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catcouk
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Posts
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Posts posted by catcouk
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2 hours ago, Mouldy said:
They are doubling up on the numbers of moorings available to make their figures look good. Double mooring is permitted at a number of their mooring sites.
It was commonplace in the past, when there were more hirecraft on the rivers, but not done as much now for a number of reasons.
Nope - they list the mooring as single alongside. Still not sure why they think they have so much space.
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The BA website thinks that there is space for 6 boats on the Beccles mooring. Having cruises passed is recently, I don't think that is accurate!
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Okay folks. Many thanks to the 139 downloaders. I have made a few minor corrections and I am releasing the 2024 (version 1) of my Metro Map. This is my last attempt at keeping it to two pages - some colouring in certainly helped but I think some might still find that first page overload. My intent is also to provide a cruising time chart (like those seen in various publications) using these times. If you can think of any significant places that I should add, let me know. Hopefully, I've picked enough here to give a rough idea:
BURE:
Coltishall Common
Wroxham Bridge
Horning Staithe
Ranworth (Malthouse Broad)
Acle
Great Yarmouth (YS)
ANT
Dilham
Stalham
Ludham Bridge
THURNE
Womack Staithe
Potter Heigham
West Somerton
Horsey Mere
Hickling
YARE
Berney Arms
Reedham
Rockland St. Mary
Brundall Church
Brammerton
Norwich YS
CHET
Loddon
WAVENEY
Burgh Castle
St. Olaves
Somerleyton
Oulton Broad
Waveney River Centre
Beccles YS
Geldeston
Lastly, if you do find anything out of date or incorrect, please message me and I will issue an update when I am able to. Also, if anyone wants to share this anywhere else, please do.
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1 hour ago, grendel said:
... if I can see this how on earth have all their experts missed it?
Not that I wish to be called a conspiracy theorist (hang on, just putting my tin foil hat back on), but are the experts not paid to find the answers that their employers want? Also, isn't there a quote about, "lies, damned lies, and statistics"?
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For anyone interested, kpnut was kind enough to share a range of her cruising times. With a possible query about the Waveney between Breydon and St Olaves and the stretch above Beccles Old Bridge, we're very pleased with the comparison.
Can I just say a big thank you for the engagement and response. 110 downloads seems like this was a worthwhile thing to share. I'll wait a few more days for any other feedback and then I'll reload up an official version one. I've tried something different to keep the two page format but I might release a three page version too. However, if the information is broadly accurate, then anyone is welcome to use the information however they like!
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3 minutes ago, oldgregg said:
It's hard work, I can assure you. I look after nine of them, one of which has been number 1 paid app in the UK.
Well, not that I ever harboured an ambition to produce an app but you have completely put me off now! Still, a fascinating insight into the world of app making!
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I decided that it was better to refer navigational matters to an official source. Probably a good idea to give the Yarmouth YS number out or Broads Control.
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12 minutes ago, kpnut said:
I spent the first year of my boat ownership recording timings to all moorings from my home mooring for the north, and from Great Yarmouth for the south. Between one mooring and another I deduct as appropriate. It’s stayed pretty accurate.
I'd love to know how my times compare with yours - hopefully pretty close!
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I think for the print out form, the two page works well from a lot of practical viewpoints but for the sake of clarity, I might have to move to a three page design. Having said that, having the I formation on an offline app would surely be the best approach (a PDF was the closest solution I could come up with!).
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1 hour ago, Broads01 said:
I have a couple of suggestions.
Thank you so much for the feedback and I completely agree.
A digital version would be far superior and more flexible but that is beyond my abilities (and I no longer have a website server). I may put the notes and key on a third page though. For my personal use, it shouldn't make a difference but may make it easier to read.
Putting the BA abbreviation first was a deliberate choice to help someone spot free moorings by quickly scanning down the list. I thought it was worth the visual horror to make that clearer but I guess I could have used a colour (like the red) to make it stand out differently?
The cruise times were supposed to be consistent but the various different side channels made it impossible. Putting the dykes on the right might make that a possibility but I wanted to try and keep the layout of the channels broadly accurate. I'm a bit stuck here on the design front.
I will certainly have to try the other ideas though. Thank you very much!
