Happy Jax 3

I could be up for that Mark, Date clear at this moment in time. Need as much support as I can get.

Hi Frank To be honest I have used many types of mastic/silicon sealers over the years, Sikaflex, Silastic etc.. with and without success. More recently I tend to use Marine Dow Corning, if it can bond large fish tanks together without leaking, that does it for me. I must say I have never had a leak since.

I make yo right Jimbo David, I will give the caustic soda a go next time I am up.

Hi Jimbo/David I note your point regarding the intake hose, and I must say it does looked kinked in the photos. I have checked this and it is not restricted. When the heater is running it is fine with no smoke at all. When the burner stops, i.e you hear the burner roar cease, that is when the smoke starts. When I stripped the unit, the burner tube and complete heat chamber was full of coke. I decoked using carb cleaner. The actual burner itself, I was cautious with and don't think this was cleaned as well it could be. Problem being, never seeing one before I am not sure what it should look like.

Thanks David Your help is much appreciated.

I pulled the heater out this weekend and stripped down to give a decoke, as you say David, it's not a difficult task. I must say it was very coked. I rebuilt it up and tested. As usual it fired up first time, well after I turned the Diesel stopcock back on. But when the burner cuts off it still belches out smoke from the exhaust. Could it be the burner unit? As requested gents, I tried to get model numbers/type of unit but could not see any. I have taken several photos, could anyone advise on model type and where I could get spare parts. The boat was built in 1998 and I assume it is the original unit. Any help would very much be appreciated.

Hi Clive I think I can recognise 2 Dawn Horizon's and 2 Glistening Horizons in the first photo. We hired a Dawn Horizon just over ten years ago when our youngest son Connor was 6 week old.

Great Photos Simon. Do you use any filters to get the sky colours?

The Sun & Moon gives you Neaps & Springs, high high's & low Low's This link may help Sue http://www.nbi.ac.uk/home/insight/tidefaq.html

Thanks Gents I will get the details next time I am up the boat.

Thanks very much for the advice David. Not sure of the model, but have to assume it was installed when the boat was built in 1998. I would imagine the smoke starts when it reduces output after the target temperature has been reached. We was up on the boat last week for New Year and must say it was run very hard then. Is it a difficult task to decoke or should it be left to the specialists?

On Happy Jax II we have a Webasto heating system, I believe it to be a common unit as fitted to many hire craft. It has proved to be very reliable and fires up first time every time. However, when it gets up to temperature and shuts down, it starts to belch out grey/black smoke from the exhaust for approx 30 seconds, then fires up again and all clears until it reaches temperature and the smoke starts again. If anyone has any experience or advice on these units it would be very much appreciated.

