mikeyboy1966

Just got the rear seat to finish,and the bow locker door to fit.

I’ve made a bit more progress with the Dabbler, deck fittings going on,front and centre seats are varnished.also made a start fitting fenders. as you can see, it has a name now

Another busy day,

Is the bridge a listed “thing”.? I’ve often wondered why there couldn’t be a “cut” around it. It’s not as if the road is an essential means to cross the river as both sides can be accessed from the new road. the land where the old pub used to be was,the last time i visited unused .I don’t recall there being much else on that side. dig a navigation channel and put a footbridge over.

My apologies, As you know,I’m not based on the broads at present. but my experiences on the Ouse have been very positive. the positives of boating on the Ouse are purely down to the Goba moorings the bulk of moorings on the rivers are Goba . prob 80% ( don’t quote me) the point is without Goba there would be very few moorings. who is representing the the interests of the boater on the broads? genuine question?

Two lovely boats,a credit to your commitment

I’ll take a better look at the websit when I’ve time, thanks for the linky my quick looksee suggests tho that it’s more of a reporting/ news than a proactive organisation?

On GOBA moorings,litter isn’t an issue as I’ve seen, I’ve never seen any human waste but all boats generally have facilitaties. BBQ on the ground is the worst I’ve seen,even though the more popular places have numerous bbq stands. my thoughts remain the same, if you want to increase semi wild mooring and save the ones you have, interaction with the riverbank owners thru responsible group contact is the only way forward

Limited resources is the problem it doesn’t however stop a group of boat owners approaching a land owner and agreeing to maintain a stretch of river bank as a wild mooring

NSBA?

Hire boats,if the owners of said boats are members ,are as welcome to use GOBA moorings as private owners. if ,as I understand what I read here is true,you seem to be losing moorings on a regular basis, having an independent association would enable the membership to negotiate with landowners to secure existing moorings and future ones,be it thru paying rents or simply maintaining the river banks. relying on BA dosnt seem to be working in your favour as boat owners,maybe a more proactive approach would be in your favour. i ,and many GOBA members for instance,take my cordless strimmer On the boat, 10 mins at the mooring sees everything tidy

I know nothing of your existing CooP groups on the broads, on the river Gt Ouse we have GOBA, they negotiate with land owners and use the the funds raised from member ship to lease moorings and represent the interests of boaters. perhaps,as private boat and syndicate boat owners you should try to start and organise together a similar thing, on the broads you seem to be losing moorings whilst river traffic increases in the summer. as a recognised group you would stand a better chance of being listened to by BA etc etc

Three coats of international yacht enamel, i recon one more coat will do,plus the floor. question for the knowledgeable, does it need clear varnish over the top or will the enamel be tough enough once it’s cured?

Can you remember the air draft? since our first attempt at going through,I’ve not had chance to go back ,I’m a bit braver now. also since then I’ve had chance to talk to two other broom 30 crews that regularly pass through, however one of the boats had a bigger engine and the other was twin engined so may well sit lower in the water. another visit beckons I think

Slowly getting there with prep

Also had a run down the old west river to Ely. 50 mile round trip

We managed to have last week on the boat, didn’t take many pic though. Goba moorings near the old ferry inn

It’s probably one of those marinas where old boats go to die. £16k pa divided by 22 moorings is only £727 per boat. based on what I’m paying to moor a 30 ft cruiser it would be £55k i realise my maths are at the most simplistic level but with a bit of work I think the income from mooring fees could be massively improved upon. It would need a sizeable chunk of cash chucking at it though, clean/modern toilets and showers, electric to each berth etc etc jones boat yard on the gt Ouse is also next to a very busy /noisy road ,it doesn’t seem to detract from its popularity tho. it does however have immaculate facilities. I guess this is the modern day problem, land is so expensive thats its difficult for someone to raise the capital to make it viable as a small boatyard business unless it’s passed on to the next generation.

Dodgy Italian electrics

It’s short shaft I believe, having measured it it’s about 20mm longer than the average Ss

Talking of which. I mentioned earlier that the boat came with a motor. fresh fuel,new impeller,,brumm brumm. changed the gear oil as well. although it had been in a garage for years ,there is just some light corrosion to the paint. under the cowl it’s like new. even got the original handbooks

Got some stainless eye nuts so I can fit a safety line to the outboard

Bit of a long day at work yesterday, best I could manage was 3/4 hr with the DA sander.

And a trial fit of my rowlocks

Managed to get the timber roughed out for the rear seat last night