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Hello all.
When I first returned to the Broads as an adult, one of the helpful resources I found for estimated cruising times was a 'metro' style map of the Northern Broads. (Think of a London Underground style map if you like). I cannot for the life of me remember where I found it but I was disappointed I couldn't find a matching 'metro' map for the South. I also found it frustrating that it didn't cover all of the moorings. So I decided to make one (albeit using Word so it doesn't look any where near as nice as the proper TfL maps)...
After 6 years of work (over 5 holidays), careful recording of times on a clipboard, and a diligent use of a GPS speedometer whilst observing the speed limits, I have now produced a (hopefully) comprehensive 'metro' style map of cruising times. I hope that it would be useful to anyone who might want this information but I will certainly use it as a good reference guide if no one else will.
I have endeavoured to provide accurate cruise timings (for a motor cruiser travelling at the speed limit) from my own experiences (many of these have been checked and rechecked over subsequent years) but I would greatly value any feedback that forum members might like to give. In addition to this, I have aimed to provide some limited information about each mooring that might be of interest to boaters (any mistake spotting would also be great appreciated). There are some limitations...
Whilst I have tried to include all fixed moorings (including private dykes and marinas but not anywhere needing a rhond anchor), space requirements mean that it sometimes has been necessary to list only a few at a chosen location. I have to assume that, if someone is using a different mooring, I have chosen recogniseable enough locations that they could choose an alternate labelled one. Also, whilst I have used my own personal experience for the vast majority, I have not been able to cruise above Potter Heigham Old Bridge and have relied on averages from other sources so any information on the Upper Thurne could be wildly inaccurate (again, corrections would be warmly welcomed). Lastly, all times are roughly accurate to the nearest 5 minutes (except where a distance is obviously shorter).
The usual caveat of tides and wind may affect the times possible (and this is stated on the map) and my intent is to show the fastest a motor cruiser should be able to get from A to B (shame on anyone who beats that time due to speeding!). This could be especially useful if arriving at a mooring to find it full and considering where the next best option is.
I hope this will be of interest to members and would like to thank anyone for feedback in advance. If this is only of interest to me, I'm not sad for putting it together - I have very much enjoyed the project (yes, I am that dull!). I also worry that I have filled it with too much information and might consider moving the notes and key to a third page (but I was really trying to save paper too).
Attached, is the FIRST DRAFT that I have made available publicly. If anyone has a website or other space that would like to use this, please feel free to. Any and all comments (good and bad) are very much welcomed.
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I finally got around to downloading the Aweigh App (seems very useful). I noticed that a couple of moorings are inaccurate. Does anyone know how to contact the dev team to let them know? I only realised as I had been up there for the first time this year and we had lunch moored on Womack Dyke.
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19 minutes ago, Jonathan said:
I will repeat that these are just comments, not criticisms!
I need to echo this. I hope my comments were taken in the spirit they were intended and no offense or criticism was intended!
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4 hours ago, sdk said:
Hi Everyone
I've been working on a website side project over the last half year or so. It's a tides website along the lines of the norfolk-broads.org page which has been around for ages.
This site hads an animated explorable map of the broads which shows the current tide state for each section of the river.
I've just got it online this past week. It's at broads.live.
There are some more details about the site itself on the about page.
Good to have some people check it out.
Sam
Love this. Lovely to see a graphical depiction of what the tide looks like. Admittedly, I am only looking on my phone (and will definitely have to look on my laptop later) but I have one observation on the graphical map. I wonder if the map and tide states would be easier to interpret if low and high slack were represented by static images to give a clearer impression of the lack of movement. It would also make the easier to differentiate from the ebb and flood states.
Again, love this. Thanks for sharing. I shall bookmark this.
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I watched because I already had the bug from my childhood.
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13 hours ago, CambridgeCabby said:
I remember eagerly awaiting “London Rascals” next adventure in the days when he used to hire , his videos were always informative
I used to watch the boat review religiously (and rewatch to get me in the mood for our Easter holiday). Great videos. I have only done reviews of our hire boats to try and pay back the time he invested.
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13 hours ago, SwanR said:
My videos are just a hobby and mostly made for my own amusement and as a nice record of my own holidays and trips out.