An More

More Pictures

Some Pictures as promised

Part 3 We moored up on the staithe at Horning adjacent to the electric post at 2.10pm, Lou sent Jay up to the post office to buy some electric cards. Guess what, it was closed. Tuesdays they close at 1.00pm. Only had 1 card left, had to make it last. Heard a rumble coming down the river, looked up, yes it was Terry & Sheila in their Bayliner fitted with twin 7.4 litre V8’s. Helped them more up and got them connected to the electric post. They have two Golden Retrievers, Barney & Snowy so Buddy will be in his element. Took a walk down to the New Inn with the dogs to have a chat with Gus and see how they were getting on with the quay heading. Couldn’t have a pint as they were closed until 5.00pm. Run the dogs up on a local field and went back to the boats. Went over to the Swan for a pint or 3 with Terry to keep the festive season going. In the evening we all went down to the New Inn for our evening meal. New Years Eve arrived and the boys were both getting excited about going to the Swan Inn for our celebrations in the evening. Sent Jay over to the post office to buy 10 electric cards, the weather was on the change, it was noticeably warmer although it had become overcast, no ice. We noticed Roland from the Horning Marina towing his boat over to the staithe. He asked the people in the boat in front of us if he could split into their electrics with a splitter box, just for an hour so he could charge his batteries. John arrived in his boat, but the staithe was full, John Moored up alongside H J II, we split into our electrics to give him heat for the duration. It was then I noticed that our old faithful Webasto was starting to smoke when closing down as it reached temperature, other wise it was working fine. The evening arrived and I looked down the staithe to see Roland’s boat lit up like Blackpool illuminations with Christmas lights. That did amuse me, considering he told the people that he was just charging his battery. He did put electric cards in though. Very festive. Mike & Sandy, some friends of John drove down to join us for the evening, they bought with them their grandson, Jack, so Jay & Connor had a new friend to play with. We all had a few drinks on H J II before going over to the Swan Inn. We had an alcove in the Swan put aside for us all which was very cosy. Had a few drinks and ordered our meals, I must say that the food was excellent, even Terry, who is very hard to please, had no complaints. Terry went back to his boat to get his camera, I also followed shortly after to get mine, to be met at the door by a Golden Retriever, at first I thought it was Buddy, but no it was Terry’s dog Barney. I was taking him back to their boat when I see Terry in a panic looking for Barney, he was relieved to see I had him as he was thinking the worst. It turned out that his other dog snowy had chewed up a £30.00 led torch and his wooden flag pole. Dogs Eh! Back to the Inn for more drinks and we all started setting our New Year resolutions. As the evening went on, I was surprised that people were slowly leaving and considering the Ferry is now closed it was generally quieter than expected. I got talking to Roland on the door who told me that the maximum amount of people allowed in during the evening was 120 and this number was met earlier in the night. Before we new it, the New Year arrived, hugs and kisses all round and we all went outside to watch fireworks all around us. We then all went back to H JII for more drinks, surprise, surprise…. New Years day and we was awoken at 9.30am by a huge rumble and vibrations through our boat, it was one of two things, an earthquake or Terry firing up his Bayliner. Knowing they were leaving early morning it was the later of course. Got up to see Terry and Sheila off. Lou and Connor left to drive home at midday, whilst we were seeing them off two cars parked on the green adjacent to the staithe had had their rear tyres slashed. They both belonged to employees of the Swan Inn who were organising replacement tyres. I guess locals upset of them parking on the grass as no other cars had been touched including lou’s John left shortly afterwards and me and Jay decided to stay up for a couple more days, went into Boulters to have a pump out and fill up with water, and wish them Happy New Year. Then off to Potter Heigham for the evening. I will post up some pictures shortly.

Part 2 Woke up early on Tuesday morning, so up out of bed to walk the dogs. To my surprise the whole of Malthouse Broad was covered in ice. At first I didn’t take much notice, but later it proved to be a big problem. Had breakfast and decided to play with a new lens I just purchased for my Digital SLR, a 70-300mm zoom. Got some good shoots of Geese standing on the Ice in the middle of the broad. Just getting into this digital SLR photography, so I must get on one of the forum photographic walks to gain some experience off of Paul, Bruce, Simon and co. It got to about midday and the plan was to get down onto Horning Staithe in the afternoon to meet up with some friends Terry & Sheila who were also joining us for New Year celebrations in the Swan Inn. Anyway, checked out the ice on the broad and it was a lot thicker than first thought and it was showing no signs of melting, if anything it was getting thicker as the day went on. If one boat went out it would make a channel for the others to follow, but no one would take the lead. Time went on and a decision had to be made, Go for it I thought, having a large stainless mud weight I lowered it down so it acted as a pre ice breaker. I fine chap on another boat Cloud Nine lent us his boat hook so then both Lou & Jay could break the ice as we pushed through. Just then we noticed two day boats coming down the channel into the broad, great we all thought let the make a channel for us, just as they entered the open broad the started to hit the ice. The noise was horrendous, cracking ice, it sounding like someone was continually dropping crockery. At about 100 meters into the broad the day boats came to a stop, we was all shouting willing them on, but rightly so, they turned and left the broad. Oh well, I had to go for it, If we left it another night there was a good chance the ice would be twice as thick and we would be stranded on the staithe, with no electric cards, and no pub, as the Maltsters is now closed, I fired up Happy Jax II. With Lou & Jay cracking ice at the front with boat hooks and the mud weight doing it’s job we set off. As slow as possible we moved off. The noise of cracking ice was awful. Everything was going through my mind, an ice shard going through the hull, my anti foul chipping off etc. As we proceeded to the middle of the broad the ice was getting thicker, I see sheets of ice 12mm thick moving down the side of the boat. We were now beyond the point of no return and both Lou & Jay were doing a fine job punching the boat hooks into the ice to break it. I could see they were getting tired and they were both complaining of blisters on there hands, but we had to continue. After and hour we broke free of the ice and on our way to Horning. I looked back to see a convoy of 5 boats following the channel we had just made. They were all cheering and waving to us in relief.

