ExUserGone

If you loop the wrong bit through on a clove hitch it will be nearly impossible to undo if it gets pulled tight, watchout. If I think about a clove hitch it will go wrong most times, if I just chuck it over a post it will be right every time, how does that work? Note to self: stop thinking.....

You can't beat a well knitted mooring.... I'd always re-tie and wouldn't be offended by anyone else doing it, it's a skippers duty to check his own vessels safety, you usually don't know the person assisting or their experience. For me it's always a clove hitch and back to the centre cleat for both for and aft ropes so it's well sprung, if the back is leaving a big gap I'll bring the opposite aft rope across to hold it in still maintaining a good scope for the tide.

@ Maurice Mynah, how many office meeting buzzwords can you cram into one post? I am impressed! Is it a coincidence that buzzwords start with the same letter as b*ll*cks...

How can an idustrial wasteland comprising a load of old peat diggings connected by man made comercial navigation channels protected by man made flood defense schemes to keep the commercial farmland dry, all powered by electric pumps ever be classed as 'natural' or 'national park', I think 'convenient bogland' describes it all pretty well in reality. Now if the whole area were allowed to flood and silt up that would be another matter and would probably follow the national park ethic of conservation, albeit an economic disaster for most of norfolk. The sale of banjo's and dungeree's would go up though.....

Bet it tastes like chicken....

There is no bottom anywhere around the east coast, the water just gets much thicker......

I am both happy and corrected! Then again I am p1ssed now!

I thought IBM created dos and microsoft improved/marketed ms-dos, happy to be corrected.

I you go aground it won't be spirit of bullsh1t rescuing you, it will still be gorleston lifeboat as SOB is deeper draughted than any hireboat so won't get near, a complete waste of money no doubt decided on by a numpty in an office that has never seen breydon water, probably helped by an accountant too. As for the hovercraft, gis a go!!!!!!

Make sure you do it when the school's are not on holiday, a couple of short visits to the north a year are enough for me. How do you find the floaters at somerleyton? I looked last year and thought they were a bit close to water level for my liking and a bit heath robinson looking.

For the overhanging quay edges I have 3 home made fenders that slot together so when clipped on the the cabin roof handrails they hang down to 12" below the chines, good for both high tides as well as overhangs, and they can be pulled apart to stow in the engine bay. They are made from a load of 2" ID mains water pipe that had been dumped in the marsh near surlingham ferry house with aluminium spigots to slot them together, free fenders and a tidier marsh-win win!

We came past reedham ferry sunday mid-day to see the ferry almost all the way across and still one of the chains behind it was out of the water, not seen it do that before, a hire boat travelling down with the tide did a very good job of holding back but I was convinced he was going to have a problem so much so that I turned to see what happened, he made it over once the ferry was docked but could have been a different story for a boat that didn't appear to be doing anything particularly daft.

On a norman 24 you'll never need a bridge swinging or going out to sea so I guess vhf will be just a toy most of the time, depth sounders are far more useful and don't need a hole in the boat, mine is in a tube of castor oil epoxied to the inside of the hull, ultrasound 'sees' straight through grp just don't have air bubbles under the transducer, and don't get tempted to shorten a transducer cable as it throws the calibration out. As for fridges go for a compressor fridge every time as they take so much less power to run, danfoss seems to be the best compressor unit (waeco and isotherm use danfoss).

I tend to look at the angle of the chains as they leave the ferry as they will follow a curve to the end, if they are steep down go for it but at a shallow angle hang back and wait.

Hearing humberside coastguard isn't surprising as I believe it is repeated from the old gt.yarmouth CG mast as humber CG is our local one now since yarmouth was scrapped. Yes a course is required for marine vhf as is a fixed ship licence but that bit is a free online application and print your own licence off (ofcom website isn't easy to navigate), no need for dsc on broads but I doubt you'd get a non-dsc course now, non-dsc radios are cheap to get.

So if you call ya norman Kali or Kali 1 I know where you can get some cheap graphics...

I've re-named 2 boats and never got struck by lightning or ran out of beer or any other disaster for that matter, I've had more break downs on my current boat and that had the name on the bow done by the builder nearly 40 years ago so yes it is a load of old sphericals, if you don't like the name change it but by all means use the excuse to involve copious amounts of alcahol to appease the boating gods. As long as you use when you can it will cost very little compared to hiring and a boat of that size (small for the broads) can be very comfortable, it always seems to be the larger the boat the less it gets used. Now just get out and enjoy it....And don't forget to say hi to the bunch of lunatics at www.normanboats.co.uk forum as they will answer any questions that don't get answered here.

I have about 25 light aircraft tyres if you want to follow the fashion.

I'll get the oven on then......

Did egyptian geese escape from human captivity or did they migrate here and just stay? If the later then they are as natural as anything else around and nature always pushes somethings out in favour of a stronger competitor, if the former do they taste like chicken and can I have one with all the trimmings?

For electric and dog friendly you can't beat surlingham ferry house, theres a cracking walk along the river round to the church and back past the ruined church and shooting club back to the pub where you let the dog run most of the way (it's just down to how they react to cattle), dogs are very welcomed in the pub as long as they are well behaved, if you have a dinghy it's quite a nice walk towards brundall on the postwick wharfe side too. Chances are there will be a blonde husky/shepard/lab cross called winston comatose by the bar, say hi to us..... I think the reedcutters at cantley can do electric as well if you are moored outside the pub and the walk around the marsh is good there too.

Communication can go the other way too, I have been in the position of heading towards an oncoming raggie near thurne mouth when an arm came out the side pointing which way to go (great I hear you say), in a split second another came out the other side doing the same, not a change of message as both arms stayed there at the same time, so which one was the skipper and which one was the ****head with too many arms for a simple brain to operate? I ignored both and made my own choice to go very wide stb/stb and let them carry on as they were. I am not anti-raggie in anyway and am one of those that normally take instruction with a cheery nod and wave, and I never dobbed in the 2 girls in the sailing dinghy that I towed along the ant for several miles and let go as we came into view of their parent vessel so they didn't get rumbled.....

Put a tape measure over it before you pay your toll, norman were a bit generous with the model naming of some of their boats, they were not alone as my rlm 31 has the same hull moulding as a princess 32, it seems theirs swell up in water..... Enjoy it!

I have an old yamaha 8hp 2 smoke on my dinghy and wouldn't fancy the weight of equivalent 4 stroke as I keep it on davits, as said on a cruiser size boat a 4 stroke every time but 2 stroke for dinghy's.

Although you can get into quite a bit of surlingham broad most refer to the bit between the dykes as surlingham broad (I think it's actually bargate), one entrance just beside coldham hall and other entrance just downstream of church fen moorings on opposite side, very pretty little spot. I've been a fair way into surlingham broad and was suprised how much water there was under but very narrow and quite weedy, turning round was tight. Theres also rockland broad for mudweighting but very shallow in places.