Vaughan

By the way, if you attempt to get it started first time, using "Easy Start" I shall never speak to you again. Easy Start is death to a diesel engine and I never allowed it on any yard I managed. If you want to encourage it to start, take the air cleaner off the intake manifold, get a gas blow lamp (a hand held Camping Gas will do) pre-heat the engine, turn it over on the starter and point the blow lamp (lit) down the air intake manifold for about 3 seconds. As soon as you take the blow lamp flame away again, it will start! If it doesn't, you need to bleed the fuel again.

Well done so far! I gather your engine has been standing for some time, so don't be frightened to spill a lot of diesel when you are bleeding, to make sure all the little air bubbles are passed through. With the older type rotary injector pumps, the smallest amount of air will stop it working. If you have to bleed up to the injectors (you probably will) make sure you set the Morse control lever to max acceleration (in neutral) before turning the engine over on the starter. That way, the injector pump is pumping plenty of fuel up the pipes. No fear of the engine starting and galloping away, as you have loosened the feed pipe nuts, so the injectors themselves will not function until you tighten them again. I usually cut the bottom off an old plastic anti-freeze container, or the bottom off a mineral water bottle and hold these under the filter housing and the injector pump, while bleeding. Also good for changing oil filters.

To me, it looks typical of the rust that will come off a mild steel fuel tank. It would be interesting to have seen what sort of state the sediment trap filter was in!

They are serviced before every hire and the intervals for oil changes, etc., depend on the type of engine. Usually every 200 - 300 hours, so 3 or 4 times a season.

You won't get any diesel until you have filled the filter bowl - and the water trap filter if you have cleaned that also - so you may be pumping for some time. It is quicker to loosen the banjo union on the feed pipe to the injector pump. On the top of the filter cover, this should have a moulded arrow pointing outwards. Once you have diesel flowing, tighten this fitting and finish bleeding from the top fitting. I think you will find your injector pump has two bleed nuts, which can be seen in your photo as small black fittings on the side of it towards the back. Do the lower one first, which is the pump body and then the upper one, which is the casing of the mechanical governor. You may have to do this more than once. If the engine still will not start, loosen the feed pipe nuts at the injectors, turn the engine on the starter and check that you are pumping diesel up to them. If not, start the bleeding all over again from the filter, until you are.

Marshman's estimate for a Perkins on the north rivers is correct. They are very economical engines. For a Nanni I would allow a bit more than 2 litres an hour, as you will not be using heating at this time of year (I hope). But if you are punching the tide, 4 litres per hour. In fairness to the boatyard, a lot of their fleets these days have been bought secondhand from other closed businesses and not built by them, so tank sizes will vary a lot. Most hire boats have tanks which should last 2 weeks, so 175 to 200 litres will be the norm. When you phoned the yard you presumably spoke to someone in reception who didn't know these sort of details. Had they put you through to the engineers' shop on the yard, you might have got a better answer!

They even got Jim Brooker of Blakes wearing one! Sorry about the quality but the photo is from Blakes catalogue of 1964, same year as the film. The photo was taken on my father's River Cruiser, Evening Flight, on Wroxham Broad.

I meant Harry Collins, not Harry Last! Collins Pleasurecraft.

Hasn't changed much, has it? I notice how all the moorings were just earth banks in those days, even at Ludham Bridge. A good shot of Chumley and Hawke's boatyard in Horning, as well as the N.H.Banham yard, by the staithe. On Oulton Broad, they moored on the quay at Harry Last's yard. When you see the women setting off shopping, they are walking past the front of Harry's bungalow. Anyone notice all the missing posts, on Breydon?

Whilst I agree with the sentiment of your post, I can't agree that behaviour in the 60s was better than now. There were about 2000 hire boats then (rising to 3000 later) and there weren't any speed limits, except through the villages. Most customers arrived by train and I would think around a third of them just wanted to get to Yarmouth Yacht Station as fast as possible! There are only about 700 hire boats now against an upsurge of thousands of private boats. So I suggest we private owners should think ourselves lucky, accept a bit of "high spirits" from the tourists who are supporting the area more financially than we are and (dare I suggest) keep our carping to within reasonable proportions.

God save the Queen?

That at once reminds me of Shakespeare : Is this a dagger which I see before me? When thinking of trying to moor that boat stern on with a reversing camera, I can perhaps quote from later in the speech by Macbeth : I see thee yet in form as palpable as this which now I draw. Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going; and such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools of the other senses ; or else, worth all the rest, I see thee still.

