ranworthbreeze

We have all been moored somewhere before, we change places due to a number of reasons, it can be the price, the facilities or lack of them, poor service etc. Usually we tend to find better places to be moored. It sounds as if you will have to up your game to remain in the wet shed. Regards Alan

Hello Sounding, I had a message from the NBF to that effect, but when you went into any of the messages it came up with an error and is down again. Hopefully it will be up again soon for its members. Regards Alan

Hello JFT, I noticed that the NBF was down early yesterday, but had nothing to report other than we had additional posts over the weekend. I assume that it must have been unavailable over the weekend. I only go on the NBF from time to time these days. The NBF was still down this morning and have not seen any messages on other forums indicating why the forum is down. It is a pity that any forum is unavailable to its members and I hope it is restored soon. We welcome any NBF members to get their daily fix of Broads related topics on the NBN, but we will not tolerate any forum bashing of any kind. Regards Alan

Not wild mooring, but being moored at Salhouse Broad many years ago, thankfully moored up and not mud weighted. The batteries were very low and the bridging switch would not even start the engine. Glenn who managed the syndicate in the early days pulled a battery on a sack barrow all the way from Salhouse down the narrow path down to the Broad. It turned out that in the service schedule that maintenance had not been done on the three batteries. I ended up putting over 3 litres of distilled water into the cells when we got back to the marina. My boat kit for several years included a battery jumper. Regards Alan

Hi Paul, When we were moored on the Northern Broads in the winter months there was so many coots on a bend in the river below Wroxham Broad that we called the place coots corner, hundreds of them all across the river. Your wife would have had a job steering around them. The birds I worry about are Great Crested Grebe, they always come up after diving under the boat, but you never know. Regards Alan

For those of you who have not seen Anglia Afloat and the information about Katinka here is a link to the article and a number of pictures of this classic Broads Boat:- http://www.angliaafloat.co.uk/advice-and-reviews/boat-tests-and-reviews/a_rare_norfolk_beauty_1_3131357 Regards Alan

Hi BuffaloBill, Join the queue! Regards Alan

Hello James, Welcome to the forum from Tan & myself. Regards Alan

Hi Mandy, As Jonzo has pointed out with his link this craft has been refurbed to a high standard by the looks of the pictures. The galley is not great but who wants to cook on holiday, make the best use you can of the local pubs. When we have hired Narrow Boats, the first thing we ask the boat yard to do is remove the micro wave to gain extra storage. Regards Alan

Hi Frank, Do you know what DC voltage was supplying the heating, is it 12 volts or 24 volts. My advice would if you are working on the pipes I would be inclined to insulate them to cut down any losses of heat on the pipe runs. The pipe connections tend to work loose so check on those jubilee clips. The lagging that we have used to insulate our pipes was on rolls, a bit like the old fashioned water pipe lagging. we fixed this in place with stainless clips. I got our materials from Brian Ward's but you should be able to get them from most chandlers. Regards Alan

Thanks Matt for the information. Regards Alan

Breydon Bridge - Not operational We have been advised by Eastport UK that Breydon Bridge is currently out of service following a hydraulic failure. They have an overnight road closure booked for Tuesday next week (14th) to hopefully diagnose the fault. Following this they will then need to make an assessment on repair timescales. It is therefore looking likely that Breydon will be unable to lift until the end of next week, and possibly beyond. They will revise this timeframe once they have a better idea of repairs required. Kind regards Angie Leeper Asset Officer Broads Authority, Yare House, 62 - 64 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1RY tel 01603 756057 mob 07971 156076 fax 01603 756069 angie.leeper@broads-authority.gov.uk

Hi John, When we were moored on the Northern Broads, we used to book a mooring at The Hotel Wroxham and have never been hit. Whilst we have been on Ranworth Breeze we have never been hit at all. Since the boat was launched in 2001 we have only been hit twice, once by a Richardsons boat and once by a Sandersons boat. In both cases the apropriate gel coat repairs were undertaken and settled directly by both companies which was fully appreciated. Our boat is fully in use for 40 weeks of the year so only having two incidents is rare by anyones standard. Regards Alan

Hi Grace, Broom's have two styles of boat for hire and have at least two of the smaller 2 bearth boats, we had a look around them earlier this year when we were taking on fuel. Our impression was that they looked more spaceous than their size and were well fitted out. Regards Alan

Hi Frank, On the subject of electricity, I used to work with a couple of older electricians in the late 60's that used to do fiddle work in wartime. As part of the blackout you had to extinguish the lights before opening the door. These two guys used an Heath Robinson arrangement of switching the lights off by opening a circuit above the door. This was infact two copper plates fixed to the door frame that another contact on the door bridged the two bare copper mains contacts. Installations that I came across in my early days were mostly in Terraced housing that ran the wiring in wooden capping, a lot of surface wiring in those days Regards Alan

