oldgregg

It'll be coming. I've seen internals and she's lovely. Not so much of a 'refit' required, just a spruce up.

Isn't it just... Mind you, I can still usually get from Norwich to Barnsley quicker via the A47/A17/A1 than going A11/A14/A1 or A47/A1 and will get much better MPG because I'm stuck behind a load of lorries at 50mph.

Isn't she a beauty! A really nice spacious boat and beautifully finished.....

I think the Elysian / Bounty 27's are in the region of 2 and a half tons. Their light weight shows when you're trying to keep them in a straight line in a strong wind!

They wouldn't need to buy him out. He's under a long-term contract to Mercedes / Toto Wolff, and so they've effectively been able to place him at one of the teams they supply (Williams) where he can be developed in a less pressured environment. But I don't see his move to Brackley happening until the 2022 season.

Nice boat. Got to love an AF38 / 42. Handle like a dream, heavy layup and tons of space.

I seem to remember a thread a long time ago now on another place about how the boats were being stripped out and the plan was to re-fit them to be more of a 'luxury' boat which would be let to selected customers. For that reason I think at least one of them may be at least partially stripped out inside, so would probably only really appeal to an individual or yard willing to do a major refit (and who is happy to strip and paint or vinyl wrap the hideous hull colour). As an aside, I did wander past the yard last year and hadn't realised quite how deep the keel is on those boats. No wonder they handle so well. Presumably there are issues with grounding on certain parts of the system, hence newer stuff is a lot shallower?

They do seem to be really awful, and it's not like pressure is a problem. My rule of thumb is to set the knob to about 2 above what you think the gas mark setting needs to be, and to let the oven warm up for half a good twenty minutes before you need it.

Yeah I remember that. People tend to forget the fact that Mark Webber’s car did a somersault the day before as well.

That was a shocker. Definitely one of the biggest F1 accidents of the last 30+ years. It's very unlikely that accident would have been survivable even four years ago.

Indeed she is. Not a bad boat for the money...

The boats they added more recently are from a 'cancelled order' for a French operator and the boats came back to Brundall and were put into the fleet. The exact details of why that deal went sour I don't know, but when we were moored at Brooms that is what I was told by the staff. That is why you have the boats that are too big for Broads hire. They don't know what else to do with them. I think some of the last boats to be built at Broom were the 39ft stretched Diamond 35's for Barnes who don't have enough capacity to build what they need for the fleet.

Yeah I think Woods had some of the earliest ones. Major Gem 2 is an ex-Woods boat and was built around 1973.

They're a solid boat, but yeah I don't think anyone was building the MK1 Aquafibre 42's after about 1982. I actually prefer the Mk1 as it has that integral seat on the foredeck.

Ricko's built a few boats such as Broads Sunrise a while back which had the Morco style gas combi boilers. They've since been retrofitted with conventional systems so I'm not sure what happened but I guess they were too much trouble? It always seemed like a good idea to me, but of course they're reliant on the batteries for ignition, pumping and control.

Most of those ball valves tend to leak once they've been used a bit, yeah. I've got the metal ones on the central heating system because while I can live with turning the fresh water supply off for a bit, I don't want to be draining the whole C/H system in the winter to replace yet another leaking TRV or radiator. And you only notice the problem in the colder months, naturally. Gate valves are probably the best, but they're quite big and obtrusive, cost about a tenner each and it takes longer to turn them off in an emergency.

It's been said many times, but I don't think moving away from the co-operative model did the yards any favours. These things, sadly, are usually about short-term gain. Now each of the yards has to largely go it alone and spend lots of money on marketing in order to stand out. Yes, many still use Hoseasons and it's a brand people know, but they aren't primarily a Broads business and that's the problem. To the average punter these days, Hoseasons means 'holidays' and not 'The Broads'. Businesses who excel at something are usually those who specialise in it. The jack of all trades is a master of none.

Yeah, it was. I was expecting a repeat of the dull processions we've had this season but the conditions and grid order kept things interesting right until the end. I'm not a big LH fan but 7 titles is an incredible achievement, and he'll surely want to challenge for an eighth next season given that the technical rule changes won't be until the season after.

Perfectly placed to identify with Burberry's target audience then...

It's what they call fair usage.. They know if you've hotspotting to a laptop you're going to be using a lot more data than if you've just got the phone on its own. This ties into the whole 'unlimited data' or '96gb data' etc etc. They know what the average user actually consumes and don't want to make it easy for you to actually use such a large allowance.

Yup. My Huawei has an external antenna socket and the difference in reception is like night and day when you're in a remote part of the Broads.

It is like the Huawei unit you've got. I've had one for years (a 3G one). £89 for a 4G router is pretty unremarkable, particularly a no-name one.

Having got the t-shirt on this one, I would say you're better to get a 4-week share and think of it in terms of getting perhaps 3 reasonable weeks and one you may not use. You're right in that most syndicates don't want their 4-week shares split further. Most have probably slightly more owners than they'd prefer as it gets complicated making decisions etc so wouldn't want to increase that. With a two-week share you have to look at it as getting one good week and anything else is a bonus. For the money you pay when you consider the size of the boat, the mooring location and flexibility around arrival time then it does have advantages. Do your calculations on that basis and you won't be too disappointed, I think. And I can't think of a syndicate boat which doesn't have shore power, which obviously is a plus as you don't have to do that 4+ hours a day running to keep the batteries in condition. For a retired or partially-retired person then it's a very different proposition. A fair few unused weeks will come up during the season and if you have the ability to just drop everything and go then it works well. I've picked up weeks in the Summer and been able to use the weekend, but because of work have never been able to do more than that. For me, hiring works better for now as I can pick the dates I want and plan stuff a long way ahead. And it allows me to do more canal boating... Or it would if COVID hadn't happened!

If it is a Jabsco (aka a pump and dump) rather than a Mansfield (where you push a pedal that opens a ball valve) then yes the pipework can get a bit smelly. But I have to say I would always go for riverwater flush - They will work regardless of whether you have any water left in the tank, and as others have said it is nice to be able to keep the two systems completely separate. You can have non-return valves etc but there's no separation like having completely separate pipework.

Just a final point I'd make about school holidays - if you are working and have kids of school age then a special / school share or a share with a nominated week number each year is going to be better for you. You will generally have to wait (potentially quite a while) for one to become available and it will cost you more than a regular share, but the ability to choose your weeks is extremely useful. There is the ability to swap weeks within a syndicate, but the majority of owners will not want November-March weeks so you do have to be realistic about what you can change. A lot of the syndicate boats run a 50-week season so you will always end up with at least one week that's not preferable. I personally wouldn't go back into a syndicate where I have the chance of picking winter weeks. Ex-hire Broads boats can be very cold when it's snowing outside.