marshman

Hi Dan - as we said at the outset, the longer and bigger the boat, the better they look. Not one for the purists, but I bet the punters like them!!!

The beauty of the Danforth type is that they do fold flat and if I was you, which i am not, I would relegate the Danforth to the kedge as it can be kept in a locker more easily and buy a CQR type or Bruce type for the main anchor!!!! Personally i have never been especially keen on the Danforth type in mud, although i know others swear by them. Ask a question on any Forum and you will get loads of advice, but then you are faced with which to select - almost as difficult as the original question!

Don't want to encourage peeps to look elsewhere but the "other" Forum has a post by a member who was sitting in the Hotel at the time and who who went to their aid. Shame people cannot read either notices, bridge gauges, maps or indeed boat info. books supplied by the yard!!!! Still at least it has not put them off for life!!!!

Those wheel hoes were quite common and you could have bought one right up to the '50's. I don't think they were American and as was said had a variety of attachments. Cannot remember the make but might have been Atco or Ransomes. The only attachments that really work were the hoes - two flat blades like Dutch hoes and the cultivator consisting of some 4/5 tines . That must have been a posed photo as you could not do a field - a row was difficult!!! My Dad used to harness me to the front to add motive power but it was still nigh on impossible! For years we had a plough attachment which you could only have used immediately after you had dug it by hand!!!

Well Strowager, perhaps you have not read the right books!!! It seems much of the changes to the Ant took place in the 19th C. Very little record of the changes actually occurs but if you read Robert Malsters book on "The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads" all will be revealed. It seems that a lot of the work was done following the opening of the NW & D Canal and indeed if you look at the old parish boundaries you will see they often followed what was the old river. Above Barton the old river is still in evidence if you trudge around the marshes as I do in the form of old dried up riverbeds - it then followed a course to the east of the existing Broad and that dyke is also still there although not very obvious if you didn't know. Oddly south of Irstead I think it went straight on but around the back of the How Hill it took a large detour westwards and that is still very evident and deep. The Electric Eel disappears down it opposite Johnny Crowes Staithe and it reappears at How Hill Staithe itself. Yes the new bits are still very windy but it was certainly done about that time. Of greater interest however is the belief that the old Hundred Dyke was diverted by the monks of St Benets - you may or may not know that the hospital at Horning Hall was linked to the Abbey by a causeway and prior to the Ant emptying into the Bure where it now does, the Hundred Dyke was the actual river which then emptied into the Thurne. Records themselves are non existent but the Thurne may have still been flowing north out of the Hundred Sream as late as the 13c- still again in evidence disappearing off at Dungeon Corner until as late as some great tidal surges themselves documented around 1287 and 1292!! Fascinating stuff of which much is conjecture but if you do not have Robert Malsters book then I highly recommend it as a good source of info. and some fascinating facts - or conjecture!!

Strowager is almost right - the rivers were not actually dug but in the case of the River Ant very little is original. Almost all of the Ant now being used is man made, dug by wherrymen and others either because they preferred to sail in a "nearly" straight line or the original bit was to narrow/shallow. Going back to the original topic it is perhaps not a surprise that the loudest voices now campaigning against dredging are those who villify the BA most. To be fair they are not campaigning against dredging per se but against the methods proposed to be used. Almost everything the BA wish to do is critisised and whilst they deserve some criticism, surely some things they do are right? Anglers and their supporters perhaps carry too much weight, see Bramerton, but it is hardly a surprise that some people see the opposition as a personal vendetta - or so it might appear to some outsiders. My guess is that hopefully the BA will ignore the opposition this time and get on with a long overdue piece of dredging. As someone said on another place, if the very worst came to the worst, fish stocks would recover, but lose the navigation and that would be gone for good.

I am almost positive the answer to that is , he did!! When I was a lad i used to love those boats and still do - there was another i think being worked on in the yard at Belaugh. Talk about a sleek and lovely design. Would go a bit if you incorporated some lifting gear to raise it up a bit out of the water!!

This is an old chestnut - unlike Plesbit I rarely have any trouble in Wroxham except for the 6 weeks of the school holidays in summer. I use it normally at least twice a day and apart from banning the right turn by Roys into Church Road, would think it a total waste of time. I don't think the Bailey bridges have a weight limit - if they take a tank they will take a crane!!! Seriously though there must be places far far more worthy of a bypass than Wroxham!!!

And me? I always liked the Diamond - could never understand why relatively few were built. Perhaps I like them 'cos I own one but several of the hire fleets still have them, including i know Freedom. Do the punters like them?

Len is currently fitting out a large "transit" in his Horning shed - I think thats 42' or so which of course is the smaller one with bits added. But it is good to see that individual builders are putting new designs on the water, almost as a matter of necessity. It will please Dan no end!!!! It is great to see the skills are not being lost to Broadland so keep it up!!!!!

Just remember to winterise the shower as it is normally freezing water that blows the seal. If you are draining down it is easy - take the head off and blow heartily down the tube with the knob in the on position. But ask someone else what to do if you use it all winter and do not empty the system!!!!!

