Vaughan

Here's one! A pedigree miniature poodle, always known as "Sweet Pea". Photo taken on Thorpe Island in about 1960. My mother used to shoot in those days, with a Jeffery 20 bore and the poodle was trained to a gun along with my father's Labradors. They say poodles are hunting dogs, and it's true! Only trouble was, on a wet winter day she would end up covered in mud and when she came running out of a field of beet she looked a lot like a hare, and nearly got shot once. In fact a hare was the only thing she couldn't retrieve - they were bigger than she was! Some members may remember Geoff Pleasants, who had the Ranworth Maltsters for many years in the 50s and 60s. He often used to shoot with my parents and one day on a "rough" shoot at Hautbois, near Coltishall, he got a "right and left" at woodcock. This is very rare and by tradition, you can write, with witnesses, to the Sandringham estate and the Queen will send you a bottle of whisky. My parents were the witnesses, Geoff got his whisky and the birds were retrieved by Sweet Pea! Some of those who live on the Island today, know where her grave can still be found, in the garden.

And not forgetting the Guinness stand, always in the centre near the pool and the place where everyone arranged to meet their friends when visiting the show. It was always rumoured that Guinness made a special brew for the Boat Show, as they sold probably millions of pints. Don't know if that was true but it certainly seemed to taste better there, somehow!

Just as well you got her under the bridge when you did!

Fred Brinkoff (I think that's the spelling) made an arrangement with Soler's travel agency in Switzerland to bring customers over on a chartered aircraft to Norwich, which meant starting their holiday on a Thursday. One of the earliest versions of a "package" holiday! One or two yards, including Hearts, reserved boats specially for Soler's customers and so this also created the mid-week holiday start. Until then, all bookings had been from Saturday to Saturday. This would have been in about 1964, when it first started. Solers agency was still running, last time I looked. and they are very important customers for boats on the French canals. I met Fred Soler several times, as he was invited to several CBL board meetings and gave a lot of input into our boat design and customer service.

I got a Christmas card from Richardsons by e-mail, on Christmas Day. So they haven't forgotten about that piece of marketing! All the yards used to send their regular customers a Christmas card, as it arrives just at the time when they are thinking of booking a holiday. It is very effective!

That is a New Year's resolution, if ever I heard one!

Not in my day, it wasn't! The rozzers would jump on truckers for the slightest excuse. And the Suffolk police, around Felixtowe, were the worst.

TIR stood for Transports Internationales Routiers, which meant they were travelling to countries outside Europe, especially Turkey, in those days, as well as Switzerland, which is also non EU. This meant the trailer was sealed by customs before leaving UK and each customs border only had to check the seal was intact, before clearing the load through. At least, in theory!

Yes, but that raises other problems. "Fridge boxes" as they are are called, have a tachograph fitted, to prove how long the compressor has been running. If that load has run out of date, because of being stuck on the M20 for 3 or 4 days, then it is useless. The original meaning of "sell-by date"! The other problem may be driver's hours. They are very complex but basically, after a full driving day, you must park up "somewhere safe off the road" for an 11 hour break. But that does not mean the slow lane of the M20, where you have to be awake at the wheel, in case the queue moves forward! These drivers have not had a legal break and if they moved their truck in the queue, yesterday, it would show on the tachograph. So if they get stopped by the German police on the border at Aachen, they will not be able to show a tachograph trace which proves they have respected international driver's hours. By now, they will be out of daily hours and out of weekly hours as well. They all risk being "parked up" in Germany, and it is not their fault!

It has occurred to me that all these trucks crossing the channel now, will not be allowed to run in France as it is a public holiday - Christmas Day! They won't be allowed to run on Sunday either. Let us pray that the French have enough sense not to enforce it, or they will not be very popular in Europe! Trucks are allowed to travel a certain distance to a border, if they are on their way home, so they can always go north to Dunkirk, cross into Belgium, cross into Germany at Aachen, and then through there to Eastern Europe. It is a long way home, to Romania, or the Czech Republic.

