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Cal
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Posts posted by Cal
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31 minutes ago, chrisdobson45 said:
Glorious and cool at 5.30am this morning in rural Nottinghamshire but very envious of you all in Norfolk. In two weeks time we hope to be waking up to a fabulous Norfolk morning (knowing my luck it'll be raining....)
It won't rain. We will still be there. It never rains when we are in Norfolk.
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9 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:
Mustn't forget those Amsterdam trams either, absolute nightmare!
And the boats were no better.
Thought we would escape the rat race and take a nice relaxing river cruise.
It crashed three times in an hour!
It is the only way to see the city though. Well worth the money for the entertainment value alone.
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8 hours ago, Polly said:
Well judging from the representative sample of Lincolnshire members.......
As a Yorkshire lass I couldn't possibly comment
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We plan to do the trip up the Wensum probably next weekend for the first time. Looking forward too it. We always enjoy venturing onto waters new.
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It is a glorious morning in Lincolnshire.
Bit early for my liking mind but needs must.
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2 minutes ago, Poppy said:
'Angel wing' has long been associated with too high concentrations of protein and/or too low levels of Vit D, Vit E, calcium and manganese in growing waterfowl's diets. Exactly the conditions found in too much bread in the diet of young growing birds. I guess we've all seen it, and it's incurable.
"Angel Wing or Slipped Wing is a disease that primarily affects waterfowl. This condition is more commonly observed in swans and geese, and is to a lesser extent reported in ducks."
More here.
https://www.beautyofbirds.com/angelwing.html
There is a greylag goose at our marina with that condition. She must be quite old as she was there ten years ago when we first moored the boat there and is still around now.
Not sure what the average lifespan of a goose is?
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On 11/07/2018 at 13:52, trambo said:
Probably out on a limb here but bicycles and cities are a nightmare to me. They ignore every rule of the road, including pedestrian lights and plague pedestrianised areas and don't start me with those on a Deliveroo mission!
Fred
Fully agree.
Almost got wiped out stepping off the bus in Amsterdam at Easter despite the driver warning us to watch out.
None of us (45 on the coach) expected the cyclists to be quite so manic as they were!
Still not sure what the rules if the road were now. Just seemed to be every man, woman, dog, child, horse and bike for themselves!
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On 12/07/2018 at 14:11, Polly said:
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Well Lincolnshire has peaty soil too..........
Lincolnshire makes Norfolk look normal!
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Well Lincolnshire has peaty soil too..........
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Taking the Hull to Lowestoft route added a considerable distance to our usual Boston to Lowestoft route and we didn't have an awful lot of fuel left when we arrived at RNSYC. We went straight to the fuel berth.
It isn't funny when you still have ten miles to go and the fuel gauge is half way down the red!
We have since found out the fuel gauge is very pessimistic and there were 60 litres left in the tank which is quite a percentage of the full 225 litres it holds.
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The wild fowl on the Fossdyke don't eat the healthy fruit veg and seeds you are supposed to feed them. They look at them in disgust.
Drop an onion bhaji, spring roll or chip and they will have your fingers off for it. Proper junk food addicts!
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We will be swelling the numbers by one, quite small one, for a couple of weeks from next Friday.
No doubt all of the other boats will have come out to play by then and it will be silly busy :)
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About five hours but we had good conditions at that and could keep up a decent speed for most of the journey.
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Southwold to Wells next the Sea
In and around Wells
Time to head home
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Norfolk to Southwold
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The Broads Part 1
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Some pictures from our trip to the Broads in 2013.
Burton Waters Lincon to Torksey to Hull
Hull to Lowestoft
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No need.
We have our own battery bank sorted.
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1 minute ago, oldgregg said:
The newer boats are fitted with them - Richardson's have a very simple 'traffic light' system on the dash to give novices an indication of what the state is, paired up with a proper battery monitor on the distribution board.
BUT what will they do when the batteries get low because of the TV, fridge etc having been on for hours?
Surely the battery banks should be sized to allow for the boats systems to be used once moored up.
Of course this assumes the hirers will then use the boat the next day for x amount of hours to recharge the batteries.
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14 minutes ago, Islander said:
If boats were fitted with battery monitors and a simple instruction not to let the batteries go below, say, 65%, then we may have less running of engines at moorings.
Colin
A very good point.
Although it wouldn't stop people firing up their engines at silly o clock in the morning to get hot water!
Have never understood that. You are paying over the odds for diesel at the yards so don't waste it moored up making hot water. Go cruising and make hot water at the same time .
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21 minutes ago, Vaughan said:
Unfortunately I don't think you understood what I was trying to explain.
Just because a battery will not start up a Webasto heater does not automatically mean it is "shot" and it is not automatically the fault of the boatyard.
