Vaughan

One cubic metre of Butane gas burned on a cooker hob will release two and a half litres of water vapour into the atmosphere of a boat's cabins. Fact. In October in cold weather, as soon as this vapour touches a cold surface such as a window, it will condense in large quantities. If you don't provide ventilation, you will get condensation.

I'm not sure what you infer by that.

We used to get them from Coopers in Gt Yarmouth. I believe they still have stores in Norfolk, at North Walsham or Kings Lynn, from memory.

By the way, for general information : To stop a leak in emergency, run a fillet of normal oil based yacht varnish around the outside edge, and it will enter the joint by capillary action and repel the water as it dries. Something like International Blue Peter, but not 2 pack or polyurethane, slightly thinned with white spirit. You can even put it on in the rain and it will stop the leak for quite a long time, maybe a couple of years.

Thank you for that good review, and a belated happy birthday. It's best to give good reviews these days, or not at all. I have just been reading in the papers that a grandmother and her grandchild were thrown out of a hotel by the police in Georgia, U.S., in the middle of the night, as they had given it a bad review on Hotels.com. Members should be advised not to give a review of their hire boat until after the end of the week!

Jeckells, I would think. Not Norfolk Marine, but the sailmakers, down the road towards Barnes BC.

Keeping leaks out of window frames is a bit of a dark art! I just wanted to make sure you understand that Sikaflex, or any other mastic product that mentions the word "glue" in its description, is not suitable. It may fix your leak but you will never get the window off again afterwards. Window seals in a Fibreglass boat move a lot, especially if you hit the bank hard, so they cannot be of a product which drys out solid.

Well, at least we now know that pencil is not indelible after all. The mods can delete it with no problem, leaving no trace!

I didn't realise it was that long ago. His forum name is actually Hockham Admiral and he became chief moderator after the sad passing of Broadscot until the big changes to forum admin and ownership a few years ago. He was also the organiser of all the forum meets, of which there were sometimes three a year. He did a great deal for the forum behind the scenes and is much liked by those who remember him.

K N O B is an engineering term, as well as as grease nipples. I suppose male and female threads will be next on the woke cancelling list, although they are the best description of the fittings themselves. I say! It allowed me to say nipples!

I have no doubt of that, but Amazon is not to blame! Amazon has simply profited from the fact that people can't shop in city or town centre high streets any more because they can't park their cars! I am sorry, neither public transport (on 30 year-old double decker buses) nor bicycles, will ever take the place of shopping in your car. If you can't park in the town centre, you will shop in a retail park, where parking is convenient and free. Meantime, all these "green" efforts to save the planet by cleaning the air on our streets, will be negated by all the white vans driving around delivering the on-line shopping that has become our only practical alternative.

Perhaps worth an explanation, that a prayer book is a small rectangular wooden piece, placed behind a butt joint (between the timbers or frames) when doing plank repairs and into which, the butt ends of the planks are screwed. It is called this for two reasons : 1/. It is about the same size as the prayer book you find in front of you in a church pew. 2/. You say a prayer when you fit it, in the hope that it might do the job!

That was only one side of the partnership. The Eastwood side transferred to Eastwood Whelpton at Upton. The one who died would have been Simon Harvey.

Yes, but let's not forget that you have travel insurance cover, for airlines and packages, if you pay with a credit card. But not if you pay with a debit card, even if issued by the same bank.

Yes, but I am afraid you may not have time to do scarf joints on a Saturday morning, before the boat goes out on hire again!

I also agree with the above. Carvel planking moves a lot, so a hard filler is not good. Shaft tubes and skin fittings were always put in with Boss White, which I assume is a form of white lead. Carvel seams are made waterproof with caulking cotton and then made flush with linseed putty. It's not the putty that makes them waterproof. The trick is, to recognise how much the planks have opened up when the boat is out of the water and not put too much putty in the seams, leaving an obvious groove, which will fill up flush when the boat takes up again. If this means the hull leaks when launched, you can always do a "sawdust job", or smear the seams with thick water pump grease before launching. This will wash off after a month or so. Racing yachts will often be launched for a week to take up and then hauled out again, for the final sanding and last coat of enamel.

Well, it looks nicer than mine . . .

From Hoseasons catalogue of 1971.

When my parents bought the yard they had just got married at the end of the War and were living in Surrey, near to my mother's family. Housing in Norfolk was very hard to find (as everywhere) but father had obvious connections with naval coastal forces and found this boat on a yard in Rochester on the Medway, having just been sold by the Navy. He did a deal with the yard that they would haul her out and paint the hull and then tow her to Gt Yarmouth free of charge, in return for having the engines, stern gear and all other machinery, which they took out. Many years later, in the 60s, he ruefully remarked that he had given away three Rolls Royce Merlin engines! She was then towed up to Thorpe by Hoboroughs (later May Gurney) where the superstructure was stripped off and the bilges filled with water to get her under the bridge. The tug dragged her over the bottom and I was told she cleared the bridge by half an inch at the top and four inches either side. She was then fitted out by the boatyard as a houseboat, which took nearly 2 years. Meantime my parents and baby (me) lived on the houseboat which you can also see in the photo of 1947. This later became a hired houseboat, called Misty Morn, which was moored behind the gunboat on the island, with its own garden, for many years. Up until the early 50s the Gunboat was moored outside the office in summer and was towed over to Thorpe Gardens (Rushcutters) for the winter, as there was no mains water on the island at that time. There was a photo in the EDP of the time, which showed the gunboat being towed under the bridge, but I have never been able to find a record of it. I remember it looked rather like toothpaste coming out of a tube!

Well spotted! The handles were the same mechanism as a car, for winding them up and down. It didn't work well as it was impossible to keep the water out when it rained, so they were replaced with hopper windows when the new canopy was built and the forward bulkhead moved a bit further aft. The original windows were rather larger than those in recent photos and I suspect the boat has had new cabins sides fitted at some time. This may be a reason why she seems a bit hogged in recent photos. Something that the owner will have to attend to before he starts on replacing planks. Those mattresses were indeed very comfortably covered and upholstered. The Two and Four of Hearts used to have drop down saloon windows which pulled up on a thick leather strap with holes in it. The whole effect was rather like being in a second class LNER railway carriage!

For a Fibreglass boat on the Broads, he was quite right!

This is what Thorpe Green looked like, in August 1955. The Queen of Hearts was out on a 2 week booking on that Saturday morning.

Hello Andy, The photo above of 1947 shows the fleet as it was when my parents bought into the business. They were designed and built by the Hart family and Frank Gooch, who was yard foreman and also a director and shareholder of the company. Frank Gooch then designed and built the Knave, Ten and Queen, in 1949 and 50. These were the first hire boats on the Broads to have a Diesel engine. By that time, my father had managed to reclaim compensation and back pay from his house, all his belongings and his job, which had been lost when Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in 1941, and was able to buy out the other shareholders and become sole owner. The first boat that he designed and built with Russel Newby, who was foreman boatbuilder, was the King of Hearts in 1952. Followed by the Seven and Eight, which were among the first front drive, single level cruisers at that time.

And here, a comparison from about 1955, before the wheelhouse was extended, with a new sliding canopy.

Depends if it is a hard or soft antifouling. If your boat spends most of the time on a mooring then choose a soft one, but it will need re-painting more often. How often? A matter of forum opinion! I suggest not more than 3 years, and change the anodes at the same time.