Viking23

I am now going to be a complete hypocrite... Up to the last few days, I would have supported what ever it takes to keep Potter Heigham bridge as it is, that's because we have always been able to get under "That Bridge" no matter what state of the tide, wind or rain. However... having removed our Viking 23 from the Broads, our next visit will be on a hire craft, and I want to get under it no matter what. What are the choices? Demolish it, go around it, go over it, lower the river and go under it, or my favourite, sell it to the Americans, after all they bought the wrong London bridge lol. Of course, you could wait until the North sea breaches the dunes at Horsey, then suitable boats can nip out from GT Yarmouth and enter via the breach. Many things spoken in jest, this could actually be a real threat. Last thought, put it in the Museum of the Broads with all the other relics lol.

For the last two years I have been ripped off by higher than inflation increases, on my 23' narrow beam cruiser, and recently we made the decision to to remove our boat from the Broads, and then I found out that I could be Saving £10 next season.... I don't care, at least they won't be getting anything from me next season. It's the lack and closure of moorings and no waste disposal bins that have really touched a nerve with me, I guess the promotion of double mooring a few years ago was a subtle start of the cutbacks. It was just over 6 years ago when we brought our boat to the broads things were so different then, there was more depth over the whole of Hickling, Horsey mere, and Turkey broad, we could cruise anywhere we wanted, not now, weed was not a major issue anywhere, and there was no fly tipping. We are now off to pastures new, but we will be back on the Broads as a hirer, and use the reciprocal mooring and dumping arrangements that are exclusive to hire craft, if all the hirecraft did that, there would be more mooring for private craft and less overflowing public bins. Rant over. lol

Not all boat profiles are linear for the length of the boat, handrails, windscreen bases, ventilators etc would get crushed. I think the bridge would take a battering from all the impacts, and may put undue upward pressure on the odd stone, that might loosen, and eventually the whole bridge would collapse. Ahhh I see Robin's plan now lol...

I would just like to add, from my experience and logic, a boat out of the water can get far colder than if left in the water, especially items close to water level. We took ours out one winter, and we found that there was an eggcup full of water in the domestic water pump, this was enough the crack the housing, £65 learning process. The water pump goes home at this time of year, and is refitted in March, we can bring it with us for winter cruising, if we so wish. For those with Paloma instantaneous water heaters, they are very vulnerable, an air frost at -1c is enought to freeze the heat exchanger, and split the pipework, easy fix, if you do some DIY home plumbing lol, -2c can be enough to crack the control valve. So draining down is essential during October. I also remove the drain plug, and slacken the 4 screws on the water temperature control valve, once it froze and distorted the housing, £35 less in my pocket. You can't get new parts now, for the MkV, but a few secondhand ones can be found on ebay. For the shower pump, this is a direct coupled diaphragm pump with pre filter, and is the original, (30 years old) and I get a cupfull of made up strong salt water and pump it through. Elsan, well a Thetford lol, empty of course, tilt the unit and pump the flush device till it pulls air through. Place moisture absorbant crystals in appropriate places helps too. Leave fridge door open, but first a wipe inside with a bleached cloth. Lots of other things to do, dependant on type of boat. Richard

Maybe earlier on, he had been told to keep to the right of Green posts lol. He would be right of course... 50% of the time lol...

Knowing how cash strapped the local authority is, I don't think you will see this happen in our lifetime, but... if there was a meter a £1 for a couple of hours illumination, I would gladly contribute to that, as we would be one of a few that would get through the bridge to see it lol... I really think it would work, especially with cheap to run LED lighting. Warm white to a yellow light would enhance the stonework.

Re Potter, this is what some towns look like at night, then there is Potter Heigham lol, see second picture.

I am pleased that Potter Heigham has something more to offer, it should attract more people, hopefully the rest of the area can now be developed. Lathams attracts loads of visitors by car, so what is Potter Heigham missing now? An evening venue for drinks and food maybe, but the problem is, there are a limited amount of customers from the moored boats. After 6:00 pm Potter is like a ghost town. Some walk the 10-15 minutes to the Falgate, no wonder the Broads Tavern has struggled in the past. What is to become of the Tavern? if it is to remain a pub, it has to attract customers from further afield. Am I right in thinking there is no overnight accomodation in Potter, maybe a couple of B&B's if you search hard. What if they illuminated the bridge at night from the bypass side, make it look open for business, passers by will soon take the detour to have a look. So bring on a new pub, (from the ground up). lol Do the owners of the car parks in Potter, allow casual parking after 6:00 pm ? Potter has a lot going for it, but it needs more investment to thrive.

