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Mark42

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Hi

great repair work , sorry to see it happen.

Might have something to do with mooring tips given by your staff..............

Previously I would have approached a side on mooring practically side on but this year was shown how to do it with the front aimed at the bank. Didn't work 1st time every time but was easier when it did.

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks Clive,

Looking forward to it a lot! She looks (from the pictures I've seen) a lovely boat. Not been at the broads for 20 years (we were enticed by the weather in the French canals and Venetian Lagoon). We had an old rear cockpit boat from Richardsons (it was all we could aford at the time) - but had a great holiday!

Can you advise on the best web-sites to to plan our cruise?

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Hi Jill, Thanks for the welcome! :wave

Any cruising tips for next week - do I keep to the upper broads or do I venture south?

Hi Saltire, we're pretty much in the same situation as yourselves picking up Broadsman 3 on Friday. We've decided as we are only on for a week that although doing north to South in a week is possible that we will stick north, plenty to see and do and doesn't dictate the need for a solid days hard cruising.

Stu

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Hello Saltire,

Welcome to the forum.

As Stu says it may be best to stay on the Northern Rivers and Broads, there is plenty to do and now it is getting later in the season there may be more mooring available at the popular spots.

I am not sure of your boat height, but Potter Heigham has been out for a number of craft this year and with the rain yesterday I would think that advove Potter Heigham would be out of the question. The pilots at Potter Heigham and Wroxham will say yes or no to your passage/passage back.

With regards to tide tables I always use the Broads Authority website tables, the reason for this is that their tables give the height of the low tides and we can only go through Yarmouth at certain tides due to our air draft.

Have a good time and please report back to us all how it went.

Regards

Alan

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Any cruising tips for next week - do I keep to the upper broads or do I venture south?

Saltire, welcome to the forum from me as well.

If you look at the tide table for next week, (see http://www.norfolk-broads.org/ for the full tide table.)

the Yarmouth bridges look like being a no-go area, morning slack is too early, evening slack is to late...

(And also remember that Bolero is a tall boat so you really do need to be close to slack waer if you did want to try it)

Slack Water Yarmouth:

Sat 29 Sep 2012 bst 04:59 / 17:22

Sun 30 Sep 2012 bst 05:37 / 17:59

Mon 1 Oct 2012 bst 06:12 / 18:32

Tue 2 Oct 2012 bst 06:44 / 19:04

Wed 3 Oct 2012 bst 07:15 / 18:34

Thu 4 Oct 2012 bst 07:46 / 20:04

Fri 5 Oct 2012 bst 08:18 / 20:35

That site is also useful when planning where you want to go as it has interactive maps with attached photos etc.

I would stay up North myself, there is plenty to see for a week even if you are constrained by the air-draft

(height above the waterline) which is why she "Will not pass under Potter Heigham, Wayford, Wroxham or Beccles bridges."

That only leaves two bridges north of Yarmouth that you can get through, Acle and Ludham.

Acle is not a problem as there is plenty of clearance (you have Stacey Arms and Stokesby downstream of Acle, plus the Bridge Inn itself and you could go down to Yarmouth if you wanted to as the moorings are upstream of the bridges)

Ludham is quoted as 8' 6" at average high water which could cause a problem, but I have taken a sister-ship of Bolero through there before (but I did it close to low-water).

So you may need to plan your trip to go through Ludham at the right times (the tide planner from the site above will give you the times for Ludham Bridge)

Rememberthat you will need to do it on the way back as well.

I would ask the yard for advice about Ludham Bridge when you pick the boat up as they must be used to people asking.

I hope this helps.

Martin

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Yea - I was thinking that we should keep to the North. we can't get through at Potter Heigham or Wroxham bridges. This doesn't greatly concern me - I've been above both of these bridges on my last visit. I did, however, fancy a wee trip throgh Great Yarmouth - however the tide tables for next week would probably mean an early start in the morning! Hoping the weather is better than this week!

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Martin, Thanks for that information. Air draught on Bolero is 8'3'' so quite tight at average high water for Ludham bridge. I'm sure it won't be a problem if I keep away from it at high water.

Sounds like you've been around the broads a bit?

regards,

Saltire.

By comparison to many of the forum members I am just a novice, having only done about 10 weeks on the Broads in total....

I am, however, a bit more experienced in the salty side of boating, but under sail (wind permitting) rather than motor boating.

You might find one of my "holiday tales" blogs http://www.thenorfolkbroads.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=8086 interesting as it tells the tale of a four day trip on Alphacraft's Spitfire which is a sister ship of Bolero, although possibly with a slightly different internal fit-out.

I booked her for a week when the tide times at Yarmouth were favourable and we did Brundall, Reedham, Ranworth, Salhouse, Beauchamps Arms, Brundall including side trips up the Ant to Barton Broad and back and a shopping trip to Roys all in four days so we covered most of the area that is available to you.

The following year we had Hurricane, another boat in the same class, out for another four day trip, but that time we stayed down in the South.

The upper helm position does give you a different view of the Broads than you get wih the "bathtub" boats that I normally hire, and the bow-thruster makes manouvering a lot easier. The only thing that I would say is make sure that they explain fully how to swap the helming positions over, on Spitfire we found that you had to put both throttles in neutral and then flip the switch over (after finding that we couldn't get it to work when approaching Yarmouth for the first time). You may want to switch over quickly if you see a rain shower coming....

Hope you have a good trip

Martin

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Hello Saltire,

Be aware that there may be work on the river at Yarmouth on the old Vauxhall Railway Bridge, work was supposed to start in early Setember but I was forwarded information that this would be delayed until October by the engineer (Tim Ellis) in charge of the job.

