of the mooring doesn't go up - again! The toll for me next year would therefore be looking at nearly £800. And then they also want me to "wad it out up front" every time I want to stop on their blasted moorings, that my river toll is supposed to pay for.

I knew Humphey Boardman, through his patronage of the Wherry Trust and it looks like him - from a long distance! He was one of the great, true Broadsmen, to whom we owe our heritage, of the Broads as we know them today. I fear he would be "turning in his grave", to see what we are doing to them now.

Is that Humphrey Boardman, standing in the hatchway?

Maybe by now, they are wondering why more than half their fleet on the Canal du Midi has been lying in off hire, every single week for the last two years and more. Sometimes, they have only had about 5 boats out. I am really surprised that they are still in business. Ah, so you have noticed! On the French canals, unlike the Thames, you have to keep the engine running when in locks. So in some places you spend probably half the day ticking over, whilst being charged by an hour meter as though you were doing 8MPH down the canal! They call all these charges "local income" and we were heavily criticised if we didn't sell enough bicycle hire, tee shirts, parking and the rest of it. When I asked how I was supposed to sell car parking when over half my customers came in by air from America or Australia, this was not appreciated by the Yuppies. When I then asked how I was supposed to prepare boats for hire, when the hirers had paid a "late return" supplement up until midday and the next hirers had paid extra for an "early handover" at midday, I think that was another nail in my coffin! Sometimes the new hirers turned up before their boat had even got back into the yard. The cleaning charge is another supplement, which waives your obligation to clean the boat yourself. This, of course, means they simply bugger off and don't even bother to do the washing up from breakfast - just leave it all over the table. All I can say is - I am well out of it!

This old photo is all I can find of the pleasure wherry Solace, carrying the Bishop of Norwich back upriver from the St Benets Abbey service, sometime in the 60's She is every bit a wherry, and the same size as the Albion.

Lovely photo. These are trading wherries but pleasure wherries, such as Solace and Hathor, are still true wherries.

Please do, Griff. It's the Navy's story - not mine!

In actual fact this story is quite genuine and is a little "piece of history" in its own right. It is a tale which was told on the mess decks all over the Navy during the last war and was told to me by a good friend of my father, who also served in the Navy in those days. As such, it is typical of the British "matelot's" rather special sense of humour, which is also to be found in the other armed forces. I simply felt it might be a humorous adjunct to Griff's lovely reflections on the Navy as it was in those days and after. I apologise if you did not appreciate it in the spirit in which it was intended.