Thanks for that, but it had already started, so I thought record Channel 4 + 1 but the box decided that I wanted to see it all on it's own, and it was recording it in HD anyway... lol A few months back, I set up series record, so it automatically recorded it, how cool is that... Thanks for the heads up, I would have been upset if I'd missed that, could always watch it on "play it again Sam" or what ever it is for channel 4 lol... Richard

If you had unlimited resources, open up the rivers and canalise them, and join them to the hundreds of miles of inland waterways, this will transform the Broads, imagine hundreds of steel narrow boats, some 70' long hogging all the moorings, now stern moor those at the Ferry inn at Horning lol Imagine a flotilla of 70' steel boats, each weighing up to 28 tonne, going up the Ant and encountering the fleet coming the other way, there might be a few CDWs active that day lol. Re Potter Heigham bridge, technology is available to physically lift Potter bridge in it's entirety, just have deep pockets. As a listed and protected structure I would think it would be acceptable to do this. If you get a chance to look at the underside of the bridge it is really battle scarred, getting worse year on year by the minor knocks and scrapes, I'm surprised they let boats through at all !! In comparison, Stone Henge is a listed structure, and they keep people away from that to preserve it, in the 70's you could walk around and touch each stone, but some deliberate name carving put paid to that. If money was no object, I would link the upper Bure to the upper Yare, put in a huge lock, to prevent excess movement of water, charge £10 per passage and allow even larger boats to reach the northern Broads. So be careful what you wish for, imagine what damage to the environment and the quiet back waters of the Northern Broads, what could they look like if there was a bottomless pot of money. No, lets keep the Northern Broads as they are.

This thread got me thinking, does booking through Hoseasons give you any financial protection should a boat yard go out of business from the time of your booking and your actual holiday? Similar to ABTA After all, sums close to £2,000 could be involved here. Are they obliged to find you an alternative, maybe from another yard? Consequently, if you book direct with a yard, pay the deposit, then the final payment, just before your holiday starts, but a week before your holiday, say, they close down, how can you get your money back? OK pay a small premium, and pay by credit card, and maybe your payment is safe, or pay by debit card, save a few £££ but no chance of a return of payment. Same with any payment to any business, there is always a risk. We always pay most bills with a credit card, we have a Tesco clubcard credit card, and earn loads of vouchers, but if there is a charge of a few % then we will evaluate the risk and maybe save a few ££'s and pay with a debit card. Richard

I raised this a few months ago, on this forum, for peope to contact the BSS and Broads Authority, not sure if anything happened, but it is a very serious threat. We triggered our own carbon monoxide monitor in the cabin, it was a still day, we were slowly cruising towards Wroxham bridge, canopy down, the carbon monoxide fumes were coming up from our petrol outboard, drifting across the rear cockpit and entering the cabin, as most will know, if a forward hatch is open on a cabin then the ventilation will be from the rear towards the hatch where it exits. Clearly this was the route for the CO. There is much more CO produced by petrol engines than a regularly serviced diesel engine, so I would expect there to be more instances near petrol driven boats. Richard

Being a privateer, we have recently not been interested in hire craft bases, but I must admit, I just read the Summercraft website, it's bright and informative, I was quite impressed, it has a family feel, a caring side, I guess you would feel that you were not just a number. We can't take friends and family on our Viking 23, but if we do want to bring them, then I would certainly consider Summercraft. From their site it looks as though the bookings are made via Hoseasons, no doubt, they might deal direct like most of the other hire yards. First impression.... Looks good. Long may they continue. Clearly I have never hired from there, but in the past we have hired from many other yards, so next season, we may well consider them. A great opportunity to give these independents a chance. Richard

The port timed out, anyhow I was going to say, having spoken to some private moorers at Stalham and they too choose their timings carefully. Some are also considering moving away from the Ant.

