Turnoar

To start with I would stick rather than twist; if it doesn’t turn out to be practical then add another tank. Based on Vaughan’s comment I would equally be surprised if there isn’t another tank or if indeed the tank is bigger than you initially think. Most broads hire boats pooltled along for a week without needing refuelling!

Advance apology of I’ve broken tos by naming Experian but I’m happy to apologise in flesh to a representative of Experian if that helps. As forum members will note I am not impressed with my employer nor Ex’!

With my employer having recently allowed itself, over a long period of time imho, to be vulnerable to attack.. and then it happened I was offered an Experian Identity plus freebie for a year. Followed the link and have got nothing of the sort. Any forum members any experience of Experian? They just keep offering 1 month free trials the £x per month after etc. I’m resignIng myself to lots of headaches and potential financial loss in due course. What I want is attempted fraud notification. Is there a better company than Experian? My initial experience based on employer recommendation is give Experian a wide berth.

Sight at a distance is better than nothing, if your family can pass by in the course of recreation and speak or wave from the end of the path it keeps you in touch with family and civilisation. Otherwise do use online virtual apps if possible, not my personal preference but the only option sometimes and important to keep in touch.

I wonder what the name of the EA will be after this debacle; I can feel a rebranding coming on! Despicable behaviour from a public funded body that is supposed to protect and indeed improve fisheries, not worsen them. Well done to that legal team and looking forward to a favourable outcome on the other points. If the whistler is reading this keep blowing!

That’s good to hear Ian, that pain killers are working, on the scene of an accident today when I overhead about the casualty being in pain I felt completely and totally and utterly useless, wholly in the hands of others yet to arrive. How much better I’d have felt if I had gone into the medical profession and could have performed a bit of road side magic, people who can work on humans and animals have my uppermost respect, they can’t and rarely get it wrong, you have a second chance to rebuild a boat if it sinks first time! Keep your spirits up, if pma has anything to do with it you’ll sail through!

Heron, from what I’ve witnessed this weekend I suspect there may be second homers locking down here or indeed they may have relocated, the property market feels heated, North Norfolk is still sweet shop money for those in the big smoke! For the avoidance of doubt I’m not suggesting only those from elsewhere misbehave, it could be those who were in bubbles on autopilot. I know whether someone is local or not by how they approached and passed me on single track country lanes yesterday, I went the main road way today.

Certainly is a fine sunny day, been out for a morning cycle ride and stuck to main roads generally to avoid wet mud, quiet to begin with. Happened upon a motorcycle accident at Walcott Green on the bend and helped slow traffic until police and fire service arrived, not as soon as I thought on a lockdown Sunday and the ambulance may have ended up being an hour or two I guess. The motorcycle had passed me a mile or so before and was riding sensibly given the earlier damp conditions. Stayed well away from others who had stopped to help first, hope the rider who had ended up in the soft verge is okay, kind couple of first aiders stopped later, likelihood of an off duty doctor etc passing slim in the circumstances I think. Oil on the middle of the road where the bike was when I arrived so take care if you drive that way.

This lockdown is definitely different. We’ve shut down the mink since.... so we weren’t really locked down were we? The planes are still up there so as per last time the borders don’t appear to be closed. The volume of traffic on the country lanes today is notably different (increased).... compared to previous lockdown. I’m keeping my distance because I want this over but I think both the authorities and individuals need to play their part. I’m hopeful but apathetic in equal measure.

Martham Boats are independent. Recommend on the basis of traditional boats with enough mod cons and low air draft. South is quieter, North is different, I guess it’s a personal choice.

Going back 20 to 30 years I recall a newspaper article with a boat owner making his point about the right to navigate Horsey 365 even in the so called closed season, I think on the basis of there being a Staithe. He made his case and won his point from what I recall. Have the mooring posts changed again?

Great news Ian, there’s no place like home... except for the Norfolk Broads! Wishing you all the best and looking forward to your return and b(roads)logs in due course when both you’re back up to speed and the weather has improved.

