Vaughan

From the maintenance point of view if I had any Ideals in my fleet I would have sold them off 15 years ago, just as we did in France. They are quite horrible things. They may be popular for young people booze cruising but they are actually a very uncomfortable boat to spend a holiday on, especially for 10 people. You can't even get out of the side doors, except on your hands and knees. That saloon is more like a greenhouse, which depends for its structure entirely on the windows and their frames. After you have had a few partygoers dancing on the roof, the whole affair leaks like a sieve when it rains. And I could go on! The AF42 is an excellent hire boat but it may be that they have got to the point where too much would have to be done to re-fit them. So from the practical point of view I am not at all surprised. But I thought we were supposed to be entering into boom times, with everyone staying in the UK and anything that floats will let like hot cakes next year? Richardsons, one of the main players, obviously don't seem to think so. Very interesting. As my father in law used to say - trees don't grow all the way up to Heaven.

If your stern gland does not have a grease cap then it just needs the packing tightened a little if it is dripping too much. A slow steady drip every 10 or 15 seconds with engine off, is normal. There are two threads one on either side of the gland with two brass nuts on each. On older boats you will find that these are Whitworth size nuts. With two spanners, undo the first one - the locknut - leaving the second in position. Tighten the second nuts by half to one turn each and see what happens. It is important to tighten the two nuts evenly so as to keep the two faces of the gland exactly square and parallel to each other. When you find a suitable position, run the engine in ahead gear at about 1400 revs for a least 10 minutes. Feel the gland with your hand. If it is warm that is normal. If it is too hot to touch, loosen the nuts a turn and try again. When you are happy with it, tighten the locknuts again. If you get to the position where the two gland faces are almost touching, then it needs re-packing and I recommend this should be done by a boatyard engineer.

I have often heard it said that the sea is your best friend, and your worst enemy. Somewhere on the forum a few months ago, we discussed an RYA report about propellor guards, part of which I remember quoting, as it made clear that there are three people involved in a water safety situation : The authority, the hiring company and the hirer (the charterer in law). They all hold equal responsibility and it was also recommended that it should be made clear by the company to the hirer that he is responsible for his own actions. The company must make him aware of the dangers but it is his duty to take that advice.

That's exactly what we did it for! We knew we needed standards that could be practically applied and maintained and which even a small boatyard could afford. If it had been left to outside "experts" there would have been all sorts of un-necessary impositions which might well have put us out of business. As it is, we have standards which are practical and do-able, as they were written by practical boatyard people. I have read the modern BSS carefully and it is all good stuff! Practical and sensible. Remember though, that the BSS is an installation standard, which doesn't necessarily tell you how to use something safely. It tells you how to install the cooker but not how to light it! Same thing applies to handling a boat, which is where a "code of practice" comes in. If it is suggested that boatyards need to modify their "code", most of which is un-written but based on over 100 years of experience, that is a matter of opinion. Personally I doubt that they could do more than are doing already. Remember that Blakes agency was founded in 1908. As to St Olaves bridge, I would guess that it was bad weather; they were all down below steering from the saloon and no-one thought to look out and check the bridge height. And no, a bridge gauge is not enough. You have to physically look and make sure, with the "mark one eye-ball"! Yes, that's speculation, but based on a great deal of experience of these things. In France we have lost literally thousands of parasols and hundreds of Bimini tops in this way!

I have just been on the phone with an old friend of mine who attended Barton Regatta. He tells me that a BA ranger was patrolling in his launch, issuing warnings to all those who were not displaying Broads registration numbers on their paddle boards. His attitude was described by those who saw it, as Little a dictator. I very much hope hope that someone, somewhere, was joking????

