Relocating

[coolcat]

Hi All,

I haven't been on here or the forums much lately.

Work commitments and the loss of one of my contracts/clients in Norfolk has meant trips to the boat in Acle and using the boat the last year have been very infrequent.

My other half works on a Saturday so even weekend use has become very hit and miss.

The small matter of an 80 mile drive each way means a quick day out is anything but.

It is with this in mind that we have taken the very hard decision to relocate our boat nearer to home where we can hopefully get more use out of her.

Nearer to home in our case is Titchmarsh Marina in Walton On The Naze. Only 15 minutes drive from home.

We will be bringing her back on the salty stuff and have hired an experienced skipper for an assisted sea passage. We are having the engines serviced before departure and generally getting things prepared before hand. 

I will be looking to fuel the boats two tanks (additive already purchased) and will be putting around 250 litres in her. This should give us enough for a 15 knot cruise with a good margin of extra fuel, just in case.

So, I'm hoping to pop up next week to the boat and probably fuel her then. Anyone know who is cheapest at the moment on the Northern Broads?  

 

I'm going to miss the Broads but we will have new waters to explore.

I have made some great friends over the years so I will be back from time to time, either by sea or land 

[Mouldy]

Boulters at Horning tend to be cheapest, unless you can get under Ludham Bridge, in which case Rob at Sutton Staithe is possibly a little cheaper.

If you use Boulters, you need to book in, du to the limited space at their yard.

Take care Jeff.  We will catch up at some stage, I’m sure! 😁

[coolcat]

33 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Boulters at Horning tend to be cheapest, unless you can get under Ludham Bridge, in which case Rob at Sutton Staithe is possibly a little cheaper.

If you use Boulters, you need to book in, du to the limited space at their yard.

Take care Jeff.  We will catch up at some stage, I’m sure! 😁

Hi Malcolm,

George at Ludham Bridge is as far up the Ant as Lady Emma can travel. She is 10.5' even with the nav mast lowered. 

I normally just get it from round the corner at Bridgecraft but as she only sips the stuff on the Broads £50 lasts for ages. 

Going to be a bit different taking her down to Essex though....Eek!

 

[kpnut]

You could give grorge at ludham bridge a ring. If he has diesel in, he’s usually cheaper tan both Boulters and Sutton staithe. But last time I asked (a month ago) he was still awaiting a delivery. 

[Smoggy]

Get that fuel treatment in well before heading off to give it time to work and carry plenty of spare filters, practice changing them and bleeding the system as it's no fun at sea.

Check east coast pilot website for most recent chartlet of stone Point, once into the twizzle you'll be fine but Titchmarsh has a cill so look out for the depth gauge board.

[coolcat]

2 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Get that fuel treatment in well before heading off to give it time to work and carry plenty of spare filters, practice changing them and bleeding the system as it's no fun at sea.

Check east coast pilot website for most recent chartlet of stone Point, once into the twizzle you'll be fine but Titchmarsh has a cill so look out for the depth gauge board.

I have got Fuel Doctor additive ready for the re fulling. Tom Brissenden from Marine Care is coming to fully service both engines a week Wednesday. We will be keeping spare belts, filters, impellers etc for the trip along with tools on board. Flares checked and securely stowed and lifejackets re armed. Chart plotter maps up to date with back up Savvy Navvy on iPad and iPhone. We have also booked an RYA instructor from Eastern Horizon Training for an assisted passage who will be bringing paper charts as well. Certainly don't want to be taking any chances!

The plan is an early departure at low water from Gt Yarmouth and follow the flood water down to Titchmarsh and plan to arrive near to high tide. Our date is provisionally set third week in October but will dependent on conditions on the day.

I'll be sure to check East coast pilot website, thanks for that .

[coolcat]

3 hours ago, kpnut said:

You could give grorge at ludham bridge a ring. If he has diesel in, he’s usually cheaper tan both Boulters and Sutton staithe. But last time I asked (a month ago) he was still awaiting a delivery. 

I'm going to be up to Acle in a few days. I have used George on many occasion so may well give him a call. There does need to be a reasonable price advantage to travel any distance  as I can always just nip round the corner to Bridgecraft and fill up.  

[LondonRascal]

What you might like to consider is having the fuel polished - basically the fuel is sucked out the tank, sent through two filters of normal and higher filtration and back into the tank over and over in a loop. I had this done when i bought Independence and is something which is done at the boat, as long as you've got 240v power for the machine.

[MargeandParge]

Best place to fill and cheapest is at Lowestoft seaside of the lock I believe my pall was paying 1.25 when I was paying over 1.50..

