DAVIDH

Yes the world has gone mad, but with regards to past terrorist events, it went mad years ago. I can only surmise that there are so many people in the world who have never experienced the depths of despair of losing someone they love, due to whatever circumstance. If they had I am sure they would seriously not wish it on their worst enemy. I heard a lady in the NZ incident recall how she spoke to the wife of someone who had been shot and telling her to go to the hospital and wait for him there. I can only imagine the sheer terror this poor wife must have gone through as she made her way to the hospital not knowing if her life was about to fall apart at the seams.

I would guess Hoseasons have used the same page template as for NYA other boats and have not noticed the restriction note. It is freshly listed so may well be ammended in the next few days - as well as add more internal images

Just in-case you missed the announcement on Facebook, Norfolk Yacht Agency are now operating Arabella from this Spring through Hoseasons. Looks like an ex-Alpha boat: https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/nya-private-charter-nyap/arabella-bh2604?fbclid=IwAR13tzR4Hvb3FO_97PkGEAE40X8SApsM642sM_D06v2Pj1uX35CyuhEcIZY

Single-handed cruising is possible with some boatyards. Brinks Sonnet is owned by Barnes Brinkcraft who do allow single-handed cruising. I believe Bridgecraft in Acle do as well so you will still have a number of boats you can look at.

The embarrassing thing is I remember writing to Sandersons sometime in the late 70s asking if they would be prepared to sell one of them for £1,500. Doreen and I flirted with the idea of moving to the Broads and finding work. We would have needed somewhere to live so my bright idea was a Sanderling while we got more settled accommodation. I cannot recall where I thought we were to get the money from, or for that matter where we going to moor it. Those details did not matter in a pipe dream. Sandersons wrote back politely declining my offer (probably vastly underpriced) and referred me to the boat sale agencies. Bubble pricked and back to reality!

Thanks for nothin!

Yes Boycee, that is ME! I look like an old seadog there and I cringe when I look at it but it does show how you could stick your head out of the hatch to steer - now just imagine an umbrella over me. Yes, I have seen the Sanderlings, I think there are two at Loddon - one was renovated and painted creme - but now looks like it needs renovating again. The other is in a sorry state, with planking missing and just left (it would seem) to rot away.

Not at all sure. Could it be Loddon before the opposite side of the basin was extended?

Not a wedding anniversary or anything like that, but 46 years ago today, Doreen and I hired our first boat on the Broads, Sanderling No4 from Sandersons in Reedham. I remember it cost £29 plus the extras. We had never been to Norfolk before, let alone hired a boat so this was something completely new to us. Infact this was 18 months after we met and Doreen still lived in London at the time. To be honest, I just regarded it as a love-nest which was far from the madding crowd, well parents and nosey brothers anyway. We both loved it, probably for the uninterrupted time we had together, not to mention the new adventure we were on. It was so memorable I can still remember the "itinerary", which I have detailed below. Later that year Doreen asked if I would like her to buy me a new swish radio/record player for Christmas, but I declined and asked instead for a second week on the Broads, in November aboard Santa Lucia from Harvey Eastwood in Brundall. much better present! That was the start of the "addiction". It's funny how things get into your blood. The Broads has played a big part in my life, not just holidaying but working as well. Yet some people go once then never go again, or perhaps leave it for another 10 to 20 years. Saturday 3rd March. Reedham to Yarmouth Yacht Station We arrived at Reedham Station around 2pm thinking there would be a queue of taxis to take us to Sandersons. No such thing. It really did feel as though we have got off a train in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully someone gave us a lift down to the riverside. The 20ft Sanderling looked huge as we pulled up. I had read about the tides at Yarmouth and to be careful and as luck would have it, low water was at 4.15pm (about) so we arrived without mishap. I always think it's because we did Breydon etc on that first trip, that the fear you hear other people have of crossing over, never bothers me now. I can remember we went into the White Swan on the quayside for our night and there was a darts match on so it was packed out. It was a good night and we partook of the sandwiches and pork pies which were offered free of charge! Sunday Yarmouth to Wroxham We moored outside the Kings Head so we must have gone under Wroxham Bridge, though I don't remember that. Monday Wroxham to Neatishead. I can remember cruising down Lime Kiln Dyke standing with my head out of the canvas hatch above the wheelhouse, holding an umbrella above me. There were passing boats, even in March and quite a few laughed at that sight. Tuesday Neatishead to Acle (ended up at Upton Dyke) I have told the story before of how we ran out of daylight, mis-turned up the Thurne when heading for Acle, before turning around at Thurne Dyke and coming to a halt at Upton in the driving wind and rain - no mooring posts so rhond anchors. What a miserable night that was! Wednesday Upton to Oulton Broad Yacht Station There were no dramas crossing Breydon. I do remember arriving at Oulton Broad Y.S and seeing that two houseboats had been moored against the quayside. I asked one of the attendants where we could moor and he said at the floating jetty. We did so and I can recall accidentally dropping my earlier mentioned umbrella into the water and it disappearing into the depths when we were returning from a night at The Lady of the Lake, I think it was. Despite fishing for it with the boat hook and the fact that it was still erect when it went in, I could not retrieve it. It could still be there if anyone is short of a brolly! Thursday Oulton Broad to Brundall We moored outside the Riverside Stores which used to be at the head of the dyke leading to Brooms basin. I remember plenty of other hire boats there at the time. We spent the evening in the Yare Inn, which looked nothing like it does now. It was still big with two bars. We occupied the tap room/public bar or whatever it's called as that was where the jukebox was. I remember we had chicken in a basket with chips - one of the few meals we could afford to eat out. Friday Brundall to Loddon to Reedham We just went down the Chet to see what Loddon was like, spending a few hours there before returning to Reedham where we moored at Sanderson's yard. Cannot remember much about this day. Saturday Reedham - Home. Just to say that traveling by train, as many other people did at that time, involved changing trains at Norwich and Peterborough to get home to Leeds.

