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FlyingFortress
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Posts posted by FlyingFortress
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37 minutes ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:
Awww Jimmy 🤣🤣🤣He kept the tables clean after our spills in The Waveney didn’t he FF 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Still can't get him to sit his bottom down like you can. Must be the way you say it. 😂
Also the swear box money went to Dogs Trust raffle. We didn't win anything 😂😂
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5 minutes ago, oldgregg said:
I was just admiring the NBN (with its old branding) badge low down on the dash... Not seen one of those before and I've been here longer than most.
Didn't know that was in the pic. 🤫
Yes I have been a member for quite a while now.😁
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Ahhh Better 😁
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New engine in, but not quite in the right place 🫣
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16 minutes ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:
Awww Jimmy 🤣🤣🤣He kept the tables clean after our spills in The Waveney didn’t he FF 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I did tell you not to feed that dog beer 🍺
He is quite nutty enough without it.
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Even second hand Labradors don't come cheap so another 4 figure bill but one I was happy to pay. 😁
So The Horning Boat show comes around and I thought I would enquire at Preachments stand about a new Nanni engine. They had a 38hp one on display which was not brand new but very low hours that had previously been in a Bondi Round The World Race Yacht as a generator and they are replaced every year. I spoke to Mark (Ignition Marine) and he said it was a no brainer. I committed myself there and then to purchase it and have Preachments fit it at the end of the season. I was then introduced to The workshop manager Brian who said they could probably slot it in in June if we wanted. All agreed and the quote was well inside my 10k budget. 👍
So boat was taken from Northern Rivers down to Brundall , we took a few days to make this trip and it was the first extended time on the boat for The Hooligan. The old Lister never missed a beat and even the night before taking it in I had my doubts I was doing the right thing , but hey ho too late now.
Anyway in it went and out came the old engine and away to a new life powering a Canal Boat.
Phone call from Brian, we have a problem 🫣
The old engine had been vibrating against the hull and had almost worked it's way through, Can you fix it, Yes but it will have to be lifted out. Well no going back now.
Out she came but that was not the end of the problems the bolts holding the skeg had rusted away, mild steel, told you Bees were not all they were cracked up to be. 😣
Cut a long story short and Preachments made a new skeg dressed the prop and promptly fitted our new Nanni.
Slightly behind time and obviously was going to be more than the quote but we went down to Brundall and picked her up the day before temperatures hit 40 in Norfolk. The plan was now to start our June/ July holiday from Brundall.
One last delay when they decided they had the wrong ratio gearbox in and changed that and we were off.
Now the old Lister was a bit agricultural and when we bought her it had no sound proofing in the engine bay but I fitted sound proofing and with the door closed to the middle cabin the engine was never intrusive. The Nanni however is in a different league. " Is it running?"
There were a few snagging issues with the fit but all of these were dealt with by Preachments promptly and with good grace.
When the final bill came in it was JUST below my 10k budget even with all the additional work.
So it's a big 👍 for Preachments as well.
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Blooming upside down again Grrrr.
By this time our central heating boiler had sprung a leak and our Plumber attended expecting it to be a simple fix but alas no it was terminal and of course living near to where North Sea Gas comes ashore there is no Gas so it's a far more expensive Oil Boiler 😵 Didn't budget for that one 😥
The only good thing about losing Treacle was that we got Jimmy our Hooligan at the end of April
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Service time for the engine and for quite a few years now we have been using Ignition Marine so Mark was booked to come and attend.
I did mention to Mark that for a few years now we had been experiencing a loss of oil pressure after a long run eg a Breydon Crossing but a slight increase in rpm would soon sort it out. He did say he could put an additive in the Oil that would keep us going for a few years but eventually we would be needing a new engine. I was by now fully retired but had set aside a 10k budget for an engine renewal if it was required.
The existing Lister Petter had always been a first time starter and run clean after the first puff of smoke on a cold start.
Our old Labrador Treacle had her 14th birthday in March and much to our delight did have a few days out on the boat before the inevitable happened. Bye bye old girl you are much missed.
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So 2022 dawn's and early in the New Year Jeff from Auto Cool returns with a new controller ( the correct one this time, it's easy the logo is the same colour as the old ones and it simply plugs and plays) and after taking away the jury rigging he made and putting the old connector back on we have a heating systems that works as it was designed to do. 😁👍
Bill paid and I thought it was pretty reasonable for the work and traveling he put in .
