Thorpe Green Gunboat

[Islander]

Thanks Fred, as you say if this was not a one-off the evidence will be mounting up . I will make some discrete enquiries . 

Colin 

[Hylander]

Next Subject -  The Phantom Crappers!!!

[Vaughan]

25 minutes ago, Hylander said:

Next Subject -  The Phantom Crappers!!!

They're coming to a mooring near you!

They are already established on Stalham staithe, so where next?

Just when you thought it was safe to take a walk back from the pub in the sunset!

[BuffaloBill]

On 31/07/2019 at 17:51, Islander said:

please before you blame everything on the few that live on the island have a closer look at the boats tied up there.

We did Colin. We watched them row/paddleboard style over and just tie up 

in the middle of large spaces instead of leaving room for visiting boats. It's

not the BA's fault nor the Council's, they could have tied up with more

respect for other potential visitors. Not the way to get people on your side.

We did try to work out which was your boat to hopefully have a chat.

[Islander]

Hi Bill, ours is directly opposite the church gate. During the winter months Lady Linda (our other boat) is moored alongside.

While I accept that there are those that moor without concern for other users on the whole most of us try to cluster near the ladders which is the only way to get on land. Have a closer look at the pic, although an extreme low tide in that image, it's not unusual to find the quay at chest height when stood in a tender. Now I don't know about you but I'm 65 and not getting any younger plus my wife suffers from arthritis so the ladders are essential.

Now we come to the problem of clustering the tenders. Much as it seems an ideal solution it's ok until your boat is third from the ladder and you have to get it past two others at low tide. Not an easy task and do you then take the responsibility of untying and moving other people's boats just to move your own. If we add into the equation some thing in the region of 15 PubnPaddle canoes spread around the ladders too. Plus all the other day boats and hires. Just to top it all off you then have the fishermen who, for some reason, seem to congregate next to the ladders. Now where possible I will always try to moor away from them so as not to spoil their enjoyment.

Now I don't know what boat you have Bill but we recently had to take our 31' boat across to take delivery of a washing machine and had no trouble finding room but this was 9 am. We also take Lady Linda across when preparing for a trip and she's 35' but I will admit you do have to pic your times of day. Same as anywhere else. Try Bramerton green around lunch time or after 4pm and the you will get those that moor a 25' boat in the middle of a space fo 2 40' boats and won't move. So if you see me come across the river in our 10' tender directly to a ladder can you blame me. No intending to upset anybody here but it's the same as anywhere else and that is ' first come first served'.

So let's look at your other options..The Rushcutters have nice new quay heading, excellent food and beer, I'm told, and easy walking distance to a bus stop. The River Garden room for a few boats and of cause The Town House with brand new quay heading too. So at present there are quite a few options.

As to the future.  You do realise the council are intending to lease private moorings from the church end upto the war memorial. The next section will be a 24hr mooring with no return in 48hrs upto just short of the staithe. The rest commercial for the island service vessel and Bishy Barnaby Boats.

Anyway Bill and anybody who wants a chat over a beer pop along to the green and if you time it right you will have no trouble getting in.

Just as a footnote I'm not responsible for other people's actions but do try to influence them if possible.

Colin

p.s. This is Pyes Mill at 11am today.

Busy spot so I'm told.

Following is the new signage for the green, not, as yet, in use but watch this space.

L

 

 

[grendel]

just wondering how under stress of weather can be defined, cant get under the bridge because of the tides- is that stress of weather? too wet? too hot? I can see that if that definition isnt clarified, then under stress of weather is a bit open ended and open to argumentative interpretation, that the courts might just throw out if it got that far.

[Islander]

Item 44 should anyone be interested.

   http://www.thorpestandrew-tc.gov.uk/documents/TCPAPERSAUGUST2019.pdf

It would seem to have been left out of the 'paper' bundle. It doesn't look like I will make the meeting. I would have liked to hear what was said.

Colin

[BuffaloBill]

Hi Colin. I'm not having a 'go' at you but those who just tie up without any

thought that someone else may be coming later to moor there too. In the

photo you can see this dingy who you may recognise, tied with the bow

rope only which allowed it swing a full 180deg and not by a ladder. We were

there from midday until around 11.00hrs the following day and no-one

came near it. It effectively took up an extra boat length because of that.

The other dingy's forward of the photo went back to the island side around

18.00hrs(as near as dammit) having stopped anyone other than a dingy

from mooring there. I'm 72..ish  and could have got in or out of those

boats at anytime during the day without the ladders.

As to that notice, does it mean those dingy's are included too?

On a lighter note....... Lady Linda, is that the one that used to belong to Jono

on this forum a few years ago? I did notice it there but with no internet signal

I couldn't find who owned her.

