SPEEDTRIPLE

I know what you`re saying Griff, but i think the car that DC drove was in its race format, when traction control, and ABS was outlawed, so i don`t think the wheelspinning and locked brakes were any real issue. What i DID think was a bit biased towards the bike was the slalom. Maybe had the bike gone through a slalom course that was set out at the same percentage distance as it was for the car, meaning the distance between the cones should have been shorter, the result might have been a clean sweep for the car?.

Maybe i did`nt write it the way i should have, because when i mentioned full on Moto GP bikes, i meant with the very riders that race them in the Moto GP championship. Sorry for that Dave, should have been a bit clearer in my post. You`re spot on re the 2 classes, but some have adapted well. Cal Crutchlow was in BSB, then WSP, and came to Moto GP from WSP as a reigning champion. However, there have as you say been some spectacular failures, such as James Toseland. and others before and after him. Guy Martin though (to the best of MY knowledge) has never ridden a Moto GP machine of any vintage.

Went with HW twice, the second time was an "apollogy cruise" at half price, swore i`d NEVER go with them again. However, that was 20 years ago, so i hope they`ve improved their standards, and looking at the boats while on the rivers, they did look nice, but are looks deceptive?, i hope not. Reading threads like this makes me think, should i be in the market for a hireboat, i`d give them a try. Not something i would have ever considered 20 years back, but hey ho, everybody deserves a chance.

Yes, watched it, but thought the Tyco BMW Superbike was NOT the right match. Seeing as F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, being purely prototype racer, with NOTHING production on it, it was`nt really a fair match pitting it up against a tuned road bike. Yes, it DOES have race tuned this and that, but superbikes of today are only EVO spec, and not full race spec, being they have to use many of the production road going parts, such as crank (though lightened and balanced, con rods, pistons, engine casings etc etc. A much fairer comparison would have been to run the F1 car against a full on Moto GP bike, like the Yamaha M1 of Valentino Rossi, or Jorge Lorenzo, or the Honda RC214 of the like of Dani Pedrosa or Marc Marquez. Moto GP bikes are pure full on prototypes, with road going equipment outlawed, and not only do they produce around 250+ bhp, approx 50 hp more than an evo spec superbike, they weigh in at about 3/4 of the max weight. Should they have compared like for like, then the Moto GP bike might have won the drag race, along with the braking, but i still think the F1 car would have wone the outright 3 / 4 lap race. But then it would`nt have been Guy Martins SPEED would it, and i doubt they would have had many viewers either, especially when you consider Guys enormous popularity?. Still a great programme, and well worth watching.

Hi Steve, welcome from me too. You don`t say whether this is your first time BOATING or whether it`s your first time on the Broads, which might help with a few more recommendations?. If it IS your first time boating, and you`re there for a week, stay North, as the tides are far less noticeable, which can be a little intimidating for the first timer, tough if you take advice, you SHOULD`NT have any problems whatsoever. Where have you hired from, and what boat?. If staying North, then i would certainly go for Womack staithe, as it`s a beautiful overnight mooring, with a 5-10 minute walk to the village with a great pub, and fantastic tea shop. Even though you can`t get under the bridge, Wroxham is always a great place to stop, where you can find everything you need in loads of shops, plus some good places for food and drinks, and also, take a walk up to the railway station, and take a run up to Aylsham on the minature railway. Other nice moorings are Neatishead staithe and Barton Turf, both just off Barton Broad, as well as Wayford Bridge, even though you can`t get under the bridge, there are 2-3 good moorings imediately BEFORE the bridge on the North bank, where you can walk under the bridge, and across to the Hotel, which has had good reviews on this forum. Also, Stalham is home to the Broads museum, which is also well worth a visit. The golden rule is don`t rush, take it easy, and relax and enjoy the slower pace of life.

I might be wrong (OFTEN am) but if there`s a serving posy office in it, i think it might have to be sold as a going concern?. As i said, i might be wrong?. But you`re right, it would be sad to lose such a vital facility, especially for those that live in Reedham. Does anybody know if the mini market along the top road is open again, or has this gone forever?.

Congratulations to ANYBODY whos anneversary it is / was. Sorry it`s late, but we`ve been up in Kent for the weekend, so hav`nt been around since last Wednesday. Hope all anneversarians have had a great weekend.