So another recommendation, this time for Auto Cool 👍👍👍
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The only thing that spoilt the after Christmas trip was our friends boat having paint thrown over it at Neatishead.
We all know who did it but I am not allowed to say 🤫
More tomorrow
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So we did go out after Christmas and had a cracking meal at lunchtime on my belated 60th birthday postponed due to lockdown the previous year at The New Inn at Horning 👍
We then went to Ranworth only to find The Maltsers closed that night but we had the pleasure of inviting some friends on board a boat that we could now be proud of again for an evening of much frivolously. You know who you are and thanks for a great night 😁
The dead Scotch Marine went down very well 🤫😃😁👍
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At around this time one of the very few mod cons Sally had was Blown warm air heating ( must for us when we purchased her) but the actuating button namely the on/off button was getting a little worn out and difficult to operate, so I ventured to a main dealer and purchased a new actuating control. It looked slightly different from the previous one as the logo was a different colour but I was assured that it was the correct one.
A little while passed as we did not use the boat much late on in the season but as we were planning to be out after Christmas I decided to fit the new controller.
These are supposed to be plug and play but the plugs did not match so another visit to the main dealer and was told I would have to make up the connections myself. Being as I cannot crimp for toffee I made them up with chocolate box connectors. The whole system refused to work and as it was a week away from Christmas main dealers refused to come out.
Eventually I got in contact with Jeff from Auto Cool who came out and jury rigged my system, replaced all the electrics I had blown by simply connecting the wrong controller to my system. It's simple he says. " The logo is the wrong colour, it's for a different system. Simple things for simple sailors".
So some Iiiiijeeet had sold me the wrong controller despite me pointing out to them that the logo was the wrong colour and the plug and play did not fit 😵😩 I had now blown every fuse in the system.
Refund, you are having a Giraffe 😩
Thankfully Jeff got us out of the smelly stuff and we were able to use our boat after Christmas and then return in the new year and make a proper job of a fix.
Another highly recommended company 👍
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So as 2022 draws to a close here are some of my reflections on the last year.
It has without a doubt been a year of as our good friend Griff describes a year of serious open wallet surgery.
I suppose it all started towards the end of the season in 21.
Around 2 or 3 years ago we had a decision to make. It was obviously getting closer to my retirement and do we replace the boat before I do. By then we had owned Sally since 2003 and although we had made a lot of upgrades in the early years nothing much had changed in the last 14 years or so. Sally is an ex Bees boat and had been in hire from new and we bought her when Bees decided to cease hire fleet operations. She was and is a type of boat that we really wanted an Alpha 35 having previously owned her little sister The Alpha 29 Mutineer (ex Ferry Mutineer 2 ) was without a doubt the nicest boat we had ever owned.
Mutineer was our Fourth boat but for some reasons she just did not suit us. So we went on a quest to buy a 35. We were not initially bothered if we had a Centre Cockpit or a Forward Drive (bathtub).
The boat that suited both us and our budget was Sally Bee.
Like a lot of hire yards at that time Bees were a little old fashioned and did not fit anything that hirers could break so although only 10 years old she still lacked some mod cons. But this was the boat for us. It did take a little forecefullnes on our part to get the owner to agree to providing us with the fledgling BSS before we bought her in fact it took a lot of pressure from us before she was allowed to have a survey done.
It came down to " No Survey and no current BSS or no sale. Full Stop"
We eventually became proud owners of Sally Bee or Sally B as she is now known dedicated to the memory of the 8th Army Air Force of the United States and The Only still flying B17 in Europe.
I digress.
So our Sally was starting to show her age as when we bought her there were very very few Fwd Drive Alpha 35's in private hands .
What boat to replace her with? It seemed like it would be a more modern version of what we already had. As PaulNs' beautiful boat was not available at that time it looked like we would be making changes to our Sally.
Our major upgrades were coming to an end in late 21, all of the work being carried out by Horning Pleasure Craft. Thanks Clive and your great crew. 👍
A yard I have no hesitation in recommending to anyone. 👍👍👍
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Blimey.
Greatest player ever IMHO
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I believe the current owners did try to sort out some kind of deal to keep the moorings open but to no avail 😩
Always seems to be busy now but it was a tall order turning it around from the MPW era/disaster.
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1 hour ago, Heron said:
If memory serves me well the Eagle had bank notes from all over the world pasted to the ceiling. Got a shock one year when it was no more, shame.
I must have been in there as that kind of rings a bell.
