Vaughan

This time you beat me to it, Mr MM, sir!

Difficult to scan this as the brochure is in old foolscap size and not A4. Maybe Chris B can get them the right way up for me? This is Blakes of 1964 and looks like the same list, at a glance. There is still no Moores flag though. I went to school with David Moore and his father Ralph was always a bit "iffy" about Blakes. He always refused to have the Blakes emblem on the bow of his boats as he considered his standards were a lot higher than Blakes!

I think I would guess that tray was made in about 1965 or 66. Wards, Landamores, Windboats and Dawncraft were all sold to Jenners just after, but I notice the new Southgates flag, after they were bought by Tom Watson of Herbert Woods. I think Banhams stopped hiring in 66 but Percivals went on until about 69. There is no Moores flag, so maybe Jenners bought them before the others? These were times of big recession and by the 70s that list had changed a lot. Several old ones gone but a lot of new ones (like me) coming in. It's difficult to remember as a lot of yards never flew a flag on their boats, so you only saw them in the brochure! Pennants are very expensive, when made out of bunting and you can get through 2 or 3 a year, when they get frayed by the wind. Or nicked as souvenirs!!

I got 29, but I ought to have done better than that! It's all a long time ago!

I was going to suggest that myself. You have a boat that will behave beautifully when going stern first. You will be able to impress the bystanders with your boat handling!

Perhaps if Mr Colman had decided to cart away even more of the Yare valley for gravel extraction, it could have been done at Whitlingham. Sorry, couldn't resist that . . . .

I thought baring was for those running around in the noddy. My regiment in the Army used to be the RASC - Royal Army Service Corps. Also known (by rival regiments) as Run Away, Someone's Coming.

I would think that photo was taken from the top deck of the NBYC clubhouse on Wroxham Broad. If you went past there at that speed nowadays, you would probably receive both barrels of a twelve bore, from the race officer!

Hope this helps! Scan from Blakes catalogue of 1968, which suggests they were not in their first year on hire at that time. Iconic cruisers in their day and I think that is probably Mr Latham at the wheel. Notice that Collins were one of the yards that wore the Red Ensign on their hire boats. It was all about pride, in those days!

Worth remembering that the record was sailed in protected sheltered waters, inside Portland Naval Base, in Dorset. The mast from Crossbow was used to re-rig Ladybird after she was dismasted in a Cruiser race on Wroxham Broad, and was thus the original of the "big rigs" that we now see on certain Broads racers.

Fascinating technology. All I can say is that traditionally, the America's Cup has always been raced in inshore sheltered waters, such as The Solent, or in Chesapeake Bay. There was no pretence at all that the old J Class could sail in any kind of seaway or groundswell and they usually crossed the Atlantic under a very reduced rig, or as deck cargo on a ship! So at least they are keeping to that tradition. Broads River Cruisers are also "flat water" boats, which will not take waves easily. This means that the racing boats have always been over canvassed, going right back to the original rigs of Maidie, and Ladybird. There is considerable evidence that these boats, built in the 30s were very much designed as a mini "J Class". River Cruisers are also designed to pass under Broads bridges and must be capable of living on board, when cruising. I am sure the class will always want to keep those traditions as well. As to 50MPH on Oulton Broad, that is not new either! My old friend Tom Percival used to lap the course there in a powerboat race at 125MPH. But the course was closed to the navigation of course. Does this technology mean that sailing races will now require a similar closure to other traffic?

That second flag is quite a rarity, as shortly afterwards, the A was changed to a B, for Blakes.

On my base at St Gilles, with a fleet of 50 boats, we had three, of different classes, with the number 13. Capri 13, Crusader 13 and Sheba 13. On the Capri, a retired gentleman, regular customer, died in bed of a heart attack while on holiday with his wife. On the Crusader, a middle-aged lady collapsed and died of a massive stroke on the galley floor, while making a cup of tea. The Sheba had its deck and superstructure mould blown off by a gas explosion, a year after I had left. I don't remember anyone dying on any of the other boats in the fleet and the Sheba accident was the only one that had anything to do with the boat, or the water. In that case, there was no-one on board, so no-one hurt. Maybe there is something in the superstition, after all? All the same, people do die on boats, just as they do in houses.

Yes, but without that Vetus weed filter! Not hirer proof. (see above)

We always used to say that whatever you fit on a hire boat, has to be "hirer proof"!

