dom

That was really what I was thinking. Most yards probably have a modern email marketing platform of some description anyway. Most of these can be set to send an email automatically a certain amount of time after a particular date or event - so the yard would just need to create a rule to send an email invite to complete the survey a week after hire date or similar.

The trouble is, they seem to be stating that the trial run should be mandatory, which really leaves the yard vulnerable if they choose to let you go on your way without one. I think someone ought to be challenging why the BA are using tollpayer funded resources to carry out these surveys, taking rangers away from other duties (ironically, including looking out for safety hazards or risk to life). Every principal hirer will have an email address these days. It's trivial to set up a web survey form. Even with branding, and hosting on a subdomain off BA's site, it'd be less than a day's work for a developer to set up, so probably less than £1k or so cost. A form could be set up once and principal hirers could be emailed a few days or weeks after taking a boat out. Rather than surveying a few random hirers who the rangers happen to collar, you'd be requesting feedback from 100% of hirers. Done properly, it's a set up and forget system and would remove all burden from the rangers. This could increase ranger time spent working productively, and possibly even allow for a reduction in ranger numbers. It also means hirers could respond in their free time at home, rather than disturbing them when they're on holiday.

I passed through St.Ives earlier, so had a bit of look around. St.Ives lock is currently completely immersed. It's just a big expanse of water with a few bits of hardware poking up. I did grab a picture whilst traffic slowed on the bridge, but you can't see much through the mesh on the bridge sides and I didn't fancy the trek back from the nearest parking to get a better shot. Low Road is flooded from halfway through Jones Boatyard's entrance. You can't even get to the entrance to the road to the lock. It looks like Jones' shop has probably escaped flooding so far, but an earlier EA alert mentioned a possible further surge, so not in the clear just yet. I pulled into the car park for a quick look and reckon they've probably got 4 inches or so margin at the moment. There's currrently around 6" or so off the quay heading in front of A Frayed Knot, so she's pretty safe. The same can't be said for other marinas. Westview, Pike & Eel, Wyton and Buckden marinas are all inaccesible, which has given me food for thought, as I've been toying with the idea of keeping a boat on the RGO.

I'm assuming that the majority of the 31% probably had a handover trial run of less than 20 minutes - but there seems to be a major omission from either the questions or the BA presentation of the results. It could be that some had 45+ minutes? The interpretation of the results also seems completely fatuous. If anything, I'd ignore the 10% obviously experienced hirers not getting a trial, and focus more on why there are 28% new hirers, but only 16% of trials taking 30+ minutes. It's stupid trying to teach the experienced to suck eggs, but new hirers are obviously going to be the highest risk group. Do all hirers now get a handover sheet with a start/end time for the handover, or are all these figures based on hirer estimates? I'd expect new hirers to underestimate the length of the handover if it's based on recollection. As a marketer, I find the 28% first time hirer figure disconcerting. Given that a substantial percentage of customers won't be retained, I'd have expected that figure to be a lot higher. Suggests to me that maybe yards need to be doing more to reach new target markets - which probably means decent investment in digital marketing these days.

At least it looks like the Dolphin car park is empty this time. I can remember one occasion in the late 90s when it came up suddenly and a lot of vehicles were parked there and got stranded in deep water for weeks.

Yeah, beating 20 year records by multiple inches is pretty serious. There's just a hint that St.Ives might be levelling out now, but downstream at Earith is still climbing steadily. It's good that you're out of the water. There have been quite a lot of incidents with boats adrift and lots of others where they've reached the end of the slack in mooring lines and are heeling over heavily. I suspect there may well be quite a lot of quay heading damage from boats moored too tightly.

Low Road from Jones' through to Fenstanton is well and truly underwater, but I think St.Ives end is OK. I think Jones' shop is above road level, so hopefully OK. I may go out for a drive and take a look at a few places tomorrow. Photos of Huntingdon Boathaven look more like a new broad. Westview marina at Earith is completely inaccessible. There are record levels showing on sensors all over the place upstream of Earith now. Not sure if the link'll work, but Little Paxton lock is currently more like a set of rapids! https://www.facebook.com/borochris/videos/755394609945047 I'm assuming that Jones' staff and the webcam probably give you peace of mind - but if you do ever need a welfare check on anything, just let me know.

Have you been down lately @Bikertov? The river level has just set a new record today at St.Ives. Just curious how high above water level the bit where you're dry stored is, but can't see on the webcam at the moment.

I notice they're raising an issue with the 10% of experienced hirers not getting a trial run. Seems they're going to force yards to send someone out on a trial with hirers who've been boating for years - even those more experienced than the staff member doing the trial run. And they wonder why hire fleet operators don't like them I'm probably being really stupid, but where's location 3? Wroxham, PH, ?

Best of luck and hope things go well for you. Is Lady Christina still one of yours? Coincidentally, I was looking to see where she'd gone within the last few days.

One thing which has only just occurred to me is that a lot of non-essential infrastructure probably wasn't replaced because of the fact it was only two years later when WW1 started. I guess apart from anything else, it'd have meant labour was in very short supply and limited to food production. Then they had Spanish flu. If you look at the mess we've just been through, it must have been a pretty rough 10 or so years they had to contend with.