I am unbiased but as there is a little more shelter at WRC I think that would sway me!!! Oh and the pub perhaps just in case the weather turns unseasonally inclement for lunchtime

I think you will find different builders use different methods to fit the interior. In my limited experience the bigger the builder and the more it is based on a production line, the later they fit the top!! In the olden days when Westerly Yachts built boats they put all bulkheads ,fitted the engine and a lot of the fittings and joinery before the join. Equally on the top - windows were cut and a lot of deck fittings were fitted to the top before the join was made. However the things that affected the interior fitting that is dependant on headlining e.g. the windows where the interior of the window often fitted over the headlining, was done after the join. I have a feeling Brooms do a lot with the two bits apart and I certainly know that a lot of the bigger French builders use that method too.

Dave - I have to say that mine lasted 3 years last time with very little weed growth. Out at sea we were lucky to get 6mths on the N Kent coast and that was with TBT!!! I agree zebra mussels are more of an issue and whilst i had a few last time, nothing that impeded 40hp or so!!!!! It however is not just a question of antifouling however - it does plastic hulls good to come out of the water now and again and enables you to clean up the hull as well. It is expensive however and whilst I used to liftout every other year, there may well be a tendancy to do it every 3 in future!!!!!!

Hi Carol - long time no speak to!! The causeway at St Benets not only was a link to Horning but to the Hospital which with a chapel is hidden away in the trees at Horning Hall Farm - I think it may even have been a leper hospital. There is an old barn there which until recently was largely unknown but even now is not given any prominence. The old Hundred Stream which you refer to across the marshes south of Ludham is still very much in evidence if you walk it - I expect the existing ditch follows the line pretty closely. Some 40 years ago the old Bure Loop was indeed navigable nearly up to the river but I think you will find very overgrown nowadays. It is on Cator land and "visitors" actively discouraged. However I did get over there a year or so ago with the Fen Harvester and it is pretty deep still under the weed. We had to use a floating bridge contraption to get it across to the marsh in the middle.

Very valid point AJB - they can afford state of the art TV aerials so why not accurate speed measurement. I don't think the hire companies care about speed one bit - if as you say reports on speeding boats are sent to the hire yards, I would suggest these are filed in the bin and rev counters are NEVER recalibrated? Any comments Clive?

Paul - you of all people will not take offence if I tell you that is sedge ,not reed at irstead!!!!!!!

Strange that - saw one of the Caprices down on the Yare last week on trade plates, then lo and behold saw it at Horning the Sunday before last so they must have brought it up. Would have thought it a bit tight under Vauxhall Bridge too - not a lot of the Broads open to it!!!! As a punter I think I would be a little disappointed at not being able to go up the Ant but I guess what you don't know about you don't miss!!!

Still a bit puzzled - i can see a bit of piling in the bottom left hand corner. Looks too wet to be the Barton boardwalk but it was wet at times this winter. Barton boardwalk although not totally convinced?

Does look like Shoals Dyke but on reflection entrance too wide. Going further North perhaps nearer Wayford Bridge - there is a dyke on the lefthand side some 800 m short of the little boatyard but again its a bit wide. But then Ncsl was wrong as well...! Doesn't look like any of the dykes off the bottom of Barton - its too light for the Neatishead corner methinks nor does it look like one of those off the north side of the Broad down that arm. Its big enough to get a workboat up there - been up most still not comimg to me. Irritating me now!!!!

Dyke opposite Irstead Staithe?

Like those reeds do you Lord Paul - Eric made me carry them off for him!!!! As soon as he sees a volunteer he finds us little jobs like that as if there is not enough to do!!! Still got about a mile or more of bank to brushcut at How Hill and we have to help him!!!!! Must be his age!!!!!! Someone earlier asked about herons - they are all early nesters and are sitting now - they will soon be more in evidence once the little ones hatch out.

Clive is of course right on both issues!!! Sinking the old bits does preserve them and actually prevents further deterioration although I am sure over a period some damage must occur one way or another. The Thain's were indeed the last owner of the Lord Roberts but whether this was in her sailing days I am not sure as in her last role she was converted to a moterised barge and used for dredging spoil disposal. Sue - I am sure I have seen that diagram of the wrecks lining Rockland Dyke but blowed if I can remember where!!!! Its certainly not where I thought it might be but I will store it away and should i come across it you and Carol will be amongst the first to know!!! Of course it might also be a fanciful memory of an old man without any truth at all. To be honest whilst this topic about the Lord Roberts is of huge interest, of greater significance to the here and now is to ensure that Broadland manages to retain and restore whats left. Also to anyone who is local the NWT are hosting a talk by Peter Bower of the Wherry Charter trust on Wherries generally in Ingham Village Hall on Friday 13th February at 7.45pm - sorry about the advertising!!!!!!

Yes Clive is right - I can remember seeing in my youth those wrecks at Ranworth where the green buoys are. Maud was "buried" there. Sue there is a list somewhere but be blowed if i can find it!!! Certainly I have seen a diagram of the ones at Rockland including names but as time goes on they sink lower and rot away even more!!! Surlinham Broad certainly used to have more but these were broken up and cleared relatively recently - well perhaps 20 years ago!!!!!! Interesting topic but my immediate concern is to keep "Albion" alive and kicking!!!! Thank goodness she survives and is in good heart at the moment.

Hey thats interesting. But like many ideas concerning wherries it was in retrospect, pretty fanciful. So much so I am not sure even the museum got off the ground and the Lord Roberts remained in Norfolk!!! For those interested Albion was relaunched yesterday after more overwinter work and looks even better . Those of you who know her will be well aware that before last winter and her new keel she had reverse sheer!!!!! The new keel improved this drastically and the work this winter has enhanced it further - indeed to the extent she is now close to her original shape which can be seen from early pictures.