dom

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.

I'd failed to spot that, which is a bit embarrassing, seeing as I only took this last week!

Just discovered this one from the 50s which I'd not seen before. Surprisingly good quality for its age. Long before my time, but gives me a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach watching bits of it with unspoilt sections of the Broads which I remember from my youth. At 19:00, you can see the bit just above Wroxham bridge which I always go on about which was green and picturesque before they allowed houses to be built there in the 90s. Just a shame they didn't capture more of the boatyards, or those along Lower Street in Horning. And check out the height of the outer arches at Potter around 8:20!

Whenever I see photos like that, it always has me frantically scanning the boats in the background. We used to regularly take one or two boats down to Salhouse sunday afternoons in the 80s. Our spot was always mudweighting in the bay at the back - it wasn't unheard of for me to go swimming on warmer days. I've only got one photo of my dad's boat and live in hope that someone took another at some point.

If you look at old maps, there were multiple boathouses on both Salhouse broads up to at least the 1950s.

I've met the bloke who developed and marketed "Muck Munchers" in my previous role. Their products for domestic septic tanks break down solids and extend the interval between empties. I've often wondered how it'd work if added to a boat black tank. I suspect it might be a good thing to add to the tank over winter if nothing else.

The positions of the various Broadland organisations seems to be polarising, which I think may hopefully be a good thing in the long run. The odd thing about the mailing situation is that it seems to suggest BA have been doing it for free in the past. With a co-mailing situation like this, you'd expect either a commercial charge, or a reciprocal arrangement of some description. If BA have included a flyer, typically, they might charge 10p per customer, so NSBA might get a £1k bill, but it's still way cheaper than doing a dedicated mailing themselves. Maybe NSBA have included some sort of PR in Green Book mailings in exchange - if not, BA would be remiss to be doing things for free.

My route to work used to take me across the Fens by Pope's Corner, where the Cam and Old West meet. The farm there used to be constantly pulling preserved trees out of the peat soil there. They're generally something like 2,500 to 5,000 years old, sometimes older. There's a bit of a burgeoning trade in furniture and artworks made from it. The original cast iron post (supposedly from Crystal Palace) is currently about 4m above ground level.

It's really interesting, if you look at the 1885 map, Hoveton Hall lake connects all the way though to Burntfen Broad. It looks like that would have connected to either Hoveton Little Broad or Crabbet's Marsh at one time. Crabbet's Marsh almost looks like Crabbet's Broad back then!

I'd planned a day out yesterday. First thought when I opened the curtains was my day was ruined by the weather. Second thought was I bet you're annoyed too! She's definitely looking a lot better from the gunwales down. We always used to cover boats topside in winter, but it seems less common practice these days.

Looking at the anode on A Frayed Knot, I just wonder if that positioning could potentially encourage prop cavitation. Not sure if anyone on the forum's more up these things, but it would think it may be better to go further back if fitting a new one - or possibly a rectangular one off to the side?

Somehow I never got fully into dinghy sailing, which is surprising, as one of my uncles was heavily involved in a lot of classes and was, amongst other things, responsible for approving the later Morrison Wayfarer design. He was one of the early pioneers of metal mast technology, joined up with Ian Proctor to develop them and ran Proctor Masts for many years. Ironically, he and Proctor (who sailed together extensively) were also very closely acquainted with Jack Chippendale, who I got to know in his days at Wroxham Barns. I only ever saw my uncle at Earls Court boat shows, but I suspect if things had carried on as they were, I'd eventually have ended up joining him on the Hamble for a sail - he was later a director of the RYA and Olympic team manager, so it could have opened the door on all sorts of adventures but, sadly, my dad died young and I lost touch with that part of the family. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have gone to Southampton Uni, as my dad's life policy would have paid my costs and I could have spent all my free time on the water - but no-one had the sense to point that out to me at the time

We must have started at Stalham at the same time in that case - just with you going in a year above me. Was that a Stalham school activity with the NSSA? Jon looks vaguely familiar.

I think you were probably one year above me in that case. I joined in year one with maybe a dozen other kids then the majority joined in year two. I'm sure I was in the first year to do GCSEs (but had moved to Broadland by then) and I think we left 1988. Only name I can remember from the year above was one of the Derisley sisters who lived opposite and half the school fancied!

When were you there?

We used to be allowed out at lunch from Stalham High School some days (possibly just market day?) and I can remember going to the market to get a burger for lunch. It was great, but the noise and smells from the neighbouring abattoir was a bit off putting on days when the wind was wrong! A mate and I once bought an old 12v car battery powered lawn mower from the auction, which we stripped down to make an electric go-cart. I learnt what a coccyx injury is shortly afterwards.

When I was a kid, whenever we went into Norwich, we'd tend to park in Malthouse multi-storey car park (my sister and I often going to the now long closed Noverre cinema on Theatre Street for the Saturday matinee whilst my mum shopped). I can still remember the smell from the old chocolate factory as you approached down Chantry Road. My dad worked for the GPO and on one occasion went in to do some work, coming home with masses of rejected chocolate, which the workers were sick to death of eating. After leaving the GPO, my dad became Norwich Union's Chief Telecomms Officer - in those days, they had their own internal mechnical telephone exchanges and my dad did a lot of the changeover to newer System X and Y digital systems. Several of my school friends also went to work for NU. It's very sad that they were eventually rebranded to Aviva when they merged with CGU, as I think NU's reputation gave Norwich a bit of national credibility.