I have just checked on the Broads Authority website but there has not been an update since the notice that I have will post below.

At 8 ft 3 inches you should not a problem at Yarmouth other than the times of slack water.

Watch out for the river height markers they are not very clear at the lower measurements also there is not too many of them.

We need 9ft 8 inches to get through Yarmourth and going down river if we can see 7 full rungs on the ladders at Yarmouth Yacht Station we know there is 10 foot clearance under the two bridges.

Regards

Alan

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Norfolk County Council will be carrying out repairs on the Vauxhall Railway Bridge (near the River Bure entrance) from

10 September 2012 – 25 January 2013

Phase 1 - Erection of the scaffolding will take approximately 2 weeks from 10 to 24 September and will be encapsulated and marked by high visibility tape and orange flashing lights. A safety boat will be in operation. During this period vessels normally able to navigate through the bridge will still be able to pass through but delays may be encountered.

Phase 2 - The river will be closed to mariners between

00:00 3 December and 00:00 9 December 2012 to enable works to be carried out in the navigation channel and no access will be available. Warning notices will be placed upstream and downstream of the works.

At all other times vessels normally able to navigate through the bridge will still be able to pass through. Please approach the area with extreme care and caution at all times taking note of any signage or direction.

Any queries concerning the works should be addressed to Norfolk County Council Resident Engineer Tim Ellis who can be contacted on 07885579597 or tim.ellis@norfolk.gov.uk

Angie Leeper

Asset Officer

Broads Authority

2 Gilders Way

Norwich

NR3 1UB

13 August 2012

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  • 3 weeks later...

Had a great holiday - great boat! A wee bit of a problem mooring at Reedham (fast running tide) and a tight squeeze at Ludham bridge, but overall this boat handles great! Broads authority could do with up- dating their showers at Great Yarmouth, but the River Centre near Oulton Broad has great facilities. We got up the crack of dawn most days, and spent most of the day cruising so covered a lot of ground (all rivers cruised apart from Chet). Spent £210 on fuel, but was running against tides on occasions so thought this was was ok. The down-sides were that changing between upper and lower controls was difficult (seems to be a problem on this boat type). The windscreen wiper at the lower helm position was too small, and would have been bad visibility from down there in the rain, so the two mornings it rained I wrapped up with my waterproofs up the top! I returned home from my week on the Broads totally chilled and relaxed.

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Hello Saltire,

Glad to hear that you had a good trip and are chilled out.

The worst thing about any form of boating holiday whether it be on the cannals or the Broads is getting back into a car and driving home the shock of traveling at more than 4 to 6miles on hour back to the real world is frighting and you wish you were back on the boat.

Are you now planning your next visit?

Regards

Alan

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Thinking about my next boating trip - yes! Whether that's the Norfolk Broads or elsewhere I'm not sure.

I must say that I was taken with the southern broads - a lot quieter than the northern (and still the Chet to do). I am, however, considering doing some RYA training and the ICC, and hopefully cruise the Croatian coast in a couple of years time. The Thames also is a consideration for a holiday, but it is more expensive than the broads. We'll see. I'm sure I will be back to the Broads soon.

If anyone from the BA is reading this, is there any plans for up-grades at Great Yarmouth?

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Hello Saltire,

Glad to hear that you had a good trip and are chilled out.

The worst thing about any form of boating holiday whether it be on the cannals or the Broads is getting back into a car and driving home the shock of traveling at more than 4 to 6miles on hour back to the real world is frighting and you wish you were back on the boat.

Are you now planning your next visit?

Regards

Alan

Alan,

Nice boat you have!

Saltire

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Fuel costs are an issue and are just an extra charge on a holiday.

When we went on a canal holiday in June and completed the Cheshire Ring in a week we were billed for £144 and we cruised for 10 to 12 hours per day and had the heating on all day and night. I would suspect that Saltire also had the heating on a fair amount of time as well. Reading the posts they went a fair way and covered most of the broads apart from beyond Potter Heigham.

I always seems a shame to me that a lot of boats in marina's never seem to move, the owners can pay all the fees, so is the problem of not having time to enjoy their boats or is it not having the cash to pay for the fuel?

Regards

Alan

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Guys, don't get me wrong, I'm not really having a moan about the price of the fuel, I did travel a lot of miles, was on the go all day, and had the heating on every night and morning as I had my elderly parents with me (shh..don't tell them I called them elderly). However the thing that does get me is how do I know that the fuel was topped up at the start of the week as there was no fuel gauge on the boat and I wasn't there when they filled it up! They hadn't checked that the gas bottles were full, as we did run out of gas on the first night (lucky we stayed at the boat yard and managed to catch one of the guys just as he was leaving to go home)! Also we needed a pump out on the Wednesday (I would have expected the holding tanks to be bigger than that). Also on the first night we had seemed to use a lot of water when we filled up in the morning, so wasn't sure if the water tank was topped up. Anyway, I suppose we have to take all these things on trust, and we had a great holiday, and I loved the boat!

Saltire

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I noticed that the first 'water top up' I did on holiday back in August took the longest (and there was plenty of pressure!).... I did also wonder if the water tank had been brimmed before we set off. Fuel was certainly full as I witnessed that being dipped. (Ferry Marina)

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We had 13 days out a few weeks ago and went from Wroxham to

Norwich, to Oulton Broad, to Beccles, and back to Wroxham plus

spots inbetween and used 63 litres with 63 hrs on the meter.

Thats in our Sheerline with a BMC 1500d. Cost? £73.

I know because I topped it up before we left and refilled on our return.

Clive mentioned a while ago that the BMC's are very economical and

that seems to prove it.

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