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Cal

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Posts posted by Cal

  1. 3 minutes ago, grendel said:

    exactly, my energy provider told me of the price increase and informed me my bill would rise to £3000 a year (electric) and £1000 gas,(this for a single person) since they had based that on a bill that they had overestimated by over 800 units, i was sceptical, to me it just seemed a good way to hike my payments by an exorbitant amount. fortunately i pay by tanding order, so they cant just 'review' my payments then whack the direct debit up like they do with some folks, i changed to paying by standing order when they contacted me to tell me they were raising the standing order to £1000 a month, when asked to justify this rise, they backed down, s I had carefully calculated it only needed to rise by £50 (once again that had been off the back of an estimated bill that they totally got wrong.)

    Is it any wonder that pensioners get scared to use heating when the energy companies use tactics like these.

    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.

  2. 2 hours ago, ranworthbreeze said:

    The Broads is still the cheapest waterway in the UK.

    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.

  3. 2 hours ago, Mouldy said:

    You’re not joking!!  My motorbike VED reminder arrived about three weeks ago.  I thought ‘I’ll pay that later’  and promptly forgot! 🤨. Went to pay it today to find that it went up from £96 to £101 this morning!!  B*gger!!  Unlike my pension (when I get it next month), it’s linked to the RPI, which is high at the moment and forecast to go much higher yet.

    Followed that by paying my Broads Toll!  What a morning?  April bloody fool?  That’ll be me!!  😕
     

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

  4. 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. 

    • Like 2
  5. 57 minutes ago, andyg said:

    Hi Andrew agree about heron but not so sure your right about richardsons classic fleet. Just one example, our friends have hired bright horizon for a week next August. 1400 quid all in. The boat is 40 odd years old and offers a no frills experience on the broads. That's not a dig at the company or boat it's just a simple fact. Yards are in my opinion starting to price themselves out of the UK holiday Market.

    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!!

  6. 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.

  7. 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 :default_sad:

    Fingers crossed we are both fighting fit and healthy again in time for our mini break to York next weekend :default_blink:

    • Like 1
  8. 1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

    I think that there are only three ex Richos boat listed.  There is an Alpha 35 cc, which is ex Herbert Woods, but has been private for a while.  We looked at it before buying Norfolk Lady when it was on the market before at NBS.

    How new are you looking for?  With the price of new boats as they are and relatively low depreciation, anything built this century will not be cheap.  I’m convinced that the pandemic and pressure on foreign holidays has been responsible for the rise in prices of used boats and the buoyant market.  If and when things return to ‘normal’, there may be a glut of used craft for sale, which could reflect in the prices, but with continuing concerns over travel, that may be a long time in the future.

    If you are serious about buying a boat, you may need to lower your expectations.  There are some lovely older craft on the market from time to time.  For example, a fellow Forum member recently sold a lovely Broom Ocean 30 for very reasonable money recently that will provide its new owner with many pleasurable hours afloat over the coming seasons.

    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 :default_blink:

    Mind you the cost of everything seems to be flying up at the minute, houses, cars, fuel, food, gas, electric, Where does it stop?

    • Like 1
  9. Motorhome is certainly not a dirty word here. We have one :default_laugh:

    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. 

    10383010_955869241132384_7010691134536070941_n.jpg.d4ab5517bb2f7c36e55d943666f85247.jpg

    • Like 1
  10. 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. 

    • Haha 1
  11. 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.

    • Like 2
  12. On 17/12/2021 at 11:02, PaulN said:

    Hope you will be OK, my wife and I had our boosters last month (Pfiezer) and no symptoms whatsoever. 

    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.

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