dom

The whole thing's a complete con in most cases these days. I could understand charging £30 to pump out an old style flap and tank below toilet, as it was a disgusting job, often requiring specially made hoses, regular blockages and removing random items dropped into the tank. A typical modern system bares no resemblance to that though and pumping one out is no great ordeal. I'm quite surprised that DIY pumpouts haven't become common on the Broads - especially with private boats. Seems to work fine elsewhere, with tokens typically a tenner or so.

That's a nice idea in theory, but there's not a hope in hell of BA being able to enforce it. There's at least one boat on a northern river mooring which has been in the same spot for months - and was on another one before that for a similar time. As it'd involve financial outlay, the chances of it working on an honesty basis would probably be fairly slim. I suspect a couple of people on here who aren't liveaboards also moor for more than 30 days a year. Seems unfair to penalise them when they're some of the most responsible and considerate people on the river.

It's worth correcting as you've got brand new batteries. As it stands, anything with large inrush current (particularly motorised loads or inverters) will tend to pull the top battery down more than the others. Once the load is off, the voltage will level out across the batteries, but the repeated demand on the top battery will wear it out faster than the others. When one battery dies, it pulls the overall voltage down, killing the others by excess sulphation. I can't see how much slack there is on the earth lead, but if you're really lucky, there might be enough to flip the lead assembly 180 degrees without the need to modify.

I may be wrong, but it looks to me like your battery connections are not completely optimal (which might result in one battery failing sooner). Annv's post a while back had a diagram showing the best way to connect. Judging by the image, it looks like the earth take-off wants to move to the opposite end of the bank.

The Broads Authority are completely hostile to any idea of liveaboards, opposing all planning applications made for residential moorings. As a result, you generally have to either continually cruise (not an especially attractive option on the Broads due to lack of moorings) or try and live under the radar on an unapproved mooring. Boatyards are well aware of the issue and tend to avoid letting moorings to liveaboards not already known to them. As a general rule, if you're going to do it, you're far better off on the canal network where you can moor anywhere and only have to move every 2 weeks.

There's now a petition running to try and persuade Royal Mail of the need to keep services in the village. https://www.change.org/p/help-us-to-keep-the-valued-post-office-in-our-village

Which is exactly the point. It's reasonable to assume those filmed smashing into, or stuck under the bridge would rather not appear. Why should they be forced to appear on camera, when the person filming doesn't?

If you're referring to the one I've seen, I think it could be a very positive outcome. The fact that the info is in the public domain is something I find a bit disconcerting though. The info I saw was announcing that Heads of Terms had been agreed. I wouldn't expect it to be made public at that stage, as it could weaken the hand of either party. It sounds more like someone has leaked info to me.

I've changed plenty of brushes in the past, but I can't recall ever having replaced a set of bearings - probably largely because anything I saw was already dead/dying and it was far simpler to just fit a new unit. I suspect it'd be uneconomical to do commercially, unless you're running a dedicated operation. £150/6 hours = £25/hr, which isn't generally anything like a viable labour rate for a business taking costs and parts into consideration. That's assuming you're charging £150 - in reality, it'd need to be significantly less. I've spent quite a lot of time trying to explain this type of thing to customers in the past, especially with things like CD players, with a high cost, but where repairs are very demanding. Good way to save several £100s doing it DIY though, if you've got the time and patience.

Panks Auto Electrical on Heigham Street in Norwich always used to be a good place to try for parts. It's been a lot of years since I last used them though, so not sure whether that still applies. I suspect the number of people outside professional remanufacturers doing this type of work is probably tiny these days.

The only time I've ever paid money to someone is just before Christmas, when a couple I've already mentioned were having their first full winter on a narrowboat. Their domestic batteries died, the one of them who works was struggling to get shifts and it was leading up to Christmas. I made a small donation - partly because of their circumstances, and partly as a "buy yourselves something nice to eat or drink over Christmas" to say thanks for a lot of enjoyable content over the previous year. Donating to conspicuously well off people is just slightly unhinged. Apart from anything else, there are far worthier channels actually doing positive things with the money they generate instead.

More notable is the British guy (who actually lived not far from me) who did a base jump off a 29 storey skyscraper in Thailand earlier this year, whilst filming himself for his Youtube channel. His canopy failed to open and he died as a result. The sad part is, he's far from alone. Young people are increasingly suffering fatal accidents whilst trying to create content. Particularly sad when influencer now features heavily in "what do you want to be when you grow up" top 10 lists.

There are two main principles in operation: 1: Legitimate businesses pay Google to advertise their products with "Pay per click" or "Pay per view" ads. They then choose how much to pay Google for every person who views or clicks on one of their ads (typically £0.10 to £1.00 per click, but a lot more in some cases, ie. financial services). Bids can be set by account, campaign, or even a specific keyword. Google needs somewhere to place the ads, so they look for videos on their Youtube platform where they can run ads. They match content based on demographics, ie. a young beauty influencer's videos might attract ads for beauty products, shampoo, mobile phones, etc. Every ad view generates income for Google, who pass on a percentage to the video producer. Clever content creators pick their video subject matter to attract lucrative ads (a point seemingly lost on those filming at Ludham). 2: Affiliate marketing. A product manufacturer or distributor (often Chinese) will run an "influencer campaign". They look for high traffic channels and gift them a product in return for having their product featured, either used in context, or being reviewed. Obviously in the latter case, the reviews tend to be positive - but are never, ever fake . In most cases, the free product is the incentive for the video producer - but in others, there may also be payment involved. At the moment, there's a lot of focus on lithium portable power packs in the boating field. JustEat's home delivery meals are also getting flogged to death. I've run PPC ads from the business advertiser side since they first appeared. I have also run ads on content networks on the other side of things (web, rather than video content). As a result, I could suggest a way to make far more money from a Broads based video, but won't for obvious reasons.

