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oldgregg
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Posts posted by oldgregg
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1 hour ago, LondonRascal said:
The theft of the donation box (while a sad reflection of our society) made me consider, how often do I actually have any change on me (or any money) for that matter to use donation boxes? The issue with the bank account details being shared as they have chosen to do so, is this leaves this open now for someone to scam - just stick over it a newly made account details and have funds meant for the Trustee's of the Staithe head into your account, how often might they check the balance/signage has not been tampered with?
What would have been far better and easier and safer is a QR code to scan and send money this way. One of the larger providers is Yello [https://www.yoello.com/] You have a sticker with the unique QR code on it, person uses their phones camera which recognises it to be a QR code and you tap the link which then allows payment to be sent. It is far cheaper than an waterproof battery/solar powered contactless card reader and far more likely to be used than someone having to send a payment for some water via BACS!
You see, this sort of thing is going to become more and more of an issue as fewer people use physical cash for transactions. As I began this post, I don't carry cash usually (or even a wallet and credit/debit cards) because these are too insecure. Once someone gets their hands on a card these days, they can tap it and straight off £100.00 is gone - that is per card! If you have a few cards on you, this might run into a few hundred quid you are walking around with digitally but available to anyone to spend if they have the card. An Apple Pay/Android Pay enabled phone does not need a phone signal to make the transaction work, but does need your fingerprint/Face I.D/Passcode to enable the transaction, if someone nicks the phone, they have no way to use the digital wallet and reporting the phone lost/stolen to your bank means the cards held in the digital wallet are automatically deleted too being an added layer of security.
It's a fair point, although people could do it with a QR code too. It's a bit more sophisticated an act, but if they're printing a sticker they're printing a sticker....
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On 12/04/2023 at 21:23, NeilB said:
I think the original plan was to strip and re-fit them but not sure what happened, pretty Bill Maxted is still around. I'm planning on heading south again at the end of May so may pop in.
Yeah, I believe Bill is still about. I think in reality the task of ripping those out and refitting to the standard he was talking about was probably a bit ambitious for his level of physical fitness and so the boats have sat there for a long time now.
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20 hours ago, Broads01 said:
What a sad story. The verdict feels right to me from the understanding of the facts. Having hired a boat with an identical stern from Ferry Marina last year, I think the design has flaws from a safety perspective but I still feel no-one is to blame for what happened.
I think it was the perfect storm of circumstances really.
Personally I think a dual steer should always have 'internal' access to the flybridge like on Aquafibre dual steers, Richardson's RF45 and the Alpha Highliners. Having to go via the stern steps has never struck me as very safe either for the people moving around or for the wellbeing of children, pets etc inside the boat.
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In fairness I did send them over to Clive and said to use as they wished....
I think I was more excited that they'd used them to be honest.
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A mixture... They've added a few of their own subsequently. The year after launch they used the majority of them for the Hoseason's brochure so I've kept a copy. Not exactly 'published photographer' but I'll take it as it's the closest I'll ever get.
A 14mm? Would you be an MFT shooter by any chance? I used to love that system.
That's beginning to sound like a Jim'll Paint It artwork.
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29 minutes ago, troggy said:
I've seen the video of the commodore, the decor looks a bit nicer and a double bed at the front instead of a scissor. I wonder if that is all of the differences?
It basically is, yeah. I looked around the Commander that they took to London Boat Show a while back and she had the scissor berths as per Monaco but was otherwise the same as a Commodore.
It just gives a bit more flexibility with the layout as she could sleep 5/6 lads with the two sets of twin/double convertibles.
I see they have used some of my photos for the Commander listing on the website - Many from the Commodore listing are mine as she was finished within 12 hours of going on the first hire and they hadn't had chance to take her out, so we snapped a load and sent to Clive.
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13 hours ago, troggy said:
it's called commander. It's the one that looks like Battlestar Galactica. That's not why I chose it.
Yeah, funnily enough my first thought was that you may have hired an RF45.
Nice boat, we were the third hire on Commodore 1 and everyone thought it was a private boat
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Going under the bridge may not be an option, depending on what the boat is.
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If you've put everyone who will be aboard on the list with Ricko's then it shouldn't be a big deal.
This won't be the first time that someone has hired a boat and more people have joined the party later, and there will be three of you collecting (must be at least two adults, though, with Ricko's) the boat.
I have done this and I'm sure many others here have. It's only really a problem when people aren't honest about the number of people and the boat has more people aboard than it's licensed for.
Good pickup points would be Acle Bridge (you can even arrange with them to leave cars there), Wroxham, Horning, Coltishall (depending on the boat) and quite a few other places.
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4 minutes ago, floydraser said:
I actually hate this everything grey trend but if it attracts tomorrow's bright young things then I can see the point.
I'm not convinced that it does, but I think it's attempt at making the orange bathtubs a bit less garish.
I have an orange bathtub booked in September so will be curious to see if it has been wrapped.
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46 minutes ago, catcouk said:
The anonymous branding certainly makes for an odd business decision. Maybe everyone just uses Google these days so branding on the boats attracted no paying customers?
