Meantime

I would be wary of using products designed to protect car paint on GRP. There is a world of difference between paint and Gel coat. Most car products contain silicon, which is not particularly good for GRP, but more importantly don't generally contain any UV protection which is needed for Gel coat to help stop oxidation. It's also worth pointing out that there is a difference between polish and wax. A boat polish should be thought of as a preparation for the final wax. A boat polish will fill in the microscopic pores in Gel and clean the gel ready for the wax to seal and protect it. Unfortunately Starbrite do themselves no favours here by mixing up the terms. Their premium cleaner wax is actually used to clean, add shine and protect. think of it as step one. Their Premium Marine "Polish" is designed as the final coat to protect from UV and give a deep long lasting shine. It should be more considered as a wax or final coat. Turtle wax hybrid solutions is actually a combined polish and wax designed for car paint.

You need to compare like for like! Amazon have the 1 litre at £47.99, but the 473ml for £31.49, or 7p more expensive than NM. Bigger sizes are normally pro rata cheaper. But as I said if you find the same item elsewhere and in stock they will normally price match.

And they can be slow in replacing broken rings making it hard to set the ropes especially in a strong cross wind. Preferably posts, or more rings and quicker replacement of broken ones would be my only ask. With battery screwdrivers / drills someone could take a walk down the mooring once a week and replace any missing rings in less than an hour. Gus at The New Inn used to keep a screwdriver and spares to hand and replace a broken ring within the hour.

I would also add that NM usually price match any other genuine web price as long as the item is in stock and available for immediate dispatch on that site. I once had my Isotherm fridge pack up and had no choice but to replace it immediately as it was Summer and halfway through a trip. NM price matched the cheapest I found elsewhere resulting in a £120 discount. Off course what they couldn't have known was my urgent need and that I would have purchased it even without the discount. When I went to collect it I moored near The Kings Head and they even leant me their sack barrow to take the fridge back to the boat. I know chandlery's get a bad rep, and in many cases it is deserved, but I have to speak as I find and have always got reasonable prices from NM compared to other chandlers. Last year I also needed a new 24V Sterling charger and when searching around NM came up the cheapest. They currently have 20% of their products as well.

Paul, I cannot give you any other recommendations because you are already using the one I use and find it to be great and easy to apply and lasts a long while especially if you give it a few coats. What I will add is that Norfolk Marine are currently offering 20% of most if not all the Starbrite range. So my advice is pop in there and keep using the best, for less.

Andrew, it might help the debate if people know what the mooring fee increase is!, although I think the increase actually happened a little way back. The moorings at Thurne Dyle are free during the day from 10am - 4pm They are £7.50 4pm - 10am IF paid in the pub before 6pm. They are £10 4pm - 10am IF they have to collect from the moorings after 6pm. There is no mention of this being refundable on food or drink. Personally I'm not a great fan of pubs charging you to moor, but more and more pubs are and when you compare the charge to the £10 for mooring along the bank at Acle on the old Horizon craft / Pedro's piece of bank with no facilites then I think it is good value. It's also worth knowing a little of the history of the area. A good stretch of BA mooring was lost a few years back at Thurne mouth. Then the farmer who owns one side of Thurne Dyke and used to collect over night mooring fees for his side decided it wasn't worth the hassle so he decided to let them as annual moorings which would have seen half the dyke lost to pub customers. Rick at the Lion has leased that side to keep them available to over night moorers, and this has to be recovered somehow. Finally it is a narrow dyke with some strong cross winds and the quayheading and fixtures take one hell of a battering during the season and need maintenance. In my opinion, that is one area where Rick could improve things, especially since he is charging. Also worth remembering that charges for mooring here existed before Rick took over, although I believe Sid used to charge £5.

The pontoon extension has been there for some time and has always been for the sole use of canoes. Likewise a little along is a very well piled and defended piece of quay heading which I think was used by work boats when Whitlingham was an active quarry. Again that has always had no mooring signs on it, although the same usual suspects think it doesn't apply. I suspect the trust deciding on the future management of the moorings is code for how to police the overstayers, which off course the BA used to do when the whole park was managed by them. Since the refurb of Commisioners Cut the BA are probably meeting their target of distance between moorings and therefore have no need to lease the mooring from the park.