We replaced our aging (20 years plus) boiler a couple of years ago and though the cost was not attractive, I have to say those statements that a new boiler will pay for itself over time are true (in my case). Our gas bills have dropped significantly, helped also because the new thermostat which goes with it now only puts the heating on when the threshold temperature drops. I know that's logical but the old one was never so efficient.

Losing a loved one, especially a life partner, is the most painful horrible condition to have to live with.Clive, your love for your wife will never diminish. You will miss her terribly and perhaps the best we can all hope for is that our loved ones are now looking down on us, not wishing, but waiting for the moment we are together again.

Just wondering if one of the lines on the moored boat has come loose. It's not usually in this position. (I have PM'd Simondo. This is just incase he cannot get to see the webcam before dark).

Just noticed that The Ferry Inn (TFI) is offering free moorings for customers on their new website. Can't see any conditions. http://tfi-restaurants.co.uk/ (scroll down)

Might just be an oversight on the webpage. It is a long time to next February. Maybe worth calling them?

Google Photos is free and unlimited. You can set your phone to back images up automatically or just upload what you want to from a camera or your laptop. I wanted a safe place to keep images of my wife, not so much because of tech failure, more just to ensure all my images did not walk out the door with some burglar.

If you have no luck with diskdigger there is another free program called Recuva which may help. I managed to get some video files recovered with it a couple of years ago. It's here :https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

I think as others have said, the whole Brexit uncertainty is weighing on people's minds - perhaps distracting them. I have a rough and ready method of comparing how many boats remain available compared to last year over Easter, Spring Bank, the school holidays and October half term. Twice a month I monitor how many boats are still available. The latest set of set of figures indicate that bookings are down 10% on last year at this time but that the rate of booking has slowed by half in the last 2 weeks.

February? it looks like July Chris

Think you may be better served by calling (or emailing) Richardsons direct as they are sure to have the measurements you need. Commodore's are not cheap so I am sure they will do their best to service your enquiry.

Think you're telling tails there

Brister was our favourite yard and it was a blow when Mike Brister told us it was their last year of hire. We haad Yare Sunrise - the one in the brochure pages, followed by Yare Twilight a couple of times before taking the newer version of Yare Sunlight (a Haines 28 mould?) in it's first season. It was the bees knees with a cocktail cabinet, oak finish kitchen cabinets and smoked glass windows. When they finished hiring, we followed the boats to Summercraft. David Brister is still with them as an engineer I believe. The images below are the boats with Summercraft - the oldest I have now - from 2007.

More brochure pages, this time from 1987. I particularly liked the Blakes "painted" cover. Sorry, the Hoseasons cover is a little battered, (could even be a gravy stain). I have chosen pages mostly of boatyards which no longer exist, but were "stand-out" yards at their peak. Interesting that Rhapsody in the first image below is hired by Classic Cruisers in Thorpe, and that it look similar to High Fantasy from Highcraft in Thorpe, featured in the first of the Blakes brochure images below. Were they the same company. but using two boatyard names to sell through both Blakes and Hoseasons?

I know of Barnes Brinkcraft in Wroxham and Bridgecraft in Acle who will hire to solo sailors. In both cases you would need to ring the yards direct - not through Hoseasons. If nothing fits with them you could also try The Broads Boating Company, though I have no advance knowledge of their policy. Humber Bridge from Bridgecraft and Royall Velvet 2, or 3, or Brinks Sonnet from Barnes Brinkcraft are smallish craft with bow thrusters. All front steering which I find useful for embarking/disemabarking as a solo sailor

Yes, there are a number of dual steer craft in the brochures above which are both front and rear steer. i was actually referring to Wishing Waters as one of the first which had in effect, a flying bridge. Ripplecraft at Somerleyton had another couple of boats of similar style which had flying bridges. Dazzling Waters and Calm Waters. All are similar styles but different lengths. It stuck me that Ripplecraft really were designing boats ahead of their time as today it's the hire boats with flying bridges which are the most sought after.

Just watched this from BBC IPlayer (it's available for the next 4 weeks). If you have not seen it yet, this colour newsreel style film using actual movies from the First World War is an education. From the encouragement and bravado of joining up to fight, through the devil's cauldron conditions endured in the battlefields, the meaningless loss of life through to bewilderment as to what it was all for, this is a very sobering film. The participants endured so much and came back to be met with high unemployment and in some cases being discriminated against for work "Ex-servicement need not apply". I have seen Schindlers List, and at the end of the film nobody said a word as they were leaving the cinema such was the shock. They Shall Not Grow Old has the same effect. See it if you can. It disappeared for a few months from IPlayer so it's not always available. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0brzkzx