Vaughan

Absolutely right. This is the main problem with "drinking" water on the Broads. It is not your own tank that is the problem - it is where you got the water from! Hoses left in the sun will grow the bacteria e-coli, which can cause all sorts of things including legionaires' disease. Also make sure that you leave a boatyard hose hanging up off the ground and not lying on the quay, where other people's dogs can piddle all over it. To say nothing of all the Canada geese. When filling the water tank in the spring (it is drained in winter) dose it with water treatment tablets from a chemist.

No, I'm afraid that wouldn't work in tidal water.

I quite agree. When I saw that I thought it was in disgustingly bad taste. It added nothing at all to the subject of the article and it would have been better not to show a boat at all.

Thank you for excusing my sense of humour! I would think getting on for 500 litres would be a lot of fresh water. Must be a bigger than average boat. Let's not get into that again! In the 60s and before, most boats had a 70 gallon diesel tank and the water tank would not be much bigger. The later Crown boats built for France had a 320 litre diesel tank - for at least 2 weeks cruising - and water tanks of about the same. But then came electric toilets! Unless these are flushed by river water, they use an enormous amount of fresh water and a tank gauge becomes almost obligatory. There is also the thought that with modern grey water holding tanks, then the grey tank has to be even bigger than the fresh water tank. Then you get to what Andy has mentioned, that all this has to balance up the stability of the boat. I have found that the best way to tell if you need to fill the water is to look at the waterline when the boat is moored up. If the tank is empty, the waterline will be about an inch and a half higher!

I think I could have guessed that yours would be a lot bigger than average. Perhaps I should withdraw that remark? All the same, the reason is clearly obvious. We alway say fill up every day because we don't want people phoning the emergency number at 10 o'clock at night to say they are in Rockland Short Dyke; they haven't got any water and they can't feed their month old baby. In fact, almost all hire boat tanks should last two days, or more. As others have said, it depends how much you use!

Blimey! I think we are getting a bit above my "pay grade" here! I have always understood aviation fuel to be basically kerosene, as a refinement of paraffin, although I know that a Wessex or Wasp helicopter will run for a while on diesel, if you have nothing else to fill it up with!. When I was involved with helicopters on RFA ships, the fuel was classed as AVCAT and for jet aircraft it was AVTUR, for which the civilian version was called JET A1. It always had to be carefully sampled for water contamination before re-fuelling an aircraft, especially if it had been sitting in a ship's AVCAT tanks for a while. I am sure you are probably right but I am not sure this applies to the problem of fuel supply on Broads cruisers. All I can say is that it has never been a problem for hire boats, in my experience.

Yes it does, thank you John. What you describe appears to be sediment which accumulates on the water level at the bottom of the tank, so regular inspection of the sediment trap filter and regular fuel filter changes should prevent this, I would hope. Almost all hire boatyards will change their filters once during the season and sometimes twice, if fully booked up.

As we are on the subject, a lot of this has to do with mild steel fuel tanks. If the tank is not full, then condensation will occur in the air space (see above), which will rust the inside of the tank. This will sink to the bottom and cause a watery brown sludge, about which we all complain! A stainless steel tank, kept full in winter, should not accumulate rusty sludge, unless it was in the diesel before it got into your tank! In other words, don't buy diesel from a small bankside outlet which may not sell much, so the diesel itself may have been in the bulk tank for a year or more. Subject to the same condensation and rust in winter. (see above). Moral of the story : it may be cheaper when you buy it but you may pay for it in the "long run". An offshore boat has baffles in the tank to prevent the fuel slopping about and stirring up sludge in the bottom. A Broads boat may have a few baffles but probably not enough for going offshore. "Horses for courses". I would never go offshore in a Broads boat without a box of spare filters and preferably, a dual feed bypass filter system.

No I don't. In a lifetime in the inland waterways boating business, I had never heard of it until I joined this forum. During a hard winter, you will get a deposit of paraffin wax which separates out from the diesel when it freezes in the pipes. This is harmless but it has a thick consistency which can clog filters and sediment traps. This why we always change fuel filters in the spring, after the cold weather is over. I believe it is this wax residue that may be what is known as diesel bug.

Oh, what a joy to behold, under Wroxham bridge! Why is this sort of thing allowed, in such a totally unsuitable site? Surely, this is what places such as Bewilderwood are for?

