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What is a lower than normal tide?


goodall_m1

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Ok so I am used to the concept of Le Boat who have vessels that they admit will not pass under any bridges except Acle,

and Horizon's Prisma which will pass under Acle Bridge at low water and thtee consecutive years where my hire boat has been rejected by the Potter pilot....

So now in next year's Hoseasons brochure we find "Will pass under Potter Higham bridge when tides are lower than normal"

This even applies to Clive's new RC45 (oops sorry Broadsman class) which I thought was designed with that bridge in mind!

Do I detect a touch of "elf and safety" from Hoseasons, covering their backsides when some of us know just how tricky it is to get north of Potter!

My study of the tides for August 2011 has shown that the lowest tides all fall outside of the pilot's operating window!

Me thinks the Pleasure Boat must survive without my custom for another year!

Can I get Fair Freedom through Wayford... Time will tell!

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Low tide cannot be outside the pilot's normal operational window. The tide at Potter operates in a very odd way - it doesn't even pretend to follow the twelfths rule that I believe you coastal skippers use as a yardstick. For five hours immediately after High Tide, the clearance at Potter will be as at Low Tide give ot take an inch. Conversely, half an hour after Low Tide the clearance will already be three quarters of eventual High Tide, i.e. a loss of the first three of four inches clearance.

During my time at Potter Bridge, the information about the various craft contained within both Blakes and Hoseasons brochures was the bane of my life. Boats were listed, even then, that the agencies/boatyards claimed to pass Potter Bridge at Low Tide. There were many thus listed that we could only get through twice or four times an entire season. Over the years it is possible to build a statistical probability of a particular boat being able to get through - and back. I suspect the new descriptions are more trades description than H&S based.

For personally tailored information and/or advice about that "damned bridge," please feel free to begin a pm dialogue.

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By the pilot's operational window I was actually thinking more about the times than the tides!

Low water springs in August 2011 seem to be late evening, over-night or very early in the morning,

i.e. Outside of the 08:30 - 17:30 window! So I don't think we will be trying it next year.

I have absoloute faith in the Potter pilots, they will go for it when I wouldn't think there is any chance at all

OK so the last time I did go through the boat "popped" up a bit before he was expecting her to...

Their technique of "full ahead and drop her into her own hole" as she reaches the bridge has to be seen to be believed!

Those grooves in the top of the arch are not all from Trent Bridge, but she did have worn grab rails

on the roof that matched a couple of them...

I wonder if they could build a lock around the Potter Bridge, take boat in, pump out water, take boat through, let water back...?

I somehow can't see it being a going concern given the BA's finances.

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Better still,take the old bridge down bit by bit,rebuild after raising the foundations a couple of foot,if the old London bridge can be taken down shipped to the USA,it proves it can be done,and how many years ago was that,and without modern contruction equipment.

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If anyone had any foresight at all as to tourism in the broads area then the new road bridge behind it would have been built a couple of foot higher. As it stands although your suggestion is eminently sensible I fear economic pressures will put paid to lifting 2 bridges even if the will was there.

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If anyone had any foresight at all as to tourism in the broads area then the new road bridge behind it would have been built a couple of foot higher. As it stands although your suggestion is eminently sensible I fear economic pressures will put paid to lifting 2 bridges even if the will was there.

And apart from that Ian, having previously been moored at Potter for a number of years, there would be an outrage if there was even the smallest suggestion that this bridge be replaced.. The local banner wavers would be out in force, the enviromentalists who already consider what lays the other side of the bridge to be sacred would be horrified... it would be the epoch of the appocolypse!!

cheers

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I think the new decription is quite fair. Not mentioning it on the basis it will fit occasionally could be misleading, at least with the description mentioned you know it is a 'will get under if you're exceptionally lucky, but in reality most times not' :lol:

Dan

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I notice also that Ludham bridge is now mentioned within the 'will not pass under' list, at least for a few of the Le Boat craft. This is correct in terms of Caprice but alas plain wrong for some of the others quoted, notably Tamaris which I know passes under Ludham very comfortably under normal conditions.

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I know the pub would welcome more traffic BUT ........

I like the idea of parts of the Broads being inaccessible to certain types of craft .......

Those that choose more suitable vessels can feel smug as they pass un-hindered beneath the bridge leaving those "hooray Henry's" fuming with jealosy.

insert smug face smiley here.

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Guest DAYTONA-BILL
Better still,take the old bridge down bit by bit,rebuild after raising the foundations a couple of foot,if the old London bridge can be taken down shipped to the USA,it proves it can be done,and how many years ago was that,and without modern contruction equipment.

I`ve been saying that for years Steve. I would aggree the bridge should stay because of the limiting factor, but MOST of the boats on the broads were designed and built to negotiate ALL broads bridges. Now, there are very few boats that can pass under it, and so steps should be taken to render it passable at ALL times. That means raise it by about 12 inches, which would only be putting it back to its height in the 60/70s and allow ONLY the boats so designed to pass under it to do so again at ALL states of NORMAL tide. To achieve this, and to stop the bridge sinking again, the base etc would need to be strengthened, and a restriction on vehicular traffic applied, making the North bank of Potter Heigham accessable ONLY from the north. In other words, keep it open for cyclists and pedestrians. I would also agree with Ians point about not being financially viable. I mean, how many beauroprattic jollies to "global conferences" would have to be shelved to fund such a civil engineering project :lol::lol::lol: . Regards ..................... Neil.

