Broads01

Hi Vaughan. What boat have you booked?

I like the programmes too Alan, as I said before. I think my reference to the wine supping was a wrong choice of words. Of course there's nothing wrong with wine supping and I'm partial to it myself, I was just hoping for some proper boaty action as well. Alas Pru may not be able to manage boat piloting or rope tying now.

In the early series, Pru was physically active on the narrow boats, taking ropes, pushing lock gates and taking the helm. Sadly in recent programmes there's been nothing of that so I can only assume she's no longer able. This time I hope they find some boating stuff to do apart from supping wine once they've stopped for the night.

Joking apart, it's a great series and I always thought the Broads should be included. I didn't enjoy the recent India programmes however because I thought it was too far removed from cruising Waterways independently and became standard travel fayre. Hopefully the Broads programme will be worth watching and be good publicity.

Thanks I've learned something. I'm very familiar with the coming in to a mooring against the tide thing and I know with a strong tide how important that is. However, I've experienced more than once being pulled in so strongly I've risked being pulled in to a boat moored adjacent. I've never thought to try and balance the throttle in the way you describe.

Nope because I've no idea what a ferry glide is. Can you explain?

I remember the handbooks very well, it was always a really nice thing to receive in the post with your booking confirmation in those pre-internet days. They seem to fetch money on ebay now. How did you get the pdf John, scan all the pages yourself?

Yes indeed. The boat database comes up trumps as usual.

This timber beauty looks in good nick. It has Windsor on the stern but looks 1960s hire boat.

I saw a couple more in Bristol this week. This old Caribbean has been running as a passenger boat for many years but whenever I see it I wonder if it started life as a hire boat in Horning

I've watched the boat review now which I also enjoyed. It was useful in showing the negatives of Ruby Gem. That bed looks as short as everyone says and I thought some of the interior looked on the tired side compared to others of identical price, the refitted boats like Capri, Calypso and Symphony. The interior space showed through well though. John - Richardsons are brilliant at coming out to you if you need them to and would have fixed the non-functional oven for you. The sliding roof, whilst heavier than the Capri one should have been much easier to shift - I suspect the runners needed a clean out and greasing up.

Hi John. Watched your video with my breakfast this morning and enjoyed as much as last year. You win the prize for the cheeriest holiday video of them all. I must admit I don't bother with a dinghy because of the hassle factor when mooring but your Ranworth and Salhouse 'Park and ride' mudweighting choice has made me think - great option for busy moorings. I see youve uploaded a boat review so I'm looking forward to watching that.

On the forward drive vs other designs subject, forward steers have many advantages of course (living space, easy access, single floor level, large windows). The disadvantage or otherwise of a low down steering position to my mind depends where you are. On tree-lined sections it makes no difference whereas reed-lined you're at a disadvantage. Simplistically you could say forward steer works well on the north Broads, not so well south but both have their tree-lined and reed-lined rivers.

I enjoyed Robin's latest video review of Bronze Gem 2. OK I know I'm a loyal Richardsons hirer so he's preaching to the converted but nonetheless the boat appeared even more up together than I thought it would be. I remember a few years back going aboard a Richos Bounty 37 with the engine running and it was deafeningly loud but not the Nanni on Bronze 2 now. And check out that luxury sofa!

Limited availability by now Vaughan I fear. I'm looking at September 2018 and there are bookings then already. I recall John saying the meets would always be 3rd weekend in May, July and September which is really useful to know. It would to be good to know the venue though.

Ah, get it now, perhaps I'm just too young to understand...

I never did understand what DTS stood for (Drink something?), still less FCE and I always did dislike abbreviations but even so I get the gist and the photo speaks for you.

Whatever charge you settle on, it has to be the same both sides as has previously been suggested because otherwise you'll cause confusion and frustration amongst punters, not good for business. To work out the right fee, I think you have some maths to do. In your position I'd be estimating the income per moored boat, per night, taking in to account what proportion would spend in the pub at all and of those that did, what they'd spend. Then I'd look at the average mooring numbers on the farmers side and use that to estimate the potential income from that side. That should then inform what you would need to charge to make a reasonable profit. Very much guesswork to begin with and then you'd need to monitor actual numbers of boats to check you were charging correctly.

Cheers for writing. I enjoyed reading and I'm not even a fisherman.

I can recommend Coltishall Lock, Bryan, you may recall my write up last October when I was on Soprano. I agree Belaugh is a lovely spot though and rarely fully occupied in my experience even though the mooring length is only short.

How do they physically close it? I'm imagining it must be difficult to enforce.

Ah so last night at Wroxham Broad was your 6th night, I'd lost count. I enjoyed your tale, thanks for writing.

I didn't have any issues with getting around the bed posts but I will say it's not easy to stand next to the bed given the narrow width and bow-shaped floor. It still beats a side-on bed though in my view and it was very comfy.

Wow, long cruise to Stalham from there for 9am but why not if you don't mind an early alarm call.

Me too, I watched it at the weekend, lovely footage as always. There's something I'm always curious about when I'm watching your videos and reading your tales Bryan. You always spend the majority of the trip between the Ant and Womack and there's so many places you've either been rarely or not at all (Potter, Acle, Coltishall for example). Is it just that you know where you like and stick with that?