BroadAmbition

Congratulations and welcome to the club Griff xx

Well I like it, the boat that is. I like water skiing too, I used to be quite good at it years ago but not been on a set of planks for a long time now. If you come past 'B.A' in any direction I expect, nay demand the biggest wash possible please Griff Edit - I have a RYA Level 5 on the power side of things. I used to have a local ski boat coxswain ticket too but that was a military qual (Along with a few hush hush t'others) and would now be invalid / lapsed

Well explained Neil. Thank goodness we don't operate 'B.A's allocation like your syndicate, that would never do, or work. But then again there is only the four of us to divide up 52 weeks so there are always spare weeks and weekends available. 'B.A' was last crewed up on 14th Oct and no one will be onboard now until 12th Nov, then no more bookings till next year as things stand now, that will change of course Griff

Breydon Water, North bound. Four craft in company. Flag Golf - 'B.A', Formation three They did actually manage to get accurately on station fairly smartish, I took the photo prior to that otherwise not all three craft would have been easily seen Griff

Six ????? ....not what I see, or is that including Macie Four in t photo, one on t'helm and one taking photo, Macie made seven Griff

This was a nice thought from 'B.A's crew and humbly received Griff

Breakfast Alfresco for six whilst underway Griff

Actually it regularly does between bikers And yes on ‘B.A’ we always try to return waves (not a bow wave you understand) Griff

Happy endings, love them. Thanks for sharing Griff

Find a boat that will suit your needs. Then compare like for like off the Broads system and you may find a similar craft but a lot cheaper even after transport costs. There are always plenty of boats for sale and it is a buyers market. Hope this helps. Griff

Thanks Carol, enjoyed that very much. Nice to see decent airdraft at PHB, just how I remembered it as a young lad when you could sometimes take a small dinghy through the side arches. Oh for a return to the days when the lower Bure was constantly dredged by grab buckets either side of the river. Also good to see so many proper boats afloat both Stinky's and Rag-n-Sticks, none of your tupperware in them days. Griff

Does a £444.99 AW toll cover just 120 miles of waterway with just one lock? At LAST! Cracking reply, one of the best, if not the best repartees to an age old topic I get whole heartedly sick of hearing the same old defence statement that the tolls on the Broads are like for like cheaper than the canals by 'Defenders' of the BA. Comparing the two is imho just plain ridiculous. I shall try to remember to use your 'FACT' in future toll discussions. Well done matey and thanks Griff

Tomorrow is the first day on 'Our Shoot' I'm all ready to go. Gear prepped / cleaned and ready for the off. Macie dog has been informed, which in hindsight was not a wise thing to tell her as she probably won't sleep tonight with excitement. Mount Pleasant Hotel in t morning for a proper expensive breakfast followed by meeting at the farm. I'm so looking forward to this. There'll be a brace or two of pheasant hanging on MrsG's hanging basket brackets by tomorrow evening which she is never happy about Griff

I have a funny feeling that you think 99% of hire's on the broads are stupid. I have a feeling / knowledge that 99% of all skippers on the Broads are stupid, especially the Rag-n-Stick flotilla. Me? - Of course I am part of the minority 1% and I never get it wrong. That is unless I'm onboard and in command you understand Griff Edited to add, I don't have to be 'In Command' to get it wrong

do all the people involved have to put in as many hours as you do to keep the boat in tip top condition, or do your labour hours go to the maintenance cost of things that the syndicate pays towards? Oh if only, and in an ideal world, yes. However here in the real world, sadly no. There are four custodians of 'B.A' but five actual 'shares' (Me and Bro' own the fifth share between us, inherited from our Dad when he moved to a safe anchorage) myself, Bro', Robin and Degger. We all pay in monetary terms an equal amount to the total running costs. That is maintenance, upgrades, berth, toll, insurance, breakdown cover etc. We each pay individually for diesel and pumpouts. Labour hours - should be equal, of course they are far from it. Being self employed I am not restricted by a set amount of 'Holiday Days' per year, so getting time off to work on 'B.A' is not a problem, what is a problem is that everytime I do so then I suffer a loss of earnings so it's a double whammy. Bro' and Robin are allocated a set amount of days holiday per year, so using them up for working on 'B.A' is a price they individually pay, on the upside they still get paid of course. Degger? - Well Degger is a law to himself, being a CEO he could be classed as self employed, but he is that busy we hardly ever see him onboard 'B.A' to take her out on the rivers let alone roll his sleeves up. Then of course there are some tasks with 'B.A' that only out of the four of us that I am capable of doing. Bro' is handy with electrics / engineering and some hands on stuff. Robin can do most things if he is instructed how to achieve doing them, the snag with this is, by the time I have shown him how to do it, I could have started and finished it mysen! (Don't mention varnishing cabin sides!) Where Robin shines is in his capacity for research, coming up with some great ideas, getting good deals and keeping us dinosaurs up to date with technological advances with 'Boaty' stuff. He is also a past master with the odd blue fender. Degger is handy for unexpected large purchases without blinking. I'm known as 'The Driving Force' behind 'B.A' If we kept our labour hours exactly the same, nowt would get done in a hurry, that is just the way it is, it has worked for the ten years since we recommissioned her and we are all happy with it. (Although I sneakily suspect that three custodians are more happy with that arrangement than the fourth custodian, but don't tell them I said that!) Griff

