Closing Breydon Water

[MargeandParge]

It's  a big WOW from us .

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[grendel]

this is Breydon when shut to hire boats- not so great going the other way- into wind and tide

[dom]

That just looks like fun to me

It's also not as bad as it used to be meeting Golden Galleon doing 15 knots.

It'd be interesting to see how bad it was in the days of peak freight shipping.

[catcouk]

Does anyone have a photo of a "coaster" on the river. My parents always spoke about them with some trepidation but I never saw one myself. I've always wondered how big they were.

[YnysMon]

Photos have been posted on othe threads, I can’t remember which though.

There is a brilliant old film on YouTube which features a coaster going along the Yare.

 

[dom]

I was watching that again earlier to see if there as a coaster featured. The last chapter shows one, but heading downstream onto Breydon, so possibly not fully laden. I suspect on the way up they probably produced a fair bit more wash.

There are loads of pictures on Broadland Memories - several on this page,* but lots more dotted around the various galleries.

* also a picture of Grosvenor Girl, who I dread to think how many times I washed, pumped out and fuelled. She was a lovely boat, but I wonder now what hull she was based on.

[WherryNice]

10 minutes ago, dom said:

but I wonder now what hull she was based on.

She's built on a Bounty hull, she was for sale not that long ago and it was detailed in the ad :)

[dom]

10 minutes ago, WherryNice said:

She's built on a Bounty hull, she was for sale not that long ago and it was detailed in the ad :)

I think I've seen that (all in white?), but I'm not absolutely convinced at the accuracy of the info. It looks like Boatshed might have just taken the data from the broads.org.uk database.

I'm fairly sure I can remember her being built and the year seems about right - but Bounty were churning out bathtubs around that time and I can't recall seeing another boat with that odd stepped deck (other than the smaller Freeman 32, which might have inspired it). There was a centre cockpit Bounty 35, but it was earlier and built on a Bourne 35 hull.

I don't think it's a case tht Summercraft cut the lower section away, as the freeboard seems too high at the front.

[WherryNice]

4 minutes ago, dom said:

I think I've seen that (all in white?), but I'm not absolutely convinced at the accuracy of the info. It looks like Boatshed might have just taken the data from the broads.org.uk database.

I'm fairly sure I can remember her being built and the year seems about right - but Bounty were churning out bathtubs around that time and I can't recall seeing another boat with that odd stepped deck (other than the smaller Freeman 32, which might have inspired it). There was a centre cockpit Bounty 35, but it was earlier and built on a Bourne 35 hull.

I don't think it's a case tht Summercraft cut the lower section away, as the freeboard seems too high at the front.

It's the shape of the stern that makes me think she is a Bounty hull, very squared off and slab sided to my eye, much like the Melodys are, happy to be proven wrong though.

[dom]

12 minutes ago, WherryNice said:

happy to be proven wrong though.

I very nearly used the exact same phrase in my last message. You may well be right, but there's something I can't put my finger on which makes me think she's something else.

Summercraft were real scavengers (in a good way), so I suspect it could just as easily be something odd they picked up cheaply somewhere down the line. One of their boats (non hire) was something like a harbour launch rumoured to have originally come from Hong Kong, which I remember them salvaging from the mouth of the Deben. She was powered by a Perkins 6354 scavenged from a combine harvester. It was that boat that got me and my dad involved with working at the yard.

 

[MargeandParge]

3 hours ago, dom said:

I was watching that again earlier to see if there as a coaster featured. The last chapter shows one, but heading downstream onto Breydon, so possibly not fully laden. I suspect on the way up they probably produced a fair bit more wash.

There are loads of pictures on Broadland Memories - several on this page,* but lots more dotted around the various galleries.

* also a picture of Grosvenor Girl, who I dread to think how many times I washed, pumped out and fuelled. She was a lovely boat, but I wonder now what hull she was based on.

Dom do you remember Golden Girl my mum took me for a holiday on her 50 odd years ago

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[dom]

9 hours ago, MargeandParge said:

Dom do you remember Golden Girl my mum took me for a holiday on her 50 odd years ago

There were two Golden Girls in my time (misleadingly named 1 and 2), but they were later GRP Horizon 35s bought in from another yard.

I presume the one you're referring to is the old wooden aft cockpit boat, described as a Sabberton 27 on the broads database. The name suggests she was probably built by Dick Sabberton, who I worked for. I visited the yard regularly from around the age of 4, so she may well have been around at the same time I was, but I think she'd probably left by the time I actually worked at the yard.

I love the colour picture on the broads database. Fairly sure it's Dick at the helm, dressed in a shirt as always, with the fenders all neatly up on deck. There was definitely a whole different level of pride in what they did back then.

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, dom said:

There was definitely a whole different level of pride in what they did back then.

Pride is the word for it.

[MargeandParge]

Thanks dom it was the wooden one a lovely boat and cost me a lot of money but so much pleasure since that first holiday. I can remember a petrol BMC a hand cluth a gear lever like a signal box ,separate throttle and so much fun and excitement.

The Summercraft yard were very kind and gave us confidence to go out and enjoy ourselves. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge