marshman

30 kg mudweights may be an issue!! Something to do with above the legal manual handling level I believe - might be a maximum of 22kg available generally Everyone has their favourite rope merchants but I have always done a lot with https://www.ropeservicesuk.com/ - - used them for years and for some big stuff including whole reels Check their oddments bin - often cheap ends in that bit! Ordinary polyester rope sufficient - dont need fancy stuff like braided etc. I would use 18mm for your main mooring ropes and perhaps 16mm for the springs - I would not have them too short (in all the years boating, I have never left one over the side - thats tempting fate! ) When I last bought mooring rope, I split it into differing lengths and whipped the ends with differing whipping to differentiate. I think I bought 55m and split it into 3 -10,15,and 20m lengths - they will do that if you ask them I would have 2 springs minimum 15m each. If you have not got a rope windless for your mudweight, that needs to be big enough to get hold of - probably might just grip 18mm but 20mm might be better! Dont forget the Broads are never that deep but 20m minimum for that. Dont use white - black or blue with the latter my favourite A word of warning about your ladder - it must drop down right below the water level, by at least 4 /5 feet or you will never get your foot on the bottom rung. It is incredibly difficult to climb out on those with wet clothes etc and if you have a bathing platform exit via that is a better idea.Never underestimate the difficulty of getting out of the water and climbing up a high freeboard - often better I think to swim to the bank! Dont however necessarily listen to me - other brands and rope sizes available elsewhere!!!!!

Jean - I am pleased to go back on the boat - I have been banging on about that long enough! Ranworth has no bearing on my river trips, I have never moored there in 65 years!!! But petty bureaucracy is a pet hate of mine and its totally illogical to allow me to sit on a park bench and talk to someone 6' away, yet I cannot sit in the cockpit of my boat and decide whether I am far enough away to be social distancing! If you don't ever give responsibility for people to make their own sensible decisions on such trivia, such Authority will overtake your lives - there has been plenty of comment in the past about the BA being over officious on many issues and now they are again, no one notices or comments!!! Petty officialdom Pete, is correct. As they keep telling us, base any decisions on science not your perception of it. Oh well it is only my view - thank goodness they do not set the rules in the marinas as if they did, I would have to go home again!!!!

And I thought it was just me and Vaughan!! I just see it as another opportunity for the BA to flex their muscles and assume "control" unnecessarily and this is me folks, not PW!!

And you certainly can NOT moor stern on!!

But for some reason, I seem to be allowed to do this in my home marina - I am sure many will come on here and say how stupid I am but I am just 12" from my next door neighbour? I just think that is what the BA have failed to do - think!!! If I can do it there in a private marina, whats the point of doing it at Ranworth? Mixed messaging methinks yet again! Or is it just me????

It has of course just occurred to me I cannot do this in my marina - am I to be banned again!

It has no impact on me whatsoever as I would never moor on the staithe, but people are just over-egging the dangers and of being outside - and making up scenarios when and if such issues occur.And you are all assuming the staithe would even be full - without the hire industry that will not happen. My comments relate to the state at Ranworth mooring now - side on morning is just absurd in the current circumsataces and if I could catch it off a post, then I would catch equally easily off a post used by a side on moorer. I was merely saying, as I think Griff was, that the BA have responded just like they have with most things and indeed Mr Plod did initially, by imposing their authority on an issue which, at this stage did not really need it!

You would find it very hard, I suspect, to transmit Covid 19 from a rope on a bollard - if you really are worried, then wash your hands!! Who gobs on the ropes anyway? I can guarantee you one thing, and that is you stand far more chance of falling off the boat and dying as you moor, than catching Covid 19 in the manner suggested . Don't forget too, that not everyone who catches it, even gets ill - we have all lost our perspective of whats dangerous and whats not I am afraid! For what its worth, bearing in mind you will be outside, I just cannot see the risk in mooring alongside unless you really want to get close to the birds on the adjacent boat! It really does not take much to realise that if you sit in the cockpit of your boat, its no real difference between sitting on a park bench or on the grass - and if you feel it is a risk, just move away!! Just tell someone who wants to help you moor though, its not necessary to help! As Griff said, its not hard to stay that far apart, so why introduce the restriction!! ( It will upset Shrek in the shop if he decides to open!!!! )

Once again we see the BA doing something without thinking it through - we will be out in the open air and even stern on it would not be too difficult to stay 2m apart!! No real justification for that in all honesty but what do you expect from the BA in the present circumstances?

How quickly green algae growth appears on glass fibre. Isn't that right MM!!!!!

I have a cough which I usually get in the winter - not every winter mind but fairly frequently. Had it for about 35 years on and off and when I asked my doctor about it he thought about for a couple of minutes and told me not to worry too much about it as he thought it unlikely to kill me!!! Thanks mate!!!!!