I remember thinking there must be folk who go in here from " The Oil Patch" as I recognised a lot of the notes and a lot of The Oil Patch was not anywhere anyone would like to go as a tourist.
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1 hour ago, Heron said:
Maids Head in Stalham. Best pub in the town, sadly gone.
Agree with that 👍
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4 hours ago, Regulo said:
The Eagle at Neatishead. And The Wherry at Langley dyke.
Don't remember The Eagle being open but The Wherry yes.
IIRC it was like entering someone's living room.
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Top house was my local for a good while 👍
Berney was a nice , hic , afternoon out 😵. Managed it by boat, foot and in a Land Rover ( I was not driving) but never by train strangely enough. 😳
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2 hours ago, CambridgeCabby said:
I miss greatly The Barton Angler , and also The Bell , Salhouse
Had a bit of a love hate relationship with The Barton Angler.
It was about as far as our Second and only wooden boat would go for many a long time before it's petrol engine would pack up. 😳
It had only come from what is now known as Broadsedge 😳
So loved it as far as at least we had made a mooring with a pub nearby,😁 and hated it as I knew I had to get intimate with plugs points etc. 😫
Took a while but got there in the end and it did make the trip to Norwich on more than one occasion 👍
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1 hour ago, NorfolkNog said:
Agree about the Berney
Railway Tavern at Reedham was an excellent pub and quite an oasis for real ale back in the day.
Railway Tavern Howard?
The Top House please 😜
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Been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks.
There is persistent rumour around these parts that the Average Speed Cameras on the A149 from Potter to Cats Common do not function.
I have never had the nerve to test this rumour so have always stuck to the 60 or 50 limits since the cameras have been there.
I did however recently see people doing work on these cameras so may it serve as a warning to anyone returning to the area after a seasonal absence who has been taking any notice of local rumours.
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Sutton Staithe
If you can get moored.
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1 hour ago, kpnut said:
I tried to use Alan May as he came highly recommended but gave up after numerous phone calls over the space of 6 weeks and leaving a message asking him to ring back three times.
Mine has just been passed by Tony Urwin at Banks boats and he was superb. He explained everything that was needed as he went round in case I choose to refurbish anything in the future. He also explained all his various gas pressure readings and spent time and effort to locate the bow thruster battery, which happened to be under floorboards with no access hatch. He said he would do the necessary paperwork and forward to BA and to the marina manager for me. I would use him again with no hesitation.I have used Tony for my last 3 or 4 and I totally endorse what you have said. 👍
Only worried that he may retire before my next one.🫣
Tides
in Broads Chat
Posted
Andrew.
The position of the jet stream dictates ALL of our weather.
It is the dividing line between 2 air masses, the friction between these 2 air masses causes the 2 to rub together and cause cyclonic disturbances or low pressure cells giving us our cyclonic or stream of low pressure systems that dictate our weather patterns.
Jet stream higher latitudes more anti cyclonic weather patterns or if you like the Azores high bulging up and giving us nice weather. Jet stream more Southerly and anti cyclonic Arctic air causing freezing Russian blasts.
Anything in between causes our typical cyclonic weather patterns of low pressure followed by a bit of high followed by a cyclonic or low pressure system etc etc etc.
In answer to Ex Surveyor s question.
A combination of persistent high pressure, lots of or lack of rain, a very low pressure or the combination of either southerly or northerly winds can affect the tidal patterns of our Broads.
When I worked out of Great Yarmouth to obtain my Pilotage Exemption I was posed the question, "Is there a scenario where the tide is visually ebbing but the tidal gauge is rising" . The correct answer is yes and it does so regularly.
I used to be able to predict the scenario when tides were either higher than normal or lower than normal at GTY.
I worked for 23 years as a Pilot on The Thames and had no idea when the tides were going to be earlier or later than prediction. Even when our sophisticated software took and refined the tidal harmonics from the Met Office.
I came to the conclusion that the best way to say when high or low water slack was Is to look out of the window.
This was highlighted when I and a colleague brought in at that time the deepest draft ship ever into London Gateway Port. At 15.8m she had to come in at or near high water and we were discussing on the approach to the berth if the tide had changed or not as our plan was to swing the ship on the last of the flood.
Of course we were looking at our very sophisticated navigation system that we carried for these large ships and the Captain asked us how we knew which way the tide was running. We pointed out the Tugs moored to mooring buoys and had they swung yet.
Bit of a lecture but hope it helps.😋