expilot

What an interesting concept. Made me chuckle and brought back a veritable medley of memories. At the height of the season I would put through 'that bridge' one hundred plus cruisers per day - hire and private - and often received the comment, "You must be paid per boat. You almost run from boat to boat!" Crews were surprised to learn that I was paid £2.00 something an hour whether I put one boat through or one hundred. In fact, of course, if the tides were so high as to limit the numbers, the job became much, much more difficult. Trying to explain about air pressure, wind direction off the coast of Scotland, neaps, springs, unexpected or forecast heavy rainfall to someone who just wanted desperately to get through 'that bridge' was, well, to put it quite bluntly, simply too difficult sometimes. Punters were often told a porky. The mains water pipe that crosses the river at Wroxham has burst - hence the high water. Now that's an idea that most people can get their heads around and to watch the lightbulb moment on their faces when told such fake news was as much pleasurable as it was a relief. The downside was that, having now understood the situation, the same punters then shouted the 'news' to every boat coming up the Thurne hoping to get through 'that bridge'. I have little doubt that even canoeists were treated to the bad news. To answer the question, no, there has never been a quota. Although every boat turned away had no effect on my wages, the impact on my income was dramatic. I always earned more in tips than I did from a subsistence level pay packet. It cost me dear to turn a boat away. I was never tipped for delivering disappointment. And, yes, part of the job was the decision as to the certainty, or otherwise, of getting a boat back. And, yes, I always advised the day and time slot. And, yes, there were always people who had worked it out for themselves - wrongly more often than not. To Willow I would explain that 'centre cockpit' boats ranged, then, from needing 6' 4" to 7' 2" and all stops between at one inch intervals. Someone who had just been told that they couldn't get through on 'Royal Crusader' (centre cockpit AF needing 6' 9") but then watch me take forty-five foot long Connoisseurs (centre cockpit needing 6' 6" - at a push) through one after another, of course they would pop back into the office for an explanation. I even had many a telephone conversation with boatyard owners and managers complaining that I had refused to put their hirers through. My answer was always the same (after a brief explanation of facts as they apply at Potter Bridge) if they, as the boat's manager or owner was instructing me to put their boat through then, against my better judgement, I would take it through. No-one ever took me up on the offer! Whilst many hirers chose their centre cockpit boat because of the sliding canopy, few hirers would appreciate a boat without the sliding canopy for the remainder of the holiday. Boatyard owners were even less keen. And to Willow again, I have to say, the pilot has to make a call at the point at which he is asked to make the decision. It is his decision alone, but that decision can be reversed provided developing conditions permit it - or the weather forecast changes throughout the day. I cannot with any certainty remember what height Countess of Light needed, but, if she was a 42' Alpha centre cockpit then she would have needed either 6' 10", or 7' 0". Nothing would have been going through that day if the gauge had been reading 5' 4" not even the Martham boats. I suspect, because you were eventually told that you could get through, that you went through right on the point of low tide which had gone lower than predicted, which is why you were told to get back at the same time the following day.

Ah, so that was the missing bit of my training.

"We have no data to know if the bridge at Potter has itself sunk and if it has by how much. In the 1970s there were steel braces and wooden dams over the two smaller archers - this was to try and stop the bridge 'spreading' outwards. I have no idea if this worked and that is why the bracing was removed, or if it did not and was just done to try and stop it." We do, indeed, have the data. Such data is collected regularly by Norfolk County Council Highways' Bridge Inspection team. Potter Bridge has not sunk since measurements were first recorded. The bridge was inspected again last month. I can vouch, too, for the fact that the recent spate of exceptionally low tides was just as evident above Potter Bridge as below it. The EA's Repps gauge almost certainly bottomed out as did the gauge in the Pilot's Office at Potter.

You get a better idea of how many were built by looking at Craig's brilliant list: http://www.broads.org.uk/src/boatlist.php?style=Gem3

The Falcons went under Potter Bridge, but needed a smidge over 7' 0" there and back. My memory is not good, but I believe one needed 7' 2" because it sat vey high at the front. None had that add-on at the rear. Again from memory, the front windows are split in the middle by a very wide section of grp which made lining the boats up on the bridge much more difficult. The Hamptons pass Potter Bridge at anything from 6' 5" . to 6' 7"

We are relatively local to Thurne and, this evening, paid our first visit to the refurbished Lion at Thurne. The pub/restaurant has been tastefully refurbished. Those who know the White Horse at Neatishead with recognise much of the detailing. Friendly welcome, friendly service - if a little confused sometimes. Food OK, BUT what was immensely impressive was the way the young staff handled a complaint about the food. Both dishes were removed from the table without fuss, substitute meals brought to the table only minutes later and all done in a totally gracious manner. It goes without saying that neither meal had been added to the bill. We will return - and often - not because of the food especially, but because good service deserves to be recognised. This was a young, inexperienced staff who handled what could have been an uncomfortable situation to the sort of standard I would have expected from the very best fine dining establishment. Top marks to the Lion at Thurne. Very impressed.