As a private owner you naturally ensure that your batteries are charged so that you can get the use you require out of them. One could perhaps expect a hirer to do the same, without just dismissing it out of hand as shoddy maintenance by the boatyard.
If you have heard somewhere that boatyards are telling hirers to start the engine every time, I don't think you will find this is commonplace. They certainly don't tell you that at Richardsons and in my career in the hire business, I never have either.
We have heard from hirers some shocking things that yards have told them over the years. The best one last time was that it doesn't matter if they hit another boat it is like dodgems.
Obviously we put them right on that point.
With regards batteries obviously you can't expect all hirers to look after them or know how to look after them so a little advice from the yard doesn't go amiss. Bit it also wouldn't hurt the yards to check that they are sending boats out with batteries that are fit for purpose.
I know that can be difficult I a boat has been sat a few days between hand overs with items left running such as fridges, but for batteries not to be able to start the heating the next morning after a good long run the day before is not really good service from the yard. They should check the batteries on a regular basis rather then leave it to hirers to find out they are not at their best. After all at this time of year even the cheaper yards charge through the nose for their boats.
If I was paying those prices I would not be expecting problems with the boat. We always hire out of season either at the beginning or the end so expect a few problems due to winter lay up or a hard season use. We wouldn't expect that mid season when we were paying highly for the privilege.
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58 minutes ago, Vaughan said:
In the case of the yard being talked about, I can't disagree with that, I am afraid, but I would like to qualify one thing :
Domestic batteries, even new ones, have to be charged during the day and if the heating has also been run in the evening it is quite possible that they will not be strong enough to do the initial firing of the heater the next morning. So I always tell hirers to start the engine only if the heater fails to start the first time. If the fridge is not working in the morning that is another indication of low batteries, as fridges have a safety cutoff for low voltage.
So if the heater only runs for an hour after you have started it in the morning this could still be simply a need to charge the batteries. We hired a boat from Richardsons in May which was around 35 years old but was in absolutely perfect running order and beautifully presented. I never had to start the engine to run the heater. But then, we were doing 5 or 6 hours running every day. Perhaps that's the difference?
In the past ten years of ownership the batteries on our boat have never failed to start the heating in the morning. We change our batteries before they get to that point. I know that there is a difference in how a private and hire boat are used but there is no excuse for sending hired boats out with shot batteries.
By all means advise hirers on the number of hours a boat needs to run to charge the batteries but don't instruct them to run the engine to start the heating!
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1 hour ago, SwanR said:
We wouldn't have a clue how to do most of the things that you have mentioned Robin. So we just do what we're told when we hire a boat ... including having to run the engine to start the heating. It wouldn't occur to us to start trying to diagnose any issues, we just don't have that kind of knowledge, like most holidaymakers I would imagine. Instead you end up with a perception of any yard based on the face value i.e. did we like the boat, was it well turned out, did we feel it was good value for money and did it give us any problems.
There is no way that you should have to run the engine to start the heating. That is a sure sign of shot batteries.
It makes me angry that yards spout this rubbish to their customers instead of spending some of their money they have taken in hire fees on ensuring that the boat is up to standard.
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7 minutes ago, oldgregg said:
I think a lot of people are very surprised when they actually step aboard them - The older boats have often had extensive interior work done so they're no different to a much younger boat from other yards.
They didn't get to the size and popularity that they have for no reason.
I've waited for the cleaners to finish at Ricko's a few times before collecting a boat - It's not five minutes with a duster, I can tell you.
The real problem is some other yards that give people a perception of what older boats are like, so they don't hire them.
Indeed. We hired Viscount which had a full interior refit. It was really very nice and put some of the more modern boats we have hired from other yards to shame.
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12 minutes ago, oldgregg said:
Some of the newer boats are not as bad, but the older ones such as the Connoisseurs are in a pretty poor state. Compare any of them to Dominica at Richardson's and you'll see what I mean.
Also consider that many of them still have the original tired and underpowered engines in them, many of which are losing various fluids and for example the one Robin hired a while back where he was told that the heating could only be run for a certain period of time.
Take a look at the boats Ricko's are selling off - Many of them have newish Nannis in and plenty of interior and electrical work and those are the clearance boats. It's a totally different mindset and it winds me up that people cannot see the difference.
We were genuinely surprised when we hired from Richardson's for the first time last year. The standard of the interior of the boat far exceeded our expectations. It was by far the cleanest and tidiest interior of a hire boat we have had over the years.
The exterior was showing signs of having had a hard season but we hired at the back end of the year so that was in some ways expected.
They will certainly be our yard of choice next time we hire.
Our opinion of the yard certainly changed last year.
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Fuel Prices, Northern & Southern Broads
in Broads Chat
Posted
It's red diesel.
These prices you lot are quoting seem very high for diesel.
We currently pay 75ppl here in Lincoln.
Might top the tank up before we come down next week.