Weather Warning:- Southerners - Are warned not to travel unless absolutely necessary Northerners:- Tha will need tha big coat Griff

Your talents have no boundaries matey - Agreed - Do these ideas just come to him? Or does he lie awake at nights mulling over ways to achieve success? Griff

Lads week, I only managed two items on the list, (although I did manage some deep cleaning where required) Q7) New helms information plate in polished s/steel. This replaces the original brass item that became incorrect after we moved the spotlight / horns on the fwd cabin roof and besides the brass item always seemed to need polishing 126) Fit Traffolyte nameplates to cabin sides adjacent to deck fittings x 4. This had to be done as there is no way we are painting coloured circles on the new deck covering. Coloured circles around the 4 x deck fitting was fine with a non slip painted surface, but not with the upgraded deck finish. That now leaves 16 outstanding items on the upgrade list and 7 on the maintenance list to attend to. I'm due onboard next month for about five days or so to crack on with as many items as I can. Onwards and upward in the normal fashion once again Griff

During 'B.A's restoration period, we used the BSS guide as a kind of 'Workshop Manual'. We constantly referred to it and also followed the 'Best Practise' recommendations. a BSS examiner used to call in on us every couple of months offering professional free advice - that was invaluable even if sometimes some of his advice caused us hours of extra time fettling them. One recommendation was that we raised up the bilge skin fittings higher up from the waterline. Together with fitting non-return valves this upgrade paid us back tenfold during our trip to the Thames as it was already in place prior to the event and meant we didn't require a lift out onto the dry hard stuff Griff

I'll have one please Griff

No1

That could well have been so, under normal circumstances a Jewel does indeed produce more wash than 'B.A' at any given speed but 'B.A' was towing a dinghy all week (One of H.W's finest) which exaggerates her stern wave. The other point is that we were all cruising in close company and at the same speed. The privateer made no mention of the wash to Bro' just their speed Griff

It's a yes from me. Surely that is now more than the required 4 x Yes's ? Griff

Looking good there. Griff

An incident happened on our way back down the Yare between Norwich and Reedham chain ferry. All four craft were in company punching the tide (Again) our etrex onboard 'B.A' was showing smack on 6mph and therefore as to be expected we were producing wash, not excessive as I was mindful of it bearing in mind the width of the mighty Yare. We overtook a couple of craft, one of which was a medium size private craft, as we passed them they just looked, said nowt nor acknowledged our presence - nowt wrong with that. However Bro onboard one of the Jewels got told that he was breaking the speed limit, going too fast and he should slow down. This directed to a skipper with 50+ years of 'Broads' experience under his belt, 24 x years in the RN and ten years of skippering 'B.A' on and off (Bro also had a marine gps onboard accurate to :1 of a mph) Now why would they not say a word to me onboard 'B.A' but have a go at a 'Hirer' then? Imho it was the plain and simple hirers v privateers 'Thing' rearing its ugly head. The crew of the private craft had no idea of the competence / experience of the hire craft skipper, nor did it matter, it was just another hire boat and that was enough evidence for them. No doubt if Bro hand been onboard 'B.A' and me on one of the Jewels I would have received the same treatment. Anyroadup, once we were alongside the mooring at Reedham chain ferry, I waited for said same private boat to come past us minutes later which it duly did, I got out our inter-ship communication system (Loud hailer) and politely thanked them for their concerns but assured them that all of our group were not breaking the speed limit. I got no verbal reply but received the longbow archers salute from them in lieu. I invited him to come alongside and repeat the gesture, this was ignored and they carried on their merry way. This was not worth having a river rage moment (Been there done that on a previous occasion with a totally different outcome). No, the result was a wry smile to mysen as we trooped off into the pub for a DTS. Griff