Broads01

Oh dear. I do get a little tired of the North Broads being written off just because hire boats are fully booked. I love the North Broads just as much as the South, busy or not.

I completely disagree. Vaughan has explained why the photos in question caused him distress. Nigel has apologised and stated he wouldn't have posted them if he'd realised they'd cause distress. May I respectfully request the moderators to remove the photos.

Yep, Ludham Bridge has the most useless height gauge anywhere, being so pessimistic I tend to take little notice of it. It would take exceptional conditions not to be able to pass through with Mystic Horizon.

Excellent post, Howard. I love discussions and photos about boatyards of years gone by. I too value Vaughan and Nigel's contributions both on this thread and elsewhere.

Thanks all for the helpful replies.

I've been up to Dilham a few times, the biggest boat I've taken up there being 37 foot. I have a 42 footer booked and I'm wondering, if I get up there and the Staithe is full, will I have space to turn?

The Ferry at Stokesby, Commodore at Oulton Broad, Pedro's Acle.

Some good advice so far and I like the idea of dropping the mud weight a few feet out. I've never actually tried that but it makes a lot of sense. We were once stern moored at Coldham Hall and were woken in the night with the sound of water running. The boat was at an odd angle and we could tell we weren't afloat because there was no movement. For a few horrible moments we were worried we were sinking. We weren't however - I'd tied the stern ropes too tight and the rubbing strake had caught on the quay as the tide dropped. I managed to push the stern back in to the water with no damage done. The sound of running water that had woken us up had been water pouring in to one of the vents.

I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to be out and about and hopefully visit a pub at some point but I'm still very anxious at the same time. I'd be more inclined to visit a pub with pods/greenhouses than one without.

Dave, as I've already said, your videos have consistently lifted me during lock down. Anyone who, for the sheer love of it, lock down or not, takes the sustained time and effort to post videos for 100 days in a row deserves a special medal. I haven't watched the 100 special yet but very much looking forward to doing so this weekend.

I thought you automatically had a summer week Helen?

Well Dave if you decide the walk isn't on you'll have to make do with going to Geldeston by boat instead. Such a plain stretch of river as well, a terrible hardship 😊

Only if you like to moor at popular spots. For hirers, the flip side of busy times is there's plenty of space to moor in hire boat basins plus there's wild moorings and places off the beaten track always to be had.

It's a fair question Davydine and something I've wondered about in the past. Whenever I've hired from Richardsons, the boat has tended to have the engine running when I first board and so I've turned it off straightaway. Having said that the amount of fuel that's been used is probably negligible. Errors can be made though - years ago I hired from Bees Boats as was and during the trip discovered they'd actually forgotten to refuel after the previous hirer. It was a 2 week trip and yet after a week the tank was almost empty - it turned out the previous hirer had returned the boat unexpectedly early, gone home without waiting for the refuel which had subsequently been overlooked by the boatyard.

I've overnighted at the Beauchamp more than once in years gone by, the last time in 2001 I think. In those days the moorings on the bank upstream of the pub were reasonable. I can't remember if there were posts or not but the grass was short enough to make it an easy short stroll to the pub. Nowadays, as mentioned above, the bank is so overgrown as to make disembarkation impractical so boaters are left with only a couple of spaces in front of the pub. When you add that to the sad, sorry for itself look the whole place has it all seems so unwelcoming and so incongruous with the riverside location.

Salhouse spit is indeed a good choice if you don't fancy mudweighting. It's one of those places there's always loads of space because people tend to moor on the broad instead. Wroxham Broad is lovely to mudweight on but can feel exposed if it's windy. There's always Hoveton Little Broad which is a calm oasis next to a very busy stretch of river.

It's a lovely location and I have happy memories of eating there. I hope somebody takes it on because the potential is surely there.

Not as much as you might think, looking at the interior photos. It looks in good nick but a very original 1970s hire boat interior.

Lovely photos at Rockland. The pictures are over 40 years old and yet the view hasn't changed since then. Yare Dawn must only have been a year or two old then.

Sometimes it's not so much that boats can take punishment it's that boatyards have to be very good at repairing them. If you see Challenger 4 from Richardsons the central windscreen and saloon windows look different to its sisters. That's because a few years ago at Great Yarmouth, a crew rammed it in to the bridge with such force they completely wrecked the saloon and it had to be rebuilt.

I think you're correct but I'm wondering if this will ever be enforced. Are boatyards expected to request proof of address for every member of each crew?

Why ever not? The whole stretch between Wroxham and Coltishall is as beautiful river as you'll find anywhere. Coltishall Lock is one of my favourite moorings.

That sounds right. I assume the boatyards have to pay a subscription ( as well as hirers being charged) hence why Barnes don't include themselves.

They don't let you use them at all. This is on the basis that they will take the boat through for you which worked fine when we were going upstream as there was over 7 foot available. However, by their own admission and unlike the pilot, they rely on the 'official' air draft specified in the boat cockpit which was 7 foot in our case. So on the one hand you could argue that they're unnecessarily cautious but on the other they have no issue with hirers taking boats through themselves which most other operators don't allow.

The Wroxham bridge pilot told me 6 foot 9. Barnes don't let you use the bridge pilot and on the day in question refused to take me through even with 6 foot 11 available so I took it through myself with lots of room to spare.