Broads 01, may I suggest you give the PHB pilots a call on 01692 670460. They will advise on the air draft of each boat.

Mark, ('Britain's best Elvis')was our next door neighbour! His property flooded frequently before he bought it. Rather than lift the bungalow, false floor was placed over false floor, over false floor.... I lifted his bungalow, Octagon Lodge, as he renamed it, but had to replace all floors, bearers and joists because they were all as tender as a boiled owl. His boat was called Speckled Hen.

My two-penn'orth in answering MM's questions: When were those flood alleviation works done? Thurne's riverbanks were commenced in 2011 Was the reduced height at Potter Heigham sudden or gradual? I started piloting in 1989 with reliably low bridge clearances 6'8" to 7.0" at Low Water during the Summer season. Easters were notoriously unreliable because the full moon around which the Easter date is set did not increase the tidal range but reduced significantly the bridge clearance heights at each successive Low Water. When I left, ten years later, the water levels had increased noticeably and have increased gradually ever since. Is there a definite correlation of the bridge clearance reduction to both or either event? 'Definite correlation'? No. Who was responsible (Which Government Dept.) for having the flood alleviation work done? The Environment Agency formed an engineering, construction and consultancy consortium - Broadland Environmental Services Limited - comprising Bam Nuttall and the Halcrow Group. In the late 90s and early 2000s We would regularly have the pilot take Royall Ambassador under. What clearance did that boat need? Royall Ambassador is/was an Alpha 42 and all Alpha 42s were put through the bridge at between 6'10" and 7'0" depending on the final resting position of the cockpit sliding canopy when fully open. I believe, from memory, there was a height difference between even the Royall Ambassadors. And finally (for now) How often have the chalets up river of the bridge been flooded in the last 18 years? The incidence of bungalows flooding is identical above the bridge as below it. I know of only one bungalow that has flooded in the past eighteen years. It has flooded regularly since 1989. I have personally lifted more than thirty of the two hundred riverside bungalows to prevent the possibility of them being flooded. Others have also been lifted. In 1993 our bungalow plot, on the Hickling bank (above the bridge), flooded to a depth of about three inches. It hasn't totally flooded since then. In the thirty years we have owned the bungalow, the majority of bungalow owners have since raised the capping to their piled quay-headings by about four to six inches. Our bungalow has never flooded. The river water remains either in the river or, occasionally, over the garden's lawns. When BESL, Broadland Environmental Services Limited, were planning the floodbank strengthening works, we bungalow owners (as consultees via the offices of the River Thurne Tenants Association) were promised that the floodbank behind our properties would not be raised any higher than existing at the time the works began. Over-topping locations would be preserved. The banks have not been raised. The previously existing over-topping points were preserved. New ones have since formed behind certain bungalows as the reinforced (widened) banks have settled under their own increased weight. Sometimes we simply have to admit that what happens is simply counter-intuitive. If science were common sense we'd all have science degrees.

I started my piloting career at PHB in 1988 and continued until 1999. In all those years I didn't once see 7' 10" at LW (It would have been 7 feet 10 inches at LW if it were 7' 6" at High). We considered ourselves very lucky to see 7' 3" - and then only very rarely - at LW. In those days, about two thirds of the hire fleet would get through the bridge at average LW. We would put anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 boats through per Easter to October season. I doubt if this year, the total will be more than 1,000 - and many of those will be day/picnic boats. I don't know if it is my imagination, but I sense that, since the limited dredging on the Bure, the tidal flow has increased, but the tidal range remains at 4" daily rise and fall. The idea of dredging beneath the bridge to increase air draft was very much tongue in cheek. Apart from anything else, the arch has a solid horizontal base not that far beneath he water surface.

Forgive me, but it is twenty years since I last piloted a full summer season. From memory, I think the Lowliner with steering on the 'wrong side' was 'Shining Horizon' but there was no upper helm on this Lowliner. The Lowliners were my favourite boats to pilot. Richardsons fitted a brilliant low frequency horn to these boats. Far better than the fairground ride toot fitted to most hire boats! From memory, only one boat scared me more than 'Shining Horizon' and that was a steel boat from Hippersons - painted bright orange. The front windscreen was split by a wide hunk of metal which meant that you could only see the keystone if you were miles out of line and only then at the very last minute.

