PaulN

I have also found the White Heron refreshing and excellent, although I agree that the gravel outside is a silly choice. £20 for a mooring seems very expensive, especially if Broom want people to use their pub. We moor at Swancraft when we want to visit Brundall and the White Heron, it's very close by and £10, (it's also our boats spiritual home as she was built there). You need to book in advance though.

Quite agree 'Pinkers In' for me too, a proper pink gin, not this modern stuff you see on the shelves, that's sweet and sickly!

Personally, although not a paddleboarder, I have no problem with them, in fact I enjoy seeing such people enjoying themselves, we are hardly overrun with paddle boarders. Oh dear! I seem to be agreeing with Dr P. (something am rarely able to do), I promise to try not to do this in future. I get more problems from day boats such as those operated by Mr. Thwaites and others, from their speeding, overtaking on the wrong side, drunken behavior and rowdiness albeit these anti-social people on day boats are in the minority. The worrying trend I have noticed this year is hire boats with paddle boards not in use and seriously affecting safety. I have seen many strapped to side decks, completely blocking access along them. Also on fordecks blocking safe access to mooring ropes etc, and probably worst of all, strapped to cochroofs severley restricting visibility from the internal helm position. Properly used, there is still access for all craft.

I hope this post can be put back up, I was on the verge of commenting positively!

I agree that diesels heater can be very annoying during the night, especially with crammed stern on moorings. They also run very hot and so I make sure I have a decent sized fender deployed if the adjacent boats heater exhaust is aimed at my hull. I blame the boat yards for not fitting quiet heaters. 2 boats ago I had an Eberspacher which was noisy, the next boat I owned I had a Webasto Airtop 2000 fitted which was virtually silent outside. My current boat which is my first Broads boat is fitted with a Mikuni which is also very quiet. So it can be done.

My Beta 38hp raw water pump had started leaking after 15 years. The engine is still very smooth, always starts first time without the heater plugs and doesn't use any oil (which is changed with the filter each year). I contacted Beta by phone and confirmed my order by email and the part arrived the next day. When they replied to my email, there was a photo of an engine at the bottom of the email. I noticed the partial number I could read on the crate it was sitting on looked like my engine ID plate. I asked if this was my actual engine and the reply was yes, having been tested and ready for painting and dispatch to Swancraft for installation. How impressive is that after 15 years!

Is this a problem of poor batteries that need replacing and poor alternators. I know hire companies say run the engine for 5 hours a day, but surely 2 or 3 hours cruising should keep the batteries topped up. Last year a large hire boat moored next to us at Beccles and on the side it said quiet electric cruising. The occupants disappeared up the town and then the standby generator kicked in and we had that for a couple of hours, as it wasn't plugged into the shore power! When we moor on the 24 hour moorings without power e.g. as at Womack, we never run the engine. All our lighting is LED and the TV and even the microwave run perfectly well from the inverter. We tend to boil a kettle for washing up (gas), this stops cold water going into the hot tank and so we still have nice hot showers in the morning. Can't an information sheet on battery management be issued? We will all have to think about this with our cars in the future.

Springs give the greatest height under the Bridge at low water, not neaps

Thanks everyone for your help. I can receive a signal right at the back of the boat, so yesterday I drove to Argos at North Walsham and bought a tp-link AC1750 wifi extender and now have a good signal all around the boat

Where we moor, the marina has a wifi system with booster transmitter aerials around the marina. We use to get a good signal, but since a large Broom cruiser moved in a couple of moorings away, we have lost line of site with the aerial and hence the signal. Is there such a thing as booster receiver aerial that we could mount on a pole like we have our TV aerial on that would transfer the wifi signal into our boat. Any help will be appreciated.

