Vaughan

Same goes for an Alphacraft, and more so! Spread the load on the keel as much as possible. It's got nothing inside it!

I have no idea what carbon neutrality is supposed to be, so I Googled it, and came up with the European Parliament website, where they quote article 4 of the Paris Agreement, as follows : In order to achieve the long term temperature goal . . . parties aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible . . . and to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science so as to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century. So I am sure we all feel better for that! All the BA have to do, is to try and apply that official principle to their rangers' launches. I think this would all translate into Norfolk dialect as "a load of old squit".

Thank you for posting that, and I have just waded my way through it, although my eyes did start to glaze over from about page 22 onwards. I must say it is nice that it is written in relatively plain English, rather than the Americanised executive eco-babble that one has come to expect from such reports! All the same, I am left with the impression that it doesn't actually say anything. It is much more about all the "partners" that they have been "working with" and the various research that they will put in place, rather than what they are actually going to do with all this information once they have assembled it. They recognise the importance, for instance, of changes in sea level as they affect flood prevention but don't say what they intend to do about it. I can't actually disagree with anything they say but I am left with no encouragement for the future. I notice they mention their intentions to be "carbon neutral" but again, they don't say how they intend to achieve this, nor indeed, how they expect us stakeholders to achieve it!

Thank you very much, Bernard, for taking and posting that video. I had not realised that Silverline had so many boats in their fleet. I can assure everyone (personally!) that it takes a great deal of physical effort, application and pride, to keep the hulls looking as good as that all through a busy season. A great credit to them and at least they went out in a blaze of glory. As Ian says, a very sad loss for the south rivers.

Before your time, perhaps.

And Tidecraft, with their famous riverside shop.

Exactly. Every time a business like this ceases its activity, it is another nail in the coffin of Broads tourism. Whether you are cruising on hire or privately, the whole area relies on business infrastructure. The BA are not going to pump out your toilets or fill your diesel tank, no matter what they may charge in future river tolls. I fear that cruising - and mooring - on the Broads is in danger of great change in future years.

That is a very new installation and looks good. The boat wasn't built like that!

I see the most difficult part of the rubbing strake - around the stem - is missing, and will need a template made in order to laminate a new one. As it is a Bourne hull, it is worth asking around the boatyards to see if anyone still has one, that you can borrow.

If you really want to "go for it" I have seen a genuine hybrid hire boat, about 13 years ago. It was built in Eastern Europe on behalf of Le Boat and I saw it when it had just been delivered to the Camargue. It consisted of a powerful electric motor, about the size of a 13kg gas bottle, connected direct to the prop shaft. A big turbo diesel was attached to the other end of the motor by a form of dog clutch, engaged electrically. In this way it could drive on electric motor from a large bank of batteries; or with the motor clutched in it would become a direct drive diesel. In this mode, the "back EMF" from the free running motor would provide current to charge the batteries, in the same way as a dynamo. The engine could also be run disengaged, to act as a battery generator when on a mooring. I was told there was a sensing arrangement so that if the batteries got too low when on electric drive, the engine would clutch in automatically in the same way as a hybrid car. At the same time, a large array of solar panels all over the roof provided enough power (in the Mediterranean sun) to drive the boat at about 5KPH without the batteries. It also had two connections for shore power, to charge both propulsion and domestic batteries. All this required an enormously complicated array of switchgear and regulation including a plug-in for set up and control by a lap top computer. Even the builders could not get the thing to work properly and in the end, it had to go out on hire as a normal direct drive diesel. Like so many other things, a very good idea but it didn't work in practice.

Although you can connect two motors to the same pump. That is how hydraulic bow thrusters work.

I would guess that it would be in the form of a slow pressure release, to lower the platform under control. I doubt it would be able to pump the platform "up".

A hire boatyard would have to have enough power points - and a supply - to charge all of their fleet on a turn-round day, so it follows that other hire boats could call in during the week and use their facilities to charge up overnight. If there were still over a hundred boatyards, all over the Broads, all offering overnight moorings to each other's boats, there is no doubt electric propulsion would probably work. But all those yards are not there any more! So if we are left with just the big yards, two in Wroxham and one each in Horning, Potter and Stalham, that is nowhere near enough infrastructure and excludes the south rivers altogether. They would be excluded anyway as I am still convinced that it would not be safe to navigate the lower Bure and Yare across Breydon, in a pure electric hire boat.

