Vaughan

Nor can I!

Looks quite comprehensive. I notice the gas line test has not been done yet. Always the last thing to do, as I said above. I think all yards had something like this, and still do, despite computers! Often they are a bit less detailed, on the basis that if a trained engineer says he has winterised a boat, that means he has done all the necessary jobs. Often there will be a file in the office, where sheets for each boat are kept as a service history. Blue Line (F.B.Wilds) kept a notebook hung up in the engine compartment of each boat, filled in for all servicing, with comments, and all breakdown calls, so any engineer attending to the boat, had a history to refer to. We did away with this in the end, as hirers kept finding the books and then complaining that the boat had already broken down three times that year, before they hired it. You just can't please some people!

Oh good. That's cleared that up, then.

In which case it won't apply to you Fred. My intention was to try to offer some useful information to those who are thinking of the winterising and maintenance of their boats at this time of year. I am sure you would not disagree with that?

That's fine for you Fred, but if you do that with a hire fleet, it amounts to doing your repairs in your customers' time. We actually prefer "preventive maintenance".

I am hoping that it might be. Luckily it was already written, so all I had to do was scan it! By the way, all our bow thrusters were hydraulic but the procedure is similar for electric ones.

Forget the last page, it got printed twice and I can't seem to remove it. Too technical perhaps??

Here is something to read with your morning coffee, for those who might think we don't do any work on our hire boats in winter and all shove off for a few months' rest in the Greek Islands! This was the standard procedure for all boats in Crown Blue Line when I was technical manager and was written in 1996, when a lot of our boats still had gas heating and gas fridges, so you can skip a lot of the gas part, especially as you are not allowed to do that work unless you are Gas Safe Qualified. There was no such qualification in France, so I had to run my own courses on each base, for the mechanics. It may be interesting to see what is involved though, especially for those who still have gas fridges. When I talk of toilet filters, this is because we were not using toilet holding tanks and were all sea toilets. It still applies though, if your toilet is flushed with river water. I hope this answers a few questions for those who are interested and if it creates any questions, I will be glad to try and answer them!

It wouldn't surprise me!

DC appliances with a motor are sensitive to voltage and will cut out when they sense a low voltage. Electric fridges will do the same, when they get below 12 volts. When starting, the heater needs a lot of power to its glow plug, as well as to the electric fan and this is what causes the volt drop. If your batteries are in good condition and reasonably charged, the heater will start. If it doesn't, then you can start the engine, run it for a few minutes and try again. Later, you can then clean all the mud off your windows, that someone has thrown at you for starting your engine on the moorings!

I am afraid I never met Graham, as I have been away from the Broads for a while, but I have met a lot of others in that situation, in other waterways of the world, where life, and its consequences, have found them living out their final years with themselves, on a boat. Free to roam, with their memories, where they wish. I was raised on a boat on the Broads from age 6 months and for all I know, I might find myself ending my days in the same way. It depends on "the hand that you are dealt". I could think of a lot of worse ways to end my days, to be honest.

Now, I wonder who that could have been . . . .

I have certainly noticed the large number of stag boats on Richardsons' list. The speculation, is whether they are being sold because of their great age, or whether there is a recognised trend away from that "type" of hirer taking that type of holiday. Personally I would not be so sure about that, since this "type" of hirer has been the bread and butter of the Broads - and Gt Yarmouth - ever since the last war.

Fred, it may be speculation, but that is David's business, to speculate on future bookings! The boatyards too, have an awful job in trying to set prices for the following year, in such a seasonal business. In the old days, once the brochure went to the printers in October, that was it! You just had to wait and hope you had got it right. Nowadays, at least you can try and react to a trend by making last minute offers on line. What worries me, is the temptation to use this ease of adjustment to put prices up, and thus drive people away. There is also the big problem that customers who booked in advance, may find themselves moored in Ranworth alongside someone else who paid half as much for the same boat, last minute. It just gives the whole trade a very bad reputation. It has always been very true that the weather doesn't make any difference in a season, as the bookings are almost all made in advance. It makes an enormous difference in the following year, though. If you have had a wet and windy week in August, you are unlikely to want to pay to repeat the experience!

It has often been said that a Broads hire boat seems expensive compared to other options. But you are not just hiring a boat - you are paying for a cruising holiday! If you hire a caravan or a resort hotel room in Minorca, you then have to go out every day spending money on entertaining yourself and your children. The cost of all that soon mounts up!

Hmmm . . . I wonder. I had two of those in our fleet at Port Cassafieres in 1982. Maybe 1992 was the date the boats came back to Norfolk when the Beaver Fleet (owned by Richardsons) was sold in France?

Challenger may look spacious in a wide angle video lens, but not if you have to live on board for a week with 9 others. The best GRP boats to convert as a houseboat are the Bounty 37 and 44. They were built with solid sheets of plywood laid on the floors and then the bulkheads were laid on top. This means you can easily remove a bulkhead (or even all of them!) without affecting the structure of the boat. I think converting a Challenger into something comfortable would be more like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

I see what you mean about the Blue Gems. I think that must be because they are not letting well. Trinidad is a very early version of the design, built in about 1979, so not as young as she looks! I think the rest are the sort of boats I would be selling, at the end of their useful life. In some cases way beyond it! We sold off our Challengers and Conquerors in France over 20 years ago. I notice a lot of the bigger boats are of the type which were built to stuff as many bunks as possible inside, to make more money from the hiring. I think people expect a lot more space in a big boat these days. Personally I don't see anything suspicious in this list but it depends what they intend to replace them with. I also wonder who is going to buy a Challenger, as a private boat!