Entirely by coincidence, I came across this paper a couple of days ago when sorting through boxes after our house move. It is an extract from the minutes of the AGM of the NSBYOA, which was the association of owners which formed Blakes. Hence the "A" flag, meaning association. Blakes Holidays Ltd was the company that marketed on behalf of the Association. I had resigned from the council of the association when I sold my yard and moved to France and this paper was sent to me later by David Court, who was M.D. of Blakes. Gerry Thrower, by the way, was the yard manager for Richardsons. A good friend and fellow member of the technical committee. In those days there were no installation safety standards on the Broads although there were the Thames Conservancy rules, on which my version was partly based. We knew there was a new Broads Authority in the offing and we feared that they would impose all sorts of obscure standards which would be impossible to install in our boats and would put half of us out of business. So we sat down and thrashed out our own standards, which were very soon approved by the BOA (Hoseasons) and by the time the Broads Authority arrived, we were seen to have our own rules, which we were enforcing, and so thankfully, we were left to get on with it. Please read carefully the last part of the second paragraph. These standards were adopted by the River Commissioners and then by the NRA (National Rivers Authority) to cover all inland waterways in England. It was on these standards, almost without change, that the modern BSS was based. Perhaps this explains why I am so quick to jump to the defence of the boat hire industry when these sort of spurious allegations are made or inferred. It is so easy for the press and even official bodies, to make us sound like a lot of profiteering carpet salesmen but the reverse is actually the truth. We don't just abide by the regulations - we originally wrote them. Of course we do all we possibly can to avoid accidents on the water. Safety is and always was, a paramount priority.

This could be explained by MAIB, being an inherantly sea-going organisation, taking the times at Yarmouth Bar rather than Yarmouth Yacht Station. A common discrepancy in these cases.

Come to think of it, I don't know why someone doesn't open a riverside shop in Brundall again. It's a heck of a walk up that hill and back with all the shopping and I for one, will not try it again! Best to go to Thorpe Green or the Commissioners' Cut, and hop on the bus to Sainsburys.

Well I'm sorry, but I don't see much point in publishing a report like that. Apart from date, time and place it doesn't really tell us anything. According to the EDP this morning, the inquest on the fatality is not now being held until early November anyway. There is, however, a heavy inference that the hire boat industry has been contacted with new guidelines (rules?) on safety in handling big boats, engine controls and other things. I don't see how they can infer blame in that way without stating reasons. I notice on Ferry Marina's website that the name Diamond Emblem is no longer listed. I assume they have been re-named and are a 10 berth boat, as the report says there were 9 persons aboard. I am afraid I resent this kind of immediate suspicion of hiring companies before anything at all has been proven or announced. It could just as easily have been an accident on a private boat.

Sorry, can't agree with that. Peachments hydraulic drive hardly loses any power in the drive. The old Dowty or Dennison systems lost about 10% but that was over 50 years ago! There are other enormous advantages to hydraulic drive especially on a waterway which has a lot of locks, such as the Thames. I did a lot of research into fuel consumption as all our boats in France were fitted with hour meters. You can expect a Nanni 4220 to use just over 2 litres per hour at moderate speeds - depending on the size of the prop of course. Consumption of any diesel goes up sharply when you go fast. The Nanni 5 cylinder was using about 3 litres an hour when the speed was limited. Take the limiter off and go up to 2500 revs and you start using over 7 litres an hour. The most economical was the good old Perkins 4108. Consistent consumption of 1.6 litres per hour on a 4 berth boat.

He was indeed. The boat was called the Fish-afloat, which was a pun on Windboats' "Flat-afloat" which was what the boat was. It was run by Tom's brother in law, whose family were in the fish and chip business in Grimsby, so the food was excellent. It ran very well for a couple of years around 1970, but Tom didn't get on at all well with old Cissy Lant who ran the stores at the corner of the staithe and she complained to the council about the smell of frying. So it lost its planning permission.

Excuse me - for the technical amongst you, when I said vaporising I meant condensing, of course. If the exhaust gases go through too long a pipe, they will condense and drip back down the pipe, which will rust the flue in the fridge.

Maybe you have too much tension in the control cable to the Morse control, which is overcoming the tension of the throttle spring when the gear lever is in neutral. Try disconnecting the control cable at the injector pump end, and see what happens!

WHOA! Everybody stop just for a moment, please. Do not let's PXXX about with gas fridges on an Internet forum. The most likely problem is that the flue has got rusted up and needs brushing out with a special flue brush. This will allow the correct flow of air up the flue to burn the pilot light with a proper blue flame. It is the flue getting hot, which creates the heat exchange which makes a gas fridge work. If the flue is rusty it doesn't get hot enough and the fridge does not cool down. The pilot light just heats up the flue. If the flue has got rusty this is because it has been installed with the exhaust pipe at too long a length out to the hull, so the exhaust gases are vaporising before they can escape. The exhaust for a gas flame consists ONLY of CO2 and water. A fridge flue needs cleaning out at the start of EVERY season. You must NEVER attempt to clean the jet of a gas fridge. If it is not burning properly with a blue flame then the jet must be replaced. The aperture in the jet is TOO SMALL to be cleaned by pricking. If you do that, the jet will burn with a white flame and emit CARBON MONOXIDE into the boat. Gas fridges are excellent, but they must be serviced every spring and this MUST be done by a Gas Safe approved fitter.