Reveting to Chris’s previous comment about the state of the timber defences following the project I do wonder if on balance the best solution for the entire stretch of coastline with cliffs would simply have been to maintain the existing defences, perhaps with a bit of rock armour to boot. Appreciate drainage on the cliffs needs maintaining too and such places with the addition of sea walls and timber defences seem to hold the line viz Cromer and Overstrand. My grandmother once told me that people out of work were sent down the beach to plant marram grass on the sand dunes; missed a trick at Bacton maybe?

Granted...

Plenty of scope to create some new marinas which could create jobs too. Just hope there’s some money somewhere to do it and business is willing to take a punt or a dragline or whatever is needed. If Herbert Woods could do it after WW1 then I’d hope there would be similar opportunists now.

Oh no, not more sinking bridges I hope. No wonder the rail one wont swing properly!

Malcolm, has it got heating and if so is it working? Hope you're at least warm and comfortable even if rolling off the bunk! Re the listing, a vessel of vintage may have fibreglass tanks which should be watertight and any list may simply be down to an emptyish fresh water tank perhaps (or/and opposing full foul tank if fitted). All the houseboats I've ever been on seemed to have been 'self-draining', viz rainwater in a well area just drained out of a hole level with the floor over the side. If fibreglass tanks start leaking its normally glug glug and down as you fear, but wouldn't be a slow gradual process I shouldn't think? Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay as best you can and come back to Norfolk again. I don't know what's gone wrong with the weather, not normal for us local folk.

Just swerve by the gas station off the A149 next to Ludham airfield for a top up? Mate of my mine used to take his converted ‘gas’ guzzler v8 something or other, much easier than garages in his opinion. Good on his tax bill and think it was congestion charge exempt too for a while, handy for the big smoke. With a wheelbarrow might be walkable from moorings ar Potter.

Couple of questions, having navigated sndc and been directed to ba site, to save searching for the answer is the pub within a conservation area? That in itself may not preclude the use of plastic windows, depends on what the conservation officer decides. Second one is is it listed.... whilst it’s a broadsmark it doesn’t seem to be of “architectural merit”etc. and I wonder how such an imposing building came to be, 3ish storeys on the edge of nowhere surrounded by nothing else... The colour is not great but it highlights mistakes of the past perhaps? That said I’ve always liked it as was and hope it survives as a pub somehow, not the best of times to be testing that though.

I’m not a scientist but over the past 30 years I’ve often noted the progress of the sea nawing away at Happisburgh. Whilst without doubt the frontage has reduced up and down it now seems to be washing away quicker at the sand cliff to the field between the end of the sea wall and the recent car park viz the area to the front of the lighthouse. To that end I’ve wondered if the Church will still be standing when the lighthouse perhaps collapses into a new estuary albeit not long before or after the seacock to the broads is well and truly opened. The marshes at Lessingham drain to Horsey/Hickling I believe.

I note the earlier Challenger catalogue entry stated it wouldn’t normally go under Potter bridge, this one looks more hopeful. Did Defender? Agree that the later Challenger looked ahead of its time, the flow of the curve following from stern, roof, almost to bow (in reverse order) is what to my mind made the John Moxham designed Alpha crafts of the early noughties similarly appealing when they first appeared.

Different build years going by the ads, I saw the 1965 one when it was moored at Martham but can’t recall exactly when. Very comfortable vessel by the looks of the pics, and plenty of deck space to sunbathe on! Was there more than two?

25 2 stroke, the merc’s etc. back in their day are a lovely outboard to power a dory quickly onto the plane, much lighter than the modern fours, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, I envy your acquisition!

Broads Watch managed to get some exposure I see. Not enough room to say what they're all about though...

Looks to be intact, canopy still laying where it normally does but as said the roof rails will have taken a little graze, saves sanding down anyhow. Lovely boats and very comfortable, light and airy, nice layout and great to helm. The old deal boat for me.