Cal

They are scary numbers. Even with this round of price rises our total energy bill for a year for dual fuel is estimated to be £1450 which is based on actual meter readings and actual use over 12 months.

I'm not sure that is strictly true! The most expensive weeks hire on the Chesterfield canal is £1100 per week for a 6 berth boat. Boat hire on the Great Ouse on the Fens is cheaper than hire on the Broads. Just to name a couple that we are aware of. I'm sure there will be more examples.

I remembered to pay the motorhome tax yesterday just before the increase

The energy price rises will hopefully make people take stock of just how much energy they are using. When you do the maths on the bill increases some people are experiencing then they must be using astronomical amounts of energy. To reduce their energy bills people will have to look for ways to reduce their consumption which in these days when we are supposed to be aware of our impact on our planet can only be a good thing.

I agree fully with you. We have said a few times that we can't warrant the cost of hiring on the Broads with today's prices. Viscount the boat we hired a few years ago, is now over a grand out of season never mind mid season. We just don't think that the boat warrants that money. The exterior was tired when we last hired it but we didn't pay loads to hire it at the end of the season. We would not be happy hiring the same boat in the same condition for some £1200 a week now!!

Ouch. That is expensive!!

We always used to start our boat while it was still plugged into the shore power. It never caused any problems with that when we were on our home mooring.

We fitted the Speedseal front plates to the VP pump on our KAD32. It saved many an impellor when we had a restriction in the raw water flow. Well worth the money. Also made changing the impellors much quicker.

Im sure they will have her back afloat, in the shed for a dry out and refit and back in the water in good time for her first hire of the year.

Loads of room

Our Sealine S23 was very similar dimensions and that went through Wroxham no problem. Video here:

Either of the two diesel boats looks a decent buy there. The second one perhaps looks in better condition but has the smaller engine choice. Shows how much boat prices have risen over the last year. We sold our newer and more modern looking S23 for a similar price this time last year

We moored at Burton Waters sandwiched between the rail line and the A57. It doesn't take long to get used to the back ground noise

Slow start to the year for nights in Milo the van. Only 33 nights booked in for the year so far. But we still have a couple of bank holidays to sort out and there will be plenty of weekends away. Just need to get rid of Covid and then we can start to use it again. Should have been out last weekend but had to isolate and should have been out this coming weekend but that seems unlikely now as we both keep testing positive Fingers crossed we are both fighting fit and healthy again in time for our mini break to York next weekend

Lovely pictures.

About 20 years for us and never got on there :)

As an alternative to the expensive rudder indicators, just make sure the drive and wheel are set centre and put a piece of tape on the steering wheel at 12 o clock to mark the centre point.

I am going to guess that on the Maxum it will only be 1 full turn lock to lock much the same as it was on our Sealine. You really didn't need to turn the wheel much at all for it to respond and steer. Took a while for us to realise that the steering wheel wasn't on straight though. :) Still miss her sometimes.

I also think that there will be a glut of boats for sale once foreign travel is fully up and running again which will only push prices one way. It is the same for motorhomes and caravans. Prices at the moment are crazy. We bought our motorhome in April and could sell it now for around £10k more than we bought it for from the main dealers. The massive increase in the price of new vans has helped this along. 2022 prices are about £12k more than this years prices Mind you the cost of everything seems to be flying up at the minute, houses, cars, fuel, food, gas, electric, Where does it stop?

Motorhome is certainly not a dirty word here. We have one Why not go and hire a day boat first off for a few hours or for the day? It will handle nothing like your brothers boat but it will give you a feel for "driving" something on water. The first boat we drove was a day boat and we loved it. Then we moved onto hiring bigger cruisers. The first one we hired was from Barnes Brinkcraft and was called Breakaway. It was a horrible little boat, too small for a week away really (they only hire them as day boats now), and completely impractical. But we loved it and went on to hire many more times over the years from various yards before buying our own boat. We sold our boat after 13 years earlier this year. This was Breakaway sat in the mud outside the Reedham Ferry in the little "cut out" on the front. The tide had gone out and left us high and dry.

There usually quite a few ex hire boats for sale at this time of year. I wouldn't say that this year is unusual in that.

One thing we are not missing about the boat is the time and expense of this time of year doing maintenance on the thing. The van is sat patiently waiting on the drive for it's next outing next week whereas the boat would usually be ashore scheming what would be the next expensive item it could wangle out of us.

The boat we had prior to selling up was very similar in size, drive and layout to your brothers Maxum. Best advice is do not panic and if it starts to go wrong do NOT under any circumstances grab a fist full of throttle to try and rectify the situation. It will not work and will lead to more damage. To leave a mooring give the bow a gentle nudge out and calmly step onto the stern. No need to rush or panic. The bow will gently swing round and you can then drive out into the river forwards. Moor into the tide or wind whichever is strongest. Aim the bow to the bank and with the helm hard over towards the bank gently select reverse and the sterndrive will bring the stern across to the bank. It is a case of taking things steady. Always look behind to see what your wash is doing. These boats are designed to be planing boats going fast so at slow speeds they have a surprisingly dirty swim and create a lot of wash. Be considerate to moored boats and slow down a long way before you reach them to let your wash settle down. Most of all enjoy yourself.

Sorry to here that.

I was really not very well on Friday evening. Feeling too hot then too cold, feeling very sick and light headed. My arm pit glands swelled up massively and were really tender. I feel fine again now other than swollen glands still but it really wasn't very pleasant.