I agree with MM. It is always the Red House to me. Just as the Rushcutters (whatever that means) is always Thorpe Gardens.

I was also taught to think of DC electricity like water flowing through a pipe : where amps are the flow rate through the pipe; volts are the water pressure and watts are the volume of water delivered. If you turn on the cold tap in the kitchen, you get a strong jet of water. If you then connect a long hose to the tap and go down the bottom of the garden with it, you only get a trickle out of the end. This is the same as resistance in a circuit, which causes volt drop. If you want the same flow at the bottom of the garden, you need a bigger diameter hose!

Sometimes I find it helps to think in watts, which are volts times amps. So a 40 amp charger is producing 480 watts at 12 volts. (in theory). At 240 volts, this same wattage is only 2 amps. Plus as Meantime says, you lose some efficiency through the voltage conversion. I always like to have a 40 amp charger on a motor cruiser.

Jim and Peggy Cole were a lovely couple who were good friends of my parents. They also owned Tidecraft Cruisers, on the same piece of riverside property. Peggy used to run the shop while Jim did the "front of house" on the quay, getting boats moored up and making sure they moved on as soon as they had shopped. They did a roaring trade in the 50s and 60s, especially on a Sunday morning, in the days of the Jenner Group in Thorpe. Their son, Jim junior, went on to found the Norfolk Yacht Agency.

I thoroughly agree with all of that. I might add that the normal maximum charge level for a battery is its 10 hour rate plus 70%. So one 100 amp/hour battery can be charged at 17 amps continuous. More than that and it will overheat and "gas off". So if you have a 90 amp alternator you need to have the charge spread across at least 3 batteries in parallel. Most Broads cruisers these days have one starter and 3 domestic batteries. Electrolux will tell you that one of their smaller 60 watt fridges will use 45 amp hours over 24 hours on a medium thermostat setting. As you can't take a battery below 50% of its charge, this means you need to allow the capacity of a whole 110 AH battery, just to run the fridge.

My second thought is that the only problem (if there is one?) is the battery charger being too small for what you are asking from it. As I understand it, you have sat on a mooring since Wednesday on shore power but without running the engine. Your fridge is still running. Good. Have a nice day! Edited to add : I wish I were moored alongside you - we would have an even better day!

That was my first thought when I read this!

Doesn't surprise me at all!

Sorry to delay in replying. I don't know what they are doing at Trebes. It was closed down all last year but all of a sudden, in March, a full fleet of boats appeared, about 30 odd and they seemed to have started up again. Then, lo and behold, over Easter weekend itself, they all disappeared again! They weren't moved to Homps so I don't know where they went. Maybe the Lot but I doubt that. And who did they get to move all that lot, over a bank holiday weekend? They wouldn't have been able to hire any trucks, or a crane. Their business decisions are a complete mystery to me. They have had another disastrous season where we only saw one week, in August, when they had about 3/4 of the fleet out. All the rest of the time it has been less than 1/4. The only boats I seem to see on the canal are from French companies and there are no queues at the multiple locks, as there normally are. Which is partly why we are thinking of hiring a boat from Locaboat in October! If we can't get back to the Broads this year, why not? I shall have to do a blog about it for the forum . . . .

I have never seen a broker write about a boat for sale with such un-reserved enthusiasm as that!

I have just read your other thread and perhaps my suspicions may be confirmed. In your photo there appears to be an area around the mooring cleat which has been repaired with short planking. Perhaps best to start looking there. Hopefully it may just be a matter of re-pitching the seams. In which case don't try to do that yourself! Talking of scrubbing decks, I have just remembered an old ditty from the Navy : For six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou art able. And on the seventh day, thou shalt holystone the deck and chip and scrape the anchor cable!