BroadAmbition

How about buying the s/steel you want off the shelf, then taking the lot down to FW Halls for a price - Getting a quote costs nowt. Failing that how about emailing them some pictures with measurements for a quote? Griff

Not for me, Don't do twitter and no intention of starting either, besides link not working Griff

Alan, So sorry to hear this dreadful news. Condolences from the crew of 'B.A' Griff

Rolled? Clarify Pse the long thin quarter round stuff I bought off the shedlf and fitted mysen onto the timber rubbers. We have a third deck hatch to be done next year so that’ll be another £120 + vat bringing it to £432 whether that is expensive depends on the quality/ standard of finish plus it’s a once only purchase that will last a lifetime Griff

You sure they were yours? Griff

Could you tell me who is doing the stainless steel around the hatch please? So far unable to find anyone to do ours. Many Thanks F.W Hall and Son, Rackheath - 01603 626380. Rang me today. The two polished s/steel borders have been quoted at £240 for the pair (Plus vat of course) they will be 3mm thick laser cut from a sheet so no joints or welding to the corners with a 20mm overlap onto the deck from the hatches. They will drill screw them into place on the hatches. He did state that the two hatches differed slightly in size from each other - No, Really? - no surprise there then but will make the two borders identical size, this will mean one side the overlap will be down to 17mm but both will look identical. I will have to notch both of them out slightly once I have them onboard to fit round the end of the cabin sides (I have the tools / experience to do this). They will be ready for collection in January, he could have got them done before Christmas but they are somewhat pushed and it is not urgent for us to have them on the next maintenance weekend visit, besides it gives me time to properly adjust the load bearing inside frames that need some fine tuning and source some soft rubber rain water seals to bond to the backs of the borders. So sadly no photo's for a while yet Griff

Laughable and exasperating Griff

Oh if only someone would do it. I know, I’ll buy a Euro million ticket and do the sodding thing mysen BUT that would expose shallow un dredged areas elsewhere so no doubt the blessed authority would fight me all the way Griff

Those dredging figures you quoted are scratching the itch at best and were done because they absolutely had to be to save boats running aground at high water. It needs all the river done from Stokesby to GYA but what’s the point if the bottleneck of silt is left in place between Marina keys and the yellow post the commissioners must have been wasting their time eh? Griff

Coincidentally Beccles Old road bridge is quoted as being the same. Although on the low water range we never have a problem getting through and the Jewels are 7ft - ish, not a prayer of getting them through PHB Griff

It's laughable or reduces one to tears. The current Broads Tide tables 2018 - 2019 produced by the Blessed Authority currently states clearance for PHB being 6FT 6" - That's for summer normal HIGH water tides - Really? I wish! they are kidding themselves, certainly not the rest of us Griff

I use the roll on / Lay off brush method when applying paint, Not tried it with varnish though, probably never will now Griff

if its half round it is a woodruff key Not even half round in my experience, more like a third and with flat edges / sides Griff

However, if the whole shooting match can be put down to "Climate change" then there can be no action to be reasonably taken. What a marvellous excuse for not doing much about it. And we all know just what 'Responsible' body has been using that very marvellous excuse ever since they came into being now don't we? (Do try to keep up and pay attention at the back) 'B.A' was designed to go under all Broads Bridges, launched in 66, she has an absolute minimum airdraft of 6ft 4" Ok, I can get her down to 6ft 3" but that involves removing the windscreen entirely (About half a dozen screws) which is in my skippers handbook onboard - Cheating and for emergency bridge shooting - I have never needed this extra 1" and hope I never do (Careful there Griffin) 'B.A' in the 60's / 70's / Most of the 80's regularly went through PHB as did many Brooms Admirals / Supreme Commanders we hired, they need around 7ft from memory, it was not unusual, it was the norm during normal low tides. Then of course we lost the Gt Yarmouth Commissioners looking after the Broads and the Broads Authority came into being (88?). The lower Bure ceased to have year round dredging, PHB became less of the norm and more of a treat / special occasion. Nowadays its a couple of times a year if we are lucky enough to be afloat near to Potter when we get an exceptionally low tide on the Northern rivers. 'Weather' (Pun intended) that is solely down to climate change or purely a coincidence when the Blessed Authority stopped dredging - Erm you decide, How long do you want - More than a couple of seconds? - Really? Griff

