Vaughan

I would guess that the forward winch was for lowering the mast and bracing it upright against the backstay that we can see in the drawing. The aft winch would then raise the deadweight of the sail and yard and could also be used for loading cargo. There would be no mainsheet as such, as the square sail and the yard was swung from side to side by braces. Just guessing! I think drawings as good as this one would probably have been accurate.

The pontoon was built when the base was opened about 35 years ago. It is a serious piece of engineering with long holding off poles on goosenecks and two substantial gangway bridges leading down from the bank above. So it can rise right up as high as the bank or higher, if necessary. It is anchored by heavy cable moorings, as posts would be impractical in that location. It was built, however, in the days when the base had less than 10 boats and those that weren't hauled out ashore on the gantry were moored for the winter on the other side of the river, on the town moorings, where there are stone bollards and iron rings, designed for the mooring of 400 ton barges. There were never more than 2 boats on the pontoons in winter. The new global tour operator owners have their own ideas though. They now have around 30 boats on the base and presumably thought it was safe to leave 21 of them, moored three abreast on the pontoons over the winter, on the river Lot. Maybe there wasn't an appropriate box to tick on their risk assessment forms?

I am sure they did, but the yard staff have no say in the management nowadays.

There were a lot of ex P&H boats running with other yards in those days but I still can't find anything like that in the brochure, I am afraid.

Mike Barnes used to reckon that all that was left of the original Maidie when he had finished re-building her, were the two portholes in the front of the cabin!

All their boat names seem to have ended in "line" in those days but I can't find a Caroline listed. Was it a small aft cockpit boat or a larger, centre cockpit?

I have a Hoseasons 1971 brochure - what was the name of the boat?

If you look up "la depeche lot" on internet, there is a collage of videos which are quite surprising. The suspension bridge is in Luzech, several miles downriver. Sorry I don't know how to link it.

When a river like the Lot is in full spate, there is nothing much to stop them. The water is so high that they ride straight over the weirs. That video at the start of the thread shows them riding over the weir in Douelle while they were still attached to the pontoon. Just after that they hit the piers of the old railway bridge and that split them up. After that, they are going downstream in a current of at least 10 miles an hour, sideways. As soon as each one hits a bridge pier, that will be enough to sink it. I am trying not to express my disgust at what I am pretty sure must have happened.

Too close to the water I think. I was thinking of Runham, but that too, is much further away from the river.

I have just been looking up the website for the local paper and it seems there were 21 boats involved, which were swept over the weir all together but then got split up when they hit the piers of the old railway bridge. Those that didn't sink on the way have got as far as Luzech, which is several miles downstream. The fear is that the water will still rise, and sweep away the rest of the boats which are up on the hardstanding on the boatyard. I know that base, and the hardstanding is a long way up from the river - probably more than 30ft! Edited to say : The paper says that no-one was hurt.

I noticed that too. What's more, I have just realised the painting is of Thorpe Green, in the days before the railway was built, so the left bank is open water meadows right over to Crown Point. The artist would have been on the quay of what is now called the Rushcutters, then called the Three Tuns. I also notice that the keel appears to be loaded with tree trunks and has one floating alongside. Maybe that is why the mast is cocked, so as to use the halyard to load it on board, after floating it out from the bank?

Lovely paintings, Peter, thank you very much for sharing them. Just a point of detail - the wherry in this painting is a keel, with the mast amidships and the main cabin on the foredeck. The smaller yachts with a fore and aft rig are interesting as they may be early wherries.

Haddiscoe had two lines, one at low level still exists, between Reedham and Lowestoft. The other went over the swing bridge from Beccles, with a second, high level station and a signal box (still there) beside the bridge. These are not visible in the photo.

I don't know the actual signal layout at Somerleyton but it was a double track line, so the signals C and D will be the home signals on either side of the signal box (block post) on the bridge. A and B would have to do with the station behind trees at left and A is a bracket signal perhaps for a goods siding at the station. B could also be a distant signal for the next section towards the east. A station does not necessarily have its own block section. The bridge box would be the block post in this case. Just guessing!

No need to credit this photo, as it is the dust cover for the book!

Tom Farrel.

The mill (which was a corn mill) was on the road behind what is now Simpson's boatyard.

Well, I don't know what could be more bleedin' obvious than two parallel lines of big marker posts, green on one side and red on the other!

Sadly, I know how Andy feels. Luckily, the good customers are those who give me the best memories. Do you remember, back in the 50s and 60s, when the British were famous for never complaining, when travelling abroad? The Englishman, on his Cooks tour, would never dream of complaining about a meal in a restaurant. In my job, I dealt with customers from all over the World, in large numbers. I have to say that in recent years, the British have been far the worst to deal with and the most impossible to satisfy. Even worse than the Americans! I am afraid that they have been taught how to moan and complain by Esther Rantzen and those who have succeeded her on TV. They have also learned how to complain loudly enough to get a nice discount off their next year's holiday!

I challenge those who feel there should be better training and/or better marking for crossing Breydon, to say just how they would regulate for anything as silly as this! What's more they obviously went on there at high tide, instead of crossing at low water as they should have been. I wonder how much trouble they had getting off again, at high tide?

If you want to kill off the hire boatyards, then this is the thinking that will do it. Why do we think there are no hire fleets on the waterways of Germany? Because you can't navigate there without a licence. So all the Germans hire boats in France! Just where are we going with this, after 4 deaths last year, none of which would have been prevented by better training, either of customers or staff. Please don't lets get into another "Covid" mentality over this. Next thing we know, it will be stay at home and save lives, in case someone falls in the river.

What's more, that boat on the right looks very much like a Wards Sea Heron class, built in Thorpe in the mis 50s.

Is anyone seriously expecting the tolls to stay the same next year? Or maybe go down? I would have thought 4% is moderate, in the present circumstances. Don't let's forget that the Broads are still being maintained in good order, ready for our eventual return. That said, I am sceptical about this perceived need for extra training to prevent accidents, after the 4 fatalities. Actually I can only remember three, if you include one where someone died on a boat in the night. As for the other two, I cannot see that any extra staff training or videos would have prevented either of them. Sounds like risk aversion, to me.

Teak doesn't have such a straight grain and it is very difficult to sand flat over a wide surface. Are you sure the top is solid wood? Looks more like a veneer to me.