Not easily or accurately. Anyone with 1k+ subscribers may be. Socialblade.com will give an indication of what a channel might be earning. I suspect most people hitting 1k probably opt into Google's ad programs, but most probably earn little or nothing. Really, there ought to be far more transparency and I think Google ought to only be paying money to Youtube channels who make their owners identities clearly known and state that they're monetized. Unfortunately though, Google's finances are so vast that when the EU fine them €2.4bn for anti-trust breaches, they just laugh about it, make changes, but then revert back to their original position after a while. They just don't care about these things and no-one really has the power to force them to do anything.

Would she have shown incidents if any occurred though? I think we all know the answer. I can appreciate the point you're making, but there's so much more to the Broads than just that one bridge. It's been done to death, so I think it's time to just leave it. There are lots of aspects of the area which haven't ever been covered - and the one dimensional videos do the area a disservice. I've said it before, but I'm not going to suggest topics, as it's conceivable I might have a go at uploading some stuff in future - but, as an example, why not go and have a chat with someone at one of the sailing clubs and feature some sailing. Better still, provide some info on youth sailing and how kids can get into the sport. Or take a look at what Alice Loxton does - she now has 2 million social followers just from talking about history.

I've lost quite a few hours watching mowing videos. There's also a British lad with 250k subs who does similar pressure washing. He did a small job for an old lady who's 96 years old and had been issued with notices by the local council. He's since been back to clear the entire garden, trim trees, repair fences, etc, all for free.

Urgh, sounds like you're having a bad time of things! Only mobile person I know in Norfolk is Daniel Austrin (07881 631694). I can't vouch for his work, but he used to work for Peachments and has done an engine swap on the Southern Comfort, so would appear to be up to the task. I think @CambridgeCabby used him the other day, so may be able to give an opinion.

I suspect I know who you mean. Also goes wherever he likes, including filming a video fishing from private land in someone's back garden. Has also fallen out with two boatyards, a pub landlord and homeowners in Wroxham - all of whom he criticizes, completely failing to comprehend his intrusion. To be fair though, he does at least show his face and makes no secret of his identity. What I do notice is that two of the worst Ludham Bridge offenders have never shown their faces and use pseudonyms. Obviously, anyone can film another person in public. I'd really like to see how they'd react when caught on video and uploaded to Youtube.

A R Peachments are the first people I'd speak to when it comes to replacement drivetrain parts. I was going to suggest speaking to NYA Service Centre - not because I'd especially recommend them, more because they're right next door to Peachments, so it's easy to remove a part and take in for ID - but if the boat's out of the water at Loddon, you obviously don't want to have to incur another lift in and out. Can Greenway Marine help?

Judging by the tell-tale on the shaft, that's got to be a shaft coupling issue, surely? Did you speak to Peachments about finding a replacement?

I just scanned the photo and it worked

I'm currently about 5 books into the S&A series again. Hate to think how many times I've read it. I slipped up when my grandparents passed away, forgetting to go through their book collection before my mum offloaded them all. They had Ransome and C.S.Lewis copies which I suspect were quite early editions. I now have the whole lot on Kindle on my iPad instead. With anyone else, you'd feel a bit foolish admitting to reading kid's books, but Ransome's combination of proper sailing, adventure and passion for the countryside still seems unparalleled. It's a shame he didn't write any more mature fiction. Racundra's First Cruise being based on real life experience was so dry I've still not made it all the way through.

It's cheaper for a company to take card payments than other method these days - particularly with the lack of places to pay in cash. 1% card charge isn't a particularly large issue with high margin product like food. Probably more likely that the one with a card machine has a better understanding of their finances and is pricing accordingly.

I worked in Newmarket in recent years and the traffic can be horrendous. The biggest issue is the corner near the Guineas shopping centre is always a bit of a sticking point but, at any random point in time, you might get a procession of dozens of horses crossing, which bring the place to a complete standstill.

I'm the same. Any business not taking cards is likely to be evading tax, money laundering - or has had so many customers disputing transactions due to poor product/service that they're no longer able to obtain card services. There used to be a time when getting a card terminal could prove difficult, and fees were excessive - but that's long gone and literally anyone can now get one for around £50 or so, with fees not much more than 1%. The only exception to the rule is gun shops. You can't discriminate against age, race, gender or disability these days, but apparently it's fine to do so against law abiding, fully licensed gun dealers because guns offend some people - even when being used for pest control in food production, or control of invasive species. Many struggle to get card services, or even business bank accounts of late.