Ditto. I've always seen YouTube as a free way to share silly homemade videos. My son is very impressed that I can 'be on TV' though... Lol
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All I can suggest is to join them. Sadly, social media is now a part of society's life. I hope that I have only added a positive and realistic view of hiring on the Broads with my past content. Whilst we can all very much choose to stay away from social media (whilst acknowledging that we use this forum which is... a social medium...), we cannot ignore it's existence. At school, I advocate sever caution to my students when accessing social media but I know that it will fall partly on deaf ears (certainly as I get older!).
So, as I said at the start, those of use who can should share the positive experiences we have!
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Woops. I realised I had missed this photo of blatant guerrilla marketing at Gays Staithe.
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53 minutes ago, grendel said:
Jayne 2 is probably the lowest boat in Marthams fleet I think when they rebuilt her they shortened her by a few inches to future proof her getting through the bridge, I dont know the exact figure but probably around 5'6", and worse case they can trailer the boats round to a slip the right side of the bridge (or ask herbert woods to borrow the crane for a few minutes)
You make it sound easy! I can only think of the mild hassle of 'portaging' a canoe so I imagine portaging a river cruiser to be a nightmare! Lol
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@Mouldy I don't think the content on here has been particularly accusational - more one of concern and a want to understand. I really appreciated your post. If I had been going up the Ant that today, it was a really useful notice. I didn't think at all that you were starting a thread for rubber neckers!
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I was able to speak to my colleague today - it wasn't his group but he was in contact with the group involved. Apparently, there were four youth groups out sailing last week.
Firstly,as already confirmed, all crew are well. Secondly, despite theories, there was no structural failure of the boat and there was no significant damage caused. Furthermore, the affected boat is already back out on hire - she went out on Saturday (I'm assuming after a fair bit of work!).
I have gathered slightly more information. The yacht was under sail with one reefing point on. A combination of too much sail and then taking in water over the gunwales seemed to have caused the capsize. As they say in the airline industry - pilot error. We've all had bad days at the helm but I feel for this skipper as their bad day has become such public knowledge.
The hair raising experience to one side, all are well and the boat is out and about. All's well that ends well, then?
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3 hours ago, CambridgeCabby said:
We passed you as you were on your final leg to Stalham Saturday morning , we did wave 👋🏻
I hope I waved back! I wave to everybody (yep, I'm one of those).
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36 minutes ago, Broads01 said:
Thanks for a superb write up, I've really enjoyed it. I enjoyed your video last year too - do we have one to look forward to this time?
Sorry. I'm afraid there are two videos in the pipeline. The holiday video and the obligatory boat review.
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Cruising Times On The Norfolk Broads - A 'metro' Style Map
in Holiday Tales & Blogs
Posted
Er... so that was a much bigger job than I had really thought (didn't really think that through). I take my hat off to anyone who ever made a time chart - especially if they did it without the help of a computer!
I have completed the cruising times chart (based on my data) and make it publicly available for anyone to use as they see fit. You may need a magnifying glass due to the chart's size though...). Unlike others I have seen, it is not split between the Northern and Southern Broads so you can quickly look up transit times through Great Yarmouth. Also, the locations are all arranged alphabetically rather than geographically (so it can be used by someone unfamiliar with locations).
In terms of doing it... After I did a few manually, I realised that that was mere folly. If we realise a time is wrong, it will be a nightmare to update. So, I put all the times on a spreadsheet and calculated them from that data. If there is ever a cruising time correction/ update, it is just a matter of changing that value and the whole chart will update!
If anyone finds a mistake (as numbers and spreadsheet formulae were just rolling through my mind by the end), please do let me know. The longer the journey is, the larger the margin for error (based on my original point to point timings being rounded to roughly the nearest 5 minutes). Also, if you think a particular location should be added (not entirely sure how easy that would be), let me know and I'll consider it...
Either way, I hope this provides a useful reference guide for everyone. As before, please feel free to share as you see fit. Also, Coltishall to/from Norwich YS is the longest possible journey according to my data (just beating the equally length Coltishall to/from Geldeston).
NorfolkBroadsCruisingTimesChart.pdf