Vaughan

The boat sheds, known as Jonatts yard in the books, were actually H.C. Banhams yard beside the staithe and the window over the slipway where one of the boys had his tooth pulled out by dropping a brick on a piece of string, actually existed. Downstream of the New Inn down as far as the Ferry was marshy land, called carr, and was where the boys hid the Death and Glory among the osier bushes. There was little or no development there in those days, between the river and the road. I am sure LizG knows more detail than I do!

Which it does! We had a power cut for 4 hours yesterday, but I think that was a breakdown. We have been told to expect rolling, planned power cuts in January of about 2 hours each and all in peak times, such as 0600 to 0800 and 1800 to 2000. I have wired up the house for a generator, so that I can still run the gas central heating and keep the fridges going. At the moment it is only a small one and I don't think the voltage is steady enough for the electronics to settle down in the gas boiler. Maybe I shall have to fork out for something bigger, or go for a pure sine wave inverter? I see from one of the Euro News websites that the Swiss intend to ban the use of non essential electric vehicles, if the power shortages get any worse. Now there's "one in the eye" for the greens!

Makes no difference to my comment above. See also Griff's comment below.

Whilst I very much appreciate the need for safety when installing appliances such as heaters or cookers, I notice that the issues raised by Suffolk Trading Standards are concerned with the standardised documentation supplied with the heaters but make no criticism about the function, manufacture or safety of the heaters themselves.

I have jumped into the ice on one or two occasions, to fish people out and you don't go through a check list : it happens in seconds and you just do it. There is a thing called "cold shock". If you are a strong swimmer with a heart and a pair of lungs that work, you can jump in the ice and get someone out. So long as the whole thing doesn't take more than about 3 minutes. You cannot expect anyone who has fallen in to help you, as they are literally frozen by "cold shock". So there is no point in encouraging them from a distance or reaching out to them. If you want to help them you have to go in and fish them out. If you yourself are not fit enough then don't go in. I can't advise on whether you should or not : all I can say is that when you are faced with it, it happens in seconds.

I note the long gap in this last post. Does this mean you are playing for extra time?

I didn't watch it anyway. At least I can go down to the baker's shop this morning without fear of reprisals. Trying to explain Brexit was bad enough . . . .

Dredging. In the off season with minimum disruption. Let's be thankful for it. In about the same position as this, I believe?

Sorry about that. Will try loading pdf docs again.BSS Battery Storage.pdfSterling Pro Charger D Digital.pdf Linka still no worka. Whata mistake-a to make-a.

It was a Fairmile "D" motor torpedo boat, called Longmynd.

So we must be talking about Mike Garrett, who renovated the pavilion at Brundall gardens, dug out the present-day mooring basin and ran hire boats under the name Brundall Gardens Yacht Station. He did all that with his own Ruston drag-line, which he was proud to demonstrate to my parents, whenever we stopped on our way down river to call in on him. I was given a go on it myself, but I wasn't big enough to operate the "spragging handles". * All the same I have a feeling that Blakes would have had their work done by Ho' bro's, at Griffin Lane (later May Gurneys). * I am sure that is a term which can be "googled".

Probably used to try and cover for the fact that in the recession of the 80s, an average season went down from 28 weeks to 16. You have also not factored in that the existence of 3000 private boats now, redresses the balance.

Tell me about it ! There is no logistical or practical sense in having 3 bases within an hour and a half's cruising of each other. Now if they had decided to have a base in Brundall as well as Stalham, offering a week's one way cruise between the two, whilst less than an hour away by road, that would make business sense! That is what the big Jenners development in Thorpe was all about in 1966 and if it were not for cash flow and start-up finance problems, it might be still successful today. I think you miss the point that Blakes was a non-profit co-operative of its member boatyards, some with 180 boats (Woods) and some with only 10 (like me) but in the 70s it was a multi-million pound business in its own right. So all the little private members had a lot of marketing "clout". What went wrong? We could write a book on that but we must look ahead to the future of the Broads. The BA's 4th responsibility (as member of the NP family) to maintain the interests of navigation, doesn't just mean dredging!

