Vaughan

By the way, he may also need to check that the air opening at the bottom of the pilot housing, opposite the jet, is set at the correct size, for the correct air/gas mixture. Some of these older type are adjustable and it may have been disturbed, at some point.

Just a couple of comments if I may - from an ex CORGI fitter : I wonder if all the muck in the pilot light housing was the result of trying to light the pilot with matches? I don't know where such an accumulation would have come from otherwise. Your photo shows what is known as the "flame picture" of the pilot light and shows a white tip to the flame. This is "incomplete combustion" which means it is giving off CO and is dangerous. An approved fitter will need to check this and probably change the jet. After hoovering out the burner area you have not mentioned the flue itself, going up the chimney. It is vital to have this regularly checked to make sure it is clear and drawing air as it should. Especially as we can see that the pilot flame is suspect. There are so many old gas fires in houses, that have been condemned and disconnected, not because there is anything wrong with the fire but because the flue has become in-effective and dangerous. This sort of thing really is a job for a qualified fitter and I would recommend a yearly maintenance contract for peace of mind.

The discussion has wandered a bit from MM's original topic, but his post earlier this morning is absolutely right. One of the knock-on effects of not having enough public mooring in a system is that folk are naturally going to start squabbling over what little is left. The difference with the canal system is that the banks and the towpath, as well as the canals, are owned by the authority. The Broads has nowadays become almost totally "privatised" and is slowly strangling the goose that laid the golden eggs.

I should have known, that would be your response. When in doubt, blame it all on the boatyards and their "casual" lack of tuition. I have spent - almost literally - my life, (first as an instructor and then as an instructor of instructors) in learning, operating, appraising and refining, the best methods possible for teaching complete novices how to tackle a "hands on" skill which, in fact, takes years of experience, so that they can safely and happily go out on a week's holiday on a river hire boat. I have learned in this time that there is only so much that you can expect them to "take in" in the short time available. Frankly - and sincerely - I don't think we on the boatyards have done a bad job, over the last 100 years or so. But there will always be those, from their river-bank perspective, who can take pleasure in accusing us of needing to do better. I repeat : try doing a "trial run" to first time hirers yourself one day, and see how you get on.

Seamanship, you mean?

Perhaps you would like to try teaching that to the first time hirers of one of Richo's new "Admiral Benbow" class aircraft carriers, on their first attempt at a solo mooring since leaving the yard at Stalham. Incidentally, my boat does 4MPH at 1400 revs, checked on the measured quarter mile above Horning. No, I was not affected by the tide as I did two runs, one each way, and took the average. Going back to squat effect, it follows that a boat at 1400revs on Barton will be going slower at the same revs, when it gets into the shallow narrow waters of the lower Ant. edited to add : 4MPH is known as a brisk walking pace. So if you are going down the Ant and get overtaken by someone walking their dog on the rhond, you are going too slowly!

This is called squat effect and has nothing to do with a speed limit. It is caused because the dyke has become far too shallow and will almost disappear if they ever get around to dredging it. I agree and I think speed limits on the Ant in general are too low. There are many occasions when I have found the need to actually come into neutral and drift, almost half the time, in order to stay behind someone dribbling along at what they think is 4MPH. That's fine for me but to expect new customers out from Richo's in one of their big boats, to be able to control it in neutral, in a cross wind, when coming into a narrow, dead end mooring dyke, is asking too much. And in my opinion, for nothing achieved except more damage.

Plus the fact that I believe the Seamaster 25 is not a displacement hull. It is semi-displacement, designed to lift up "over the step" as Smoggy describes, if it has a powerful enough engine. So if you go too fast on the river, this lifting up is actually what it is trying to do!

Which one is that?

Of course not - no need! After all, according to the BA we are not allowed to swim on the Broads. Are we?

If this is a Morse control it can easily be adjusted at the dashboard end, but difficult to describe on a forum! It could also be because the return spring at the injector pump (engine) end of the cable is too strong. I suggest you try that first. If in doubt, take the spring off and see what happens. So long as the engine returns to tick-over when in neutral, you may not need the spring.

Funnily enough, it wasn't! It was only after the hire companies had installed and were operating a pumpout system, hence removing boat sewage from the system, that the Countryside Commission (nowadays the EA, I think) discovered that it made no difference. In fact a survey commissioned by Blakes before the pumpouts were fitted, found that the water contained far more parts per million of dissolved toilet paper, than sewage. It was only then, as you rightly say, that attention was turned to agricultural fertilisers and bad treatment in sewage works, especially North Walsham. Many riverside towns in those days, including Thorpe, had drains which ran direct from houses into the river.

Perhaps I didn't explain, that the only building regulation is ERCD, which is a sea standard. Most inland waterways adopt ERCD cat D as there is no other choice, but it does not mention holding tanks. Hence the local byelaws, which insist on tanks. I don't know about the Broads but since 1996, all boats built for France by Crown Blue Line and Connoisseur, have "grey water" holding tanks. In the case of a 10 berth boat, the Grand Classique, this tank is 800 litres capacity. Quite a problem if the local town moorings only have a 500 litre pumpout machine. Grey water is a complicated issue in a boat as all water from shower trays and basins has to be pumped into the holding tank. To avoid odours, all this has to be stripped and cleaned every week, on a hire boat. These days there are biodegradable washing and showering products which are easily available and go a long way to improve water quality.

