dom

Earith causeway is very close to going over. Boaters down at Denver are complaining at the lack of water at the sluice moorings again, so it looks like the EA are dumping water there to try and relieve things upstream.

I was probably around in '87 when you turned up! My dad's boat was usually moored on Summercraft's outer quay heading directly opposite the front of Burecroft - mainly because she was just small enough to fit between the quay and the island which used to be there. Len sold a Broom 30 to my dad, then the yard to Summercraft a year or two later. I have a vague recollection he may have had a heart attack or similar which prompted the yard sale, as it was a small yard without the resources to manage without him. I think Dick who owned Summercraft at that time bought LL for the property as much as the boats. I think we may have run the boats for a season or two, but they were sold off fairly quickly. Sadly, I think Len died around the turn of the milennium. He was a very similar age to my dad, so must have barely reached retirement age, if that. I think I first developed a love of V8 engines from a trip down to Loddon in the back of Len's Triumph Stag to collect the Broom after osmosis repair. I worked with Steve for a short while, but don't remember much apart from him riding something like an FZ750. He can't have been a great deal older than me so was doing alright for himself managing to buy the bike (and a car?). I think either he or Len might have worked for Powles at some point? The lodges were generally built over winter between hire seasons (and 12" off the ground to avoid flooding issues). My dad and I both did the odd bit of work on construction here and there on a few of them. I also used to clean, move and service dayboats and dinghies for them when needed. Was it Kris Cruisers at Datchet you worked for? I'm sure my mum used to handle bookings for them when she worked at Blakes. I have a feeling my very first hire boat experience was on a narrowboat either hired from them, or another yard very nearby. I can only have been 6 or 7 at the time, but clearly remember the yard looking out over the line of trees around Windsor park on the other side of the river.

I worked for Summercraft (and LL Cruisers for a short time after Summercraft bought them). Mostly on turnaround, but also the odd bit of work on boats being fitted out, winterisation, etc. My dad was best mates with one of the yard owners and spent a lot of time helping him rebuilding a boat he'd salvaged (Josephine). My dad later bought a boat which he lived on at the yard and I spent a lot of time on board with him. I could very easily have ended up working there permanently, but in the end went off and trained in telecomms. Still wonder if that was the right decision!

Ironically, I Googled 1980s Ranworth staithe images and ended up finding a picture of the Broads Tours staithe on here. It's the small dyke/inlet opposite the public staithe. There was a slatted wooden fence around it and a load of trees/bushes between there and the neighbouring dyke which have since been removed. You can even see the old sign at the end of the dyke which said "Trip boats only" or something to that effect. There's also what looks like Grecian Girl on the staithe. Comparing her to the size of the dyke, I should think it was just big enough for the old traditional wooden tour boats, which must've come out of service around the early to mid 80s?

It was the small inlet directly opposite the corner with the damaged quay heading on the BA mooring (about here on what3words). I think it was originally used by George Smith way back to the 20s or 30s. If you look on Broadland Memories, there are some old leaflets from that era which mention trips to Ranworth. We used to leave Wroxham after the last hirer's trial run, so it was often well into the evening by the time we got there. The staithe was always packed, so we'd use the BT mooring. That would have been during the 80s and I don't think it was getting a huge amount of use by then. I presume they let it go not long after that as it'd be too small for newer trip boats. I'd love to see pictures of it from the 80s in case one or the other of our boats were on there! My dad died young and I only have 1 picture of his boat, so I live in hope that she'll turn up in someone elses images one day.

I'd imagine Natural England probably have a say somewhere down the line? BA's original formation was monitored and audited by the Countryside Commission. I believe they've now effectively evolved into Natural England.

It's fantastic to see the photo Vaughan. For some strange reason, I still remember having to fight my way through crowds of people in the bar to make it to the gents, which goes to show how busy it used to be on a Saturday night. My earliest memories of Ranworth are of mooring on the Broads Tours quay (opposite the public moorings and now private moorings) followed by long sunny evenings watching the world go by outside in summer, or crammed in the bar in winter. I'm sure it was a deliberate ploy going there, as we'd meet people on turnaround and trial runs during the day, then run into them again at the Maltsters and get free drinks as a result. It's notable though that even we switched to getting a meal in the Granary instead within a few years of it reopening after the fire, which shows it's always been a battle between the two. Someone on Facebook seems to be going to great lengths to clarify that the current closure has been brought on by the landlady being ill, so hopefully the issue resolves in the longer run and it reopens in due course. I used to work for a business in Cambridge but, coincidentally, the owner also owned Cobwebs in Wroxham. Geoff Pleasants really reminds me of his son. I'll have to ask him next time I see him if there's any connection.

