Vaughan

It is a matter of etiquette. Something sadly lacking in life these days but at least it still survives in some of our maritime traditions. Or, as my daughter would say - "Shut up Dad."

Excuse me saying, but I would not be at all happy to see my boat chocked up, outside, entirely on "breeze block" building bricks. They can work loose when there are high winds and also when you are moving about doing work inside the boat. They also have a bad habit of shattering, if there are very cold temperatures. I would prefer to stick some oil drums under there as well, with good baulks of wood against the hull.

Bonjour Zoufry, et mes meilleures voeux pour la nouvelle année! We used to have our hire boats insured through the broker Claude Bouvier but I see he has now retired. I suggest (and recommend) that you contact the ANPEI (Association Nationale des Plaisanciers en Eaux Internes), who are a very well known group of inland private boat owners, who also offer insurance. Their president used to moor with us in St Gilles.

Marshman, I quite agree with you, and those of us who dearly love the wildlife of the Broads can always find it when we want to. But not especially, nor exclusively, on Hickling Broad. I enjoyed all of your list above, the last time I spent the night on Rockland Broad, in the lilies on a mudweight. Apart from a kingfisher of course, as they don't nest in the reeds. They can be found a little further up from Brundall, in the earth banks. So in place of kingfishers, I enjoyed reed warblers and cuckoos. A bittern was booming all night in the reeds, right at the edge of the Broad. What I took for damsonflies may have been Norfolk Hawkers but in any case they are well known around Strumpshaw fen, very close by. It has been proved many times, including in wildlife films by such as Philip Wayre and Ted Ellis, that wildlife is carrying on quite happily all around us, all the time, no matter how "overcrowded" we may think it has become. All we have to do is take the trouble to notice it. If you get up before dawn in the spring, you are bound to hear a bittern boom on Malthouse Broad, as well as Salhouse and Wroxham. But if your day doesn't start until after 2 cups of coffee and a couple of "fags", then you have missed them!

Take your point Fred, but what about the old bridges at Acle, Ludham and Wayford, which have all been replaced over the years, due to road improvements? They were all of the same type of arched bridge as Potter or Wroxham. In the case of Potter, the bridge was never replaced because the old railway provided a convenient bypass. There has been talk of a road bypass to Woxham in most of my living memory but sure enough, it has never happened. Anyone remember the old hump back, going over Wayford Bridge? It wasn't that long ago. Photos from Wherries and waterways, by Robert Malster.

Oh dear, I'm sorry I spoke.

I bet we will all find our boats easier to steer after that, as the "squat effect" of the narrow river will be greatly reduced by having deeper water.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, their sober wishes never sought to stray : Along the cool sequestered vale of life, they kept the noiseless tenor of their way. Gray's Elegy. All the same, your pun is appropriate! I take Griffs point about boats being built to pass under the Broads bridges and I don't think the Hickling area used to suffer that much in the "bad old days". Probably much better maintained in terms of navigation than it has been for a long time since. I just never see what is so special about Potter Bridge that it has to so preciously preserved? What is it supposed to be famous for? Hardly a Gothic cathedral, is it? If it were getting in the way of a commercial navigation it would have been replaced long ago, like the really famous Pegasus Bridge over the Orne Canal near Caen, in Normandy. The BA have a clear responsibility to maintain navigation and so must push to ensure that repairs are carried out in a way that does not impede it - at least not more so! It cannot, however, be up to the BA to pay for repairs to a road bridge and of course, the problem of rising water levels has lots of other causes, nothing to do with the bridge itself.

Last time I was there, it certainly needed dredging.

I had the honour, back in the 60s, to row for two years running in the Pickerel No 2 crew, in the Beccles and All England Shovel-boat race, on the last evening of Beccles Regatta. The only rule of the race, was that you were not allowed to sink any competitors before the start! Were were in standard hire dinghies, about 5 to a crew, rowing with genuine brewer's wooden shovels and armed with paper bags full of flour and soot. The winner was always the crew who managed to swim back over the line first! Happy days, that I very much doubt "Elf 'n safety" will ever let us see again.

A long time since I have heard that expression! Jimmy Gedge at Womack used to use it as well.

Harry Last at Coldham Hall had a well-known habit of forgetting what the opening hours were, especially on a Sunday afternoon. It was a long way for the local Bobby to cycle down that lane! Likewise Simon Whitmore, at Surlingham Ferry.

A very nice pub, with the inside beams all covered in genuine horse brasses.

Actually I quite agree with this! I am obviously what a certain lady from the BA once called "the wrong kind of customer". All the same I am not attracted to go ashore and spend money on an "evening out", when the menu on offer can easily be cooked on any hire boat, with ingredients from a certain supermarket in Stalham. I would rather sit with my wife in the tranquility of Rockland Broad and watch the sunset as we enjoy our supper.

Oops, quite correct. Excuse us!

