Old Broads Boats

[webntweb]

9 hours ago, Broads01 said:

Is the first pic at Salhouse? The quay heading must have been pretty new then. 

Here's another one of the quay heading and Admiral Seven a year earlier August 82.

[BroadAmbition]

Admiral Seven.  Been on her times many.  My most favourite woody ever

Griff

[webntweb]

On 31/10/2019 at 12:59, Vaughan said:

By the time Porter and Haylett launched the Connoisseur class of cruisers they were doing their own moulding, and did ever since.

May 86.

First pic: Connoisseur 37 superstructure being lifted of a delivery lorry - would have been interesting to see that lorry going over the bridge.

Second pic: same superstructure being married to its hull.

Were the superstructures moulded somewhere else and the hulls on site?

[webntweb]

Strathmore 2, Horning late October 84.

I always liked these, which I think were the same as the Star Monarchs, rather than the Star Trackers.

I did hire a Star Monarch about 10 years after this pic but they had seen better days by then.

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, webntweb said:

The house in the picture is "Deerfoot" which was built for Tom Percival and his wife Gilly back in the late 60's. It has been demolished now and a new house is built there but we had an awful lot of great parties in that place! They were also attended by John Williams and his wife Sue, who owned Jack Powles at the time and built the Star Monarchs.

The "plug", of course, was Broad Ambition.

[Upcycler]

To bring back a bit of nostalgia to the boards, it would be lovely if all the boats were made of wood.

[grendel]

The ones I hire generally are.

[marshman]

No Upcycler - you cannot turn the clock back and if you had ever owned a woodie, you will know what heartache they are! OK they give pleasure but I recall however smart they looked, there were always hidden corners where even angels feared to tread!!

And the bigger they are, the bigger the pain!!!!

[Polly]

Oh so right Marshman!!! Got the video, T Shirt and scars! 

[JennyMorgan]

4 hours ago, Polly said:

Oh so right Marshman!!! Got the video, T Shirt and scars! 

As well as a depleted bank balance!

[webntweb]

Picture of Judith 4 emerging from PH bridge in 1988.

Trying to get my head round why it is carrying Judith 6's registration number B244.

I think No 4 was rebuilt with a different topsides in the 80s but still carries its original number A674.

Sadly Craig is no longer with us to work this one out, perhaps Grendel or Vaughan may be able to enlighten me.

Roy

[grendel]

I do know that hulls get recycled around so while that might explain why, alternatively ask at Martham Boats, they might know

[JanetAnne]

28 minutes ago, webntweb said:

Picture of Judith 4 emerging from PH bridge in 1988.

Trying to get my head round why it is carrying Judith 6's registration number B244.

I think No 4 was rebuilt with a different topsides in the 80s but still carries its original number A674.

Sadly Craig is no longer with us to work this one out, perhaps Grendel or Vaughan may be able to enlighten me.

Roy

I remember Craig telling me he had a conversation with Martham Boats to inform them they had the wrong numbers on some of the boats. "I know I am right because here's the picture of which ever one it was in the graveyard and she still has the numbers on her" he told me. 

As to who was actually right I have no idea but I am quite sure Martham know their boats just as comprehensively as Craig knew his database!

[MauriceMynah]

Well how's this for a possibility. B244 was tolled, A674 wasn't. names could be chopped and changed so one craft goes out but may be under one of several names.  

[WherryNice]

I don't think it's all that uncommon for boat names and numbers to get mixed up, my parents first cruiser carried the reg number for No2 in her class (and was still registered as such)but Craig listed her as No1 because thats what he saw her named as, he even dug his notes out from '76 to check. So was the boat he saw the same one that my parents owned? We can't really be sure as there were never any numbers or clues on drawers etc that I ever saw.

[grendel]

or whichever boat went out with the current toll number on it

[Broads01]

Back in 1997 my one an only hire from Alpha Craft was a then fairly new forward steer called Mustang, at the time having registration T556. I've always been bewildered as to why the same boat was later T559 and it's now in the database as such. http://www.broads.org.uk/wiki2018/index.php?title=Boat_Details&BoatId=7100

[Vaughan]

10 hours ago, webntweb said:

Sadly Craig is no longer with us to work this one out, perhaps Grendel or Vaughan may be able to enlighten me.