I also can't see how you are going to connect two hydraulic pumps to the same hydraulic motor. Electric propulsion motors are quite big - you certainly wouldn't have room for it in the engine compartment as well as the diesel, so it would have to be inside the boat, presumably hidden in the galley. In which case you may as well connect it straight to the shaft and use the engine for direct diesel/electric propulsion and/or as a current generator. You would need a new shaft, tube and bearings as the existing motor does not have one. If you are keen on the hydraulic idea I suggest you talk to Peachments in Brundall, who make marine hydraulic drives.

That is the title (verbatim) of an article on the EDP website today, which goes on to say that the BA have announced their aim to achieve zero emissions by 2040 and carbon neutrality (whatever that is) 10 years earlier, by 2030. A classic example of how press sensation can be totally misleading. It is only later on that the "local democracy reporter" admits that this refers only to the BA's vessels and vehicles, although other craft, especially hire boats, will be encouraged to follow suit. Exactly how, I wonder?

I am sure they would if shore power were readily available, which it is not.

That's funny, I was going to suggest it might have been built on the Thames. It doesn't have the same "feel" as normal Broads building. I notice extensive use of plywood, which may be a problem to maintain in future years.

And it doesn't look as though it will be too long before it dives.

If it walks like a duck; quacks like a duck and looks like a duck - it's a duck. But let's not offend their tender feelings. Let's just call them outlaws. There can be no question of that, I hope?

I fear it is rather worse than that. This is a fundamental breakdown of law and order, which the police appear incapable or unwilling (or both) to control. No matter what their "cause" or its merits, these idiots are being allowed to commit multiple public order and criminal offences, all of which are arrest-able by a police officer, with complete impunity. This sort of mayhem cannot be allowed to continue, in a civilised society. The law of the land must be enforced.

This is from Blakes catalogue of 1968 and as there is a photo, the boat would have already been on hire before then. As there are 4 advertised in the class, they probably started building around 1966. I remember them as lovely boats, among the best built on the Broads, in those days.

The amount of batteries sounds right to me (without knowing what equipment is being used) so I don't think it is that which is killing the batteries. I agree with having 2 starter batteries, to supply the thruster as well, as both starting and thrusting are bursts of high power but only for a few seconds, so the batteries will rapidly re-charge. They are also only used when the engine is running. A 160 litre marine fridge with freezer compartment on 12 volts will still only use about 80 watts, and not all the time. An inverter is simply converting the power requirement from 12v DC to 220 AC. The power still has to come from somewhere! An 800 watt rated microwave is actually using over 1000 watts of current, which is coming from the batteries, so that means 83 amps on 12 volts plus a coefficient of about 10% for the inverter itself. If you have a microwave, cooking for 5 or more minutes at that rate, the batteries are not going to support it, and I don't blame them! So I suggest the answer to your problem is : only use the microwave when (a) the engine is running or (b) when it is plugged direct into shore power by a separate plug circuit. I also suggest you cannot expect the batteries to support, on their own, the running of a hot water immersion heater. This too, should be shore power only. Let's keep things simple, on a boating holiday!

Which is why, when they stick one finger up in the air as you go past, they are actually just trying to find out where the wind is coming from.

Norfolk had its own confusion with railways (it would) as if you took a journey from Kings Lynn to Norwich, you were on the up train, through Dereham as far as Wymondham, where it joined the main line and became the down train to Norwich. I don't know how the M&GN named their trains, as they were one of the few "cross country" lines going east to west, from Birmingham through to Gt Yarmouth.

There is a similar problem with railways, as the original ones in England all radiated out from London, so a train towards London was always in the "up" direction. So if you took the Flying Scotsman north from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, you were on the "down" train. I noticed that "Downton Abbey" got this detail right, as characters going to catch a train always said they were going "up" to London.