I am not up to date with the latest bylaws @Paladin but perhaps I can help historically. When holding tanks were first introduced on the Broads in the early 70's, sailing yachts were exempt, for two reasons. One was the simple lack of space for a tank in a yacht. Some yachts don't even have a toilet compartment. I remember one (Mimosa) where the toilet slid out on a drawer in the back of the well, right under the tiller! The second reason was that you can't have a toilet tank, open at the top (as the early ones were) in a boat which is going to heel over at more than 45º when sailing! Yachts with conventional sea toilets have to have seacocks on the pipework, or the toilet would fill up the boat, when heeling over. So it has nothing to do with the date of building. As to regulations, this is a bit of a "grey' area. There were no building regs on the Broads until Blakes introduced their own standards and had them ratified by the Commissioners. Don't forget it was the hire companies (alone) who designed, fitted and paid for, the pumpout installations, on boats and on boatyards. There are still no building standards for UK inland waterways and so the industry adopts ERCD regs, Category D. These regs were introduced in 1992 and updated in 1996, which is where this mystery date of 1998 may have come from. All the same there were no specific regs about pumpout toilets and their installation was only insisted upon by local authorities. There are still no pumpout stations on French canals although they often say they are going to do it. So all hire boats in France built after 1996 have holding tanks, but the sewage still pumps straight out into the water as there are no pumpout stations. This "grey" area in the regs about holding tanks may well be why the BA have consistently failed to provide pumpout facilities on the Broads and casually rely on what is left of the boatyards to do it for them. Either that, or they blame the EA instead. Perhaps that's what they call "working with partners"? Edited to add : The BSS is an installation safety standard; not a building standard.

Pity it's facebook - can't read it. Halcyon is a lovely boat though. There are some good shots of her on the official video. Cruiser No 78. A sister ship to Goldfish, I believe.

Me too. I notice I am no longer warned that my password needs changing. Normally I find I have no need to sign on again when I return to the site, unless I have just cleared the "history" on my computer. I have never known whether I have to "log off" when I leave the site and usually don't bother.

It was before the foggy year, if I remember, when the race was still fairly new. It was made on behalf of Anglia by a film crew run by Tim Child, who was then the owner of Cruiser No 1, White Wings. It was his work, with the Coldham Hall Sailing Club, that created the race.

Perhaps : MALTHOUSE : A member of the Broads Family.

Behind those posts are the "bones" of at least seven wherries, which were sunk on the broad during the war. When I was a boy they were still more or less whole and I could walk all over their decks. I have read that a lot of the ironwork and other fittings were "re-cycled" from them when the Wherry Trust bought the Albion and re-rigged her as a sailing wherry, in the early 50s. I too, have never heard it called anything but Surlingham Broad, until only about 10 years ago.

Astounding! An excellent record which brings out all the feel and atmosphere of the race. I don't think I have seen a film as well made as that about Broads sailing since an Anglia TV crew made a film called "Ebb Tide from Coldham Hall" about the Yare Navigation Race, in about 1978. And what about the seamanship?? I was pretty sure the Cruiser India must have "shot" the bridges without stopping to moor, but I never imagined that Ladybird would as well! That film of her going under Acle with the tide under her is quite heart-stopping. The mainsail still coming down when she was only a boat's length from the bridge. To handle a big Bermudan racing rig like that, is boat handling of the very highest order. Thanks very much for posting, Liz.

I haven't been there since 2019 but I could have sworn that that part of the dyke was full of moored private boats, on both sides. Where have they all gone, I wonder?

The Norfolk Railway, later Great Eastern, from Norwich to Yarmouth was built - by George Stevenson - in 1844 and the Vauxhall bridge to connect it to the port of Gt Yarmouth very shortly afterwards. So for over 170 years, vessels have been navigating the mouth of the Bure under that bridge, until Mr Dixon, in his wisdom, decides it is "inherently dangerous". I have a feeling it is also a listed structure, being a very early example of a wrought iron bridge.

An article on the EDP website reports on the recent meeting of the Navigation Committee, where the danger of mooring in GYYS was discussed, following the Diamond Emblem accident in 2020. According to a BA officer there has been a "run of bad luck" with five deaths, of which 3 were boat related. (And only one was in GYYS). The solution put up by Leslie Mogford is to raise the pedestrianised bridge (I assume he means Vauxhall rail bridge) so that boats can get under without having to try and turn when the moorings are full. A gentleman from the North Rivers Sailing Club says he finds it too dangerous to sail there. What??? Sail, in GYYS? Peter Dixon says it is an "inherently dangerous place". Seems it has taken him a lifetime as a Broadsman to finally work that out. Rather than this apparent attitude of "take me off the fire, I'm burning", I would suggest the committee consider two things : 1/. That hire boats should be better designed for the area in which they cruise. The Broads has bridges and Broads boats should be designed to go under them. 2/. That mooring, turning and passing bridges in GYYS is quite normally safe if done at the correct state of the tide.

Perhaps someone could take some photos when they are passing, and post them here for us?

Surely part of the skill of the 3RR (and I have competed in the past) is to choose your own route over the course, depending on the wind and also the time of the tide on the lower Bure. It is therefore a navigation race, which depends on the local knowledge of each skipper. When you meet another boat halfway through and you think you are ahead of them, you may not be! They may have done both short legs, but you have not. So you don't know whether you are actually, behind them over the course. If everyone knew exactly where they were just by "downloading the APP" it would take a great deal of fun out of the race.