I can understand that. Years ago, we booked a boat with the now defunct "Kingline" from Horning. We wanted to book a boat called Tobago King, which my brothers brother in law hired with his family. The boat was already booked, and they offered us one of their "Malibu King" class at the same price, because it was in late October, and they only had 2 boats out that week. 2 weeks later, my brothers brother in law decided to join us, but only for a 4 night break, we had the full sat - sat 7 nights, and they booked the second Malibu King. However, because they had a sudden run on bookings AFTER we booked ours, my brothers in laws had to pay tyhe full 4 night rate, which happened to be more than we payed for a week. Needless to say, he was far less than pleased, especially as it was from HIS recommendation as a previous customer that encouraged me to book with them. Now, although we did benefit greatly, i do think this was seriously unfair, and all it achieved was to lose King Line a valued customer. Ironically all their boats ended up in Herbert Woods fleet.

I seem to remember reading in the angling press, the guy that caught it suffered violent threats from other anglers. He even ALLEGEDLY had death threats, but i did wonder if that was the angling press trying to compete with the likes of the Sun, or whether there was any truth in it?.

What they don`t know about springs to mind Iain Mums the word and all that?.

That reminds me of being back in the 80s Strow, when i worked with a guy whos father in law had a boat. We always used to read all the boat mags etc, and we both went to the Southampton show. While there, i looked over the Fairways Fisher 37, and remarked how nice it would be to have one with twin inboards, no main mast or sails, but keep the mizzen mast as a staysail. That enormously long keel ballasted for sailing would be fantastic for seakeeping. Sadly though, in those days we always chanced our arm on the Football pools, which i did occaisionally win, but only one or two pounds at a time. I have the same luck with the lottery, so it will never happen.

Absolutely spot on Griff. We read all too often how vulnerable people in our society are singled out as easy targets by the SCUM ELEMENT of life, and it`s only getting worse. I`m so sick of hearing all the lame excuses, "they have`nt had a chance in life", "it`s the lifestyle they`ve grown up in" etc etc etc YAWN YAWN YAWN. When i was a kid, i did`nt have brand new bikes, all the latest gizmos etc etc, but what we had, we got enormous fun out of it. One of the big problems in society is that kids of today have far too much, and NEVER have to go without some of the things they like. It`s called living in the real world, and all we have is meely mouthed politicians saying the excuses above, and telling us we should help them, by GIVING them everything they desire. Then, they get older and turn their attention to crimes such as Ians. The worse thing though is that IF in the unlikely event they get caught, the judges will treat them with kid gloves, and give them an ASBO, which they wear as a badge of honour, or community service, which they never attend. As for the £100 excess Ian, what you should have done was bought one from a breakers, as Allan says, and take it to a good mechanic ? body shop to simply bolt it on. £50 tops i`d say. I would have done it for you myself had i lived nearer.

Hi Griff, we had a quote from British Gas, but a good friend in my archery club (an ex British Gas engineer) recommended i get them to do a complete itemised quote, and one of those was on the list. My archery friend recommended getting BG to do the quote, but get an indipendant firm to do the same job, with all the same fixtures and fittings for a much cheaper quote. BG came in at well over £4,000 for a new WB boiler, plus new hot water tank, CH pump, all pipework, chimney etc etc, and one of those filters. I`m hoping the firm we`ve just had (who he recommended and did the service and clean and DID get it working fine) will give us a like for like quote, only considerably cheaper?.

No, definitely not a combo boiler Ian, i won`t have one. I had a combo in my flat, more trouble than they`re worth. At least with a duplex boiler, you have a water tank which you can put an imersion heater in, something i`m going to have done when we do eventually get round to having a new system. With an imersion heater in the hot water tank, we`ll have a back up if this happens again. I like to cover most probable eventualities, so i`s going to be a standard boiler, with imersion heater back up. Someone at work said "it`s always in winter when things like this happen". Pretty logical really, as you would`nt have the central heating on in summer. As for a convector heater, we started using it, but it gave up too, so we had the radiator type instead.

It`s very annoying when the clouds disappear, the clear night sky all very apparent with stars shining bright, and you wake up to a crisp white morning and -3 on the temperature gauge, and your central heating has packed in. At least with a power shower we can still have a shower, and the woodburner has really come into its own. We had to buy a couple of oil filled radiators yesterday, but they are small, and only take the chill off the place. Never mind, tomorrow the gas man is coming to hopefully repair the boiler, but it would`nt surprise me to find out we`re going to need a new one?. Such is life.

Re the pubs in Norwich, ask Howard (Norfolk Nog), i`m sure he`s been in most, if not all of them?. Sorry Howard.

It`s really strange, but i absolutely HATE religion, but i DO consider myself to live very much a Christian lifestyle, and i love old churches, and especially the history churches can show.