Very wise words, from someone who knows, how this industry is marketed.

I haven't really touched on private boats in those days but there weren't very many and a great deal were sailing yachts. They tended to disappear into boatyards or private wet-sheds for the winter and spend the summer on sailing club moorings, such as Wroxham Broad or Oulton. They sometimes ventured out for a barbecue on Salhouse Broad for the day but otherwise, they might be seen out on the main river on their way to and from a regatta, where they would spend a week moored on a mud weight. That is a huge generalisation of course but there really weren't all that many and they were often sea boats, so that they could "pop across" to Holland now and again. Some might tell you different but in my experience, private boats were not turned away from boatyard moorings for the night. There were so few that they were not in the way and very often, they knew all the boatyard owners personally! Also, the only turn-round day was Saturday, so yards were empty all week in the season. I think it's fair to say that the business was a lot more of a "league of gentlemen" in those days. Perhaps that is why they never made a lot of money?? Edited to add : Did you have to pay for moorings - NO! The concept of being fleeced by anyone who has a bit of riverfront to spare (including pubs) only started to creep in (like a bad cold) in the 70s. Before then, if there was no sign saying private, then you moored anywhere.

Alpha Craft. Blue Cruisers. Bounty Boats. Brundall Gardens Yacht Station. Charter Craft. Coral Craft. County Craft. Fisher Marine. Fletcher. Harvey Eastwood. Peterkin Craft. Robin G. Smith. Springcraft. Wing Line. Bell Boats. C.J.Broom & Sons. Swancraft. Tidecraft. Anyone get the common denominator in this list? They were all Blakes and Hoseasons yards operating out of Brundall in 1971. There may have been others, who were with Bradbeers agency. As well as Blakes long dyke, there was also a dyke of public moorings leading up to the Yare hotel. Why so many? Right beside a mainline railway station. Notable for me, there are only 4 Blakes yards, of which 3 were on the river front. This would be because one of the conditions of membership of Blakes was that the yard must offer decent made up moorings, with toilet and shower facilities and a bit of garden, ideally in a popular cruising location, so as to offer a welcome to other Blakes boats on holiday. Hoseasons ones were not turned away, since if you made them welcome and "chatted them up" they would probably come back and book with you next year! So you didn't tend to get many Blakes yards stuffed away down long dykes. So what is Brundall like now, as a visiting "destination" for cruising on holiday?

Going by the name, quite possibly! I also thought it was owned by Colin Chapman of Lotus, who also owned the Moonraker building yard. It certainly didn't start out as a boatyard - it was dug out by Blakes at about the time they were re-opening the navigation across Surlingham Broad. Quite an expensive job too, all quay headed, with a Blakes flag on a pole.

As it ever was! One of the difficult jobs for Blakes and Hoseasons was to persuade their owners that they were not in competition with each other! There was a lot of "keeping up with the Jones's" around the yards, which meant everyone spent too much money on extra luxuries, gadgets and nick-nacks, when they should have been spending it on better marketing.

If a 90 amp alternator ran for more than a minute or two at that rate, it would burn out. What actually happens, when you are charging batteries that have been used overnight, is that the volts start low (maybe 12.2) but the amps are high. The amps will very soon settle on about half the capacity of the alternator, and will soon drop, as the volts start to come up. Once the battery is near to a full charge you will see 13 or more volts, but only about 5 amps. This is quite normal. The intelligent regulator fools the alternator into providing a few more amps than it wants to, to complete the final charge of the batteries. Not a technical description but I hope it is understandable!