From our splendid isolation here in France, I echo that sentiment! We have our neighbours here in the village and it is a very friendly community, but there is no hope of seeing any family this year. One of my in-laws has suggested we have a Christmas zoom conference, but luckily, we are not set up for that! It will be a shame not to see my grandchildren but my daughter is very busy right now with all the vaccinations, so Christmas will be her only day off. She has always had a sadistic side, which loves pronging needles into people but in fact she and two other matrons are doing shifts to organise the logistics of getting people into the hospital to have it done. They are all elderly, some infirm, and it is not just a question of laying on transport. They have set up a special area in an old canteen where they have to have an arrest trolley and several beds available, in case anyone gets taken poorly while they are there. It makes it a long process and you can't just have them all standing in a queue in the car park, like Tescos! Still, I have just had our boat winterised and it turns out she has used a whole tank of diesel during this season, so it can't have been all work! Meantime, we have decided to move house to somewhere more comfortable, although still in this area. We went out looking for a sensible retirement bungalow with a bit of parking, and ended up with this! The big yard at the back gives out onto another road and the lower floor is all garage and workshop space, so there is also room to build a model railway! I daren't tell you what it cost, but let's just say that in Norfolk I could have bought one, or maybe both, of my daughter's garden sheds for the same price! We complete on it at the end of January and so it gives us a positive project to look forward to, after what has amounted to a completely wasted year of our lives. Meantime, it is now 6AM, I have got the fire lit and Susie and I wish you all a very happy Christmas, wherever you may be!

I have just seen the nine o'clock news and there is starting to be trouble in Dover between drivers and the police. It also seems that the drivers are now blockading roads out of the port and out of Dover itself, as they feel if they are going to be trapped then so is everyone else. This does not surprise me in the least and I predict it will get a lot worse. There must be a great deal of anger at the moment. Truckers have to learn to be patient, as they have to wait around for long periods - waiting to be loaded, waiting to clear customs - it is all part of the job. But they are independent minded and they are not the sort of people you would be advised to push too far!

The other company that traded a lot to Norwich was Everards, whose names all ended in ITY, such as Serenity, Absurdity, Obscenity, and one or two others . . . .

Something that I said, in a speech to the crowd in Dover during the seamen' strike, was that if you wanted to transport livestock in conditions like this, the Ministry of Agriculture would not give you a licence!

The M stood for Metcalfe, if I remember right.

It seems clear that the Brexit débacle has a lot to do with this. As regards testing, I agree that truckers are not "loners" and come into as much public contact as any other traveller. For instance they are just like all the other passengers when they are on a ferry! How do these "experts" think they load their trucks, or deliver their goods? All on their own, in isolation? This is just ill-informed, incompetent and muddled thinking, of a standard that we are having to get used to, from those who should know better. What annoys me is that with Brexit having been disputed for 3 or more years, a simple border closure such as his shows how absolutely no proper preparation has been made in that time. What do they think it is going to be like after Brexit, when the French fishermen blockade Calais and Dunkirk, because they can't fish in our territorial waters any more?

I also posted this because I deeply resent the suggestion, especially by government ministers, that truckers are OK because they lead a lonely life and don't mind staying in their cabs. How dare they make such a stupid assumption? Obviously they have never been in one of the big "routier" restaurants on the French national roads, or in the huge service areas on the European borders, such as Aachen, Breda or Ventimiglia. I was what they called a continental driver - nowadays known as "trampers" - and yes, you are on your own a lot and you make your own way. In the days long before mobile phones or GPS, you were very much running your own business. I was away for 5 nights a week, doing 2500 to 3000 km a week and unless I found a phone box and called the office in Norfolk, no-one knew where I was. This is a lay-by off the main road in La Tour du Pin, just east of Lyon and about a mile from the factory where I was loading the next morning. I knew loads of places like this and this is where I would choose to spend peaceful nights "on my own in my cab". But I would certainly NOT choose to be trapped in my cab on the slow lane of the M20 for several days and nights because of some-one else's blasted incompetence and total lack of fore-sight!

I am terribly sorry Tim. Although I fear from what you have been telling us, that it was inevitable, it doesn't make it any easier. You know we are all thinking of you, at this time.

I gave the trial run on that yacht! And when we got down there, the engine started normally. Perhaps they should have started it before lowering the sails. The Ellen M glanced off the bridge pier on the Ship Inn side and when they shut the bridge again, the rails were 4 inches out of line!

