Vaughan

If your phone has a signal, on the north rivers.

All of your post is well said and I agree, although this line is particularly apposite. In the days when the Broads started to suffer competition from Freddie Laker and the like, we always used to say that a hire boat for 6 people in August may seem expensive in comparison to a charter to Minorca, but at least, once you have hired the boat, you have paid for your whole holiday. There were no other extras whatever. You can't say that now, can you? You have to fork out 10 Quid every time you want to stop for lunch, or go shopping. The BA say this will bring in an extra 40K. That's less than half what they spent in legal fees in Jenners Basin. And how much were architects design fees and admin, for the failed vanity project at Acle Bridge? And what were the costs and overheads for all those contentious and useless brown National Park signs? If this is what it's like in a National Park, you can keep it! And where are the rest of you, since yesterday? Are there no other comments, about having the most popular and probably oldest free public mooring, taken out from under your noses? My father and Jim Brooker must be turning in their graves. And all this from the Navigation Committee, who, on our behalf, voted 9 to 1 for the idea, with one don't know. Sounds more like turkeys, voting for Christmas.

I see that Alan Thomson, "a committee member" says: It's cutting down on a pint of beer every 6 weeks, effectively. Where on God's Earth did he work that out from? Are these the sort of "statistics" upon which the BA base their calculations?????? He goes on to encourage us, in his perceived wisdom, that : I don't think this will affect anybody in terms of their boating whatsoever. Who is this person??? Does he actually own a boat? Let me tell you something, Mister! : I am very worried for the future of the Broads at this time, and I have more than 60 years of my own experience behind me. This spring, when I come back to Norfolk, I shall be making a very objective decision as to whether I should sell my boat now, before the various new policies of the BA render it worthless in a short while to come. This latest news will "affect" my decision in a big way.

Yes, and I have seen it done. Very difficult to achieve without damaging the bearing body. You will probably need to get it almost red hot. If the neoprene bearing catches fire, no problem!

Are you all talking about the NSBA or the Broads Society? There's another once very influential body in Broads matters, that has since become a damp squib.

That "pilot pick up point" is the public staithe in Hoveton, which used to be maintained by Jack Powles on behalf of Blakes. Where can the public moor in Wroxham nowadays, downstream of the bridge? Absolutely nowhere!

I am sure you are not suggesting that Black Horse Broad should now be closed to navigation, since it is not "natural"? If you follow that theory, the whole Broads area is not natural (which it isn't in fact) and so should not be navigable. Unless you are the Broads Authority, which had the "clout" to spend an almost 6 - figure sum of our money on legal fees, just to eventually succeed in evicting a few harmless boat owners out of Jenners Basin in Thorpe. The only reason that certain old navigations and staithes remain closed these days is because no - one is politically or financially able to oppose the "Powers that Be". The main point here (and back to the thread) is that places such as the public moorings at Ranworth are only there today because the interests of navigation and pleasure boating - in other words Blakes - fought for them to continue. We must now continue to fight for them against the "status quo" - or lose them.

I assume you are sure that all the grubscews have been freed off. It will probably need a great deal of heat at the same time as pressing. Cutless bearings very rarely need replacing. This is why I suggested you should check the balance of the prop and have it dressed. Excess vibration may have been the original problem.

I can well imagine that!

Me too! I got a card yesterday, posted on the 10th December.

For "incorrect" read "interpretation". This is something that has been discussed at length here over the years and I know that you, as a member of Horning Sailing Club, are especially attached to Black Horse Broad, which is perhaps, the classic example. On the Broads, we first have to consider a "navigation" which is not necessarily a man-made water. It is a waterway which leads to a public staithe. Secondly, we consider tidal water, which is defined by the tide-line on Ordnance Survey maps. Up until a few years ago, the tide-line on the Bure was at the downstream entrance to Hoveton Gt Broad. So legally, anything upstream of that line meant that the landowner owned the bottom and sides of the broad as well as the water in it. Downstream of the line, he owned the bottom, but not the water in it, as in theory, this water changed when the tide went in and out! Going back to my post above, Black Horse Broad was one of those which had been, by what you call "custom and use", closed off to navigation by the landowner since before the War. Herbert Woods, in conjunction with others including my father, negotiated for a long time with the landowner by letter but was eventually moved to forcibly open the barrier across the entrance to allow navigation, on the basis that : 1/. The water was tidal. 2/. It was a navigation, leading to an existing public staithe - which is clearly marked on old maps. Efforts to re-open Hoveton Gt Broad (for which I still have some of Blakes correspondence) failed because of the O.S. tide-line, which meant it was not tidal water. This is also why Wroxham Broad has always been a "private" broad although access is allowed by the NBYC, who lease it from the Trafford Estate. At the same time, in the late 40s, Blakes took out the lease of Malthouse Broad and the Maltsters' Quay, to stop it from being kept closed by the owner. They were able to do this because of the two reasons above. This is why I say Ranworth Inner Broad should not be closed officially, since it is also tidal. In this case, no-one has ever wanted to take the trouble (or spend the money) to prove the case in court. Which is also interesting, since the O.S. tide-line has since moved to a bit upstream of Wroxham Broad, which means Hoveton Gt Broad is now tidal water! It is also a very ancient navigation.

Either, will be 10 times better than none at all!

With galvanic corrosion (in water) there are certain metals which should not be mixed, e.g. stainless steel and aluminium, as they are far apart on the "galvanic scale", so one will corrode the other rapidly. SS and bronze are quite close together, so not much problem with stern glands - unless you have a steel hull. The rudder is steel, on a SS shaft, so it will need a sacrificial anode as these two metals are further apart on the scale. The anode is zinc, as this corrodes much quicker than the other metals. An anode on the prop shaft is often fitted, to protect the propellor. A lot of this has to do with salt or brackish water but it can also happen right up-river, especially in a marina, where someone's shore power might be leaking to earth.

