oldgregg

If it's where I think it is, then it's probably one of the best spots on the Northern rivers to be based.

It's clearly quite late, though....

And nor was this one of NYA's boats..... It's a Broom. To be clear, though, the 'charter' boats at NYA are not syndicate. The term 'charter' is just a marketing gimmick. They are hire boats.

From the video, it looks like one of Broom’s hirefleet.

As much as engine running annoys me, there is no escaping this fact. Most hire boats don't have shore power and need 4 hours of engine running at a good speed to get enough charge to keep everything going. The idle speed is usually set quite high, too, to ensure the alternator is actually producing enough to be of use. There are times when I've had to do it myself, the alternative being having no lights, running water etc.

There's a lot of work to do yet, but the benefit would be no tailpipe emissions (and oil, etc) going into the rivers and Broads, and boats that are very quiet. I wouldn't miss the sound of a Nanni at 2000rpm, and I doubt anyone else would.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of the CCS DC fast chargers, the new Rugby services at the bottom of the M6 being a good example. There are quite a few substations and transformers serving all those 350KW bays, though, it's quite an interesting thing to look at from an engineering perspective. I think the marine industry will just adapt that technology from the automotive industry, as it ultimately does now. Probably the most mature electric marine engine manufacturer (Torqeedo) uses BMW i3 battery packs for its offering. Based on some fag-packet calculations, I think 300KWh of battery is roughly equivalent to the amount of energy a broads Cruiser that would otherwise burn 100 litres of diesel uses in a summer week (ie not including heating). The domestic usage has been calculated based on a fairly 'average' boat so you'd want to up that for 240V appliances, and the diesel figure is based on getting 3.3kWh out of a litre of diesel (taking into account the circa 70% losses in terms of heat and noise). If we could get to the point of having CCS at boatyards, then you could theoretically manage a one-hour turnaround. But I think topping up overnight on slower chargers is more likely. I think it is undeniable that at some stage the technology will reach the point of maturity where the BA sets out a date for new boats to be electric. At the moment the powertrain cost is going to be easily £50K, but that is falling rapidly. Ten years ago 1KWh of battery storage was costing a grand, now it's getting below £100 and energy density is increasing. And yes, the infrastructure needs to get there and is not there yet. But it has to and it surely will.

A very nice boat, and VERY low engine hours.

She's lovely, we saw her out and about the week before last and she was moored just along from us on the pontoon at OBYS one night. A very smart looking boat. Not cheap, but probably a good one for a special occasion or just to enjoy something a bit 'nice'. In the hot weather, we were quite envious of her effectively having a bimini if you zip out the front, rear, and sides of the canopy.

As I said right back at the start, don't read too much into it at present....

There'll be a process running in the background counting the number of posts for members etc. These things can take hours and hours to run and may only update when people post etc. Don't read too much into it at this stage.

One of the most noticeable things is the 'ranks' next to a user's avatar. At the moment everyone is showing as a 'Newbie', I think that will update over the next few hours to reflect how long people have been posting.

We've just applied a software update, so you may notice that a few things are different. Also, the Unread topics view can take a few hours to rebuild after an update.

You'll be able to get a USB C with PD (power delivery) charger for use on a 12V supply. Incidentally, USB isn't always 5V. PD supplies up to 20V in order to keep the ampage sensible.

Having seen her in the shed, I can vouch for how much work was done!

Yeah he should be. 15 years is effectively a lifetime ban in motorsport, though. He'll be 38 by then, so no chance of a career in the sport.

You wouldn't think that if you'd seen it. Even ignoring the looks, it just doesn't work. The numbers are wrong.

I was amused by the fact that it has got not one but two 3kw inverters to feed those appliances. So with 6KW total available, you could empty those three domestic batteries in half an hour. And then there's only an 80A battery charger and an alternator. Shore power won't help either, because 16A posts are far more common on the Broads than 32....

I think you'll find the two unfinished boats currently in their shed will be completed at some stage. Richardson's (the Stalham yard) don't have an in-house newbuild team any more as they are now working for Clive Richardson at Horning Pleasurecraft, which is his new(ish) venture and was formerly known as Richardson's Horning.

Yeah the Haines aren't new, although in hire terms they have had very little use. The Viking is not very old though and has more of a 'hire' fitout. I think they have just kept the names which were already on the boats. But yes, it looks like the model is probably going to shift to buying boats from elsewhere (ie Haines) and perhaps reducing the fleet in size by selling off the older stuff which doesn't earn big money.

I suspected they might change the names. You can tell Clive's no longer involved, that's for sure.

Yep, Lathams has been part of QD for a long time... They used to be a Norwich-based company.

Well the stuff that went across to Ireland mostly had plenty of freeboard and a decent layup. I'm thinking more of solid dual-steer Aquafibre builds rather than a bathtub. They need it over there (along with the bigger engines the boats tend to have) because some of the Loughs can be a bit like the sea when weather is poor. Apart from the tidal parts close to Yarmouth, the Broads is really pretty tame compared to many waterways.

Well if you're doing the hours of cruising then there's less need. I do miss having shore power though, it was nice knowing that regardless of whether the owner the week before had done way too few engine hours, I could just plug in and not worry about the state of the batteries. Having the fridge shutting down and the heating not being able to start due to low voltage is a pain! And an immersion heater is a really handy thing - No running engines first thing in the morning for a shower.

@Vaughan will probably know if it's the same guy or not, but I know a lot of boats used to make the journey across to Ireland under their own power as well.