Surely, quoting someone is done for ease of context in making replies. I don't think it implies any criticism, if not we would all be at each throats! I hope I can quote this, however, as I am a hire fleet operator (albeit well retired!) and I look at a new design on the simple basis, that if I can't drive the blasted thing safely, then I can't expect my customers to be able to.

Excuse me, I don't think it's anything like a narrowboat, where the stern deck is the same height as the rest of the hull and it is also the helm position. If this boat were of the Sedan type, where the aft deck is also used as an extension of the saloon and outside living area, I could perhaps understand the point of it. In this case, the deck is simply an aft platform, that serves no other purpose.

I think we should try not to offer opinions about that particular accident at this stage but there is no doubt those look like guard rails and not just handrails. I just wonder why these "semi traditional" aft ends are considered such a good idea. The full length French doors and windows give no privacy in the aft cabin and if moored stern on you would have to have the curtains closed. Stern on mooring can only be done at very low level. It would be difficult to get on and off in some places, especially on the south rivers. There is no access to the side decks except by the back door or rear flybridge steps. So the only way up forward from either helm position is out via the stern and then all the way up the side decks. Not a boat I would like to drive single handed, especially in a wind or tide. I have no doubt it is fitted out to the highest standards and the accommodation looks very comfortable indeed. I just wonder whether this is really a good design of Broads hire boat, for first time novice customers. Will they really enjoy driving it, or will the stress of it detract from the enjoyment of their holiday?

I notice that the feature that Hoseasons describe as a "semi traditional stern" now has a full width wrap-around guard rail. I hope they have some spares in stock. From the photos it doesn't look as though you can see the corners of the stern from either helm position. I would guess they are going to get a few of those rails wiped off on the bank.

I would have offered you a tow as well (if I had been in England!) as I also moor in Stalham. I agree that Toby and Daniel of Marine Transmissions do top quality work. I also know Peachments very well, having done a great deal of business with them in the past. I know that they will do a very good installation for you and I highly recommend them.

I did mention that I was talking about hire boats, where their inexperienced skippers are likely to need enough power to get them out of trouble when they do the crossing at the wrong state of the tide. I also remember your boat being at Beccles and I think it was Griff who mentioned that you needed a day or two plugged in, in order to get enough charge back into the batteries to get home again. A hire boat on a week's cruise will need to be able to recharge as necessary, every night, ready for the next day. Every night, every day, if not a cruising holiday would just not be practical. In addition, we have experts such as Grendel here, who can tell us that the present "charging points" on moorings are nowhere near powerful enough to recharge a boat such as Dawn Star overnight. They are simply plug points for domestic battery chargers and microwaves. By the same token, you cannot recharge an electric car by running a plug lead out of the window from a plug point in the kitchen. Am I right to be basing my thinking on hire boats? Well, I can't see any point in insisting that all private boats now go electric, but hire boats can be exempt and stay on diesel, as they are cruising more often! This is why I am most interested in your experience with electrics, as if it doesn't work for you, it certainly won't work for the hire boatyards.

I hope @BroadsAuthority are reading this thread today!

Thank you very much for sharing your experience, which bears out what I have always cautioned against, with electric power for hire boats. A cruiser must have the capacity to maintain 7MPH for at least 4 hours before it loses power as the batteries become discharged. Any less than that, it is not safe to navigate through Yarmouth. I fear that this is one of the main things that protagonists of electric power are not allowing for in their calculations.

In view of the question of the future of electric boats on the Broads, I am sure a lot of forum members would be very interested to hear why you have made that decision. If it hasn't worked for you, will it ever work for other "motor" cruisers on the Broads? Edited to add : Also interesting that you can get from Stalham to Horning on electrics, but you are not willing (or able?) to go through Yarmouth to Brundall.

I saw a motor cruiser once, called DUNROWIN'.

So that makes them 65% idiotic instead of 100%, does it? I have a feeling your "point" is to have a good argument. I think I have said all I wish to say, on this.

And how long does it take to get over Breydon? Against a falling high tide? They set out on a deliberate night passage. Just happens they crashed out sooner rather than later but the result was surely inevitable.

So if they set out at that time of night, where could they have expected to be once they got to the other end of Breydon - if they got there? In the pitch dark.