Vaughan

Exactly. All hire boats will do a week without filling up and almost all will do 2 weeks, unless the yard suggest filling up after the first week. So you don't need a gauge. A water gauge nowadays, is rather more important.

I think you are right there! The filming in Camargue that I mentioned, had a producer called Attracta. That must have been her media name as I can't think she got it from her parents. She had a girl assistant who worshipped her, followed her everywhere with a clipboard and performed all her little errands. After a couple of days, Susie and I christened them Attracta and trailer. The film crew, who were freelance, were delighted. They didn't like her very much, either!

Yes, with pleasure and a warm welcome to the forum. This is a very good place to share Broads history!

I would think that the most commercial thing that they could do would be NONE of those three. Better to review the accounts and allow the tenant to actually make some kind of profit, rather than "cream it off the top" with excessive rents.

Very nice looking boat Doug! I seem to recognise your crew from somewhere, as well!

Now that would be frowned upon, as one should not use the gas bin for storage but we all do it, including me! Rhond hooks, mooring stakes, lump hammer, spare mooring rope, it all goes in there. Fishing maggots as well. Trouble is the drain in the bottom is there to drain away any leaking gas, but not muddy water which will bung it up.

I quite agree - I just wish all these self-important TV personalities wouldn't try to pretend that they are first people to have ever discovered the place for us. Whenever some celeb or other is doing a piece on a preserved steam railway, they will always, always, always have to blow the whistle for themselves.

I hadn't heard of that one. To get to the pump they would have to get through a sediment trap and sometimes two in-line filters. Dipsticks are usually made of a hard wood, like mahogany. "Back in the day", fuel tanks were all made with a striking plate welded on the bottom of the tank, to strengthen it in the area under the filler cap. I don't see any problem with the one on our boat - a tried and trusted method!

I am glad we chose not to bother. After all the "press visits" I have had to organise on the rivers, when you have seen one vacuous TV personality, you have seen them all! I remember a film crew who arrived in the Camargue with a very famous TV lady, who I had better not name. It took Susie and I two weeks solid work, two identical boats, leap-frogging around the cruising area, 4 members of staff, a hired minibus and even a helicopter for an afternoon. All that for 6 minutes of TV on a travel show, a pathetically silly presentation and no business for us as a result. At least TV is a transient medium. Once you've seen it, it's gone. There are better ways to advertise, in my view.

It's only a small point but the Grand Classique is exactly 15 metres overall length. We had to include the protrusion of the rubbing strakes over the bow and stern, or the French authorities would have thrown it out!

Yes, probably, but not necessarily!

Among several others!

I do! Born within the sound of Bow bells. Which makes me a Cockney.

I had a feeling someone would say that! Personally I think that, like so many of these sort of statistics, the actual consumption might be more than the manufacturer's quoted figures! My feeling is based on running hire boats with hour meters, where the hours cruised against the diesel used, give a very accurate idea of consumption. All I know is that a cruise of the same number of hours on the same boat, shows a very large increase in consumption in the colder months of the season.

It's also the right time of year to do it, before the strong dry winds of February and March start blowing under the hull. This is also the reason why traditional boat sheds always had an earth floor, so that the humidity stopped the boats from opening up too much. With a yacht, they often used to spread canvas in the bilges, and keep it damp with a watering can.

Doesn't say much for our other discussions, about the future of electric boats.

Quite possibly. I am not "up to date" on that one!

It is interesting to guess on her weight. When she is called a 40 tonner, those are deadweight tons, which are her cargo capacity calculated in displacement tons! Displacement tons are the weight of the volume of water that she would displace when floating, both loaded and empty. The thing about a wherry and the shape of her hull is that the "wetted surface" and therefore volume of the hull increases enormously as she gets loaded lower, until her side decks are actually awash when fully loaded. So her displacement ton calculation becomes about the same as the deadweight, which is very rare in a cargo vessel. None of this has anything to do with her "pick-up" weight when hanging in the straps of a gantry. Personally, I would guess her at around 30 tons. It would be interesting to know what the actual was. You certainly know how heavy she is, if you have ever had to stop her by "bringing her up with a round turn" around a mooring bollard, with the tide under her!

I have estimated it at around 2 litres an hour or maybe a bit more. It is hard to estimate as it comes from the same tank as the engine, but the difference in a hire boat's average consumption, between summer and late autumn, gives you a fair idea.

I think I am right that 46 ft (15 metres) is a maximum length as well. It certainly is in France, where anything longer is considered as a hotel barge and has to have a professional skipper.

I suggest you have a good read of "speaker's corner".

Here is a line drawing of the wherry "Gleaner", taken from Black Sailed Traders by Roy Clark, which is the acknowledged "bible" for those who love wherries. The slipping keel bolts were accessible through the hold and the cabin and it was attached to the stem by two irons which went through a "snore hole" in the stem. This shows (shews) how it was attached. This is taken from Wherries and Waterways, by Robert Malster. The other "bible" if you like wherries! Here we see how the slipping keel was removed before hauling out and we also see the metal bow straps which held it in place on the stem. Normally a slipping keel was left floating in the water when it was not fitted to the wherry. If it was allowed to dry out it would warp and might not fit the bolt holes again, when they floated it underneath! Finally, a well known photo of Albion on the Yare in the 50s, also from Robert Malster's book. Here she has her slipping keel fitted and we can clearly see the two iron straps going up either side of the stem to a snore hole, just at the bottom of the white painted half moon. And so how heavy was that lift? They always say that the special shape of a wherry's hull means that she can carry her own weight in cargo. The Albion is called a 40 tonner, so that should give some idea! I see that the mast and mast weights were removed and these are several tons on their own. But other things such as the hatch covers, are still on, so they must have been confident that Cox's gantry could do the lift!

What is interesting, if you look carefully, is the way they have now fitted a permanent keel which is almost the same shape as the original "slipping keel" would have been. A wherry itself, has a long flat keel, designed to be hauled up a slipway, but they could bolt an additional keel on, to give them better sailing qualities in deep water, especially on the Yare. When in shallow water such as the Dilham canal, they would un-ship the keel and either tow it behind them, or leave it moored on the bank until they returned. The permanent keel she now has gives her better sailing quality and, as well as the extra ballast installed in her hold, stops her from "hogging" as badly as she used to. But it does mean she can't be hauled up a slipway any more, so she has to be craned out. Very lucky that Cox's yard have such heavy equipment to handle a load like that!

That sounds like a sign I once saw in a pub : Please do not ask for credit as a smack in the face can sometimes offend.

Very good post John. It took me a couple of times to take it all in, but it's all good stuff! I have quoted just one line because it is very important. The mix of electric motor using batteries, generator with choice of direct shaft drive and also solar panels is very complicated and needs a lot of electronics. Le boat in France had one of these made. They are an American "trawler" style boat with a wide cabin top going out over the side decks rather like an awning, so a large expanse of solar panels which were enough to drive the boat at about 5MPH in the hot sun of the south of France. It was about 36ft but laid out for only two people. Most of it was a high aft saloon and under this was what looked more like a ship's engine room! When I first saw it, just delivered, it came complete with a technician, who had been flown in from Eastern Europe, where it was built, and was sitting in there with a lap-top plugged in, trying to find out why nothing worked properly. In the end they just had to give up on it and it went out on hire as a conventional direct shaft drive. The solar panels didn't last long either as the overhanging roof sides got wiped off under the narrow arched brick bridges. Not my problem luckily, as they had already got rid of me by then. Perhaps they knew what I would have had to say about it! You are quite right that anything is technically possible. Making it practical for use in a hire boat is another matter.