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Back To The Summer Of 1976?...


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20 minutes ago, StillCruising said:

Mmmmm I remember it well. We had Benmore that year. Judging by the clothes it must have been before the summer really heated up. I also remember filling up my MG with petrol and later in the day an alarmed neighbour knocked on the door to tell me that there was fuel coming out of the filler when it had expanded in the heat. I had to go and pick up the girl friend then drive to the pub just to reduce the level in the tank, a right hardship !

img067.jpg

Those were the days, when there was still at least as much 'wood' in most boatyards, as there was plastic. We had 'Highlight 4' from Herbert Woods in September that year, a lovely little boat...

'Highlight 4' Herbert Woods, Potter Heigham (May '75).JPG

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32 minutes ago, kingfisher666 said:

Those were the days, when there was still at least as much 'wood' in most boatyards, as there was plastic. We had 'Highlight 4' from Herbert Woods in September that year, a lovely little boat...

'Highlight 4' Herbert Woods, Potter Heigham (May '75).JPG

Highlight 5 and 6 are still going strong.

I was 13 in 1976 and owned half a 2 berth launch with my brother.  We spent the whole summer on the Broads aboard that little boat. It had the two berths a hob and a sink. Aft cockpit with  a Stuart Turner twin on dynastart.  We used to see how far we could get on whatever petrol we could scrounge out of dad's car and then, when it ran out we would drift back on the tide to Oulton Broad and scrounge some more. If we ever got a full gallon we could be gone a week!  :default_icon_e_biggrin:

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I started to learn to row and sail that year in a small lugsail dinghy on Barton Broad. My parents had just bought a Norfolk Punt and my older brothers were sailing that for the first time.  I was seven.  But I mostly just remember swarms and swarms of ladybirds.cobweb.thumb.jpg.a7cc493fb7e32b456eb4f27875a38b4d.jpg

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2 hours ago, JanetAnne said:

Highlight 5 and 6 are still going strong.

That's good to hear, the 'Highlights' were lovely boats. Now, I suppose they would be 'classic' broads cruisers. During the seventies, we hired a few old 'woodies' before they started to disappear. If any boat had "Will not normally go under Potter Heigham or Wroxham bridges" on their brochure description, they were dismissed from consideration. But of course, all the wooden boats were built to traverse Potter Heigham, so they were often the ones chosen. We may have hired another Highlight, a few years later. I'll have to check with my old cruising friend. We did hire 'Shining Dawn' from Herbert Woods too. A 'Vesta' from Southgates Mainyard. 'Osprey' from Alphacraft at Brundall and a few others. My friend and his wife, will have a few more of the boat names, as they still have the photo's, which I shall have to borrow and scan, one day. Happy days, on wonderful boats... :11_blush:

 

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2 hours ago, vanessan said:

I remember that summer very well but there’s no way I could share anything. On second thoughts, best I forget! :facepalm:

Wonderful... But, that's the kind of summer it was, if you were young and single, it was a brilliant time. Because so much of the time was lived outdoors, there seemed to be music everywhere, with transistor radios and cassette players in gardens, parks, beaches. Everyone was in 'holiday mode' for the whole summer... :10_wink:

 

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17 minutes ago, kingfisher666 said:

.... as they still have the photo's, which I shall have to borrow and scan, one day...

 

Please do. There is quite a thirst on this forum for piccys of the broads and especially the boats from times past. 

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3 hours ago, vanessan said:

I remember that summer very well but there’s no way I could share anything. On second thoughts, best I forget! :facepalm:

I was just thinking the same thing. 

 

Just finished school (I was off to an Army Apprentice College in September), had transport (the trusty FS1E that I had taken a test on and could carry passengers) and a fill in job with loads of overtime.

 

Sun, an (almost) motorbike and money in my pocket*. 

 

What more could a 16 year old want? (well there is more but not for a public forum :default_icon_evil:)

 

* it took me nearly 40 years to get back to that sort of level of disposable income. About 60% of net income

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6 hours ago, kingfisher666 said:

Bra's seemed to be an unnecessary part of that summer's dress code, which did help form my opinion!... :17_heart_eyes:

 

3 hours ago, vanessan said:

I remember that summer very well but there’s no way I could share anything. On second thoughts, best I forget! :facepalm:

Well we certainly know about the fashion you were wearing.

Ahem, or not :default_rofl:

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2 hours ago, kingfisher666 said:

Wonderful... But, that's the kind of summer it was, if you were young and single, it was a brilliant time. 

 

That’s the problem, I wasn’t particularly young and I definitely wasn’t single! Nuff said. 

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5 minutes ago, vanessan said:

That’s the problem, I wasn’t particularly young and I definitely wasn’t single! Nuff said. 

 I'm sure you were young enough and beautiful too. Life was made to be enjoyed and to love, otherwise there's not much point in it... The summer of '76 seemed to encourage lots of both, for lots of people, that's what made it so wonderful... :default_icon_kiss:

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Was my exam year so school pretty much finished early June and I had all summer to waste before starting work in September.

I remember forest fires and lakes drying up. The ponds on Wanstead Flats were drying out so quick that we were rescuing fish and transporting them to Wanstead Park lake to save them.

Holiday that year was with Mum, Dad sisters, partners, aunt, uncle and Tom Cobley, we always went to Cornwall and always the last two weeks in August, we had our fingers crossed the weather would last.....and it did.