Hello Alan, Four years is not bad at all, we tend to have ours done every two or three years or if not bad you can have just a waterline anti foul coating. Regards Alan

I always like to sit outside the Wroxham Hotel with a glass in my hand and wait for the fun to start. It must be the little devil in me. You of course do the same on the webcam links, just to keep you going until you can get back to the Broads. Regards Alan

This was a sensitive well produced follow on from the series with reference to Arkwright (Ronnie Barker) being the master. It was well worth a watch with all the actresses looking far younger than Granville. The program that showed how they did the conversion of the shop and filming was also informative. Regards Alan

I lived with my Grandmother two streets down from where we live now. We had a bathroom but for some reason the bath the bath was in the center of the room, but luxury a toilet and sink in there too. Most of my relations had a tin bath hung on the back of the celler door and an outside privy. We had a small parafin heater (more a lamp than a heater) that kept the the bathroom pipes from freezing. Before the gas fires in the 70s we had two coal fires one of which was a small range that also heated the water. Frost so bad (Up North) that you had trouble scraping it off the insides of the windows. We had two 15 amp sockets (the type with the switch at the front and the socket which was horizontal above the bulky switch). One was at the top of the stairs and one was in one room. The kitchen floor was concreat painted red and the pantry had a stone floor and a stone shelf, the joys before refigeration. Shopping was done everyday of course down at the local Coop. One side for fresh provisions and the other side for none food items. If you needed items for both sides you had to queue. So it was down before the shop opened wait whist the sugar was weighed into those large blue bags, lard and butter were cut from the very large blocks and packaged into greaseproof paper. Off next to the Post Office, the next shop on from the Fish and Chip Shop (black & white floor tiles) with a couple of tables to eat in. The eariest price I can remember was half a crown (two shillings and sixpence) for fish & chips for 6 people. Next onto the fruit shop, everything was weighed and put direct into the well worn shopping bag, no doubt a stone or half a stone of potatoes etc. This shop was in two halves, fruit & veg and the game/fish. As a child birds hung up outside was a bit daunting. These days if you hung anything outside a shop it would be nicked. We all tend to look on our past with rose coloured glasses but I must say we all enjoyed being children in those days. Regards Alan

Hi Frank, We are on the Yorkshire/ Derbyshire border and we were fully in Derbyshire before Sheffield extendered its catchment/rates area. We have trouble understanding people from only a few miles from us. It is a good job you didn't give your Grandad a "Uncle Joe's Mint Balls" to suck or you might have got too warm. Regards Alan

Hi Grace, We have freinds who have hired from Silverline who have hired two boats for their holidays on the Broads a number of times and have always found them first class. I can understand that you are trying to boost your loyalty bonus with Richardsons and they do have great offers, so you should be able to sort out a good deal. When are thinking about? Regards Alan

Hi Frank, You are starting to sound like the Yorkshireman sketch from Monty Python, Cardboard box, you were lucky! Monty Python's Flying Circus - "Four Yorkshiremen" [ from the album Live At Drury Lane, 1974 ] The Players: Michael Palin - First Yorkshireman; Graham Chapman - Second Yorkshireman; Terry Jones - Third Yorkshireman; Eric Idle - Fourth Yorkshireman; The Scene: Four well-dressed men are sitting together at a vacation resort. 'Farewell to Thee' is played in the background on Hawaiian guitar. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah? THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: You're right there, Obadiah. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh? FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: A cup o' cold tea. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Without milk or sugar. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Or tea. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: In a cracked cup, an' all. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son". FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Aye, 'e was right. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Aye, 'e was. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor! FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Cardboard box? THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Aye. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky! THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you. ALL: They won't Regards Alan

Hi Lori, We have hired caravans back in the day when the only lighting was the gas mantles, ok when new but prone to damage with a match. Never thought of them being dangerous but they were noisy. Our Community Centre used to have gas emergency lights until around 1970 when we installed battery backup lighting. Every evening function prior to the install required the four exit signs and the four wall lights lighting, it used to help with the heating however. Regards Alan

Hello Katakalousse, There is couple of advertised storage facilities in Norwich and I think the Waverney River Centre also offer storage. Regards Alan

Getting back to the topic. If it was not for being able to hire a Narrow Boat in 1974 for our party of six, I would not be into boating nor would I have introduced so many people to the joys of boating. We have had canal holidays from that date more so in the last 10 years and we have had a share in our boat on the Norfolk Broads since 2001. If the 20 year olds are not encouraged to visit the Broads what would become of it when we are longer able to enjoy the Broads? All the hire companies need to hire out to younger crews in order to try to stay in business. I would say well done Clive, there is so such thing as bad publicity. The above is my personal view. Regards Alan