I apologise to Floydraser since I realise I am quoting him out of context here : all the same, his sentence needs thinking about. I have been trying to make the point that, in my opinion, cruising the Broads is in danger of losing its appeal (private and hire) because of the lack of facilities and service, compared to what used to be offered in the "heyday" of the hire boat business. Put the kettle on, have a coffee and spend a few minutes reading this, from the front page of Blakes catalogue of 1964 : I assure you all that is true! Except it misses out Cockshoot Broad and the dyke moorings . . . Blakes also made significant yearly charitable donations to organisations such as the Wherry Trust, Windmills Trust, How Hill Trust and Norfolk Naturalists Trust. My father was the chairman of Blakes when that brochure was printed and I was a director in my own time, of the late 70s and early 80s. The hire business has often been knocked as un-caring profiteers, especially in the national press but the reality is that we have always known very clearly that we are not just hiring boats : in fact we are selling the concept of a boating holiday on the Broads. If the Broads were no longer a beautiful, tranquil and easy place to "play admiral" we would not be in business! So we have always viewed the Broads as our "stock in trade". If you run down your stock; you put your business in danger. In that respect, don't let's forget that it was the boatyards, on their own, who designed, manufactured, installed and paid for, the system of holding tank toilets and pumpout stations. It wasn't the BA or EA - in fact it was long before their time. My point is : how does this compare to now? Is the Broads still as wonderful a place to come on holiday as it used to be in those boom times of the 60s and 70s? And who is now providing the infrastructure and service, that depended so much on the hiring companies, who now are no longer able to make the huge contributions that they used to? It is not just "biodiversity" that is fragile these days, but the very appeal of a Broads boating holiday. The concept of holiday cruising means that there must be a "destination". If it becomes too difficult to achieve those destinations, which become too few and far between - to the extent that you have to get into your next mooring before 11AM each day in case there is no more space left, then tourism, and its revenue to the upkeep of the Broads, is in danger. By the way, Happy Christmas.

And fridges!!

Have just realised you talk of an ammeter, which is an old fashioned way of doing it, as it means the wiring has to go up to the dashboard and pass through the ammeter before it goes anywhere else! If you are re-wiring the boat you can do away with all that and simply fit a voltmeter, wired from the ignition "on", to ground. Normally the feed to the dashboard will come from the battery side terminal of the starter solenoid, while the domestics will go to the main fuse box. Both of these will go through battery isolator switches which ideally, will be outside the engine compartment. I much recommend circuit breakers rather than fuses, since fuses blow on a surge of amps, but are not sensitive to volt drop. The starter battery will feed the ignition key and will also feed any appliances that are only used when the engine is running, such as horn, wipers and nav lights. So you may want a small breaker box under the dash, fed from the key. Everything else will come from the domestic batteries except the bilge pump, which is fed from the starter and does not need to pass through the battery isolator. You can buy battery chargers for shore power with 2 or 3 outputs for the seperate batteries and I recommend at least 40 amps DC output. Chargers give off heat and need good ventilation, so install them near a hull vent if possible. Same applies to inverters. This is the main reason why both will fail.

Whilst what you say is quite right, I think we will find that the Prestolite alternator is self exiting, and that the warning light will have been added as an extra. It is quite normal that a Prestolite will need to be revved up before it cuts in. The photo is a bit hazy but I assume the alternator is 110 amp, which will be fine for a bank of 3 domestic, 1 starter, but I would recommend a more "intelligent" charge splitter than the basic blocking diode, as Smoggy says above. Your engine is a Perkins if I remember, so no glow plugs to each cylinder and therefore no need for a relay. The preheat is one glow plug, in the air intake of the induction manifold. It does have a separate solenoid from the starter though, so that is maybe what the black box is. More photos will help!

So, that seems to have killed this conversation stone dead. Excuse me if I totally fail to see what the issue of overstaying 24 hour public moorings at Sutton Staithe - in the "off" season - has any possible connection with the Online Harms Act. I also fail to see how the long standing problem of lack of moorings on the north rivers has anything to do with Pandemic rules or their "relaxation". Personally, if I have an opinion to offer on this forum, then I do so, without any need to indulge in lobbying, behind the scenes. I believe it is known as running it up the flagpole, to see if anyone salutes it.