Always keen to replace opinion by fact. The Lowliners were designed to 'fit' Potter Bridge perfectly - probably the first to be so designed. The arch was the first line to be drawn on the designer's drawing board - and fit they most certainly still do. When these boats were passing Potter every day of the week, 6' 9" air draft was all they needed - except for one variant, which had the wheel on the 'wrong' side. We listed her as needing 6' 11" to give us a larger margin of safety. We took all Lowliners through from the upper helm position and the boat's profile exactly matched the bridge's. Similarly in an attempt to dispel the myth - the bridge is not "sinking". It hasn't sunk in the past fifty years anyway. Based on personal empirical knowledge, the water levels have risen by at least four inches in the last thirty years. Now, as some local 'experts' repeatedly suggest, if we were to dredge beneath the bridge, we'd get back to the good old days when seven feet plus headroom clearances were the Summer norm!

I absolutely agree with Vaughn. This was an early piece of 'fake news' in every respect. I was personally involved at the time. That boat 'traffic' was, indeed, made to look much worse by the use of a very powerful long lens - but even that isn't the full story. All the boat traffic, our boat included, had been told by the Anglia TV crew to pull up at the riverbank. At a given signal, probably twenty minutes later, we were told we could all head off again 'en masse'. The ultimate irony was that the cameraman, filming at one point from the roof of the tv crew's own hired cruiser, toppled into the water and spent several days in the local hospital suffering phosphate poisoning.

Webntweb, what a memory you have! That may have been young Graham being trained. He went on to become an excellent bridge pilot. Sadly, no longer with us following his untimely and tragic death.

Forgot to add that the Potter bridge pilots will always offer advice in advance by phone. They have a dedicated mobile phone number which I confess I don't have at hand, but 01692 670460 is Phoenix Fleet's yard number.

Ray, there are no Hampton Safaris that require anything like 6' 10" at Potter bridge - unless they have been very severely modified - and I never ever came across such an animal in the ten years I served at THAT bridge. The old Honeymooners from Sutton Staithe boatyard, Little Gem from Richardsons and their ilk, with the full sliding canopies, needed 6' 7" for comfort, but could be piloted at less with a few tricks. The Hamptons with a sliding forward hatch in the roof need much less. As John M says, the only accurate gauge is the one in the pilot's office - and that reads precisely one inch light. i.e. when it shows 6' 3" the actual air draft measured from the traditional datum line across the arch is 6' 4". PLEASE NOTE, if the gauge shows 6' 3" there is not 6' 3" headroom between the central keystone of the arch and the surface of the water. There is much more. Advising to go fast through the bridge is not good advice if the high point of your boat is already at the front. Pilots used to travel through the bridge at speed to maintain steerage, but, more importantly to drop the highest point of a centre cockpit boat, usually the canopy that has been wound down behind either the centre cockpit the central saloon. None of the pilots old, current or new are experts, nor would we ever claim to be. Between us we do, however, have years of experience with all manner of vessels - some much better behaved than others - and these years provide pilots with experience from which we derive expertise. A morning back 'on duty' the other day as a favour, also proved that, even after twenty years since last piloting a hire craft through that hole, one never loses the knack.

Not only does TBMC's barge, Louise, call on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays, but, under new management and new management appointed contractors, she is on 'emergency' call-out duty twenty-four-seven, year round. In fairness to those bungalows that are not connected to a mains drainage system (all of the Martham and Repps banks bungalows and five above Highs Mill on the Potter Heigham bank) none still use cassette loos nor the even older Elsans. They all use macerating systems, the sort that are now found in most Broads hire boats. Incidentally, although an application to connect the ninety-nine riverside bungalows to a first-time mains sewerage system was turned down by Anglian Water, an appeal is currently being considered by the Secretary of State. Footnote: To maintain balance, Riverside Holidays Ltd of Catfield and Riverside Rentals of Horning have already been mentioned. Other bungalow holiday rental agencies exist.