I am afraid I have never known very much about Martham Boats as I came from the south rivers and so anywhere north of Potter was more like the dark side of the moon.   "Here be dragons!"

I do know though, that boats sometimes changed their numbers, usually because of a recession, when they were sometimes mothballed and spent a season without being hired out. If your photo is 1988 that may well be the reason. I also remember when Percivals had a fleet of 6 Elysian 37 hire boats called Prelude, but none of them had a number. So if you hired one, you got the first one which was ready when you arrived at the yard. There were one or two other yards who tried this but it was a bit difficult to organise, for maintenance.

I can remember one or two years, such as 1966, when a lot of yards had a row of their boats parked up "in the nettles" behind the boat sheds for a year! I fear this is something we are going to see again on the Broads, before very long.

[grendel]

Marthams only really cleared out their nettle patch a few years ago, those boats that were too far gone were disposed of (presumably after anything that could possibly be reused having been stripped off them), and those that had a chance were saved, this is where jayne 2 came from, she had a sound hull, but no topsides, Jayne had problems in her hog, it needed replacing, so in 2 months jayne 2 had the topsides rebuilt - i say jayne 2, but who knows which of the jayne hulls was actually used, anyway Jayne 2 she became with Jayne 2's reg number, i was the very first to hire her, she had been in the water and tested, then back out, and only finally went in 2 hours before i turned up, the engineers were swarming over her doing finishing touches, adding toilet roll holders, fire extinguishers etc.

she behaved impeccably during my weeks hire, but there were a few teething troubles, - nothing urgent, a slight weep from a diesel injector, the shower pump wasnt working, but drained eventually, so not a problem, the only mechanical issue was an alternator bolt that the nut came loose and dropped into the engine tray - out of reach, a cable tie secured it fro the remainder of the holiday.

steering was a little stiff at first, hardly surprising on a boat that had been out of the water at least 5 years, but was very positive.

A full list was handed in as soon as i got back to the yard, - in fact i had highlighted some of the issues to the staff member as he brought me back through the bridge, and by the time i had returned to the boat from handing in the list, they were already onboard and rectifying the issues

[LizG]

When I looked at the log books in the Norfolk Archive it was quite interesting how Herbert Woods worked.  They seemed to register the cruisers in two batches in the 1930s.  The first batch were all Bxx  and the second batch were Bxxx.  Water Rail was Delight VII and also B77.

The anomaly was Delight XI which is B63.  As a result for years everyone thought she was a younger boat but my suspicion is that they had a spare number.  Also Delight II which became Jacqueline at Martham was renumbered when they restructured her.

Liz

[JanetAnne]

Yes my Delight was originally B72 but now carries A839.

B72 now adorns an Aquafibre 42 in Richardson's hire fleet. Maybe I should apply for it back?

I also have F257 on an old (Leo Robinson's) Eagle class. An old photo shows that she was probably originally W376 , a number that ended up on a boat called Patricia that was based in the (Collins Pleasurecraft) yard next door!

F257 is a tad late for a 20's build

[Springsong]

 I  discussed landamores numbering with Craig a few years ago. We both had a photo of lets say Vestella 2 each photo showed a different number. Also with Vestas' they built maybe 14 but the oldest which were sold off were maybe nos'7 through 12. the others had their numbers were changed to maked a consecutive run. I hope that makes xense.

[RS2021]

I suppose its the Broads equivalent of Triggers broom. This boat has had three registration numbers and four different names, but apart from that its the same boat...

[LizG]

37 minutes ago, Springsong said:

 I  discussed landamores numbering with Craig a few years ago. We both had a photo of lets say Vestella 2 each photo showed a different number. Also with Vestas' they built maybe 14 but the oldest which were sold off were maybe nos'7 through 12. the others had their numbers were changed to maked a consecutive run. I hope that makes xense.

Good to hear from you Barry - hope you are keeping well!

[LizG]

5 hours ago, w-album said:

The anomaly was Delight XI which is B63.  As a result for years everyone thought she was a younger boat but my suspicion is that they had a spare number. 

Liz

I should have said older not younger!!!!