fair regal

[ferryman]

hi members will fair regal pass under potter bridge ?? regards ken and angela

[NorfolkNog]

Hi K and A

Just checked a couple of editions of the NBD brochures and it doesn’t say that Fair Regal won’t so I guess it will if that makes sense. Although it’s a Faircraft hull it looks very similar to the Alphacraft centre cockpit design which needs around 6 feet ten at PH. But as with all boats – it all down to the river levels on the day, there are no guarantees unfortunately!! When are you going?

[Dan]

It will if you're lucky.

As with most boats of this sort of style & beam, getting under the bridge is not guaranteed on many boats, and there will be a lot of days and weeks you wont get something of those sort of dimensions under.

So it will subject to tide, but really you need quite a bit of luck as well!

All the best

Dan

[ferryman]

hi norfolk nog and dan ,23rd may is the holiday start regards ken and angela

[NorfolkNog]

We managed to get Swan Royale through in May last year and I would guess the airdrafts are similar(ish).

But it totally depends on conditions at the time and as Dan says, you need a bit of luck on your side! If you can’t make it, a dayboat might be an alternative?

Anyway we’ll keep our fingers crossed for you!

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

I`m sure somebody put a post up on another thread somewhere regarding suitable tides to pass under Potter Heigham bridge this year, and apparently, many of the best tidal conditions will be late at night or the early hours of the morning, so it does`nt look very optomistic. Regards to all ....................... Neil.

[teadaemon]

I`m sure somebody put a post up on another thread somewhere regarding suitable tides to pass under Potter Heigham bridge this year, and apparently, many of the best tidal conditions will be late at night or the early hours of the morning, so it does`nt look very optomistic. Regards to all ....................... Neil.

If you'd read a bit further on in that thread, you'd also have seen that Expilot (who is the one person on here who will know best about anything to do with going through that bridge) pointed out that due to a number of factors the time of low tide is not a critical factor in whether or not a boat will get under. Also, the OP in that thread was talking about the times for the week when they were planning to be on the Broads, as the time of low tide varies by about an hour every day, what was true for that week will not necessarily be for any other week in the season.

The amount of water in the river system has far more of an effect on the clearance at Potter than whether it is high or low tide, and therefore available clearance mainly depends on the weather in the preceding days and weeks. It is therefore impossible to give a prediction months in advance as to whether or not a particular boat will get through, though one with an air draft of 6'10" will only be going through after a long spell of dry weather, and could easily be trapped above the bridge by a sudden downpour.

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

Hi teadeamon, yes i remember him posting it now, but another factor that also helps is that most hire boats are designed with slow "displacement" hulls, and as the bridge pilot told us last year, the FASTER you go through, the LOWER the boat sits in the water due to the sheer volume of water it displaces at faster speeds. The air draught given to hire craft is ALWAYS over the actual height to give a safety margin, and those measurements are taken while a boat is stationary in the water. The bridge pilot did tell us that an average broads cruiser can displace enough water to make it sit as much as 3" lower than when at rest. Therefore when a hireboat advertises an air draught of say 7ft, it is quite possible to have a true air draught of about 6ft 7-8ins at rest, and when driven at full throttle may sit a further 2-3ins lower, so its actual airdraught while under way could be as low as 6ft 4ins. I know this is so, because when we`ve hired boats with an advertised air draught of 7ft 6ins, the actual air draught was no more than 6ft 6ins, and one of them was a 42ft Alpha ctr/ckpt. That aside, i do take your point regarding weather conditions having a major effect over tidal predictions. I doubt if we`ll be venturing up north this year as Karen says she`d like to concentrate on the southern side. Regards to all ................... Neil.