[Islander]

Hi Bill, just to say that similarly my response is not to have a go but with a smile.Life is too short to waste what I hope I've got left on silly arguments. I'm glad to say that your health and agility are far better than mine even as my senior but there is no way I could have got out of my tender at the time that pic was taken and anyway why bother putting yourself at risk when there is a perfectly good ladder to be used. Just to add to the pic I posted earlier. This was taken on the same day( check the exif, I don't remove them).

 

I do know who owns the boat you refer to, they are a lot younger than us and do occasionally spend the night ashore ( both work) as for a couple of the others, well yes they obviously belong to those that work. If they are who I think they are one works for The Environment Agency and the other the UEA. The boats nearer to The Rushcutters I can't comment on as they are quite often shared. Should someone be away for a while then usually they get a lift across or their tender is brought back over. I know it doesn't happen every timeBut on the whole that's what happens.

We bought Lady Linda through Richardsons Boat Sales about six years ago now where, I believe, she had been used as a liveaboard. I don't have the paperwork with me at the moment so can't say for sure. We are about half way through the five year plan to try and bring her back to her former glory so another six years, with luck, we may complete her. Then it's just maintenance . We no longer add up how much we had spent when we passed £15k and you can't see half of it.

The proposals for the green will be for all boats otherwise it wouldn't be fair. All the tender will be forced to use the 50' next to the staithe but a few of us are willing to lease 50' near the church end as long as we have use of the ladder.

Internet was available via The Buck but sadly closed and up forsale at present, as for the other pubs I don't know. The island of cause has its own and Ruth and I have our own.

Colin

Now off for food and beer. Nothing sensible from now on.

[Broadsexplorer148]

Two Brothers came up from Essex to buy it.

With the intention of restoring it back to It's

Royal Navy FAST M.T.B. DAYS.

Their intention was to have it towed to an Essex boat yard so the restoration could begin.

It was first taken to May & Gurney's boat yard further down river.,

So it could be made ready for the road journey to Essex.

When they attempted to lift her out of the river her back broke:IE The keel was nearly rotted through.

So she was towed back up river to Jenners basen and dumped.

[Vaughan]

2 hours ago, Broadsexplorer148 said:

Two Brothers came up from Essex to buy it.

With the intention of restoring it back to It's

Royal Navy FAST M.T.B. DAYS.

Their intention was to have it towed to an Essex boat yard so the restoration could begin.

It was first taken to May & Gurney's boat yard further down river.,

So it could be made ready for the road journey to Essex.

When they attempted to lift her out of the river her back broke:IE The keel was nearly rotted through.

So she was towed back up river to Jenners basen and dumped.

I'm not sure where you got all that from . . . . .

 

[Wussername]

6 hours ago, Vaughan said:

I'm not sure where you got all that from . . . . .

 

And niether do I........ 

[Vaughan]

The old gunboat is a piece of Broads history and reading back over this thread, I don't think we have explained, between us, what actually happened to her.

It goes back to 1965 when my parents sold Hearts Cruisers to Jenners.  The deal was that David Millbank bought the yard for a bargain price but also bought the gunboat, giving them them the right to live there free of all charge for the rest of their lives.  As David was expanding Jenners all on venture capital, and as my parents were very comfortable where they were on the island, it suited both parties very well!

The deal was honoured by Ladbrokes, who bought Hearts from Jenners when it closed, and later by Richardsons.  Problem was that the deal included the maintenance of the gunboat by the boatyard and this became impossible as she could not be hauled out there and could no longer get back under the railway bridge.  So when my parents and I moved off the boat and bought a house elsewhere in 1989, Hearts were left with the problem of what to do with the old boat.

Two young people had the dream of restoring her, putting engines back in and cruising the Med, so Richardsons sold them the boat for £100 on condition that they moved her off the mooring.  The new owners stripped off the superstructure to try and get her under the bridge but were then refused permission to navigate the Yare, by the BA.  In the end Brian Coley, Hearts manager, decided to tow her up to Jenners basin, which was also owned by Hearts, where she sank in the corner nearest the Town House and was heavily vandalised.

It was after this that the British Powerboat Co. museum got to hear of her, as she was in fact a historic prototype, designed by Scott-Paine in 1936 to try and get the Admiralty contract for 72ft fast patrol craft.  This contract was eventually won by Vospers, with their prototype MTB 102, still well known to us today.  Scott-Paine then took his design to the States, where it became famous as the ELCO PT (patrol torpedo) boats.  As a prototype, she had been fitted with genuine supercharged Rolls Royce Merlin engines.

The museum raised the boat and moved her into the middle of the basin, ready to put in an internal metal framework so that she could be craned out on to a truck and transported to Portsmouth.  This eventually proved too expensive and impractical so she sank again and remains in the same spot to this day.

The BPBC museum eventually found another boat of exactly the same class which they did restore and which is still in use at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth.

[Vaughan]

 

Taken in Portsmouth in 2017.  The boat herself was in winter maintenance at the time, so I couldn't go aboard.  That would have been a bit nostalgic!  Perhaps another time.