I can't see a problem on the Ant, we often encounter Richardson's boats two a breast, one usually overtaking the other flat out. We have learnt to avoid travelling back to Stalham on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Richardson's can release over 100 boats in one hire session, no wonder the Ant gets clogged with boats, especially at Ludham bridge. What surprises me is that the Broads Authority allow Richardson's to have the whole fleet in one place. Surely it would have been better to have the fleet spread around, some at Acle, some at Horning. I have spoken to a few private moorers in Stalham

For us, north of Potter Heigham is the nexus of the Broads, (a word as used in the Star Trek film "Generations". It's an area we have to get back to, on every visit. lol It's where you would find us during most hectic times on the Broads, bank holidays especially. Very quiet, plenty of moorings, several pubs fantastic. Sadly, not an area we can frequent now, we are moored at Stalham, and due to my illness, (see Health Issues Thread) sleeping on the boat would now be very difficult, and we have visited the boat three times in the last 18 months, and stayed in Hotels each time, we have cruised about 20 hours max in this time, so we do have a plan, in order to use the boat more. I will add to the health thread very soon. Best regards, Richard

To be really sure, best to phone them, it would be no great hardship for Herbert Woods to arrange the start and end of your hire to be from the other side of the bridge, or use their staff to take it through the bridge for you. Make it a condition of your hire, or take your business elsewhere. Whispering Reeds at Hickling, hire out a picnic boat called Bittern, there used to be a place at Martham Ferry, that had a couple of picnic boats, not sure if they are still doing that now. Martham boats also rent out various boats, worth a call.

Why a red ensign, I thought only private boats had those?

Classic car forums, like MG owners rechrome parts all the time, so might be worth a look in to see.

It won't be appearing on the front of Norfolk fudge or biscuit boxes any more. When I first saw it, it looked like a blot on the landscape, I am over that now, I just don't look at it anymore. lol So who gave them planning permission on that one, half the staff must have been on holiday at the time. What it used to look like. and now the sheds or what ever, at the back.

We are very pleased with ours, it is the only way to clean mirrors, very quick too. The Karcher cleaning fluid is expensive, but you don't need much as it's diluted. Use it on boat windows, even on smooth grp decks, great for shower glass too. Battery wise, one charge does all of our down stairs and a large conservatory and two large mirrors. 2nd charge easily does all upstairs 4 beds, plus two showers, excellent. Tip, if the waste water container gets close to half full, you get a spray of dirty water, so empty it regularly. You'll be surprised how dirty the waste water can get. There are cheaper variants of the Karcher, some half the B&Q price, not sure how they perform, but the Karcher is great. Odd thing, our window cleaner recommended it to us, and even let us borrow it, excellent. Richard

Following the gas bottle amnesty during the month of September, £7.50 was paid for any old bottles. We returned 3, including 2 red 3.9 kg propane bottles. So that helps the shortage of the small propane lol. The 3.9 propane and the 4.5 kg butane bottles are the same bottle, different valves and a different coat of paint lol. We still have 2 3.9 kg propane on the boat. 1 is empty though. Richard

Try here.. http://forum.norfolkbroadsnetwork.com/topic/3044-bolero/#comment-44145

I had to read all of the above before I could say... Throwing the mooring lines back on board forgetting that the Rhond anchors were still attached. Chipped gel coat, broken windows, concussion... I have seen this happen, walking down the side decks on a moving boat whilst trying to put their life jacket on, with no hands left for the hand rail. Starting a boat after casting off from the second helm, not knowing that the other throttle was still set to full and in forward gear, and realising that the second helm is not responding. (See Bolero incident lol) The biggest mistake, helming a boat whilst drunk.

Let's be precise, let's take Salhouse, if you are mud weighted with no access to land, you pay no fee. If someone tries to charge you, it's a scam. Take their details and report to the Broads Authority. The land around Salhouse and the small island on the river and some of the riverside is chargeable, payment as per the signs. Wroxham Broad is technically chargeable, as per the signs at the entrance, I am not aware of anyone charging a fee this season. YET ! Hoveton little Broad ( Black Horse Broad) near Horning, clearly says no mooring, but as far as I am aware it means no landing. We and many others have mudweighted overnight with no issues. Barton Broad, Hickling, Horsey mere all free to mud weight. South Walsham inner Broad, no mooring, no mudweighting, no landing, cruise around and leave. Take your time, tickover works fine lol. On the Southern, no restrictions, but clearly do not moor on Breydon water ! Hope it helps. Richard