I also live in Essex and sailed on the Essex Coast for over 40 years. This worked out fine as I could get to Burnham and laterly Bradwell quite quickly on a Friday evening for the weekend and so the boat was getting used. Having got to and age when I found going out to sea was getting harder and having hired on the Broads like yourself we decided in 2018 to buy a boat on the Broads and love it. However from my point of view, it would not have been practical had I not been retired, as the cost could not be justified. With a decent marina mooring, insurance, broads toll, breakdown insurance and running costs, it is well in excess of £5k p.a. However we spend up to 15-18 weeks a year on the boat and with the house shut down at home, that offsets it a bit. Therefore with the problem of school holidays excluding syndicates, I would suggest you could hire for 4 weeks a year more cheaply than owning a boat. This also benefits from owning, as there is no worry, especially in the winter and it's easier to moor, as by reciprocal arrangement between boatyards to use their marinas, it is a lot easier than for private owners. Hope this helps, but if you want to own, go for it, we love it. Let us know on the Forum how you get on.

I think there were only 5 Haines Alpha 36's built, the Kris Cruisers one on the Thames, Fair Lilly, Mirabelle, Nancy Bee and Barolo which is my sisters boat moored on the same main pontoon as us 6 berths away.

Fair Lilly is a beautiful boat, she has been moored 2 boats away from us for several years. No doubt the absence of external pictures is because the name hasn't been changed yet and she is sign written on the stern and bow (port & starboard). The shower to which you refer is in the heads with it's own glass door. This boat really has everything even sat TV tracker dome. Although I wonder if they will take the off as it's on the roof right at the rear and hinges down adjacent to the rear doors, could be a disaster if forgotten when approaching bridges

Looking at the Photos, it looks like what was Fair Lilly, an Alpha 36 built by Haines in 2008. https://www.norfolkboatsales.co.uk/boats-for-sale/haines-bure-36/ Bella Donna (previously Mamma Mia) was built from the NBS moulds by Viking and is a Viking 31. In my opinion the build quality of these two companies is a long way apart. There is plenty of headroom in Bella Maria, I can say this as my Alpha 36 came out the same moulds in the same year,

As you will see from my original post, I did not say it was a B.A. Information Centre, I said I had been told it was and had heard rumours of 2 others. I posted this on here to tease out the truth from the wealth of knowledge of our Forum's members. I'm pleased to say that with all the contributions above, it has achieved exactly that. Thank you everyone.

Ah, possibly yes. A good place for the locals to hang out in the evening, a bit like the benches at Loddon

Big Gazebo. It's in the field over the footbridge

I've just been sent a picture of a new building going up at Beccles Yacht Station and have been told it's a new B.A. Visitor's Centre and that rumour has it there are two more planned for elsewhere. If this is the case, I find it an unbelievable waste of our money. Please tell me it isn't true.

Going back to Sutton Staithe where this post seemed to have started, this is now also another so called 'Free 24 Hour BA Mooring' lost to us. Having been there twice this year and immediately came away again, having found most moorings including all those near the electric posts were occupied by scruffy liveaboards. It seems that those of us who elect to moor in marinas, pay our tolls, insurance, maintenance at say £5k plus p.a. and of course getting pumped out legitimately are being excluded and those we pay (B.A.) do nothing about it. Look at Norwich, what a disgrace to this Norfolk City. The whole of the Broads seems to be degenerating and I speak as someone who has been coming here for about 70 years (may be a bit more as apparently I was conceived on a Broads holiday based at Potter Heigham). Well, got that off my chest at last!!!

Same with us a few years ago after an incident at Reedham when we weren't even on board. Rico's (Paul & Clive) sorted it and we couldn't even see the difference. Great company.

I've also had quite a lot of experience of the prison system and for anyone who thinks these are cushy places, let me assure them that they are horrendous. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, I have worked in many sensitive government buildings including prisons, and when I retired, I was still holding my CTC security pass (counter terrorism clearance), I'm proud to say, to achieve which involves detailed investigation of 3 generations. I bet I've tempted providence now and a letter will drop on the mat shortly. Can you be exempted for not having time to attend as enjoying boating on the Broads too much!

Presumably you're saying I'm not

In all my years I've never been called for Jury Service and often wondered why, yet there's Grendel our fine upstanding forum tech man, whom I had the pleasure to meet at Beccles last year, being summoned 3 times!

Hoveton is of course what most people call Wroxham, eg Roys of Wroxham, Hotel Wroxham, Wroxham Day Boat Hire, Wroxham Police Station are all in Hoveton

I think you will find they have been replaced, they are a much bigger section than those where the heading hasn't been replaced and look clean and new.