dom

It's not just that, it's "drama as boat hits barge" putting emphasis on the clickbaity element. The boat in question did foul a fender, pulling a fender eye out of the deck - but back when I worked in yards, this was fairly a mundane event, the type of which happened most weeks. I suspect it's just the same, if not more common these days. No doubt the Brinks hirer was embarassed enough as it was without having their error shamed on Youtube.

Aquafibre Diamonds are usually quoted around 6'5" air draft, but Ferry seem to be stating 6'7". No doubt the pilots will have a better idea than anyone whether she'll fit nearer the time.

That's so frustrating - two moorings, up to 84 spaces in Hoveton, plus another 3 within walking distance at "Castle staithe" (still just Caen Meadow in my mind) and you can't get to any of them. The bridge filtering out excessively large dual helm cruisers is one thing, but it's another when you can't get a sensible sub 7' boat through. I keep meaning to have a look at the planning application Barnes have just had approved to see what impact that's going to have on moorings. I know it's to remove a bit of land and to replace with a pontoon, but not sure how large the area.

Petrol stations are legally obliged to show a price which can be seen before filling up. I'd assume the same legislation probably applies to boatyards?

"Never go faster than you're prepared to hit the quay heading". Stick to that when mooring and you won't go far wrong.

I had issues for ages not being able to eat eggs. Whenever I did, I got hideous cramping pain which had me literally doubled over. I love eggs, so had real trouble staying away from them. After many episodes of self-inflicted illness when I chose to ignore previous problems, I eventually found that if I ate free range organic ones, I didn't get ill. Clearly, from that, there's obviously some sort of medication or foodstuff given to non-organic hens which passes through into their eggs which doesn't agree with my body. I think this is just another example (or egg-sample ) of how unhealthy our food chain is these days. Americans wash their eggs before sale to supposedly make them safer. As a result, they have to be refrigerated constantly including in the shop. Because ours are sold au naturale, they have a coating whch protects against bacteria, allowing them to be kept on the shelf in the shop. That's just reminded me of clearing out my grandparents house after my nan died. She had an old school cooker with a couple of exposed bolt down power connections on the back. When we pulled it out to disconnect it, we found a rat with each front paw on a terminal. It had obviously died of electric shock, but probably quite a few years earlier judging by its fossilised state.

Wroxham seems to be struggling to get above 6'3" at the moment. Currently not much over 6'. For me, the stretch above Wroxham is the best bit of the Broads (I may be biased having grown up playing down at Caen Meadow). It's a bit disconcerting to think of Wroxham bridge becoming as restrictive as Potter, so I hope things start changing dramatically in the near future and it's not something more serious causing problems.

That's probably the first and last time anyone'll say that about me It does seem odd allowing the quay situation to progress for so long, as it'll be a nightmare to try and work round boats in season. There have been some fairly explicit statements made about their not being able to afford running repairs elsewhere, so I do wonder just how bad their financial situation is.

Playing devil's advocate, they could be new staff undergoing training. BA recruited new staff at Ranworth recently and you have to undergo "Working near water" training before you can start this type of work these days. I'd hope they undergo some sort of first aid and critical incident response training too. I've queried the repair on the quay heading recently and it was suggested water height might have been an obstacle preventing progress. Whether that's genuinely been the case since last autumn is debatable. It's apparent they have some real funding issues, so I wonder if it's to push the expense into next financial year, which presumably starts now.

Did you happen to see whether the fence/wall around the pergola had been removed?

I'm subscribed to no end of boating channels and it's nice to see the Broads featuring, but the whole Ludham Bridge situation is starting to grate a bit with me. It's getting to the point where you inevitably have one of the three main protagonists recording every weekend. I think it's starting to get a bit intrusive and it's obviously largely waiting for something untoward to happen. I can't help but wonder what the net effect of it all is. If a new hirer comes down from Stalham the first time, bumps the bridge and their error ends up attracting derision on YouTube, are they more or less likely to come back next year? Between that, and the added emphasis it puts on bridge clearance issues, it all seems a bit undesirable for the hire industry in my eyes. It's not really surprising to me that at least one of them has attracted some hostility from certain areas. In the past, when I worked on turnaround and did refuelling, we did the same with calibrated dipsticks, taking a measure and just adding what the dipstick said was needed. We'd also keep a tally of the amounts used and totalled that up to work out when we needed another fuel delivery. It had run that way for decades, so it obviously all worked fairly well.