Well I am so glad we got that cleared up. Perish the thought that we should invade anyone's precious "privacy" on a Facebook page!

They could also spend another fortune of our money on architects' designs for a new one, even if the design is contrary to their own planning rules. Oh no, I forget . . . . that was at Acle Bridge of course. All gone a bit quiet on that idea. Maybe all that money was spent for absolutely nothing?

Perhaps this is academic now, as we must look to the future. All the same : After the War, the Broads had, in the space of 5 years, grown over and "gone back to nature". My parents hired a boat for 2 weeks in 1946 in order to have a look around for a boatyard business to invest in. My mother remembered how they had to literally cut their way into places such as Womack dyke, the Chet and Rockland dyke (there was only one dyke then) as they had grown over and become inaccessible in just those few years of the War. The local landowners soon got used to the situation and were happy to keep their land inaccessible and closed off to navigation and the ghastly "general public". Yes, it was snobbish in those days. Very snobbish. Thou shalt not interfere with the rights of the landed gentry to their duck shooting and fishing. I actually have cine film of my father and Mr Blofeld pike fishing on Gt Hoveton Broad, in 1955. Nowadays the Blofeld family want to clear all the fish out, so as to maintain the quality of their "private garden pond" which is - by tradition and law - tidal water and therefore should be open to navigation. This is the traditional and hierarchical attitude that we are still up against. This is also how farming landowners managed to persuade Government to close off and protect their land from the river, in order to grow arable crops. So we now have far more flooding than we ever used to in my memory. Do I digress? Perhaps not! Ever since the late 40s the tourism industry has fought against this proprietorial attitude and succeeded (long before the BA) in forcing traditional waterways to be re-opened. This is why Blakes took out a lease on the whole of Malthouse Broad, The Dam and the Maltsters' Quay, in order to prevent them being closed off, as they surely would have remained otherwise. Ranworth Inner Broad is also tidal and should also, legally, be open to navigation. I am afraid I don't know what happened to Blakes' lease in the 80s as I had moved to France by then but I know there is a difference between the Maltsters' Quay, now leased by BA, and the Parish staithe, which is off to one side. The land known as the Island moorings was owned by Peter Mills, who also owned the big white house down from the church, where there is now a marina mooring. Before his retirement, he had been the Chief of Police in Kenya. Frankly, I don't care whether the BA have the "right" to charge for moorings at Ranworth : I just don't think that approach would be good for the future of Broads boating.

Neither do I. We should remember that during all the lockdown and pandemic saga, we continued paying our river tolls in full and the BA continued to maintain the Broads. That is why when all the restrictions were lifted, we could come back to a system that was still open and still in good working order. Well done @BroadsAuthority for that!

By the way, I used that analogy as I feel it is similar to the BA's present delight in promoting paddle-boarding and kayak-ing. Maybe that's what they want? Paddle boards don't need moorings, bank maintenance, or dredging! And if that doesn't generate enough income for "navigation" they can always knuckle under to the "green" pressure of the RSPB and others, to let it all go to "re-wilding". Long live the beavers and the sea eagles! Trouble with satire, is that it so often gets too close to the truth.

Well done. I'm glad I didn't suggest it was going to be easy! All the same, if all it took to free the prop was boiling water, you were lucky - it often needs a blowlamp. It might be a good idea to get that prop re-dressed before you put it back. It is quite a big one and it is important that the blades are still in shape and balance. If not, guess what? It wears the cutless bearing! Shaft looks in good shape from the photo apart from a bit of black rubber off the bearing. Possibly caused by fishing line. If in doubt, measure the diameter with vernier callipers. Don't forget to re - pack the rudder gland when you put it back. I notice you have marked the position of the bearing on the tube before you unscrewed it but this is not important, as the two bearings are stopped from unscrewing by their own mounting bolts. The thread may have been stuck because someone put Locktite on it. Boss White should do perfectly well. With all this disturbance, it will be very important to check shaft alignment with the engine when the boat is back in the water.

I agree and we would surely be naive not to expect an increase in tolls this year but these other proposals are nothing short of sinister. What next? A congestion charge on the Ant? Or worse, a clean air charge? I think charging for these moorings would be a drastic mistake - another nail in the coffin of Broads holiday boating. I am reminded of cities such as Norwich, who have effectively banned the motor car from city centres in favour of cycle lanes and now wonder why all the shops have shut and all the customers have gone out of town. I believe it's called pricing yourself out of the market.

Is it being sold with a mooring?

I agree. It is rather difficult to "steal" a boat on the Broads.

Thanks Dave - that explains why the new timbers don't join the chine board!

Cor, she's been doubled up! But no prayer books in sight - excellent! On the subject of bilge paint, I always understood that the main quality of Danboline is that it is oil resistant and can be painted on to an oily surface. Now that all boats have an oil drip tray under the engine (by law) we don't get the awful black oily bilges that we used to see in 60s. So I wonder - is it sufficient, and maybe cheaper, to protect the wood with a couple of coats of decent primer followed by normal oil based paint?

This is a painting by David Dane, which he painted from the same spot, beside the church. It is not accurate as he has used a bit of artist's licence to compose the picture. It is in fact, the first painting he did as a professional artist, in 1976. I bought it as soon as he showed to me, and it wasn't even finished at the time! His style has changed a lot over the years. Whenever I look at it, I want to get my oilskins on, before that thunderstorm arrives from over Horning!