Sorry to go totally "off piste" but I have just found the photo! At left rear is Lt General Joe "Manny" Stillwell, who was in command of largely Chinese forces on the north east border of Burma. Beside him is my father and beside and seated, are four of the leaders of the eight flotillas of MLs (Royal Indian Navy) who were under my father's command in the re-taking of Rangoon. Stillwell's forces joined General Slim's 14th Army in the land assault on Rangoon whilst Arakan Coastal Forces landed from seaward. The officer at right is Captain (D) of the destroyers who gave the close in escort to the coastal forces craft as they landed. My father's depot and H.Q. ship, HMIS Barracuda, was the first ship to enter Rangoon when it was re-taken. Years earlier, in 1942, my father escaped Rangoon on the same ship, then a merchant ship, when the Japanese invaded. It's a long and quite complicated story and I suppose, one day, I ought to write it all down, as my father told it to me.

"Illegitimi non carborundum". Don't let the buggers grind you down. A phrase made famous by U.S. General Joe Stillwell, when driving the Japanese out of Burma in 1945. My father knew him well. I have a photo of them together, if I can remember where I put it . . .

Yes, well I knew I was leaving myself open for a lecture from a younger and far more hi-tech generation. All the same, the old principles of running a customer service business should also apply. I mentioned Le Boat earlier and I have watched them shooting themselves in the foot for a few years now. I would hate to see this happen to my old and good friends on the Broads yards, because they were tempted by easy technology to price themselves out of the market. It's called "killing the goose, that laid the golden eggs".

A very interesting conversation, which I am afraid is "all Greek" to me! This started to happen in boating when the larger yards and companies were taken over by big tour operators, whose mindset is totally different, but who can't see the difference. Crown Blue Line and Connoisseur are good examples. They were both well known and very successful brand names until they were bought out by Sunsail and then First Choice. Since then, I have watched the new "Le Boat" just do steadily worse and worse every year as they play about with their prices and their "extras' on arrival. But they won't be told. They always know better. Personally, I blame the internet. I think there are a lot of things in life these days which have become far too instantaneous. I know what this makes me sound like, but I believe it to be true, all the same.

I have noticed that my photo of the whole map doesn't blow up well in focus. I can't scan it, as too big and too fragile, so I have taken some close ups, for those interested in more detail. Where it says P&T 5 min, or P&T 2 min that is the length of the walk between "your yacht" and the nearest post and telegraph office. I notice the Hundred Dyke, which was the old course of the Ant, between Ludham Bridge and Coldharbour farm, on the Thurne. I notice ferries at Runham and Mautby swims, also that Hermitage, Upton and Thurne dykes are all leading to their staithes. Tunstall dyke is not in blue, as it was cut off to navigation when they built the railway. There is development at Burgh Castle for the huge cement factory and we can see the old brickworks complex at Somerleyton, which included the rows of workers' cottages and the Duke's Head Pub. Brundall has just the lane leading down to the ferry at Coldham Hall but no sign of any boatyard buildings. No sign of the Whitlingham sewage works yet : always one of my favourite places on the Yare! Rockland has only one Dyke, and who knew about Buckenham Broad? I didn't! Better include one for Jenny Morgan, if he's reading this! If anyone wants a closer picture of anywhere, let me know soon before I put the map back in its frame. I think what strikes me most about this, is how little or nothing seems to have changed, apart from all the modern housing development and the riverside businesses. Maybe this means we haven't been looking after the place quite as badly as we sometimes think, for the last 135 years?

In which case, that is a complete turnaround from the old Sunsail (and Freddie Laker) concept of "bums on seats". You charter an aircraft and you book a number of cheap hotel rooms in the Playa Las Americas, Tenerife. You then advertise package holidays at the full brochure price. As soon as you have half filled the aircraft, you have covered the operating costs. After that, you offer big last minute discounts, and all the other bums that you can put on the rest of the seats, are clear profit. Neither your model, nor mine, works for the Norfolk Broads and this is the problem! For all of my time in the business, we have tried to work on a brochure price, with no discounting. In other words, a level playing field. But times have changed and quite clearly, not for the best!

And now, it gets even earlier! I have just looked more closely at Norwich and noticed that Thorpe Station is on its original site, halfway down Riverside Rd. This was later used as a goods station and carriage works. The existing Norwich Station, sitting beside Foundry Bridge, was built in 1886. This would mean that the M&GN and some other lines were added at a later edition of the map. I wondered why that triangular junction at Reedham was still there! The original Norfolk Railway, from Norwich to Gt Yarmouth via Reedham, was built in 1844. The Acle line was 1883 and the line from Yarmouth to Beccles through Haddiscoe was 1859. The M&GN was a mixture of several smaller companies in the 1850s, which finally ran all the way from Kings Lynn to Yarmouth in 1893. So basically, we are probably looking at a map of the Broads in the days of the trading wherries. No wonder it doesn't seem to show many boatyards and no wonder Gt Hoveton Broad is shown in dark blue! By the way, the page is scanned from Norfolk's Railways, vol 1, by Mike Handscomb and Philip Standley.