Vaughan

That looks more like a Shite - Hawk to me.

Quite right! A north river wherry would only be rated at about 17 to 20 tons burden. The Albion and the Maud, by comparison, are 40 tonners, normally found on the south rivers.

It might be a good idea this winter to disconnect the fuel line at the tank and blow right through the system with compressed air. Fuel tanks don't often freeze (at least not in UK) owing to their sheer volume. I don't know what engine you have, but DPA rotary injector pumps also have a filter, in the housing of the fuel intake pipe, at the outer end. It is only a little gauze filter, but enough to restrict flow if it has wax in it.

From my experience, Rank were very good at investing money in capital -new boats - but no good at all at maintaining them! They were making large profits in France, but that was because they had bought the fleet secondhand and since spent next to nothing on running costs. I suspect that the Thames was not profitable owing to the extortionate cost of riverside property. This has since killed off almost all the old yards including Bates, and Andrews, the famous builders of slipper stern launches. The Broads, by then, was in drastic recession and big investors such as Rank expect to see at least 13% return on capital. Everything revolves around the shareholders. If they don't get enough return, they just sell up.

This sounds like paraffin wax, which separates out from diesel when it is frozen. The bottom of a little sediment trap filter is a typical place to find it, after freezing weather. It doesn't actually do any harm but its consistency means that it constricts the flow of fuel in the pipes. Hopefully it has not got as far as the injector pump. I suspect that it is this wax which some people call "diesel bug". Trucks often used to freeze up on very cold nights, before the introduction of minus 17 degree diesel. Edited to add : this is the reason why you should change the fuel filters in the spring and not in the autumn. Otherwise, after a hard winter, you might have to do it twice!

Freshfields was a marketing arm of Butlins, who were also owned by Rank at the time and the boating holidays in France, on the Thames and at Richardsons, came under them. In France we were also called Beaver Fleet, which related to the newer yard in St Olaves and not the original one at Somerleyton. By coincidence, it was Crown Cruisers, who ran the old yard in Somerleyton, who later bought the Beaver Fleet in France. So most of the senior management of the Freshfields operation were actually ex Butlins Red-coats.

I apologise for wandering off what is a fascinating thread, but I can truly say that when Crown Blue Line were building our new design of Classiques and Crusaders, of which we built a few hundred, we wanted to fit the Perkins MC42 which had been developed by Duffields in Norwich and is still the best inland waterways diesel I have known. Perkins were not able to guarantee production of this engine for at least the next 5 years (even though they were selling engines to Volvo) and so we were obliged to go with the Nanni 4190 instead. Porter and Haylett (Connoisseur) made the same decision at the same time. So if Perkins had gone with us then Nanni may not have made the same impression on the market that they now have. All the same, they have proved to be a great little engine, although they cannot be economically re-built. In the end, you throw it away and buy another one.

I have visited the Nanni "factory" in La Teste. It is just a couple of tin sheds on an industrial estate. Bits come in on pallets at one end and are assembled much like Meccano, before going to a spray shop, from which they emerge with Nanni written on them. There is no more technology than that. There is much more technology when Peachments, as UK agents, install them in a boat with the necessary gear. Especially when fitting their own hydraulic drive option.

According to their website, I see that Beta engines are marinised in the UK. Nanni engines are marinised in La Teste, near Bordeaux, but are exactly the same Kubota "short engine" before marine parts are fitted.

Perhaps a bit "off piste" but I remember one of the times we hired with Richardsons, we arranged for a Sunday departure as we were at a wedding on the Saturday. We had sent the arrival particulars and although only a couple we had asked for linen for two beds as we had guests joining during the week. Mr & Mrs Wussername, no less! When we arrived on Sunday morning there was only one set of linen, but a sailing dinghy instead! When the instructor came to look after us he very soon got some more linen and we had a good laugh about the dinghy. I said I didn't think I could get into one of those any more and I certainly couldn't get out again! Seriously, you cannot second guess customers' requirements. If you want good service it is very important to send in the arrival particulars and tell the boatyard what you want. It is not a question of economy on laundry - if you want extra linen or extra pillows, they will gladly supply them. Surely it is also common sense to check the inventory before you set off. You have signed for the boat and its equipment, after all.

Surely you know "on which side your bread is buttered"?

Yes. In those days she was owned and lived on by Tony Webster, who was then a young man, with a job in Norwich. He later became the river inspector for the Thurne, based at Womack and a good friend of mine.

I am sure you have heard of it. It states that when you make a jam butty, but drop it before you can get it to your mouth, it will always land on the carpet jam side down!