The main thing is to leave the tank full over winter. That way there is no air space to cause condensation, which is why water accumulates in the bottom. Hence all this stuff about diesel bug. Personally, I don't believe in it. If the tank is full of diesel, you won't get any water in it!

It would certainly seem that way. I know two planning consultants (FRICS) who were not involved in the Jenners debacle, but who told me it was the worst handling of a planning dispute that they had seen in their careers. And don't let's forget the Acle visitor centre - which maybe we can now forget. If any private developer had put in the designs that we have seen, for a project like that, it would seriously fail the Authoritiy's own planning rules for the area. But how much did all the research cost us?? Or of course, that huge - but "temporary" white tent on their own land at Griffin Lane in Thorpe. Visible from outer space, but temporary. How many years has that been there, right on the banks of the Yare?

There have since been two more reports in the EDP. One, from the same journalist, reminds us of other cases where there has been disagreement between the BA's members and its officers, such as the time when a member was removed for questioning a planning decision over the change of use of a phone box. I also remember "Yurt - gate" at the WRC, which was closely followed by "Access - gate" at the same location! A further report, published this morning, says that a BA representative has written to say they are considering legal action against the police for comments made in their report. Meantime the question, posed by members, as to why there is now resistance to the landowners' plans for moorings, on the same site where the BA had previously wanted their own moorings, remains un-answered. I am mindful of the disgraceful performance of the BA planning department in the 10 year battle (of their own making) over Jenners Basin, when the legal bill for their various court actions, if I remember rightly, was well over £80,000. For what, today, has turned out to be a deserted wasteland. Is this how we want to see our toll-payer's money spent? Yet again? I certainly don't.

Funny yes, but Hylander's comment is most apposite.

My first reaction is : quite a comprehensive report from the EDP, for a change. If this has got as far as a complaint to the police then it can't just be gossip. I know nothing about this particular case but I have to say I am not surprised.

The cabin side windows have curved corners, which makes it an early boat, perhaps before 1975. I also notice that the moulded engine room vent on the aft cabin side has a large S - for Solar - rather than the later and more common B - for Bounty.

If you have 116 posts, I don't think there should be.

Just a thought - I always thought that you could get different length input spline shafts for a BW, to overcome the problem?

So did I, in my time. If you keep up to date on these things you can make plans so they don't catch you out when the time comes. That said, the present HGV delivery crisis has been staring everyone in the face for at least the last 15 years and yet only now, when the bubble bursts, do we suddenly realise how totally we rely on a road transport logistics infrastructure. If you think I'm off topic, no! The same thing will happen with electric cars and boats. We will all be forced to buy and invest and then sure enough, oh dear! There is not enough national power generation to charge the blasted things! We know this now! It is staring us in the face. But you can bet that by 2030 no-one in government will have done anything about it.

Again, I may not have put that in the way I meant! What I meant was, rather than approach at a fine angle, come in slowly at about 35 degrees from the bank. As you go astern, the bow will stop and the stern will come round, in line with the bank. If this needs adjustment then every time you go ahead or astern will bring you closer to the bank. If the running engine is the one close to the bank, then each time you come ahead or astern will push you back out into the middle of the river.

Yes. When on one engine, you are always going slightly sideways, so keep your eyes right up the river ahead of you and don't look too much at the bank. This will soon tell you if you are drifting sideways. When mooring alongside, always try to moor with the running engine away from the bank and come in at a slightly sharper angle than usual. Edited to add : Mooring stern on is still possible but needs a lot more practice!

Like the Perkins, but with those you can always choose to change the liners and hope to re-use the original pistons.

Actually, I had better qualify that remark! If you have a hydro-mechanical gearbox such as PRM, this will spin freely when in neutral. Problem with that, is that the oil pump in the box is driven by the input shaft from the engine. So if the engine is not running, no lubrication! I really shouldn't have made my last post without thinking, as when we are towing a boat alongside, we always block the prop shaft with Stillsons, to stop it turning. If you have a splash fed gearbox such as Hurth, then you could happily run on one engine.

I agree with all four of the points in your post. A stationary prop on a shaft drive will certainly cause drag against the steering but will not do any actual damage. If your boat has out-drives, the handling problem becomes more complex but with a bit of practice you can moor a shaft drive cruiser on one engine with no particular problem.

The EDP says they are between Gt Yarmouth and Cromer. So your guess is as good as theirs. It would also be correct to say they are somewhere between London and York.