I can understand that, but it's also important for everyone to realise that leaving the scene of an accident without exchanging details is a contravention of the Byelaws and might just make people think twice about going back and doing the right thing, remember more and more boats these days are fitting dash cams. Can anyone really be sure they weren't caught on camera? It's also better that the BA get to record these incidents and build up a picture of any areas or issues that need addressing. I know your trying to get across the message, don't worry the insurance will and do take care of it, but it doesn't start there for many people. I recently documented an incident of poor hand over training and poor handling by yard staff that I witnessed. What I didn't document is what followed and I'm sure follows for many other people too. Once the boats in front and behind me had departed we were ready for the pub, but before that could happen the self preservation instinct kicks in that shouldn't be necessary. I rechecked the tide and it was still coming in. So we untied the ropes that had been set for the night and pulled the boat down river against the tide to the next boat. That means at least one end of my boat should be protected for now at least! It also means that anyone coming in to moor the wrong way with the tide behind them is likely to get carried past the exposed end of my boat. Anyone coming in to moor the correct way is likely to have the tide helping them slow before they can hit my boat. The final bit was to head to the pub and stop and have a chat with the occupants of the boat we have pulled up closer to. They are sitting in the rear well sipping wine and having a snack. They are staying for the night so a little more relief that one end of the boat at least will face no further onslaughts that day. They had also witnessed the earlier poor helming and made comment on it. Pleasantries exchanged for a few minutes and I'm relaxed fairly safe in the knowledge that I have an unofficial watch over my boat for a few hours so I can relax in the pub now. From comments I read here and elsewhere I know there are many people who do not relax until they have boats safely moored either side of them, even if like we did it means moving one way or the other to seek shelter, based upon which way the tide is running. Should we have to do this? No. But do I want the hassle of an insurance claim, even if they do pay out? No. Do I want the hassle of my boat being repaired? No. Is there room for better training of hirers? Yes. Is there room for less complacency, more care and consideration from ALL boaters? Yes.

Thank you Vaughan for your informative post, but may I tactfully suggest that there is one very important omission which applies regardless of whether you were hit by a hire boat, or a private boat. If they do not stop and exchange details, then in addition to all the above, call the BA. I would also go as far as to say that even if they do stop, if you think there was negligence, drugs or excess alcohol involved then still call the BA.

The signs are on the edge of the quayheading facing the river, so chances are the boats moored there were blocking the signs!

To update this, I have emailed The Whitlingham Trust and received the following reply. "Thank you for your enquiry. Were really pleased you enjoy visiting by boat but unfortunately the moorings remain closed at the moment while the Trust decide on its future management. We were hoping to be open for the summer season but at the moment that doesn’t look likely, very sorry. Best wishes" So in short even if you see the usual suspects mooring there, the moorings are technically closed.

Just remembered that there used to be a Nando at The Crown Catfield. I think the pub is now run by other family members. Would this be the Nando who run Nando's in Horning?

If you do get up to Hickling, the Pleasure boat now has a pop up bar in the garden, no food yet, but they do have regular visits by the pizza van. The pub renovation seems to be taking forever, but there is slow progress.

Would that be Waxham Cut? If so your brave but I think the weed cutter has been doing a lot of work above that bridge.

Hybrid or full electric?

Ouch! I trust you get on very well with your bank manager? I suspect you could buy a small boat for what your about to spend!

That tends to be the issue with anything boaty!!! Oh and expensive!