I still remember vividly working late on a Rouse Sport Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 4x4 304R when a few of my mates came in to see me. We had two sites at work and drove cars between them, so I took my mates for a very rapid tour of Norwich inner ring road. I regularly drove Porsche 911s, big Mercedes, Audi Quattros, etc, but the Rouse Sport was in another league - so fast it actually left me shaking with adrenalin. Funniest part was a bloke in a Cortina assuming it must be a basic model with an RGA bodykit or similar to have me in my teens was driving it. I think I hit quite a few lateral G leaving him for dead round Halfords roundabout! Ironically, I wasn't the only one to enjoy a joyride in it. It got stolen so many times (including use in at least one armed raid) the owner took to leaving it unlocked to reduce the damage it suffered each time. I managed to return it undamaged (but did once manage to write off an old Maxi by driving a customer's Golf GTI into the side of it). I'd imagine if it's still around the 304R is now a fairly valuable car. My first proper car was a Ford - a little 1.3s Fiesta (basically a Supersport without the stickers), which I spent a fortune on. I ported and polished the head, had it over-bored, changed the carb, exhaust, etc and fitted tarmac rally spec suspension. It was a great little car and towards the end it did a good job sticking with 1.8 Golf GTIs, especially on winding coast roads. Unfortunately, it got shortened by a few inches when some idiot pulled out in front of me near Horstead Mill. A couple of friends had Capris, including a 3.0s 4 speed which did about 8 to the gallon and a cammed 2.0S with twin 45 Dellortos which was great for drifting. I never really caught the Ford bug though and switched to German and Swedish stuff instead after the Fiesta got written off.

I think the ridiculous looks are half the appeal. That's probably a side effect of growing up in the era when every teenage boy aspired to own a Countach.

Playing devil's advocate, that was based in part on 06-07 performance. I think it was probably 07 when BA took on May Gurney's dredging operations, so following years may have seen an improvement. Obviously, equally possible it got worse! One thing I noticed is that page 5 refers to depths at Mean Low Water springs. Recent documents seem to just refer to MLW. Obviously the two mean different things. If someone had copied over an old specification and omitted that one word somewhere down the line, it could mean thousands, if not millions of tonnes less material being removed across the system.

The Ordnance Survey guide to the Broads and Fens : River Ouse, River Nene, Middle level navigations (1986)

My last car was a 2.2 iDTEC Accord. It did 50+ mpg all the time and I could manage 70+ mpg on long run. The Civic averages 61mpg pretty consistently, so I expected to be up around 80mpg on a run, but actually found the exact opposite. On the run up the A11 to Norfolk, I struggle to match the usual mileage. Initially, I thought it was just me. I used to drive the Norwich-Cambridge route twice weekly, so know it like the back of my hand and don't tend to hang around, but even driving sensibly, I can't get much more out of it. I still miss proper VTEC. The thing which first prompted me to buy a Honda was collecting a Prelude from a customer. On the short drive back, the handling was just millimetre perfect, but what really sold me on it was the noise and sensation from the VTEC. As soon as I got back, I went looking for one and ended up with a 4th gen 2.2 VTEC JDM import Prelude. I've driven some pretty exotic stuff over the years, but still think the 4th gen is one of my favourite cars to drive. I came close to buying a DC5 Integra on a few occasions. I think if I won the lottery, I'd have to have a DC5, an S2K and another 4th gen.

Depths I'd imagine to be very difficult to prove without access to GIS systems that EA and similar use. Bridge heights probably get mentioned in old guides if you could locate them. Specific to Wroxham, I don't know whether Broad Tours might have old records from when they stored trip boats upstream?

Sorry to hear that Ian. I suffer with diverticular issues too, but just got told the issue and it stopped there, so I had to figure things out for myself. Hopefully the food diary is indicative of your getting more help and proper follow-up. Mine was made worse by lactose intolerance, so I've switched to lactose free everything - but the main issue for me was very high fibre foods, particuarly things like sweetcorn. I'm the 3rd generation to suffer in my family. My grandmother had similar issues and rigourously avoided tomato seeds and cucumber skin, which she thought was an issue for her. Fingers crossed you get some answers so you can help figure out your own trigger foods soon.

Yes, 9th gen facelift model. The Sport model comes with some pretty wide low profile tyres, so the handling keeps up with the power. I'd rather have had the VTEC (or even the type R), but was doing 50 miles a day at the time so had to opt for economy. Typically, I bought it just before covid expecting to keep it 3 years or so, but then lockdown kicked in and I ended up working from home. I've now had it 4 years and probably only done 15k or so miles. Throughout ownership of 5 Hondas, aside of routine servicing, I've had to change 1 ABS sensor and an idle air valve, which I think is pretty amazing reliability over what must be getting on for 20 years. I did also break a cambelt, but that was due to being stupid and accepting that because they were a well off middle-aged man, the seller was being genuine when they claimed it had been changed. After strip down, it was glaringly obvious it was the original belt and had done 90k miles, but fortunately I got away with just a belt change and no major damage.