I don't think the TOS would permit my full opinion on those! Suffice to say that the design of the big ones, built in France by Benneteau, were thrown out by myself and the rest of the board of CBL when they were first proposed in 1999. But the big American tour operators know better, of course! They were introduced by the new owners after I had left (luckily for me) but I gather they have been a bit of a disaster. One of those in a Canal du Midi lock means that two other boats have to wait as there is no room and when they hit something they hit it hard! This is not helped by the fact that they have no rudder and are driven by a diesel/electric azimuth pod. Imagine trying to demonstrate that, on a trial run. And imagine what the pod looks like, once it has been run aground!

Oh, and I forgot to mention an 800 litre grey water tank. Pity the French don't have any pumpout stations on their waterways, so we can't use them! By the way, my comment in no way demeans the fabulous building of yards such as NBYCo and so many others, down the years. I am talking about the quality offered by a hire boat from the customer's point of view and I have never seen better overall value than these.

We fitted the Nanni 5 cylinder engine into these big beauties. The 15 metre Crown Grand Classique. Hydraulic drive with hydraulic bow thruster and a couple of them had Peachment's hydraulic generators, for air conditioning. Full size domestic fridge/freezer, 3 toilets and showers of which two were en suite - the works. Also notice the full length single level handrails, for safety when working in locks. Designed by Andy Wolstenholme, moulded by Aquafibre and built by Crown Cruisers. I am prepared to stand up and say that these are probably the best inland waterways hire boats ever built.

Plus, you don't need a big engine on the Broads in an AF42. You have a hard chine hull with a deep V giving plenty of "wetted surface" and a long waterline length. They make a bit of a stern wave off the straight transom but slide nicely through the water. A BMC 1.5 or the Nanni 4220 should be easily sufficient. The problem with those 6 cyl engines in the Ultimate Gems was that they weren't working hard enough and the bores were glazing up.

Nanni did a 5 cylinder engine which was just like the 4220 with an extra "pot". Very nice smooth powerful engines, but they have stopped producing them now, in favour of the 4 cylinder turbo.

No. I was working for Richardsons at the time they were built so I can be sure of that. There were some AF37s in the French fleet with a BMC 2.5 but the the 42s had the 1.5. The six cylinder engines were fitted in the Bounty (Solar) 44 classes called Ultimate Gem and Fine Gem and were built by Richardsons at Stalham. 4 boats in all, as I remember. The idea was that a bigger engine would need to do less work and so would last longer. This didn't work in practice, as they weren't doing enough work, and they were soon re-engined. I think the engine was a Ford Sabre but can't quite remember, after 45 years! I stood for 2 weeks on Ultimate Gem 1, on Blakes stand at the Earls Court boat show in 1975.

Funny the article mentions the Sopwith Camel but not the Boulton and Paul Defiant, built about the same time as the Hurricane and tested on their own airfield, which is now the Heartsease Estate, just north of the Plumstead Rd. The Defiant had a powered machine gun turret, which was later used on certain MGBs of Coastal Forces and on RAF rescue launches.

The best way to preserve and enhance our English countryside, is to stop building dormitory towns all over it.

At least there is no Icelandic influence around here, that I know of. All I remember them bringing us, was the Hanki Panki Wanki Banki.

I think you are quite right and there is indeed a lot of Norse influence in Norfolk and its boatbuilding. Reedham was a Viking settlement so they say (in the days of the Great Estuary. ) and I believe Thorpe is also a Danish word. They say that the wherry came from the design of Viking longships but I am not so sure about that. I do believe though, that the traditional Norfolk reed barge, as preserved at How Hill, is older than the Norfolk keel and was based on the sort of vessels in which the Norsemen traded, rather than their longships, which were warships. These were undoubtedly the sort of boats that were used for the digging of the peat pits. The dutch came to Norfolk and the east coast when they were fleeing the religious persecution of the Huguenots - I think around the 13th century. They brought their boatbuilding skills with them as well as their weavers, who prospered greatly here. Personally I believe the wherry has much more of a Dutch influence than the keel, as it was the Dutch who introduced the fore-and-aft rigged sail. I suppose a lot of this has passed into myth over the centuries and I am only relating what I have always been told by boatyard people in Norfolk. I find it a fascinating subject, all the same!