I remember a good friend and work colleague from 35+ years ago used to regularly hire on the Thames. Over a period of about 5 years, he noticed when passing several particular riverside houses, with some really expensive offshore cruisers moored at the bottom of the gardens, those boats got ever greener on the outside, and the growth on the mooring ropes just got longer and longer. He even showed me some pics taken over that 5 year period, where those same boats had growth strands hanging from the lines, down to the water. The ironic thing was, the decks were spotless, but the surfaces they could`nt see from the houses, were green with alsae and growth. The waterline, and i should imagine everything below, had barnacles so long, they were drifting out into the stream. More often than not, you`d see some people sitiing on the decks in directors style chairs with bottles and bottles of wine, beer, you name it, but NEVER did he see those boats move.

Looking back, i could have written it slightly different to avoid said confusion.

We`ve discussed this before. The idea of a speed camera measuring your speed on a boat is absolutely pathetic at best. Hyperthetical situation, you`re cruising down the Yare on the wide twisty section between Hardley Cross and Hardley dyke. If you are a couple of boats widths away from the bank, at any given revs, you will vary your speed considerably, as the tide is always faster on the OUTSIDE of a bend in the river. When we had Maffett cruisers Kestrel 2 years ago, she was fitted with a GPS speed log, which was actually very helpful. It proved my above point, and by a substantial margin, sometimes by more than 1 mph,at the same revs. It`s also to do with wind speed, and whether you have fenders dragging in the water, again being proved as above by half a mile an hour, so we re-set them higher. One of the biggest problems is tide direction and strength, and you may be registering revs that give 4 mph in static water, but against the tide you could be doing one or two mph less, or if with the tide, one or two mph hour more, and there`s the big problem. It`s just another way of the BA using suspect methods to raise revinue when they eventually get the authority to dish out fines . Speed must NEVER be measured over land, as if you are pushing a fast tide, in a 4 mph section, you could actually be going as much as 7 mph over the water, which would be well legal, but possibly cause seriously dangerous levels of wash. And before people say you should`nt create a big wash, if you`re doing the "dubiously legal" speed limit, you`re doing NOTHING wrong. An absolutely stupid idea, dreamed up by beaurotwatts possibly with no real knowledge of boating and boat handling?.

For a minute there Matt, i thought you meant you were going to take Thunder through Wroxham bridge BACKWARDS. Seriously though, our nav lights are on top of a removeable short mast, though we`re in the process of moving them down to the side of the cabin, or so i believe.

Ha ha, if you read my post again, you might notice the second decimal point is actually a full stop, and the number 19 after it is the start of another sentence.

An inch is actually 25.4 inches Strow, so over a 19 inch distance, those extra 19.4s on top of the 475 actually mean 482.6.19 inches is not a big distance, so imagine the shortfall if you estimate 25mm to the inch, but over a distance of say 20ft?. That`s one hell of a shortfall.Strow, and by a quick calculation, that equates to 96 milimetres over 20ft. Or should i say 3 25/32nds of an inch?.

Ah, another Aircraft engineer on the forum. Ibuild aircraft interiors for Airbus, AND Boeing, all units for Airbus are drawn, and built in Milimetres, whereas all units built for Boeing are built in decimal inch form, which has caused some confusion in recent months. Last year, we had to make a variation of an existing unit, but to be supplied direct to Boeing, rather than be retro fitted bt BA. When said unit was supplied direct to BA, it was designed and built in milimetres, but to be supplied direct to Boeing, the whole drawings had to be con verted to Decimal inches. The a light sensor housing would`nt fit, and they did the conversion calculations on a computer. The designers still thought they got it right, but had to admit defeat when i suggested THEY try to fit it. It`s hardly surprising that a lot of the younger guys and appretices simply CAN`T measure in inches. I recently had to teach a new apprentice how to measure in inches, which took nearly a whole day. What`s worse was about 20 years back, i was overseeing a guy who had never used inches, and when he built some panels, they all turned out half an inch short. Where he was always told "never mind about the odd half a millimetre, as it was in tolerance, well, i`m sure you can work out the rest.

Lightning still has the Brooms flag on a swiveling pole on the pullpit. It nearly touched under the old iron bridge at Gt Yarnouth, with an inch to spare. However, there was around 3-4"clearance on the highest point of the superstructure. With that in mind, i`l be more than happy to take her through Wroxham at 6` 10". I do like to go through Wroxham bridge against the tide though, as no matter how slow the tide runs, it offers that little bit extra steerage way, and will help if an emergency stop is required.