They do, but they need to know what to Google.
I think there needs to be a bit more branding on them, personally.
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Perfect place for storing a handy biscuit should he get hungry
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1 minute ago, YnysMon said:
Anyone been to the Giggling Squid? That's another one I fancy trying.
Many times. Mrs OG loves it.
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It's not quite as good as it was.... I think their main restaurant on Colegate is still better. My office used to be a couple of hundred yards round the corner.
For an Indian, you'll probably want to try them or the Ali Tandoori.
There are many very good restuarants in Norwich. Have you tried Trattoria Rustica, Bishop's Dining Rooms, Benedicts or Roger Hickman's? None of those are particularly cheap but they are popular.
There's also Haggle, Shiki and others.... And there are of course the chains such as Cosy Club, Giggling Squid etc.
I think the main thing is that because it's a very Tudor city and has lots of buildings tucked away then some of the trendier places to eat aren't always immediately obvious.
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34 minutes ago, Tobster said:
Just for info: the pub is not run by Tingdene. It’s a separate enterprise
That I didn't know. Sounds promising and I wish them all the best with it, but they need to sort those opening hours.
The site is very different to what Tingdene do and it seemed an odd acquisition for them, but I get why the Funnell clan moved on.
Personally, when I hire with Mrs O G we very rarely use the cooker other than to heat the kettle and will happily stay in a pub for the evening. But having to go back to the boat at 8? Seems a bit odd.
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10 hours ago, Broads01 said:
Having hired Contessa I agree stern access isn't it's strongest point but no issues for side-on moorings. It's still a great boat.
It's what has always kept the price low, in reality. Some people just realistically couldn't consider hiring her.
If she had the rear end of Skyway or Ranworth Breeze then it'd be quite a different matter.
Here she is at Pye's Mill in 2021 being just the right height....
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2 hours ago, Vaughan said:
Doesn't sound like a pub, to me.
No. It sounds like "oh, there's a pub thing on the site we've bought... I suppose we'd better sort of run that sometimes then".
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Lovely! How are you finding the boat?
I'd never really 'got' the Diamond 35 until (ironically) being an owner on Thunder and finding myself using the interior helm a lot of the time. Suddenly the sit/stand helm position made a lot more sense and I realised what a clever boat the 35 is, a nice layout with quite a lot of space and it can go anywhere on the system.
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Sounds like the perfect opportunity to book Contessa......
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Yeah the manual wiper was a bit of an eye-opener last time we hired her. I'd never noticed that before (mostly having driven up top) but I guess it's very "1980's hireboat" and low-maintenance.
Also if I'm being critical, the Bees Boats fitout isn't bad but it's not quite as nice as some of the other builds. It's a sort of good mid-range finish, but not quite up there with Broom or Brister hire fitouts.
I do like the deeper windows though. They maybe don't look quite as slick as the Eastwood fitout (pictured), but it does mean you have a really nice and airy saloon even if the weather is a bit rubbish. Haines must have agreed as most of the Haines 37LS models have the deeper windows too (last picture).
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Haha! I knew it.
Such a clever design. The way John Bennett packaged that boat is just genius. So much space and yet only 37ft long, and because it's a cut-down Broom Crown hull they handle like almost nothing else.
People always compliment me on my mooring when I'm on Contessa, I point out that it's the boat but I think if they've only ever hired Alpha bathtubs then it's hard to explain. No other boat I hire has that effect though.
Have you ever noticed how the sofa cushions are exactly the right size to use on the 'sunbed' area of the flybridge? I don't know if the Harvey Eastwood ones were like that as I haven't hired one in decades, but Bees clearly had it sussed.
I've hired her several times and did have her booked for this September but I'm going with the boys and need more beds.
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46 minutes ago, catcouk said:
Sad to hear that but I'm not surprised. The hire charges over this holiday have seriously risen (and maybe that rise is all year). There is a particular boat (my absolute favourite and part of the 'classic fleet') that last year (2022) would have cost about £600 for the week. Looking at next year, the same boat is now over £900. It isn't entirely the yard's fault but rises like that make visiting the broads far less attractive.
My wife quite rightly points out that if we save our money, for just less than twice the price, we can holiday in Turkey in the much more expensive summer holidays. This fact makes me really sad.
I'm curious which boat....
But yes, I also have noticed much the same and I have a particular favourite in the classic fleet too. My wife had similar thoughts to yours when looking at this year's hire charge.
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14 hours ago, WherryNice said:
That one was for sale last summer at NYA, we had a look, very nice boat! Didn't realize she was ex-hire until it was pointed out by the broker
This is the thing.... Some hire fitouts are very nice and have aged really well.
Broom were very good in the 80's and 90's, but then of course they were also a huge producer of 'private' boats so their standard was higher than the average hire yard.
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Who Agrees
in Broads Chat
Posted
They'd just set up a similar service to what you're proposing, surely?
Sure it's a bit of effort, but it then yields a nice passive income and without explicit bank details printed there it's much harder for the rozzers to track.