Yeah, I've worked out where it was now. I could remember walking down the road in the late 70s/early 80s and it just being houses all along the roadside, but there is actually a small gap through onto the waterfront. Funnily enough, just after "Boatyard Maltings". I've started a Google map of current and former boatyards, so have added that to it. I think it may be quite a lengthy exercise though. Even just getting Wroxham yards right is proving a nightmare!

My sister used to have a boyfriend who was heavily involved in the creation of the North Walsham Live Aid events. We lived in Catfield at the time, so I suspect the Le Grice name is etched into my brain from driving back and forth dropping her off at her boyfriend's. I'd always assumed it was just a slightly exotic sounding name they'd created. I didn't realise it was actually a local family name. Lubbocks in North Walsham seems to go back centuries. I should image you've got hundreds of cousins all around! I can't picture where Clifford Allen's yard would have been. Was it off the bottom of Anchor Street? With so many yards disappearing, I'm tempted to create a Google map and try and pin them all whilst we still collectively remember them.

Growing up, me and my mates all had quite strong Norfolk accents. The old boy I lived next to though was on a whole other level. Even being accustomed to the accent, I still only managed to catch about 20% of what he said. Judging by the way he spoke, I doubt they named the storm and probably just said "cor blast me bor, that were a rum 'un" or words to that effect, quite possibly with a good few expletives chucked in. Something you said gave me a slight suspicion that was the case. There was always quite a lot of chat locally about NWDC and we were fairly familiar with it as kids. I think when I was at school in Stalham, we even did a field trip out to study it. We also played and explored at Ebrige and Briggate mills and Honing Bridge. The Aylsham navigation though seems to have virtually lapsed from people's thoughts. I can remember being in Buxton mill in the 70s when it was a slightly hippyish craft centre and looking out on the mill pond wth my dad explaining how it used to be navigable. I seem to remember back then before the fire, there was a big glass window high up which always gave me vertigo. We also used to fish and swim at Horstead mill. The tale of what happened to the lock seems to have been largely lost amongst the locals though, I guess probably due to the fire. We always tended to be more interested in jumping off the arches. I still always visualise it in my head with the ground floor and arches still intact. I also used to fish at Mayton Bridge (on the road from Little Hautbois to Mayton Wood tip) and there's barely 18" of water up there, but on a hard bottom rather than silt, which suggests it's probably not dramatically changed. I really struggle to picture what that stretch must have been like with boats on it. It's a shame, and actually quite surprising that they didn't rebuild Coltishall lock. Would be great to be able to head up to Buxton under power, even if it was only in the smallest vessels. I loved canoeing as a kid. I keep promising myself one day I'll try and get back to doing it again. If I ever do, I'll have to head up above Horstead.

Surely that'd mean you'd need 30ft or so minimum width for two vessels to pass though? I did think maybe they ran in one direction at certain times, but over the distance involved and with the speed they'd travel, I can't see that being feasible. Has the river really lost that much width since 1912? They must have been tough blokes too. Presumably they'd have to spend a lot of time quanting with that little width.

No Allens in the document I'm looking at currently that I can see, but Leander, a pleasure wherry which used to belong to one of the Bunns is listed belonging to a Le Grice. Took me a minute to place the name, but presumably also linked to North Walsham. A James Bunn definitely ran a wherry (Horstead Trader) from somewhere just upstream of Horstead Bridge - generally listed as Hautbois Magna or Great Hautbois. It seems they ran from there right down to Yarmouth. William, a generation before ran a wherry too, but I've not found much detail as yet, other than he was from Marsham. I think they were a bit of a wherrying dynasty. James had at least 13 kids, so no shortage of crew! I find it all fascinating, but also slightly spooky. I was looking at a list earlier and realised all the northern river wherrymen's surnames were not just familiar, but a very high percentage were the same as my closest friends in my youth. It's almost like we were subconsciously drawn together somehow by a shared heritage.

Can anyone shed any light on exactly what unique quality or specific feature makes a boat a wherry? I thought there'd be something obvious I simply wasn't aware of, but Googling doesn't seem to shed much light. The reason for asking is, Wikipedia's page on Norfolk wherries says on the Aylsham navigation they had to be 12' 6" x 3' 6" maximum. If that's length and beam, it's more like a punt. I can't believe it's beam and draft though, as surely 12'6" beam never would have got up to Aylsham?

There have been 2 deaths due to one in 2019 though. Just did a quick check to see if there were any more and it's quite alarming how many other CO related deaths there have been from generators, exhaust leaks, etc I've just been trying to figure out an explanation as to how both our opinions on the carbon buildup issue could be right, as I know I'm right, but also appreciate your experience. Would all of your experience have been going back a fair while? And predominantly in France? I wonder if it's either French (white?) diesel being better quality, or biodiesel related. I don't remember diesel bug being an issue when I was around boats all the time, but it's all you hear about these days. Is the hygroscopic nature of biodiesel also worse for carbon build up in heaters? Seems plausible that carboxylic acid from biodiesel which causes filter clogging might also increase carbon in combustion?