Covid 19 incubates for up to 14 days and during that time you can show no symptoms, so for arrivals without symptoms how can you check? And if you were a devotee of Flightradar you will probably guess that those figures are a little out of date. Read that article further, dated mid April, and even the reporter who went to check that story out, found it likely to be an exaggeration and overestimation! Some people are still arriving on repatriation flights - send them back I hear the cries - but we can not lock the world down forever! We have to learn to accept that the risk of catching it is low, the risk of dying whatever age group you fall in is lower still and like it or not you have to draw a line somewhere. Everyone is pinning hopes on a vaccine but even when, and if you get one, who decides which country gets it first, and then who gets inoculated? Perhaps someone who bandies figures figures around would like to work out how long it would take to inoculate the whole of the UK, let alone the whole of Europe, and the world even IF you could get the product?? Which will always be in short supply methinks! Well I am off to the boat just to pat her!!!!

So how many people are flying into Heathrow every day? If you are showing symptoms you probably broke the laws in the departing country and the regulations of the airline and you probably at least had your temperature taken when departing by either the airport or the airline itself. When you get here, you could indeed have it, but are not showing symptoms - when and if if you subsequently do, you self isolate just as we do?? Is it really any more risky than being out and about here?: Surely the whole plane is unlikely to be infected, according to the best science, so in reality it really makes not a lot of difference releasing the potential into the wider community where there is already a widespread likelihood of being in contact with someone who has it the moment you walk out the airport door? Of course we are likely to have a second or third wave, but we cannot shut everything for ever can we? We have to adapt to it and cope , like it or not. Be alarmed or not by the figures but you have to accept some time or other the way we deal with it has to alter? Humans are good at adapting to change and we must find a way not to be locked down for a couple of years or so or the consequences will be far worse for many other reasons I suspect. I am sure many will disagree with me, but thats nothing new !!!

Good stuff - pleased to here it! I read somewhere that their marinas for private berth holders will open on 20th - shame they cannot extend their good service record, if thats the case, to their private berth holders. I apologise if that info is incorrect. A lot of the closed marinas opened up virtually immediately so not much of an excuse if they didn't, and I was a little surprised to hear they hadn't?

No it is taken from where Banks Boats is today I think? Good one that - threw me a bit as you have not been able to moor in there for years now - not even on the front.

You can of course mix a small amount of mortar in a Kenwood Chef or such like I suppose......!

Thats slightly different then!!!!

Just going back a day or so Ian,you mentioned using self levelling concrete!!! If its anything like self levelling floors for inside your house, be very wary indeed. I once helped my son do a large room in his house - in the end not only did it cost a lot of time and effort to even try, but it cost more to call in a professional to do it properly. I am sure Griff would have tales about amateurs trying to do a professionals job - watching Youtube bears no relation to reality!!!!!

No Fred that basic advice is far too simplistic a measure as you stated, otherwise you could use that argument for every single risk you take. How often did you think of the danger of actually going out in your car or walking along a pavement on a busy stretch of road? Not at all I guess, because you assessed that risk subconsciously and just took but it carried a real risk nonetheless I am afraid, and you cannot say everyone should stay at home forever and only go out as set out, just because they may catch Covid 19.

Chris - you are right of course but there is has to be a sensible middle road and a balance to be found. I just don't agree even responsible organisations are pushing the limits - just enquiring exactly what you can actually do or not, to avoid other issues rearing their head or over zealous interpretation of the legislation. We have every right to know that info just as others want to pour over precise numbers of deaths or the growth in the National Debt - all valid questions I am afraid covering both sides of the equation.

We all know that figures mean just what they are - no one is querying them but you have to be careful about making rash assumptions in these times which seem to be stressing everyone out. Whilst I accept that the situation in care homes is stressful and awful but doctors do not test every patient who has died for Covid 19 before writing and signing a death certificate - or do they? What we really need to see is the increase in care home deaths this year over preceding years probably over a five year period and then that is still no guarantee that it is the true figure. Neither will it be available until 2025! I am not trying to underplay the enormity of the situation and it is pointless reiterating quotes like "there is none so blind..." but statistically these figures need to be considered in hindsight, and I cannot provide that!!

You are assuming that I was saying the figures are too high - no I was merely saying repeating any figure is speculation in that until we are further down the line, we just do not accurately know what the true cost is. For example are we able to strip out of the deaths figure those that have died of flu - every year a certain number die of flu. Are we assuming flu was not around this year? Neither am I trying to belittle whats happened or the cost but my guess is that 5 years on, we may be able to have a better idea of true numbers and more accurately, the cost - until then I would treat all figures with some suspicion - be they higher or lower!

Chris - with respect those figures of the cost and the deaths are purely speculative! Someone is just guessing and you're just making it worse by passing it on.

Don't think its Fleet Dyke - too many background trees for that methinks.

Dear me - what a turn this thread took whilst I was on the boat!!! People lambasting Griff for driving too fast. discussing fisherman falling asleep on the job, and then some meaningless discussion on regulations and legislation - what a load of squit!! Roll on the time when you can start moaning about the BA - makes it more interesting!!