Now you have opened a can of worms Put 30 regular varnish users together and you'll get 30 different answers to that one. Never a truer word spoken. My method for what its worth (Not much to be honest):- Positively loads and loads of preparation finishing off with a 120 paper. 1) Hoover off with good old Henry with a brush fitting. (Btw - I had to get a new Henry recently, my last one got married - It stopped sucking!) Wipe down with white spirit on a lint free cloth, allow to dry. 1st coat, Ravilakk thinned down 50 / 50 with genuine turps. 2) Denib with green nlyon pad (I used to use 0000 wire wool but I find nylon pad produces less swarf), Henry, white spirit/cloth, allow to dry, Ravilakk/Turps 60/40. 3) Repeat 70/30. 4) Repeat 80/20. 5) Repeat but with full strength. 6) Last coat, full strength Brava varnish. 'Freshen up' any time 'Down the river' as and when required but flat off with 120, Henry, White spirit cloth, 1 x coat full strength Brava Now I will point out here that the above method is not the correct way or the incorrect way but works for me and I'm happy with the method / results. All other tried and tested methods are of course way inferior done by wannabe amateurs Griff

Yes I was careful, I did not have to disturb / undoe any gas fittings. I looked up the codes E133 for this model ain't a frozen condensate pipe. Besides before I had this boiler installed I was aware of that issue so in our case the condensate pipe is inside the loft plumbed into the downpipe so it's all inside the house, cannot freeze or block. Last night I eventually got the cleaning / drying done and got the house toasty. if our boiler ain't performing, then no hot showers as our system the shower water comes off the boiler so I just had to get it working Griff

The best advice I can give where any boat is concerned be it Bio degradable or tupperware is to get onto any small / little / insignificant issue immediately (I'm not talking upgrades here - Purely maintenance) that way those small / little / insignificant issues stay that way before they become major and very expensive in the blink of an eye. Winter protection - Not something we get involved in as wet sheds are the very best. You should seriously consider weighing off the extra cost of an all year round wet shed berth against an outside berth with the consequences thereof. Wet sheds save huge amounts of maintenance / time caused by both the winters and summer uv damage. They give you the opportunity of all year round cruising as well and not having to bother with winterising. 'B.A' does not have a closed season, she is available and ready to go 24/7/365. As for porotecing the timber, go for lots of coats of the best anti-uv varnish your budge will stretch to. We have a set method, 5 x coats of Ravalak followed by 1 x coat of Brava - That's after all the prep work of course. Works for us Griff

This morning at around 0700 I noticed yet again our Baxi boiler was not providing hot water to the taps or radiators. It's being showing a E133 error code more and more often. Usually a reset or power on / off cures it. So up the loft I go, 5 mins later - Sorted. By 0800 I'm off to my local farm for our game shoot day (After the obligatory expensive breakfast at the Mount Pleasant Hotel) The days shoot - I've had better, low cloud steady drizzle all day. Got home by around 1800. Gear needs cleaning and drying. Macie Dog is proper mucky, needs cleaning / drying off. MrsG at work - Boiler not working yet again, I am duly informed it has been off since 0830. This time it won't reset no matter how many times I try. Right onto Youtube - Next door to useless for a change, but one snippit gave me a clue. Ok off control panel, off outer and inner covers. Remove spark igniter and temp sensor, clean, refit, everything back together and BINGO it is fixed as of 1915. I will purchase a new igniter and temp sensor next week and fit them next time it packs up. I wouldn't mind but I've been on at 'My' plumber for an age now to service the blasted thing. Griff

What Vetchugger said Griff

It would have been polite to ask him if it was ok first, rather than let him find you had just dumped your timber in his garage My neighbour is none other than forumite 'Breamslayer' who helped on the restoration and is one of our regular Lads Week crew, it was his suggestion to use his garage, Bon Oeuf that he is Griff

I survived the timber episode in our lounge! Oh yes I did. Said timber has dried out. I then removed all screws / pins / nails / brackets. Cleaned off the sealants / adhesive etc. squared the ends off on my chop saw. Now in next doors garage (He has more room than I do) where it will stay till next Thursday after work I will load it into the 'GriffTile' van, then round to 'The Wizard' where we will run the lot through his table planer. Then back to the garage, I'll then bring the lot down with me next month and into our timber store. Another task completed Griff

Wall wobbling watts and good speakers are essential for communal alongside BBQ’s / partying Griff