If I recall correctly the weather broke on the bank holiday weekend as we were heading home.

Good times.

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Certainly a memorable year for me and I do remember it well.  It was my last year of full time school,  I left in the late May at 15 years very young.  I was working too, morning and evening paper rounds, Clay pigeon shooting centre all day Sat/Sun and Thursday evenings.  A cobbled together scrambler for use in our local quarry area, flying / sailing radio control models. I was loaded and happy (Had not got distracted by girls then).  Me and my mates were constantly out of the house being as busy as we could be cramming every day to the full.  Come late September (Now just turned sixteen) the family and friends were afloat on a couple of Broom Admirals.  This was my sixteenth consecutive Broads holiday since 1960 and my last one before catching a train in October down to Plymouth where the main gates of HMS Raleigh greeted my naive eyes.  The rest as they say is history

Griff

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Blimey, I must be getting on a bit. I was already 30 that year and not long out of the Army.

The drought had a very bad effect on the Broads, not just because of running aground all over the north rivers but because large areas of mud normally submerged, were exposed to the air, dried out and caused a large outbreak of botulism, which killed off nearly all the duck and other water-birds. It was soon confirmed that this was not a strain that affected humans but that didn't stop our crusaders of the national press from doing a "doom watch" job on it. You can imagine it!

Result was that no-one wanted to holiday there next year and looking back, it was the start of the great recession of the 70s and 80s, from which the Broads has never fully recovered. Typical of my luck to have chosen that year to invest in a boatyard!

Very happy memories though. The hire boat business was rather different then, to what it is now.

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1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

 

Result was that no-one wanted to holiday there next year and looking back, it was the start of the great recession of the 70s and 80s, from which the Broads has never fully recovered. Typical of my luck to have chosen that year to invest in a boatyard!

Very happy memories though. The hire boat business was rather different then, to what it is now.

A lot has changed on the broads, since I first hired a boat in 1972. I never heard of any of the riverside pubs charging for moorings. At some pubs, you could ring and they would scribble your boat name on a little blackboard, beside the mooring and it was reserved for you. Very handy, if you weren't going to arrive till evening and no charge either. The landlords were just happy that you were going to have a few pints and perhaps Chicken or Scampi and chips (in a basket) in their pub. :15_yum:

Of course back then, there were lots more boatyards and if you were on say a 'Blakes' boat, you could more at any of the 'A flag' boatyards. None of this "must be moored by 2 o'clock in the afternoon nonsense". Wild mooring too, seems less common. Mooring against a grassy bank using 'rhond anchors' seems very rare today...

The whole place seemed to have more of a 'holiday atmosphere' too, I don't know if it's me wearing my rose tinted glasses again. But, moorings and pubs (particularly on the south rivers) tend to be a little 'cliquey' these days. Most people will have seen the groups 'spread out' over a mooring, but when a certain boat comes into view, they'll 'bunch up' to allow their friend to moor... Double mooring too, seems to be a thing of the past. I remember if you arrived a bit late and there were no spaces, someone would always offer to take your ropes and tie you against their boat and were happy to do it.

I could go on and on, about some of the changes I've noticed over the years, but I'd begin to sound like my old Dad "We had it hard, in my day son...". Except, I think we had the much better times, I'm wearing those old 'rose tinted glasses' again... :11_blush:

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On 22/06/2018 at 15:15, StillCruising said:

img067.jpg

Lovely photo, that.

Notice that there is no Blakes emblem on the bow or cabin sides of the boat. This is because Ralph Moore, although a member of Blakes, refused to wear the emblem as he considered that his standards were higher than Blakes.

He may well have been right!

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I remember the old "Ferry Boatyard" at Horning in the early 70's, completely different to the "Ferry Marina" and all it's surrounding real estate, the old yard did have character though. We never hired one of their cruisers, but they had a number of houseboats', near the boatshed and we had one of those named 'Botany Bay' for a week. It was huge, or at least compared to the cruisers of that time, it was 44' x 12' and four of us rattled around in it, quite comfortably. A definite nautical/piratical theme ran through the boat names at the yard 'Ferry Buccaneer', 'Ferry Mutineer  etc.. I remember, we returned all the 'empties' we'd collected, back to the 'Ferry Inn' on the last night and had a few pints on the proceeds...

We had 'splashed out' that year and at the end of our week on 'Botany Bay', we caught the bus to Acle and picked up 'Royal Eagle' from the old "Eastick's Yard". It was one of the original old "Wilds" bath tubs' that had seen better days, but had plenty of space for the four of us. We had left all our luggage and fishing gear in the shed at 'Ferry Boatyard', so first thing after handover, was back to Horning. I think we just managed to make it to Coltishall (The Anchor) before dark... :11_blush:

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On 22/06/2018 at 11:25, FairTmiddlin said:

76 the year of Aphids and Ladybirds

The year started quite average buy by June it really was a scorcher

details if anyone is interested are available on a month by month list from Met Office here

https://goo.gl/dUaSXh

I remember it being the year of the big economic downturn. I was made redundant that year, was out of work most of the summer. Boy did we enjoy that but, by September I had to knuckle down and get a job. Good job I was single.

I forgot the ladybird until you said.We were on holiday in Bognor. We sat outside have a drink and we became covered in them.Cant remember why there was so many.Never seen so many since.1976 was the year before we got married. The summer seemed to go on forever.Fast forward, so far this  summer has been good.

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