Here is the queue of trucks, parked up on the M20, waiting to get into Dover, which is seven miles from where this photo was taken. The actual queue is more than 15 miles long. Why I am I posting this? Because it was taken THIRTY YEARS AGO - during the Sealink seamen's strike, which had by then, lasted for 12 weeks. It seems we have learned nothing since. The truck in the foreground is from the same company that I drove for, but I had arrived 3 hours earlier into Dover that Sunday night so I was stuck in the docks but my friend John was stuck in what was later called "operation stack" on the M20. No-one knew who actually started it but on that Monday morning all the truckers had had enough of being the victims of some-one else's dispute, and so some of us parked our trucks across the link spans leading to the ferries, and blocked off the port. They tried to remove us but it turned out that although Dover docks were part of the "public highway", the link spans were not, so they could not remove us. The action soon spread to other Channel ports such as Calais, Ostend and Zeebrugge and for two days, we stopped all ferry movements in the English Channel. The Dover Harbour Board were actually on our side, as they were trying to run a commercial port, but had been prevented, by a seamens' dispute. This was in the days before free movement across borders in the EU, so all the truckers that you see here, (and hundreds more) have already cleared customs, have their "T forms" stamped, and are waiting to cross the channel. As such, they no longer "exist" in England and are not able to leave the port and go home. So they are prisoners of the system, in the same way that truckers are today, thirty years later. There were a lot of meetings and a lot of speeches, which I became involved in as I ended up as the French interpreter for all the French and Eastern European drivers who were also stuck there. Our principle was that we were not on strike, but we were fed up with being buggered about by others. In the end Sealink backed down and so did the seamen and we voted to remove the blockade. This photo shows most of the truckers' committee being applauded as the first trucks from Calais came down the link spans into Dover after the strike was over. It was a time to remember and it shows how truckers have a lot of patience, but it has its limits! And what have we learned from it, thirty years later? Bugger all, by the look of it!

We are all thinking of you Tim. I have met Dylan a couple of times, on the Broads.

It is certainly food for thought. What is the risk, exactly? It is a maintained, purpose built mooring. If the boat is hit on the mooring by another boat, that is a third party claim against the other boat, for which you are not liable, even if you have opted to pay a security deposit. If the boat is vandalised, by kids throwing stones through the windows, that is criminal damage. Give a statement to the police, to record for the insurers that you have reported it and the boatyard is covered, in the same way as if it had happened whilst going under Foundry Bridge. You might find that boatyards don't often claim for damage these days. It is not worth it as they do their own repairs and the damage waiver is itself, a form of insurance which covers this cost. Broken marine windows however, are very expensive. Perhaps it comes down to - is there a sign on the quay, which says mooring is forbidden during winter? If so, then that must be the answer to the question!

There is another thought here. Boatyard insurance will have a "laid up" period, usually from the end of October to the 1st March. So if a yard is operating "out of season" I assume they have suitable insurance, which takes into account that normal service will not be available in the cruising area. It is also up to the boatyard how they want to insure their boat. You will have paid the damage waiver! I suppose the best answer, as always, is to ask the boatyard!

This is a conundrum. The boatyard insure the boat, but not the hirer. The hirer has to have personal accident insurance, as well as for personal property. But if the boat was damaged on the moorings, would you be liable? Conditions of hire state that the yard is not responsible for restrictions to the navigation and hirers are obliged to navigate within any temporary restrictions (such as flooding) which may be in force. But does that include mooring at a yacht station, which is un-manned in winter? Personally, I would not think so, unless the yard has made a specific written condition that you may not moor there when it is un-manned. I assume Norwich CC would deny responsibility as it is un-supervised but does that still mean you may not moor there, at your own risk? If we have any members with knowledge of marine insurance, it may be worth discussing!

Yet again, nothing is new. Langford Jillings built a hybrid hire boat about 25 years ago. It was about 40ft, driven by a great big electric motor on a shaft drive, with a little toggle switch on the dashboard, for ahead and astern. Langford wanted to get a reduced river toll because of the green technology and was furious when the BA refused. They gently pointed out that the generator that ran the motor was powered by a Perkins 4108 that was pumping as much exhaust into the river as any other hire boat!