No problem. There are 185 River Thurne Lease A properties and 32 Lease B properties. Both Lease A and Lease B plots have leases that expire in 2085. Lease A plot owners pay a £5.00 per year ground rent that is fixed at £5.00 p.a. until lease expiry. Lease B plot owners pay a set pounds per foot of river frontage which is reviewable by the lessor, the Environment Agency, every five years. Current Lease B ground rents range from about £600 per year to £2,500 pounds per year. Lease B owners are also required by lease covenant to pay a clawback to the lessor, the EA. The clawback is fixed at 15% of the commercial market value of the plot/bungalow at the time of each lease transfer. Both Lease A and Lease B plot owners pay a service charge annually to TBMC Ltd ranging from £108.00 per year to £2,500 per year depending upon the services provided to each plot by TBMC Ltd. Approximately half the bungalows are without mains drainage. TBMC operates an on-demand cesspit pump-out service to such properties on three days during each week Easter to October and once a week November to Easter. Lease B properties are located in three groups, one at the downriver end on the Repps bank, one between Potter Bridge and Martham Boat Development on the Martham Bank and the third five bungalows above Highs Mill on the Potter Heigham, NE riverbank. I trust this helps. I will add the River Thurne Tenants Association website address and the TBMC Ltd website address. Both are not-for profit organisations. If such links are not permitted, may I ask moderators to delete them from my reply. River Thurne Tenants Association: http://www.rtta.me.uk Thurne Bungalows Management Company Limited: http://www.tbmc.me.uk Both Lease A plots and Lease B plots are burdened by covenants that strictly prohibit bungalows being used as permanent residences and may be used for holiday purposes only. If anyone is interested in more detail than can be found on the two websites, please pm me and I will do my best to answer further enquiries. David Sanford TBMC Ltd Chairman and Managing Agent. TBMC Ltd is a Company Registered in England and Wales No 01878622

My thanks to those who have already contributed to this thread. TBMC is the abbreviated version of Thurne Bungalows Management Company Limited - an unusual set-up that few may have encountered before. The first bungalows on the flood banks of the River Thurne are now more than one hundred years old. At various times in the past, these short leasehold properties were threatened with demolition. The River Thurne Tenants Association (founded in 1948) consistently fought all attempts at riverbank clearance and, in 1985, the RTTA founded TBMC Ltd for the sole purpose of purchasing a 99 year lease of the riverbank from the Anglian Water Authority, the riverbank freeholder at that time. Having purchased the lease, TBMC Ltd then granted ninety-nine year leases (less ten days) to each of the existing plot tenants of that time. Having become an under-leaseholder, each was also then required to purchase a single Ordinary share in TBMC Ltd, the new landlord company. At the present time, there are 185 TBMC leaseholders, each of whom is simultaneously a leaseholder, shareholder and customer of the landlord Company - a virtuous circle. TBMC Ltd (ie the Potter Heigham, Repps With Bastwick, Ludham and Martham riverbank bungalow owners) owns and maintains, at the Company's expense, several non-bungalow sites along the riverbank. Because we maintain, at some considerable annual cost, these sites for public access, TBMC Ltd has always reserved the right to determine to whom and for what purposes the sites may be used. As you would expect of genuine visitors to the Broads who appreciate them for their uniqueness, it is a genuine pleasure that TBMC Ltd offers such facilities, without charge, to the boating public. TBMC Ltd will continue to provide such public access to these sites whilst its wishes are observed. For the most part, they are. Thank you. David Sanford (Expilot) Current Chairman of TBMC Ltd and TBMC Ltd Managing Agent. Footnote: The RTTA will be celebrating its seventieth birthday on Bridge Green, Potter Heigham, this coming Sunday afternoon. All welcome. Both TBMC Ltd and the RTTA maintain websites which some find informative and useful.

I distinctly remember Alan Royall insisting that we fill Royall Stuart's bilges with river water in order to get her back through THAT bridge. Apart from making the boat horribly less stable, I don't remember all that extra water lowering her much. I wouldn't even consider water ballast tanks without having baffle plates installed internally into the tanks. I effectively already carry two ballast tanks. Each of my balanced port and starboard freshwater tanks hold 50 gals! Everything about these Broadland Somerleyton boats was belt and braces over-engineered.

The weight will go back into the boat exactly where the weight used to be. As Grendel says, the engine bay is cavernous at 6' + long, 5' + wide and 3'+ deep. And then there are two huge holes where the fuel tanks used to be.

JM I reckon to have removed a tonne and a half of a Lister FRM4 marine diesel engine and Blackstone gearbox, an obscenely heavy cast iron silencer, two 40 gallon diesel tanks and contents, two ten feet long engine bearers that would have served a combine harvester well, an eight gallon remote oil tank and all gear change solid steel linkages. Swift will probably be two tonnes lighter when she first goes back into the water. I shall be 're-ballasting' with at least two tonnes of lead acid traction batteries.

