mbird

Excellent news for the Broads and local businesses.

You're missing the point Pavillion. Those in the video would not dream of passing any other craft like that, and have the utmost respect for other river users.

And reckless will continue to then break those laws, thus rendering them a waste of time. Just look at the number of speeding motorists regardless of "blanket bans" on speeding i.e. the limits already in place.

It does rather rubber stamp the idea that all fast boats should slow down to a sensible speed when passing or overtaking slower craft. Something I have always done, but often wondered if it made the wash worse. Case proven I reckon!

I'm with Trev on the Fabsil. It's available at all camping type shops where it's probably cheaper than chandlers! It cured a lot of small leaks on Serenity's canopy.

Sorry, I'm confused. So should we plane past slower boats or not???? Do I suspect there may have been one or two expletives there Jonathan?

I think the main one in North Norfolk is Cley Spy. They have loads of binos and scopes and you can try them all out. http://www.cleyspy.co.uk/

Yep. What dates? My app only goes as far upriver as London Bridge though. ......

I formed the nosing myself from some 4" wide planks of the flooring by warming them up with a hot-air gun. Burned my fingers i nthe process too!

Certainly did Lou! We finally finished just after 7 yesterday evening. Funny how things got easier without a heckling audience Still has the masking tape on at the moment, but this is what it now looks like.....

And here is the finished article. Just got to sort the vertical surfaces now, but the main floor area is all finished, and I'm pretty pleased with how it has come out!

Brian. Can't wait to get back out onto the salty stuff now!

I got the impression that Laurel is no longer in their standard range, and there are probably just a few boxes of old stock left over. I got it from Ideal Flooring in Caister, but I think they may also have another shop in Acle? I didn't see the Golden Teak, as again, I think the sample swatches I had were probably from an old range. As for the glue, it comes in 5 litre tubs and you spread it on with a notched trowel (2mm gaps) a bit like when doing tiling. You let it dry to a dry-tack state, which takes up to about 2 hours, and then lay the stuff onto it. It's pressure sensitive, so the more pressure you can apply with a roller, the better the bond. They do also do an epoxy glue too, which I wonder if it might be more suitable in a cockpit area? Also, if you are considering the cockpit, it might also be worth checking how stable the colour is under UV exposure. Obviously I am doing the interior below decks, but the cockpit would be subject to much more sunlight, and it's bea shame if it faded after a year! I will have loads of the pressure-sensitive glue left when I am finished, so if you do go down that route, let me know, and it's yours!

Thanks John. Yes, we're really pleased with the work we carried out over the winter, and she seems to be performing well. I've never taken off and refitted drives before, and although all we did was replace the bellows and give the drives a good spruce up, it's nice to know they're still working nicely . We didn't know about a broken trim tab motor until the day before she was due to go into the water either!

I called at Sandersons in Reedham on the way to the marina and they wanted £1.25! I was asked at Goodchilds if it was for leisure or commercial, but didn't think I'd get away with pretending to be a fishing boat!

Hi Trev. £1.05 a litre yesterday. Just be aware they don't take any form of plastic, as we found out yesterday much to our embarassment! Sorry we didn't see you on Saturday

Well, after 3 months out of the water, drives off, new trim tab motor etc, Serenity was finally launched on Saturday. We decided a pootle over to Goodchilds to fuel up was called for today, so of course we had to test everything was ok whilst in the viscinity of Breydon!

That's a bit harsh, and a bit of a generalisation I think Neil.... There are a very, very small minority who do have that attitude, that same as they would if driving a car, but by far the vast majority are simply inexperienced and don't have much idea of the size of the boat or how it reacts to helm inputs. Couple that with being unsure how a boat reacts or can be manoevered, and you have a recipe for altercation. Wilfully ramming other boats is another matter, but simply "getting in a pickle" is understandable. I couldn't successfully manoever an articulated lorry with just half an hour instruction I'm sure.

Thats quite common Baz. All hire boats are despatched with one. If one gets lost, the hirer could be liable for it's cost I guessm so easier to nick an old one of another boat. They're normally nicked from other hire craft though ....

Progress report: I took the floor hatches home in order to deck them in some comfort/ They were a bit fiddly, but I think the "picture frame" effect really works, and I'm quite please with how they have turned out. I haven't yet cut the decking over the hinge recesses, as I ran out of time yesterday morning after doing the latches. I now need to order some more of the feature "caulking" strips, as I've used up the 25m I bought!

Obviously I've only done a couple of small, albeit complicated areas so far, and even though the old steps still had bits of carpet glue etc on them, there aren't really and obvious raised bits. The plastic strips are radiused on all corners so I guess this effectively masks any minor differences in height, and rolling them down hard helps them keep the correct level. There are a couple of areas where knife slippage has left a very slight gap, but I am thinking of doing some minor spot-caulking with wood filler or similar just to hide those up. Thanks for the kind comments guys, I'll post more picks as work progresses.

Hi Strowy, The "caulking" is actually 5mm wide beige plastic strips from the same supplier. They offer various widths and colours of the feature strips, so I plumped for something that looked fairly traditional. The sample swatches I borrowed had about 20 different wood finishes available. We went for "laurel" due to the slightly orange colour contrasting nicely with the interior furnishings.

The carpet in Serenity has been minging since I bought her, and no amount of hoovering or vaxing has altered that fact. After much head scratching, we decided to order some interior decking from Permateek at the same time as the exterior. The interior stuff is basically delivered in 1m long strips so is a total DIY job, not supplied in panels like the exterior stuff. As it turned out, Permateek couldn't supply it after all, so we were looking at purchasing the Tek Dek version, which had been quoted at £180 +vat and delivery for 3 sq m from MC Products. Then I had a brain wave! I went into our local flooring supplier in Caister to see what they could offer as an alternative. I found some thin vinyl laminate, in 1m long strips. that can be bought with feature strips which is made by a company called Karndean from their Knight Tile range. It's suitable for kitchens and bathrooms (therefore ok in damp environments), so we decided to plump for it, as it was only £22 per sq m so less than half the price. Only time will tell if we have a bargain, though from what I hear about the interior decking from the various suppliers, it sounds like a very similar product. The one downside is that the laminate is supplied in 4" wide planks. To get that marine feel, I have cut each of them in half length-ways to give 2" wide planks. They cut easily though, by scoring with a sharp knife and then bending back on itself. We also had to make all new floor hatches as the old carpet was stuck fast to them! It's very much a work in progress at the moment, but it'll be interesting to see how this product performs, just incase anyone else is looking for a cheaper alternative to the standard products.

Replied Barry, it's all yours.

Hi All If anyone is interested, we had about 2 litres of Seajet Emporer 034 in mid-blue left over, that is free to a good home (normally about £80 for 2.5 litres). The mid-blue colour was a bit too much of a royal blue for our liking, so after 2 coats of this, we have then put 2 coats of Navy blue over the top. As a guide, 2 litres is enough to do about 1.5 coats on Serenity (a 31' sports cruiser) so there's plenty there for a smaller boat. PM me if interested.