One way to stay safe

Vaughan would probably know better, but I believe it's due to the side decks and often foot wells being strengthened with wood sandwiched between the layers of fibre glass to provide stiffness and strength to the deck. Over time the decks take a pounding and cracking of the gel coat occurs and water seeps in to the sandwiched wood layer which rots or swells up and goes soft. Fibreglass naturally has some flex and what you are seeing is the wood no longer providing the stiffness and the layers of fibre glass acting as it normally would do had it not been sandwiched with wood. I think some boats have a similar problem with the structural floor bearers that are bonded to the floor of the hull to stiffen the hull and provide a platform for the wooden floor. These bearers are often formed from grp around chipboard or similar material which breaks down over time and with the engine vibration leading to the bearers going soft. The footwells often suffer as many are lower than or very close to the outside water level so it is often easier to drain them down into the bilge and let the bilge pump deal with the water. Where the drain holes are can often be a source of leak into the fibre glass layers and particularly the wooden strengthening. On my Alpha the rear foot well drains into the bilge, if nothing else it helps to keep the bilge a little fresher, although over time you do end up with a lot of silty mud and leaf material getting into the bilge which then breaks down into a sludge.

Having had mine out of the water just recently, after an extended stay in the water due to Covid, much longer than planned, I'm glad to say it was fine. For a 30 year old boat the gel didn't polish up too badly either. Compounded and polished by hand due to it being rather thin in some places due to over zealous buffing when it was in hire. 2 passes with compound and 3 passes with Starbrite Premium Marine Polish with PTEF

The BA have handed them back to The Whitlingham Country Park Trust as well as the day to day management of the whole park and the visitor centre. Last time I was up that way the BA electric post had been removed and there were Black Do Not Moor signs on the edge of the quay heading which whilst quite small are difficult to miss. Not surprisingly there are a small number of Upper Yare cruisers who seem to think it doesn't apply to them.

I'd never noticed the twist before but it explains a lot. I have F1 fenders on my boat and due to their length and the position of the fender eyes I have to have the ropes as short as possible to bring the top of the fender as close to the rubbing strake to stop them dragging in the water. This is a pain because it means the fenders can never be lifted up on the deck when under way, however the last two on the port side will always just about catch the top of the water when under way with the diesel tank full, water tank full and foul tank empty which makes the boat the most level. As the diesel tank empties and the foul fills the boat only ever leans further to port making the drag on those two fenders worse.

That explains why my two fenders nearest the bow on the Port side always just about drag in the water, even when the foul tank is empty!

The hire industry has been slowly doing that for the last 15 years or so. Who in their right mind is going to buy those 46ft behemoths when they are 15 or 20 years old? The trickle of ex hire boats being sold to privateers will slowly stop as generally they are not in the market for anything over 35 to 38ft. I purchased my 35ft ex hire boat when it was 12 years old. I cannot think of much if anything that is currently 12 years old on hire that I would entertain buying. One of the reasons I've had my boat 18 years now.

An all too familiar story. Add in the fact that depending on how much the property had gone up by during the time it was rented out they would possibly have had quite a sizeable capital gains tax bill to pay on any gain, minus the usual allowances. Something else that the Government is looking at increasing for the future. With the lack of new council homes being built, this and future Governments need private landlords to supply the demand for rental properties. Sadly there is a diminishing pool of private landlords waiting for the next kick in the teeth. It's so ironic that landlords as a whole get a bad press, yet in my experience and others I've spoken to, private residential and commercial landlords tend to do a good job. It is the few private landlords with ***'s (homes of multiple occupation) and more often Housing Associations, often supported by local authorities, that do an appalling job. Large commercial landlords are also often berated by their corporate tenants, think of Debenhams or BHS. Yet these same companies were bought by venture capitalists who sold of their property assets and removed the capital as dividends and then left the stores locked in to long term unfavourable tenancies for short term gain at the long term risk to the future failure of the business. We are in the process of witnessing the exact same thing happening to Morrisons supermarkets. The VCs have taken over and immediately sold and leased back all the property relating to their own inhouse food production facilities, therefore leaving Morrisons with a higher bottom line expense which ultimately it will probably never recover from. Aldi is about to move into fourth place amongst the big supermarkets with Morrisons being relegated. I'd be very surprised if Morrisons lasts longer than 10 years before you see the group sold for a pound once all the other assets have been stripped.