As time goes on, I'm kicking myself a bit for not hanging onto the Prelude. It was almost certainly one of the last manual 2.2 VTi Motegis on the road when I got rid of it. I suspect you could count the survivors on one hand now. The fact it has the H22 engine (which Clarkson always used to call the best engine ever, with no material failure in millions produced) and 4 wheel steer made it a bit unusual, and quite possibly something which'll attract decent values as a classic. I had 3 Preludes then an Accord. I really struggled to find something I wanted to own last time around. The 8th gen. EU Accords were all getting too high mileage by then and nothing came along to replace them. The HRV was too girly, the CRV was too big, so I ended up buying a diesel Civic Sport. I had to buy nationally to get one in the right colour and it's an OK car - surprisingly quick for a 1.6 diesel, zero tax, 60mpg - but it's a bit rattly and very definitely in a different class to the models I'd had previously.

Someone has just posted on Facebook to say the water's back on now. No mention whether both hoses have been fixed. Hopefully so.

I can remember occasions when spring tides left it looking like someone had pulled a plug out somewhere but, unfortunately, I can't put them into context to work out how big the drop would have been. I remember Caen meadow getting very low, to the point you could walk way out into the channel, but obviously very hard to tell by how much levels had dropped due to the sloping sandy beach. If it had just been some random person saying it was possible to get under at 8ft, I'd have ignored it, but Len was a yard owner in Wroxham for some years and knew what he was about. We never quite got around to trying it and then my dad got a big nightsun type spotlight off a helicopter from somewhere (I suspect out the back door of Bond helicopters at Yarmouth!) which got fitted to the roof along with a VHF aerial, sticking an extra 6 inches or so on the air draft making it completely unrealistic. I'm sure Connoisseurs and Sancerres used to get through the bridge with far greater ease than they do now though. One thing I'd love to know if how both depths on the BA surveys and bridge heights are measured, ie. how a MLW or similar datum is tracked when measuring from a vessel on a body of water which is invariably raising or lowering constantly with the tide. Presumably for depth, they must be dragging sonar, but the tide must change signifcantly over the survey length if so.

Just hope the "few days" turning into 6 doesn't indicate a more significant issue. More orange flood warnings again today, so it's important people can get water in places where it's actually possible to moor without needing waders!

In case you hadn't heard, BA originally said they were upgrading one at a time to avoid interruption of supply - but then made an update saying they couldn't cut supplies off individually, so had cut off both. Last update was "We hope this will only be for the next few days but will issue an update in due course" but that was 6 days ago.

My dad bought his Broom 30 from Len Hulme at LL Cruisers in Wroxham in the early 80s. At the time, Len assured us that, at extreme low tides, it was just possible to get under Wroxham bridge. That would have required clearance of at least 8ft. Current clearance is said to be 7ft 3in on average. I doubt extreme low tides would add 9 inches, so that would suggest at least some reduction in height. Someone else may be able to suggest how much extra Spring tides affect low tide levels?

I had a 99 2.2 VTEC Prelude. It was the absolute top spec Motegi model with 4 wheel steer. I ran it for years until it got to the point where it was pointless to sell, as it had no real cash value, but it was still far too good to get rid of. So I just stopped servicing, but continued driving it. It'd use a litre or so of oil a month and probably went a good 4 years without a change. I dread to think what it looked like when it eventually got drained. The really mad thing is, I eventually traded it in back in 2015. The new owner stuck a private plate on it, and when I last checked it was still on the road. I always vowed to never buy a Japanese car. I'm now on Honda number 5. I suspect the only reason I'll ever buy another brand is due to the diminishing range Honda now offer.

Many, many years ago, The Granary was run by a really nice, slightly eccentric chap called Bernard. I think possibly Bernard managed front of house and his partner managed the kitchen. We frequented the place year round whenever it was open and got to know him very well. He always used to comment on the fact that very few people came into the village (hardly surprising, as it's quite remote and neighbouring villages have pubs and restaurants) and that it was always a bit of a fight with the pub for customers. I suspect in reality, the issue is a combination of the above, charging on the moorings and the wider decline of pubs due to ban on smoking and general trend towards healthier lifestyles.

Probably worth a phone call asking if they'll honour the discount? Technically, you could cancel then rebook anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I'm generally on the side of BRAG. I think if it wants to be taken seriously though (by parties on both sides), it needs to be much more explicit in what it's trying to achieve. What is "complete reform", what does it entail and when will it happen? I think it needs a clearly identifiable board or management team, and it needs to consider meetings in the real world. At the moment, there seems to be a lot of proposing of ideas, or pointing out of issues, but a lot just seem to disappear into the ether without seemingly gathering any traction. Is anyone actually recording, collating or acting on any of the suggestions?