Just because I wouldn't let you play with my model railway, on the gunboat . . .

They are on this thread a few pages back.

I can't be sure from this photo but it looks as though you have a Hurth gearbox. Nothing wrong with that, they are very sturdy and Nanni supply them as standard, unless you specify otherwise. Make sure you use the right oil, which is the thin red hydraulic oil, TQF or ATF (can't remember which) but not normal engine oil. If the oil is milky white when you dip it, then you have water in it and must have the gearbox repaired. They also need to be well lined up to the propshaft, so another job for a boatyard to look at. They are a mechanical box which engages by a spring clutch, so make sure the engine tickover is set nice and low (700 revs) and let the revs drop down before changing gear. Otherwise you will have wear on the flywheel thrust plate. BMCs are very sturdy engines and you need to remember Sod's Second Law of Engineering : If it is running smoothly and doing what you want - don't bugger about with it.

I was wondering how to put that, but you have summed it up!

Exactly!!!!!!!!! I always use plenty of exclamation marks when replying to Marshman but this should on no account be considered as SHOUTING. See another thread on the subject of language . . . .

The trick when changing the oil, by whatever method, is to run the engine first and get it up to temperature. The oil will then be a lot thinner and will flow easily. When winterising the engine, you can use this warm up period to run the water pump to empty the fresh water tank and it helps to ensure the batteries are charged.

That is probably the sump pump, for changing the oil. The first thing you will need is a set of AF ring spanners as these engines are not metric!

Here's a good comparison, taken sometime in the mid 50s. The Broads river cruisers are all moored for the winter and at the left is the pleasure wherry Dragon, on her permanent mooring. Note that the pub had a big bay window which was behind the bar in those days. At the end nearest the camera was a big dance floor on the first floor with an old skittle alley underneath which was used by the Frostbite sailing club to store their Norfolk dinghies, before they built the new premises out on the river on the old "Thorpe Broad". You can see the big door which gave access to a slipway on the quay. This shed was also used by John Hart, (when the pub was called the Three Tuns and he was landlord) to store his skiffs and half deckers before he moved his business over to the island. I am told that John Hart was still the official boat-keeper to the Bishop of Norwich, since the building, many years before, had been the palace of Bishop De Losinga who was largely responsible for the building of Norwich Cathedral.

I forgot, on the Saturday night there was always a big dance, with bar and barbecue, in Cox's boat sheds at Barton Turf.

They were indeed! Hire boats were supplied with them and fenders were all of plaited coir rope. Barton Regatta was a big event, and they used three wherries, anchored stem to stern near where the clubhouse now is, so that you could walk between them. The committee boat on the left, where the races were started was always the Lord Roberts as she was about the only one with a mast still stepped. The middle one had all the hatches off, with the bar laid out in the hold and the third one was full of Elsan toilets, suitably screened off for ladies and gents. So you hoped that the wind was always in the south west! There was a regular shuttle service to and from Barton Turf, usually supplied by Miles Simpson's big wooden day launches, from Stalham Yacht Station. The racing on Sunday ended with a power boat race. Imagine that nowadays, on Barton Broad!

Couldn't tell you, to be honest! I don't think it even had a height board in those days. You can see that there is a gantry coming out from the boat sheds, which was for getting engines out of boats. There used to be a bar projecting out from this, with another bar hanging down on chains, set to be the same height as the bridge. So on a trial run, if the boat cleared when taken under this, it would also clear the bridge. Be careful that the Norwich end bridge is one and a half inches lower than the Yarmouth end. The Hearts boats also had a flag on the bow which was just a little higher than the canopy when lowered. This was mounted on an old valve spring, so if the flag hit the bridge and bent over, you backed out again!

That statement would be true for 1975 as it was that year when Richardsons (then Rank) built 100 new boats in one winter, to bring them up to 300. All coming out of Stalham, with only 60 turning round on Thursdays. Everything else was a Saturday departure, down the Ant. Ladbrokes started up a base in Messac in Brittany, which was later bought by Crown Blue Line. They were quite frightful things - probably the worst hire boats I have ever known. They had an early version of hydraulic steering which was unreliable and getting them under Thorpe bridge on a trial run was a challenge to say the least. You were almost guaranteed a customer complaint every week. Not at the moment! We were going to move further north to Normandy to be nearer the ferries but what with the virus and all that, we decided we rather like it around here, so we have moved about 10 miles! Once I have decorated our old house and put it up for sale, then we can consider a home in Norfolk as well but for now, that is out of the question. We have our boat in Stalham of course, where we can always stay when back on holiday but what with my daughter's family and my ex wife's family, we shall have to book availability in advance!