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

 

[BroadAmbition]

If you can get to the bottom of your diesel tank(s) and if there is a drain key / plug then this would be ideal to drain off any sediment  and / or water that may have collected in the bottom of the tank (we installed one along with a sump on 'B.A' during her restoration).

It's all very well carrying spare filters but once out at sea, the diesel tank gets stirred up, muck enters the filter - A boat stopper,  Change filter clean it out, draw clean diesel through, off you go again only for the same thing to happen.  Cleaning out the bottom of diesel tanks is a must imho.  I've seen plenty of Broads based boats fall foul of this situation on short trips to Southwold and back.

If your tank has no drain / sump, then a hose with a simple impellor pump on a cordless drill will suffice, dip the hose to the bottom of the tank through the filler, suck out the bottom few inches of the tank into a bucket and have a look see.

Far better than changing filters whilst out at sea with your engine shut down

Hope this helps

Griff

[Vaughan]

42 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

then a hose with a simple impellor pump on a cordless drill will suffice, dip the hose to the bottom of the tank through the filler, suck out the bottom few inches of the tank into a bucket and have a look see.

I often used to clean the bottom of hire boat tanks in the spring.  When you change the fuel filters in spring, if the sediment trap -"Jam Jar" filter has muck in the bottom, it must have come from somewhere!

I always used an old fashioned brass sump pump with a length of 3/8" copper pipe but any old hand pump will do.  You will be amazed how much muck comes out and how long it takes before you start to pump clean diesel.

This is the reason why the feed pipe to the engine always stops about an inch and a quarter above the bottom of the tank, so as not to pick up sediment. At sea, with the boat rolling, the tank is stirred up and the muck comes up the pipe into the filters. Most tanks are fitted with baffles to stop them slopping about but this does not have much effect in reality.

I am sure the RNLI could confirm that the vast majority of their call-outs to boats broken down, are because of muck in the fuel.

[Smoggy]

When I changed my tanks I cut the bottoms out of the old ones to have a look, I recon the caked sludge was 1/2" thick and would only move when properly shaken about, unless good access to inside tanks for a scrape polishing only goes so far, but it certainly helps.

I spent a day with big filters and pumps sucking from tank drain and returning via tank vents while battering across breydon on and off throttles which took a fair bit out but never fully got rid of the crud, in the end it was a weeping seam that clinched the deal to replace them (I think the sludge was keeping the fuel in) which involved lifting both engines out to get access, since then I've been overdosing with marine 16 at every opportunity. 

Hope we're not scaring you off your trip coolcat.

On my previous boat I'd had the tanks out to weld new top plates in and fit sumps and had hoovered the insides before fitting the new tops, topped up in ely and on the return trip had a blockage caused by a lump of crud stuck up the pickup, I had to sort it while swmbo took the helm on one engine in horrible sea conditions just out of wells, not fun and I was probably a hideous shade of green with my head down the engine bay sloping diesel everywhere. 

[grendel]

for any of you that follow ship happens, on their other channel they posted all about the problems with dirty fuel, they were wise enough to get lifted back out and took out the fuel tanks, what they found was a lot worse than they expected (including the good tank, having far more crud in it than the bad one, not to mention corrosion..

 

[annv]

Hi Using FAME free fuel alleviates ad prevents much of the above perceived problems. John

[MauriceMynah]

I used to run two cars and one boat on 100% FAME for nine years. Never had a problem with it. 

[Regulo]

Whilst re-fitting some flooring in my uncle's boat some 20 years ago, we found a small threaded plug loose under the floor. Turns out it was the fuel tank drain plug. The only thing keeping 40 gallons of diesel in the tank was the built up sludge at the bottom. 

[Smoggy]

3 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

I used to run two cars and one boat on 100% FAME for nine years. Never had a problem with it. 

On the rivers and in cars the chances are you won't have issues,  cars have small tanks and fair quick turnover and river boats can have a big bug issue that never reaches the pickup, give the boat a proper shake up and it's a different matter, the average trip across breydon isn't a proper shake up, that said I've never worried about fame fuel but dose it well.

[Smoggy]

Walton is about 3 hours after gy HW and it's about 60NM so I'd leave gy at 1/2 flood so you can get under haven( I think your airdraft is about the same as mine and I work on it not lifting) and get the best of the tide down and arrive at stone point around 2 hours before hw with plenty of depth and if you get it wrong it's still rising, follow the buoys and you'll be fine.

At half tide you'll be flying past Aldeburgh ridge, there's less pot markers if you go outside whiting bank and watch for the 5 litre oil can markers around pye end and medusa channel near the Walton entrance as they're barely visible. 

Disclaimer: this is from memory and after 3 newcastle browns so do your own passage plan...

And I've not been in to Titchmarsh for a few years.