marshman

Anyone spot a continuing trend here that begins to typify what is beginning to stand out as the norm for this Forum?? Its OK folks, I am not going anywhere!!!

Who says it will not include a shop although to be fair most little shops around Broadland, except the community ones, struggle because no one really goes to them. Whilst I tend to agree with you, I suspect they would struggle. It will almost certainly contain a large tea room though!

Clearly none of you have ever visited the NWT visitor centre at Cley - thats outstanding. At least at Acle it will, if it goes ahead, be alongside a decent road so people coming to the Broadland area and not on a boat, can access it easily. Yep, MM has it spot on and I am just glad someone else can see the benefit. Shame no one else here can see the wood for the trees IMHO but what else would I expect from a place struggles to say anything positive about the BA and continues to bring up, for reassurance they are right, everything they want to beef over, with backhanded comments about everything they wish to moan about from architecture to rubbish bins. And yes PW, I still prefer the new Hunsett property! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say and not every new building has to be a pastiche of what some perceive of as "local" or "good"!

Well done MM - totally agree with you. Perhaps some of the posters on here should remember the BA is NOT just about boaters, but others too who wish to enjoy the Broads. Of course you should engage with the children - it is almost an embarrassment that so many children in Norfolk / Suffolk have no idea what even a Broad is! Whether you like it or not, children are our future and if we do not engage at an early age, the area will be the poorer for it.

I would be very surprised if Southern Belle does not pay a toll - like all passenger carrying boats, she needs a special licence for that purpose! The operators would be a little silly to carry passengers and not be tolled as it is pretty easy to check, given that there are few passenger carrying boats around! Registration numbers equally do not indicate a toll paid - a boat may have a number allocated but for some reason, is not showing it.

There is plenty of talking but do you really want to pay higher tolls for something the Councils are legally obliged to do?? And indeed why should you? It is certainly NOT the responsibility of the BA!!

Its not being swum on the 13th is it?? What hope have they....!!!

As someone has said, just go into the yard and ask nicely!! That applies anywhere. In most cases I suspect they will give you permission.

I am reliably informed that the Wherry is the Ella, the last trader ever built. She was motorised almost from the start and as a result , the gear was probably only used when convenient - probably not a lot!! I suppose it is a bit like the option of taking the horse and cart or one of those new fangled motor vehicles - my guess is most would take the latter!! The picture is probably part the original Boardman collection and with this in mind, is probably taken on the Ant as surmised, although as Chris has said, she did regularly trade up the NW & D canal.

Yes Vaughan, that too was my initial thought that the gaff was still attached but looking more closely, I am not sure that is really the case. What you can see clearly is that the mast hoops are still attached as they should be, but looking again I think the gaff is off, and the jaws just lost in the detail. If the jaws were on you would clearly see that and also the gaff itself would be much more visible - look closely and the gaff itself is clearly on the deck and in fact laying across the deck at a slight angle, where it would be. I think it is just ready to pull down when necessary. Its a very still day so its not half cocked to reduce windage and because of the size of the river, or dyke, it looks to on the upper reaches somewhere, but where? Few other clues! But yes, credit again to Mr waller for finding another great shot. I also like the painting - lovely rural setting depicting a scene easily recognisable today.

At a guess the wherry mast is just half cocked so he can see where he is going - when they are right down they can be a bit of a pain - literally as it gets in the way of your head and impacts visibility. Easier just to let it go and it will move into that position by virtue of the counterweight. The winch barrel has been left open so he probably has a bridge or lock to negotiate soon and all he would have to do is pull down on the halyard to bring it down. Any clue as to where it is?

I just have a printed tide table from the Shorebase website and thats good enough for me!! Shows all I want to know without adding bits, for more than enough places in Broadland, sunrise/sunset, Springs and neaps etc Doesn't show high tides but always work on 5hrs of flood and 7 of ebb and its never too far out. In any cases tides cannot even read so being able to download an app will be hard for them!! And even better I can just look at the banks and tidal flow - and its only important sometimes, for me to decide which way to go! John - you should get out more!!!

John - I admire you! But me I would look out of the window, say its up a bit or down a bit, then jump in my boat and have a potter around one of unquestionably the best bit of the Broads!! Sod the App....!!!!!

Vaughan is getting pretty close to the mark, but he is right, there are just too many differing factors, all of which can come into play. And if you could try and write an app and build in the differing variables it would probably still be wrong - for no accountable reason!! Although someone pooh poohed it some time ago, you do need to take into account pressure - at the moment pressure is low . Sit a high pressure over the top of us for a few days and watch it start to fall! The water that is! But at the moment, as he says it is all to do with the amount of fresh water pouring out of the middle of Norfolk - Norfolk is a big area to drain and the flatness of the land (generally! ) means it only goes slowly. And of course, it can only drain depending on the tides in the North Sea - when they are high or ish, where can the water go?? Out there, you have to remember that the Straits of Dover are a major bottle neck in the overall scheme of things but very very strong SW winds can just blow all the water out of the North Sea - down in N Kent during the hurricane of 1987, my boat was very, very secure! The boat sat on the mud all day and night whilst it was blowing as the tide never came in!!!!

