floydraser

One of my most treasured posessions: And on the other side, Jack and the Beanstalk.

I think one thing we are short of is the view of a dedicated paddleboarder or mufi (mainly upright....) to find out what exactly is the appeal; is it the scenery, the social side or do they just need water underneath them?

I am also at BG but Pshychic is probably the most knowledgable resident.

Years ago, a very bright bloke came up with the idea of putting internal combustion engines in boats to save all that messing around with string and blankets. Ah well, you can only lead a horse to water....

Reminds me of an epic thread on a well known yachting forum about "dipping the eye" or similar. Classic forum stuff.

Well done Peter. To help you out, but at the expense of adding to the "rights of way" argument that seems to have crept into the thread, there is (or was before lockdown) a new paddleboard in the showroom at Brundall Gardens which has a propeller pod underneath powered by rechargeable battery! Even more pointless and with ever more expense! I just wish I had invented the damn things; I've dreamt of inventing something really useful and making my fortune and now it seems I've been barking up the wrong tree!

I don't think anybody is questioning anyone else's right, everything so far has been about safety concerns.

With all due respect to the seriousness of the thread, I sincerely hope that time will show paddle boarding to be a passing fad. I could understand the appeal of it, if it were considerably cheaper than canoeing but to me, it seems a thoroughly pointless waste of time and money. Apart from waterborne bacteria, I don't fancy the combination of tired legs and wash from a boat.

Just one word: Awareness. I can fully understand the frustrations of each side here; the motor boater with his beer by the helm, best girl sunbathing on the cabin roof, suddenly sees a parade of weaving sails in front of him. Now he can no longer admire the serenity of the scenery, or the girl, but instead he's actually got to concentrate on all these other craft. Likewise the skipper of the sailing boat, dreaming of clear water in front of him, suddenly has to make an instant guess as to the intelligence/level of sailing knowledge of umpteen strangers in his path. The motor boater needs to be aware that the skipper of any sailing boat could have 30 years experience, or 30 minutes. The sailing skipper needs to be aware that the helm of the motor boat could also be an experienced sailor or, be a car driver not yet used to something that steers a*se first. “Power gives way to sail” may best be seen as guidance. I used to manage a warehouse which contained amongst other things, fork lift trucks and pedestrians. It was never pleasant if the two collided. Giving one party right of way over the other would only promote a feeling of self righteousness. In industry everyone is responsible for preventing accidents, same should apply on the water. The BA, hirers and anyone else who relies on the Broads for a living has an interest in keeping collisions to a minimum. Can't be that bad as we would have heard about it by now.

Where did you learn that, from a Tom & Jerry cartoon?

I can understand that but in fact we never find any corpses; it works as a deterrent and they stay away.

I use Dethlac in the boat and caravan and have done for years, and find it very effective for keeping creepy crawleys away. You have to hold your breath when applying it then evacuate the room for a couple of hours but then it lasts for months. The big spiders like to hide behind the elastic bands holding the cover on the Owl.

That's very kind thanks but a relative is having a look tomorrow.

I had a look too and was quite impressed. I didn't get it out because it was the last one and I wanted two, but it does say the backrest is adjustable? They're all sold out now though so we'll have to wait till they come round again.

At Rutland Water, outside of organised events, sail gives way to fishermen in their outboard powered 18 footers. If the fish refuse to bite, for entertainment fishermen will happily motor into the line of a sailing boat and stop, forcing a change of course.

So how about a boat hook with a solid rubber ball (about tennis ball size) on the other end? Mine has a bit of string hanging out of it with a disc on, as if it should be doing something but I could hollow out a ball and make an improvement.

Congratulations, you stopped one more offender - me! Probably. I would never have thought about it if you hadn't mentioned it. In fact, I'll get a new mop for the boat with that purpose in mind. The old one has a bent shaft after I modified it to clean the bilge under the water pump board. I would hope the situation to use it in anger wouldn't occur too often anyway.

In Aldi from today. How about use as a back rest for boat roof tops or saloon roofs? https://www.aldi.co.uk/blue-foldable-beach-mat-backrest/p/800960385503702

Don't worry, Denham Owl will be a lot cheaper than that: Around £2.50 + cost of doing the poo pipe + the Edward Woodward connection + £???

I don't mind that at all. I'm sorry for Gary as I know from the telephone conversations I've had with him that he loved the boat. I wish him well and hope Seraphina gets an equally enthusiastic new owner. I've not seen the boat close up but I know it's had a major refurbishment and should be solid for quite a few years yet. I'll mention it to the passers by I meet on a regular basis at Brundall Gardens.

Well that was nice; just had a couple of nights stay over on the Owl. What a luxury - fridge with ice cubes, hot and cold running water, decent weather and nice company. I managed to push on a bit with the wiring so it's all a bit easier to set up. I was having to connect the fridge wiring every visit but now it's wired through the 12v fused panel. I'll spare Poppy's blushes and not resurrect the poo thread, but I failed to get the camera in the tank. I squibbed the outer ring of bolts with graphited (very smelly) penetrating fluid on Wednesday evening then tried to loosen them Thursday morning. Unfortunately a couple of them snapped as the are not stainless so I gave up. I tried the inner set and they came loose but nothing wanted to move easily so I tightened them up again. I could see me ending up with a large, gaping hole in the top of the tank with no way of sealing it up! So I plastered the whole lot with silicone and I'll go back plan A and have a pump out first. I will try one more thing first though: I need to listen to the tank while operating the pump to hear if there is splashing or bubbling going on, but my arms aren't long enough. I've managed to pick up a hell of a lot of information about my boat from just sitting on the back of it and engaging with interested passers by. This time it was an old Suffolk Boy who said, "I suppose that refers to the Denham down near Horham then?" He used to cycle down that way as a boy apparently. He wasn't a boat owner, just a guest of one of my neighbours and was enjoying a bit of fishing. What are the chances of that? Remember just after arrived in Brundall Gardens a guy came by who's Dad used to have a couple HE37's in his hire fleet? Well I've looked it up and sure enough there is a Denham which is a tiny village I would describe as two houses and a pub, but without the pub. There is a village hall though, which is on the Western side of the old RAF Horham airfield (it is in fact the old Guardhouse) which got me thinking, probably over thinking but: I wondered if the Denham Owl was named after the nose art of a B-17 Flying Fortress? Then I thought probably not, as the Owl is a night bird and the USAF flew mainly daylight raids? Hmm, we'll see.

I think he's the one I used get emailing me. Friendly chap.

I only looked in on this thread because of the title; I thought someone was giving away cash!

"I'm not going to let a little bit of wee stop me being me." Priceless.

As a small aside: We were out in the caravan last weekend and for the first time ever we were pitched just by the entrance to the campsite. You would be amazed at the the number of people who don't switch their engines off while booking in to the site. Trying for a peaceful Friday afternoon was a waste of time. The guy at Potter has more than likely experienced more people like that than those who respect the peace of others.