Alexanders maybe?

EDP and BBC seem to be reporting the same, but I'm not sure I trust the journalism standards of either these days. Lowestoft South Fire Station have posted a video on X/Twitter which seems to show another small cruiser in close proximity behind, so hopefully the 3rd might have just been minor damage.

I suspect that might be a bit of a sore point. The EA re-opened all the locks at the end of last week, but then put out a strong stream alert Saturday morning, effectively closing down the Great Ouse upstream from Earith. A lot of RGO boaters are complaining about paying a full season's toll, only to be stuck in the marina for months. There are a lot of parallels with the Broads situation, ie. moaning about EA funding for dredging, etc.

Sad weekend for a couple of owners. Just hope they were well insured. Also a shame to see the likely demise of another Foster/Silverline Classic 27. I've always thought they're lovely little boats and great for getting around all of the Broads network.

I can remember saving up for a snake as a kid in much the same way. We went up to the old pet shop which used to be on the approach to Norwich Castle before the mall was built. My mum insisted that I waited in the car to save finding a parking space, whilst she went in and checked. Funnily enough, they'd "sold out" of snakes. I've still not entirely forgiven her for that.

I'm sure working at Summercraft was what gave me the inability to do a job any way other than 100% the right way. Their standards really stemmed from Dick Sabberton, who could be a bit hard to read, but always had half an eye on everything. Every boat got checked 100% and we cleaned every inch of the exterior every turnaround. I think one of the key differences between them and your average yard now is that everyone employed was familiar with boating and the hire industry, so they tended to really care about what they were doing.

I keep looking now and then and always think how exposed to the elements they are. Can't help but wonder whether having higher sides on the tray might protect them a bit and might help hatching and survival rates? I notice Bath has a bit more shelter from the sides.

Joking aside, I'd be surprised if someone wasn't at Ranworth collecting fees tomorrow. What did surprise me is that they've got river rangers out today. I noticed one on HW's webcam earlier, who spent getting on for 2 hours on the quay (I'm no fan of criticising individual staff, but was curious to see how long he was there as it's Easter Sunday overtime rate). He then reversed out straight into the path of a Phoenix dayboat who'd presumably just taken the controls for the first time

Visit certain moorings on the northern Broads at times and you needn't bother imagining. I'm quite pro-liveaboard, having done it myself to a degree in the past, but the Broads simply don't have enough moorings to accommodate continuous cruising at scale. I think we're likely to see a large upswing in numbers in coming years, which could cause major issues, particularly when the people involved are those who've not been supported for social issues. There's only ever going to be so much social housing the state can provide and it's already excessively pressured by new demand.

St.Ives is apparently open - but I've not been past to confirm, so don't take that as 100% gospel.

Air drafts are generally minimum, ie. all foldable or sliding parts down. I'd hope current hire boat marketing stuck to the same convention. 8'6" would be OK at Ludham with care under normal summer conditions. Whether we'll get completely normal conditions this year is yet to be seen. Wroxham seems high still from what I saw yesterday.

We always used to do this with old wooden boats. Done properly, I think it's probably one of the most effective surfaces in terms of grip. Can be a bit less than forgiving on flesh though!

I'm no fan of paving over bits of green countryside, but the damage has really been already done with the NDR. It makes no sense whatsover to oppose a link across to the A47, which would keep traffic to a primary route and probably have a wider benefit to both nature and people living in the area.

We used to just call these roads when I was young! When I lived in Tunstead, the main route to Coltishall, Horstead, west Norwich, etc was generally down Tunstead Road to the Sco Ruston bends. That always had grass down the middle. A quick look on Google Streetview and it looks like it's probably still much the same. I think they switched a lot of minor roads to byway status in the hope of avoiding maintenance costs, but issues with public liability makes it a pretty ineffective tactic. A lot of them are very ancient, and hence very stable anyway, so tend not to need much upkeep. I think a lot of typical "poor" roads in Norfolk look pretty good compared to the state of the average road out in the Fens.