Hi Andrew I am not qualified to explain either what is happening, nor what sort of solutions could be put forward to restore historic water levels at Potter. That said, having accurately measured and recorded tide levels over a ten year period during the nineties, I can tell you that in the last thirty years empirical evidence suggests that water levels have risen by at least four inches on the Thurne. We purchased our riverside bungalow in 1989 and two Winters later the winter flood levels were within a whisker of the floorboards. I have lifted thirty-two of our riverside bungalows to ensure that they do not flood - at least not from the river. My better half collects postcards and old photographs of the Thurne bungalows and of THAT bridge. Granted that most of the photographs will have been taken in the summer months, but many of them show an air draft demonstrably greater than any I have ever seen. At this point, I have to emphasise that THAT bridge has not sunk. It is monitored by NCC appointed surveyors using sophisticated GPS equipment and they tell me that the bridge hasn't moved a millimetre. The temptation, of course, is to assume that a common sense solution is the correct solution. Dredging is one such animal. I suspect that often the very opposite may be true. It may be than any solution, if such exists, may be entirely counter-intuitive. In my seven decades' lifetime, the marshes that border the River Thurne, flooded every year and made excellent skating rinks in the Winter. In the sixties, concrete flood defence walls were installed and the riverside marshes now never flood. Indeed, the Internal Drainage Board's pumps ensure that the marshes do not flood - even in winter. I, of course, at this point have to declare a personal conflict of interest! Some day very soon, I hope to get Broadland Swift back in the water. With a bit of luck, she will be running (silently!) up and down to Hickling, Horsey and West Somerton with onlookers wondering, perhaps, how she got under THAT bridge. My worry, of course, is that I may soon be restricted to only being able to navigate the Upper Thurne because the water levels prevent me going downriver beyond the bridge with Swift. I've already lowered her as much as practically I am able.

Saw A couple of newish, larger boats go past our bungalow today. One was a Richardsons' RC45. If the other was Fair Countess - and it may have been - it would make a mockery of Faircraft Loynes' website that announces when describing Fair Countess' details, and I quote, 'Please note will not pass under Potter Heigham bridge.' On Friday morning, as a stand-in pilot, I returned to my old job (after a twenty year break) and, with a maximum low tide of 6' 8", I was putting Bounty 30s up. Apparently, it's a bit like riding a bike. It's a skill you don't forget. My first customers were 'well impressed' by the fact that their boat was the first hire boat I had piloted through THAT bridge for twenty years! In the old days, a typical day at this time of the year would have seen us putting up nearly a hundred boats a day. We will never see the likes of anywhere near that ever again, unless the tide levels are artificially managed.

If I had to guess, I would say your widest point for Potter Bridge will be the pulpit rails. I no longer have my records for required draft heights for Broads cruisers and yachts, but my memory tells me that all Broom Admirals in the hire fleet were listed at 7' 0" If Malanka is a Broom Commodore then she may need a little less, but I doubt she will pass Potter at 6' 8" - and certainly not with the pulpit. I wait to be proved wrong. There are many apocryphal stories relating to this bridge. One of my favourites relate to a time, long ago, when Ambrose was one of the bridge pilots. The story makes a good after dinner speech that can be extended to a minimum half hour. The very abbreviated version amounts to: Beautifully varnished vessels' skipper/owner asks Ambrose to put his boat through that infernal bridge. Ambrose politely explains that the gentleman's fine vessel will not pass Potter because the water level is too high. "My good man, I've been through that bridge hundreds of times and I'm telling you it will pass." "And I, sir, am the pilot on duty - and I'm telling you that she will not." "In that case, I wish to speak with your boss." Ambrose explains that his boss is not at the yard that day. "Then call him and hand the phone to me. I wish to speak with him." Ambrose calls his boss and hands to phone to said vessel owner. There is an animated conversation. Ambrose's boss asks to be given back to Ambrose. Ambrose takes the phone back from said skipper. Boss tells Ambrose to put the gentleman's boat through. Ambrose protests to his boss that the water levels are too high. "I'm your boss, Ambrose, and I'm telling you that if the gentleman tells you that his boat will fit through the bridge then you will put the boat up through the bridge." "The boss says that you're right, sir, and I'm to put you through," says Ambrose. Ambrose jumps aboard fine vessel and approaches the bridge at normal piloting speed, all beautifully lined up central to the bridge. As the bows disappear beneath the arch there is the heart-rending sound of splintering wood, clanging metal and much kerfuffle. Out the other side comes said fine vessel minus searchlight, horn, windscreens and the canopy at a jaunty angle just managing to hang on at the stern. "Well," says Ambrose with his usual cap-doffing, deferential manner. "I appear to owe you an apology, sir. You said it would go through. And, sir, you were right, that did!" I owe this story to my bosses, Patrick and Robin Richardson of Phoenix Fleet, who are still responsible for piloting at the bridge. There are scores more that really need to be written down.