Broads Society

[Guest]

https://www.broads-society.org/post/boating-and-the-broads-society

[dom]

Broads Society appear to have little to offer boaters. When I asked a while back what we might get for our money, they didn't appear to have a worthwhile answer. They also appear far too willing to be a mouthpiece for BA National Park type propaganda.

In my opinion, NSBA is a better way to spend your money (http://www.thegreenbook.org.uk/) as they're unequivocally a boater's organisation.

NSBA membership is only half the price and, if nothing else, you get a copy of the extremely useful Green Book, which contains loads of info about the Broads - including transit times, guides to passing through Yarmouth, etc, plus a list of names, owners and handicaps for all the main sailing classes. They also play a key role in promoting youth sailing.

 

[ExSurveyor]

I have blocked them on our Facebook group as they were swamping it with constant posts.

I take the same view of other organisations that want to ride on the back of a successful forum but don't want to put the effort in to set up a their own platform.

[Guest]

On 27/06/2024 at 16:45, dom said:

Broads Society appear to have little to offer boaters. When I asked a while back what we might get for our money, they didn't appear to have a worthwhile answer. They also appear far too willing to be a mouthpiece for BA National Park type propaganda.

In my opinion, NSBA is a better way to spend your money (http://www.thegreenbook.org.uk/) as they're unequivocally a boater's organisation.

NSBA membership is only half the price and, if nothing else, you get a copy of the extremely useful Green Book, which contains loads of info about the Broads - including transit times, guides to passing through Yarmouth, etc, plus a list of names, owners and handicaps for all the main sailing classes. They also play a key role in promoting youth sailing.

 

Currently we are campaigning for:

1. more central Government money to fund the Ba so that there is less reliance on tolls money as the NP grant hasn't been increased, meaning a real-terms cut

2 Extension of the are on Hickling (with Hickling sailing club) that is cleared of underwater plants to allow sailing on a much larger part of the Broad.

3  We are asking the Gt YarmouthPort Authority, Peel Ports, andNorfolk County Council to makesignificant improvements to the navigation facilities in Gt Yarmouth.

4. We are lobbying for use of the commercial jetty on Breydon Water for recreational purposes. ie demasting

5. We are listened to by the BA because we dont spend our lives on a keyboard complaining about everything they do.

 

Hope that helps

 

[dom]

Aside of the fact it's something BA should be doing for themselves, point 1 appears to be a largely futile exercise. There is a major shortfall of funding for waterways on the horizon and anything which does become available is very likely to go to CRT, as they benefit a massively larger network and user base (and have a substantial funding shortfall - something like £12-15m).

Point 2 is obviously well intended, but has very limited benefit due to the fact no-one who isn't already above Potter Heigham bridge is likely to get under it any time soon, due to the water level issues affecting the network - an area where BA rhetoric is sounding increasingly less convincing.

Point 3 is comical. BA (with recognised legal status) can't even get Peel Ports to adhere to their legal obligations. Quite why BS are going to have any more influence is completely beyond me.

Point 4, I'm not clear why there's a need for this? The pontoon is already available for demasting and yachts have been traversing this stretch for decades, if not centuries?

If you're trying to win people over to join BS, I can't see what you think you're achieving with a comment like point 5, which appears to be a direct insult to BRAG, people on here, etc. I find it hard to believe that BS's other trustees would sanction such an inflamatory statement?

On 27/06/2024 at 17:37, batrabill said:

 

 

I fail to see why you think you have a right to demand that I should reveal myself. I'm an ordinary member of NSBA, RYA and GOBA (a not especially close relative was a director of RYA at one time, but he's sadly now deceased). Several of my family have a boating industry background and I'm very distantly related to an old Broads boatbuilding family. None of that, as far as I'm concerned infers any duty to disclose anything beyond my forum username. A few people on here do know who I am because I've chosen to tell them, but that's mainly because we share common pasts or connections.

 

[Guest]

You seem to be making a case for doing nothing. Most positive things take a lot of time and are achieved by pressure over a long time. I don’t care to dissect your point by point response, except to say if you sail across Breydon then you will understand why the commercial mooring would be very useful. 

[Paladin]

1 hour ago, batrabill said:

Currently we are campaigning for:

1. more central Government money to fund the Ba so that there is less reliance on tolls money as the NP grant hasn't been increased, meaning a real-terms

 

Are you saying that if central government increases the Secretary of State grant the BA won't need to divert so much of the tolls income to support NP costs?

[Vaughan]

13 hours ago, batrabill said:

5. We are listened to by the BA because we dont spend our lives on a keyboard complaining about everything they do.

 Neither do I, thank you.

But if they do something that I know is bad for the Broads, I say so.  If that happens rather often these days, is that my fault?

13 hours ago, ExSurveyor said:

I take the same view of other organisations that want to ride on the back of a successful forum but don't want to put the effort in to set up a their own platform.

I find that encouraging, since I have always hoped that the views expressed on this forum might one day be heard where it matters.

Whether the Broads Society, these days, is "where it matters", is perhaps a different matter. . . . .

[Vaughan]

13 hours ago, batrabill said:

Currently we are campaigning for:

1. more central Government money to fund the Ba so that there is less reliance on tolls money as the NP grant hasn't been increased, meaning a real-terms cut

2 Extension of the are on Hickling (with Hickling sailing club) that is cleared of underwater plants to allow sailing on a much larger part of the Broad.

3  We are asking the Gt YarmouthPort Authority, Peel Ports, andNorfolk County Council to makesignificant improvements to the navigation facilities in Gt Yarmouth.

4. We are lobbying for use of the commercial jetty on Breydon Water for recreational purposes. ie demasting

Is that it?

An awful lot of things missing from that list, compared to the Broads matters that we were seriously involved in, when I was a committee member, in the 70s.

[Tempest]

I actually found both hyperlinks of interest so thanks for posting....