I've not had experience with gas Trumatic heaters, but diesel ones definitely do have issues with carbon build up. My experience with it has largely been in commercial vehicles, so it may be that they're more prone to it. Obviously, a truck cab will warm up far quicker than the average boat, so their heaters may well tend to get run on lower settings for long periods, exacerbating the issue? If you dig around online a bit, you will still find plenty of mention of it amongst boaters though - particularly with Chinese units, but also with Eberspacher, etc. Some people actually recommend running a cup full of paraffin through them regularly to help burn off deposits. The boat I had planned to buy earlier in the year actually had a Mikuni unit, which didn't appear to be firing up. I spoke to the main service agent and they strip and media blast them. They suggested if it had power to the glowplug but didn't fire, it was the likely cause. I guess maybe with hire boats, minimal winter use means they're not getting run at low settings for long periods most of the time. I can imagine a lot of hirers will simply crank thermostats right up too, which'll probably help keep them clean. Don't know if there's any difference between road and red diesel which might also have an effect?

Just stumbled across this old post whilst digging around to see if Graham Bunn's wherrymen ancestors get any mention on here. My grandfather was a coachbuilder and worked on wooden aircraft frames. Just after WW2, he got made redundant when Miles Aircraft went bust. The family, including my dad, ended up moving up to Haveringland and living in a Nissen hut on the former airfield so my grandfather could get a job at Duncan Industries. He made timber frames for some of Duncan's cars. I know he worked on Duncan Healeys, but not sure if he did anything with the Alvis. It's really interesting to hear of the connection to Graham Bunn. Ironic choice of words to describe Duncan's demise. My grandmother worked for the canning factory up the road from Duncan Industries.

Engine related CO deaths occur more often on petrol powered vessels (in the leisure industry at least). Diesel engines run on the principle of combining a hydrocarbon with oxygen. When it's running properly, the output is CO2 and water and only tiny CO levels. You can't get too blasé about it though, as the second they're not running optimally, you'll get incomplete combustion of the fuel. That results in Carbon Monoxide being produced in large volumes (and, I'd guess, something akin to Hydrogen Peroxide). Both diesel engines and diesel heaters are reasonably safe in terms of emissions, as long as you get the exhaust safely overboard, which is why incidents with heaters tend to be rare, unless using dodgy exhausts. The danger with diesel heaters (irrespective of brand) is that one of the main issues they have is carbon accumulation. If they're run low too much of the time, they "fur up" with carbon. That stops heat transfer into the chamber walls, cools combustion and results in a less clean burn. Eventually, CO emission will rise, which increases the chances of it getting drawn into cabin areas. For that reason, it's important that every few weeks continual use, you wind the heater up full for a while to try and burn off the internal deposits.

In case you didn't see my earlier post, "detectors that comply with the more stringent BS EN 50291-2 standard are best suited for boats". Personally, with things which can kill you, I'm more of a fan of redundancy than premium quality. Two typical off the shelf devices in overlapping areas is better than a single premium quality unit if a battery goes flat or a component fails.

The size is about right, but I think she may be a bit too lean and elegant judging by the (not great quality) pictures I can find online. I can't help but think with it being within a few years of his death and our being loosely acquainted with him, I'd have known if it had previously been Tom Percival's boat, especially racing at Oulton week.

Definitely wouldn't be Morning Calm, as she was built by C&G Press. I'd have remembered if that was the case, as I was friends with one of their descendants in school. Not clinker. I'd have remembered if that was the case, as my dad's best mate had spent the preceding years rebuilding a clinker motor cruiser. I spent countless days listening to the constant sound of hammering of roves! She's another one I'd love to see again - Josephine from Summercraft, she was virtually scrap a few years ago, but I think she's had a fortune spent and now on the Southern Broads somewhere. Dusky Maid doesn't sound at all familiar. I'm fairly sure she had a modest sounding, single word name. I've been through the entire class list and think I'm going to have to find some sort of record of results to stand any chance of tying it down. If I could see the results for Oulton 85 and 86, it'd narrow it down massively. After that, I could quickly eliminate a few I know we raced such as White Wings, or the long, sweeping designs like Loyalist. I think you'd fairly quickly get down to a relatively small list and be able to easily work out which she is. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it turned out she was Melody.

Reed Robin sounded familiar, but looking at her details, I think a) she's too long, and b) she has Stuart Turner propulsion, which I'd imagine to be an original period engine. I'm fairly sure ours didn't have an inboard, which was one of the reasons we towed her to Oulton. I think I may remember Reed Robin from racing, and possibly also Loyalist, but none of the names sound right for ours. My primary memory is of seeing her tied alongside our Broom, either on tow, or on a swinging mooring at Oulton. Because she was lower so I was invariably looking down, it's possible my brain may be confusing a varnished transom with a varnished hull. It's really unlike me, but I just can't picture her clearly. I guess it's an age thing I guess another option is to try and get up for one of next year's regattas so I can do a bit of sleuthing in person. I'm fairly sure I'd know her the second I saw her if she's still around.