I agree that a good thing about ham egg and chips, or a burger, is that you know it has to be cooked fresh to order, so you can be reasonably confident. But this not Cyprus, where you can't even drink the water! I just wonder what ever happened to good old plain home cooking? What about cottage pie? Steak and kidney pud? Beef stew with Norfolk dumplings? Fish pie? Surely that is not difficult? If you didn't want to prepare the "seasonal vegetables" they can always come from London in a fridge lorry. No problem with that! I remember how popular the Buck in Thorpe was in the 80s, when Patsy's cooking was just as I describe. Business people used to come out from Norwich at lunchtime, park in the Rushcutters car park and then walk down the Green to the Buck to have lunch with Patsy! I am sorry but I feel that the launch of an entirely new pub business should be able to show something better than chips and peas with everything. It would certainly not attract me away from a nice lunch on Surlingham Broad on a mud weight.

That is absolutely true, although I don't believe it was enshrined in law as such : more of a long accepted practice. Two problems here : It would apply to a river, not a broad and to get away with it, you would have to be a pure sailing yacht with no engine. I had a look at Neil's downloads and I am still confused as to which bit is which. It seems to mention the parishioners having access to the staithe across the parcels of land being leased. I have always understood that the staithe is a separate area, to one side of what is known as the Maltsters Quay and was the part leased by Blakes. I seem to remember a year or two ago there was a move by the parish to rent out private moorings on the staithe, which was resisted by the locals. One way or another, we all know that if the BA want to do it, they will find a way round it!

Not Brundall, by the sound of it! The Yare Hotel used to have its own mooring dyke. Which, come to think of it, was probably also the staithe. Probably best to moor in Norwich and go by train. I'm sorry too. Maybe it's me but I don't see anything special about that menu at all.

Yes, I feel that we are mis-understanding each other. My trouble is perhaps that I can go back 60 years in my memory, to the days of the River Commissioners, when the Broads was run differently, by very different people. I mentioned that my father and Jim Brooker (the MD of Blakes) would be turning in their graves. I should have included Desmond Truman, boatbuilder and hirer of Oulton Broad, who was chairman of the Commissioners in those days. Nowadays I fear that most of the BA are officially appointed by central government or local councils. I don't know who Alan Thomson is : I have never met him but as a member of the Navigation Committee, charged with our interests, he should be ashamed to have had such ill-advised remarks quoted in the press. You talk of representation from those who know the feelings "on the rhond" . An interesting reference to Jenny Morgan, one of our best - known forum members over the years, who was himself a member of the BA Nav. Committee. I can count at least six old friends of mine, including him, who are ex BA members and who have all left, over the years, for the same reason : There is one good thing about banging your head up against a brick wall. It's lovely when it stops!

Well said Fred and I particularly congratulate you for writing the whole of this paragraph as one sentence. Perhaps you should have been a lawyer?

This is the other thing that gives me great concern, as a Broads boat owner. The BA, as a typical Quango, are surfing the wave of a green agenda, by announcing all sorts of percentages of carbon neutrality by certain dates. The next thing will be to put us under pressure to do likewise, but without doing anything to make it possible. I also notice we have not heard of any hire boatyards building electric boats, except day launches. The impression I get from talking to friends is that they think that one day, it may be possible technically, to provide the power to run a cabin cruiser "for a couple of days", but certainly not yet and not for several years to come. Do we know if BA are actually re-fitting their launches this year? If so, do they not think that the technology they are using might be also of interest to us? Or might encourage us to research the possibilities? If they are going to charge for moorings, does that mean they are going to use the income to install proper boat charging points? Dream on!!! I think we should all be able to realise that the BA's next "green incentive" will not be anything to do with infrastructure - too difficult, too expensive, planning constraints, National Grid, etc., etc. - oh no! The next political move will be be to introduce an increased toll on diesel boats as a pollution charge. So bang goes your investment in the boat that you worked so hard to pay for. You don't believe me? Watch this space.

That's fine, coming from someone whose post above effectively killed it. So let's all just sit here like sheep and take what is coming to us. At least I tried. Sadly, those of us who are not prepared to sit here and watch what our parents' generation created being frittered away , will fairly soon vote with our feet.

Right, so let's play it! As a toll payer, I would certainly be writing a protest to Dr Packman today to express my serious fears for the future of the Broads. With the state of the Royal Mail at the moment that would take over a month, so too late! But they say this forum has 3000 members, so why don't we express our concerns by PM on this forum, to @BroadsAuthority who I hope are following this thread this morning? Could Tom Waterfall please confirm that PMs sent will be seen by Dr Packman as well as the Chairman? If not, does Dr Packman have an e-mail address to which complaints may be sent?

And if you are on a Broads holiday, with no phone signal and your "laptop has no wifi", how do you do that? Personally, I have no intention to do my boating under the obligation to "download the APP"! Surely this is the sort of ghastly constriction on our freedom to exist, that we come to the peace of the Broads to get away from?

I agree and if it were as simple as that I would accept it. But what else is coming? They are keen to promote electric boats and "carbon neutral", but how? My prediction is that they will start with a toll levy on existing diesel boats, as a "pollution charge" rather than making any serious attempt to provide the electric points on moorings to make their "green dream" actually work in practice.