Can't answer that one plainly as of yet. After dear Ken Nevard passed away, we were scratching around for a contact as I'm sure many others were too. We did find one but he / they don't specialise or want much 'Boaty' work, however the items and work they did do for us was 1st class. Enter the company at Rackheath we visited last weekend, I went in 'Cold' that is no recommend from anyone. Their sign outside states bespoke marine etc etc and they can hardly make a pigs ear out of what I have asked them to do. The thing is as of yet they have not contacted me with a price. Once I get a price from them and assuming it is not taking the proverbial I will give them the go ahead. Then after said items are with us I will report back on quality / workmanship in the normal manner but as of now am unable to do so. Griff

I will have to get Robin to answer that one as he sourced / supplied it. I didn't take any photo's. All I know is, it is much larger than the previous one, same width but deeper with a larger display area. It is DAB FM/LW / CD with bluetooth Mpeg and goodness knows what else. The operating manual is as thick as a bible, I have not read it yet but am hoping that it will be in many languages so I can thin it down somewhat otherwise I really will be in trouble. It was operating fine on CD and Spotify after we got it wired up and the sound from the speakers was clear and strong. Not had it on any radio stations as of yet as we are in a metal wet shed so no signal, we need to rig up both an FM aerial and a digital one which we will look at next visit. Then if it is dry outside we will take 'B.A' out for a short hop just to test the radio reception - Cannot expose the new cant rails to wet wx until I have got them filled, plugged and at least some varnish on them Griff

Meanwhile back at the shed. The two aft deck hatches were chauffeured round to Rackheath by Robin in his barge and left with a marine s/steel outfit to have polished s/steel borders fitted. Robin then got set to and removed the deckhead lining and the false bulkhead in the Stbd Fwd cabin to access the cables / connections for the cd radio player that is well past it's best. The tv signal booster was also removed along with it's associated cables. The new cd radio is now fitted and working just fine and dandy It can do the Bluetooth thing (Along with other stuff I don't quite understand) so Spotify / Amazon music etc is now operational although as of yet we have no digital aerial linked to it, this will be done next visit then all the panels put back in place. Howard trimmed back the deck light cables to the inner insulation ready for the teak backing pads to be fitted during a visit down the river sometime. Robin on a visit to Wroxham came back with whatever he was supposed to plus two 6ft strip lamp tubes, starters and a halogen lamp - Why? - 'Coz they were on offer' - Really? Nope, the real reason he, along with the rest of us has finally lost patience by not being able to see in the wet shed due to faulty lights, we can now do so, it's a lot more safe and pleasant. We pratted around with our cctv system, realigning the cameras and getting Malanka into the picture as well. A couple of issues that were previously sorted whilst round at J.W's back in September, we had a rainwater leak from the varnished pads that the horns sit on. I spent an age cleaning out the join and then re-sealing it only to realise I had done the searchlight not the horns. Robin thought this most amusing as I had completely wasted my time then had to set too and do the same to the correct pad, it was one of those 'Senior Moments' Now Robin is not old enough by his birth date to qualify for having a senior moment, did that stop him? Did it heckers like. Robin took it upon himself to change that bothersome and untidy deck plug for the lighting on the mast. Proper fiddly job that was, when he finally completed it he realised he had not threaded the cable through the securing ring, Oh how I laughed, so it had to be undone and started all over again, during which he forgot to note or photo the cable colours / joins - Ages of fun and glee sorting that one out Replacing the Solar panels for a second time this year was the hardest job of the lot, they are slightly bigger but the real issue was that for them to work correctly they had to be using their own dedicated cables. This entailed dismantling a good part of the 1/4 berth, deckhead linings all over the place, various engine room fittings etc. It came to dawn on me that during the restoration of 'B.A' we must have fashioned a new wiring loom then re constructed 'B.A' around the loom. It really was a ball ache of a job. Annoyingly but satisfyingly the upgrade that gave us the biggest boost we completed this last weekend was not an item directly onboard 'B.A' but getting a tv signal to our onboard tv. Since we secured a berth for 'B.A' in the wetshed back in 2007 we have never been able to watch tv programmes whilst inside a metal shed. We made do with a DVD in the evening once we had secured. Howard mounted a small tv aerial outside the wetshed on a small pole (Similar to Richo's dry shed next door where we got the idea from), ran a co-ax around various points out of the way and eventually onboard 'B.A' and Bingo! We now have the option of digital HD tv in the evenings - Eleven years to accomplish that one So what's to be done next visit? Lots n lots as per the norm, another maintenance weekend should be taking place 21 - 23rd Dec - He says optimistically Griff