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MOST of the boats on the broads were designed and built to negotiate ALL broads bridges. Now, there are very few boats that can pass under it

The problem has been exacerbated by the hire companies no longer designing their boats to pass under Potter, concentrating instead on more internal headroom and upper helm positions etc.. Presumably they monitor their individual boat design's popularity, and would have included more low air draft boats if enough customer demand was there.

As for rebuilding Potter with more clearance, even if PP could be gained, it would presumably have to be funded by the BA's navigation account.

The considerable Civil Engineering exercise of a like for like rebuild would cost hundreds of thousands, involving coffer dams and de-watering etc., as well as the traditional Stone Mason skills for the actual appearance and structure.

Such a project would cost hundreds of K, and I doubt that Toll payers would be willing to pay for it, even spread over many years. :)

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Guest DAYTONA-BILL

Hi Strowager, just imagine how much revinue toll payers have payed over the last 30 plus years, i`m damn sure they could have found it somewhere. But as you rightly say, the funds will probably NEVER be available. It`ll be Wroxham bridge next. Regards ......................... Neil.

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Hi Neil

Don't get me started on Wroxham bridge. :)

That one would be much easier to "raise".

It's already been bu***red up and lost any "historic" status. The road is already carried over it by an arched steel beam bridge that doesn't actually touch it over the span. The untidy brick and stone infill could possibly be removed relatively cheaply, giving an air-draft of at least a couple of feet more.

post-669-13671377532_thumb.jpg

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Low tide cannot be outside the pilot's normal operational window. The tide at Potter operates in a very odd way - it doesn't even pretend to follow the twelfths rule that I believe you coastal skippers use as a yardstick. For five hours immediately after High Tide, the clearance at Potter will be as at Low Tide give ot take an inch. Conversely, half an hour after Low Tide the clearance will already be three quarters of eventual High Tide, i.e. a loss of the first three of four inches clearance.

During my time at Potter Bridge, the information about the various craft contained within both Blakes and Hoseasons brochures was the bane of my life. Boats were listed, even then, that the agencies/boatyards claimed to pass Potter Bridge at Low Tide. There were many thus listed that we could only get through twice or four times an entire season. Over the years it is possible to build a statistical probability of a particular boat being able to get through - and back. I suspect the new descriptions are more trades description than H&S based.

For personally tailored information and/or advice about that "damned bridge," please feel free to begin a pm dialogue.

Now that is interesting, and not at all how I'd expect things to be.

It would suggest to me that (assuming one wants to go through against the tide, in order to have maximum control at minimum speed over the ground) there's a much larger window of opportunity to go upstream than there is to go downstream.

That's definitely information I'll mentally file away for future reference, thank you. :)

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  • 5 months later...

The one thing that still continues to puzzle me about 'that bridge' is how anyone hiring one of the Whispering Reeds fleet would get on if they couldn't get back through the bridge to return their boat at the end of their holiday. Last September we hired Western Horizon and we were told that getting through the bridge during our week would be unlikley yet on our travels we spotted 2 Whispering Reeds boats and I couldn't help wondering how they would get back or are the boats in their fleet more likely to get through the bridge than other boats? :?

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Having changed our Princess to a Bounty to do the areas that we could previously not get to .I have more recently found that where we could always get through Potter at 6ft 6 to 8 inches and often leaving many boats behind ,we now find many occasions where Graham tells us he can get us through but we must be back in a day or two.It could be our timing or is this becoming a familiar pattern and would of course concern you if you had to get back to a hire base .Just out of interest among the boat owners we know and people on our moorings I have found a hire percentage of those who could get through had not done so and many said that they did not find an attraction in doing so .We love getting through and the peace to be found and its unchanged charm which is now only starting to be spoilt by some large modern buildings,but I think that the situation could be eased by maybe offering advantagious day boat rates to the larger boats to be able to see the other side . cheersbar

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I am sure I have heard of their boats being changed round at the Bridge in adverse conditions ,but bear in mind that their boats are deigned for these conditions and I know that the yard are accustomed to getting them under as they have experience and know them inside out..Not nowdays but it was a sight to see a Connoisseur weighted down with men and drums of water to get then under Wrowhan in times of flood with fractions of an inch to spare ,I swear you would not put your fingers in the clearance space :dance

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Getting boats through Potter Bridge has always been easy provided you know their clearance height for the bridge. Knowing that you could get them back was where the skill and judgement kicked in. Keeping an eye on the phases of the moon and an ear to the weather forecast helped, but "the knowledge" is as much a black art now as ever it was. Believe me it is much easier to jump on a boat and whip it through than it is to go through all the explanations about why a particular boat may not make it through in the next few days.

The comment about being on Western Horizon and seeing two Whispering Reeds boats below the bridge shouldn't surprise. All Whispering Reeds boats pass the bridge at 6' 6" or much less. Western Horizon needs 6' 9" - 6' 8" if loaded in the front well with crew.

It is not unusual during September and/or October to find not only Whispering Reeds boats unable to make the returm journey to their boatyard base, but even Martham Boat Development's boats on occasion. Turn arounds are conducted down stream of the bridge from either the pilot moorings or the public 24hr moorings.

The recent long spell of High pressure has provided several days of reasonably low tides (6 ' 10" and 6' 11") at Potter meaning that boat traffic outside our riverside property has increased about ten fold. Roll on normal tides! :grin::grin:

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