Ricardo - the reason why I have not always contributed is well documented on another thread but surely you would agree that it is nice to hear from me occasionally!! In fact I will probably be down there around that time and I would have no objection whatsoever to the navigation being closed to me for, say, 3 hours , to let others enjoy the Broads! However don't all jump on this to hope to lure me back into this discussion as it won't work - I may read bits but will not get sucked back into the discussion full time!! That is of course my right to do as I please and to pick and chose, as indeed it is yours! Missionary work?? I like that but as the evenings get lighter I find I am not able to be glued as much as some!

I am a bit surprised that after 22 pages that anyone can still think of additional reasons why they believe this should not go ahead! To be honest I am surprised that you all bother to speculate as you do - don't all fishermen face the prospects of Weil's disease and why even mention Waveney Stardust when I suspect you have not even spoken to them about the route - how do you know they are not going to other way for example?? And John - I am surprised you are still standing up to the battering?? You are clearly a glutton for punishment! Me?? I think I will just go away again for a bit until the fire has burned out!!

Perhaps that is crux of the problem - I see 25 individuals expressing their perception of the safety issues as being pretty "anti" !! So as I saw it as being one sided, that was why I left it alone, and I clearly was not the only one!!!

I have to agree with JohnK again - whilst I too have had a thick skin for a long long time, I now recognise the signs and generally keep well away on some issues I agree entirely that there are some people who will post ad nauseum repeating the same argument ( its not as an argument is two sided! ) over and over again and at every opportunity to say so, repeat it. Look back at the swimming thread and you will see what I mean. Vaughan commented when I mentioned about minority pressure groups but thats what it seems like to me - these people may feel they are in the majority since they are certainly in the majority if you only regard posts, but what does that mean? They have too much time on their hands? Just because they are posting most frequently by no means indicates a majority of members and the swimming thread again illustrates this as anyone supporting this was immediately swamped with responses from the main protagonists so its easier not to comment at all - and indeed reading John's comment, I think that was exactly what happened. Moderators play an important role in any Forum but when you see any senior Moderator supporting to such an extent a particular argument, then that too has an impact - perhaps that puts off some people from complaining but when issues get so heated as they clearly did, perhaps Moderators should post with a degree of anonymity - as they do now, that may imply "official" support for the line taken? I have to say that the swimming thread brought, IMHO, the worst out of this Forum and showed it in a poor light and you should take the comments seriously. You certainly needed a very thick skin to point out any opposing view here and I am not at all surprised to see the comments this thread has brought to the surface and fully understand that some comments that some individuals have felt a degree of intimidation. P.S. Not me I hasten to add but at the same time I gave up putting forward any alternative view as it would immediately have been "shot" down by those who think they know better (and they don't always by any means! )

Colin Buttifant definitely knows of at least one!

Doesn't feel like ganging up to me! I am far too decrepit and thick skinned to notice it as I have heard it all before, but I am not surprised by the reaction particularly from where I would expect. I personally commend those who have proposed this event and I really do hope it gets off the ground - the rivers are NOT just for toll payers but for everyone's pleasure. However being a rather tight old Norfolk git, I feel the entry costs, rather than the exceptionally dangerous nature of the event, may prove a bar to some!

Well I am going to go for a walk in a minute and I will be faced with tin boxes hurtling down the road at high speed whilst I walk in the gutter - and these are only minor country roads or even lanes. Yet with a bit of luck I suspect I might survive! I might even see a few cyclists who would equally seem to taking their life in their hands - oh and I am likely to see some horses on my walk too. I suspect most if not all of the last two categories are uninsured either! I do wonder if as is often the case, whether some are all getting rather hysterical over not a lot????

You get what you pay for John. Depends how often its going up and whether you leave it up! The knitted polyester lasts really well but the printed ones are what they are!!

Hmmm not so sure. Agreed they are her current colours but I seem to recall that the Walkers colours were a light green masthead with yellow and blue bands? There is no date on this painting but I also suspect that other wherry owners had the red, white and blue masthead colours too. And yes , she had almost certainly dropped her peak to at least get round the bend.

Perhaps the scepticism arises from the fact that I suspect, if you looked at the original statement when they took the Company over, it proved to be a lot of hot air and promises not fulfilled!!!!!

Brooms have made great play of the fact that the buyers are just not there. Strange then that the builders of other quality brands seem to be finding life a little easier! I think for example that Haines seem to be managing quite well. More to the point, my suspicions are that the current owners were never interested in the business of boat builders and there are plenty of signs that they have systematically dismantled it bit by bit until there is nothing there except the ultimate prize - the location. As PW would say, another Pegasus Yachts....!!!