Part One Christmas is now over and getting anxious to get up on Happy Jax II, it’s been a month since we were up on the Broads. Lou had made arrangements to go to her parents for dinner on Sunday, Oh No! I thought, two wasted days. Any way, had to agree to it, show willing and all that. Sunday morning woke up, decided, to go up to the boat after the dinner in the evening, to get the boat ready for the week ahead, lou, the dogs and the boys, Jay and Connor could follow up on Monday morning. Left Lou’s parents at 5pm and drove up to Wayford. Arrived at 6.30pm and to my surprise, my old mate John was on his boat. We agreed to go over to the Wayford Bridge Hotel, later in the evening for a few beers, but first the task of getting the boat ready. The outside temperature was about 2 degrees so fired up the old faithful Webasto, (that reminds me, must remind David Anteres9 to post up how to service the Webasto). Met up with John and walked over the Hotel, had a few drinks, warmed up next to the fire and went back to Happy Jax II to open up the Rum bottle. 12.30pm John went back to his boat. Got up early on Monday morning to get a few chores completed before Lou and the Boys arrived. They arrived at 10.15am. Got the dogs, Buddy & Hobbit on board. Lou has to go back to work on Friday and as we are booked into the Swan Inn on New Years Eve, we decided to take her car down to Horning so she can drive home on New Years Day. Got back to Wayford, back on board Happy Jax II and set sail for Ranworth Staithe. I must say, it was bl**dy cold but a beautiful clear day, so we decided to lower the canopy and rap up warm. We stopped briefly at Ludham Bridge to purchase some electric cards, slight problem though, Ludham stores was closed. We had 3 spare cards so we should be ok until we get to Horning. Our friend John was also taking his boat down to Ranworth and we caught him up at the bottom of the River Ant. We moored up at the Staithe at 2.00pm and were very surprised to see 5 boats already moored. Comforting to know we were not the only fools braving the cold. We then set on the task of finding the electric post with most credit on it, don’t laugh, we all do it. Managed to get through the whole season on just two cards, Hmm, does that make me tight? Any way found one with 52 pence still on, so plugged in. Very quickly the temperature dropped and ice was forming on all the boats and dykes on the staithe. Got talking to another boat owner who had just heard the weather forecast and told us it was dropping to minus 6 overnight. Fired up old faithful, and warmed Happy Jax II through for the evening. We invited John on board to join us for Turkey soup and a few drinks. We all decided to have an early night in preparation for New Years Eve. Let the dogs out to do their bits, I noticed that ice was now forming on the broad. Back on the boat and bedded down approx 10.00 pm.

Bring em back, 3 or 4 flakes on a page didn't impair performance. Don't listen to grumpy Rammy

I like the snow and would like to say yes to snow lol BUT, when it was falling my screen on my laptop kept freezing when scrolling. Taking to much memory I think. So Bah Humbug, I have to say no.

I am going to go with Olton Broad

A duck that can't swim, very interesting.

I thinks this is the one you are discussing, moored in the dyke adjacent to Horning Hall. Certainly a impressive looking craft, took this picture earlier this year.

Thanks Guy's, that's very helpfull. The idea of purchasing a unit off e-bay and then resell after completion has to be the way to go.

Thanks for that Barry. Trying to get my bearings, are you saying that Woodpecker is being launched in front of the boatsheds, what is now, The Vintage Boat Yard, owned by Alice Brown. If so the quay heading to the right is where Happy Jax II is currently moored. In the second photo, The gentleman with the lawn mower, is he standing on what would now be the end of the public staithe at Wayford Bridge? Again, if so Happy Jax II would be on the opposite corner of the dyke. It is amazing, with regard to Hunsett Mill, If we were posting this only one year ago, you would say that nothing has changed, what a difference a year makes.