10 Days on Ranworth Breeze

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Alan,

 

The extra couple of days (well an extra full day and two nights) were a bonus.

 

I like to meet all the owners if I can, but other owners have taken new owners out for training or shown people around the boat.

 

The AGM's are a good time to meet up and share our tips re what we do when onboard, this also discussed on our private forum.

 

We have made a large number of friends both in our syndicate and other syndicates on the Broads.

 

Regards

Alan

[Matt]

I am intrigued by the emergency tiller...... Is it there due to a previous bad experience or just something nobody wants to get rid of "just incase"?!

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Matt,

Because our Birchwood 340AC was built with a sea going specification the emergency tiller was part of the sea kit in case the hydraulic steering failed.

 

Just an emergency aid, I remember the anchors used on narrow boats that were stowed ready for use on flooded rivers.

 

I have not seen this provision used on the Broads  however.

 

Regards

Alan

[Baitrunner]

Alan,

    I could probably Google it, but I am assuming she is a single engine on a shaft as she has a rudder?

 

Would like to have a look round her one day if your on the boat when we are?

 

Do you normally travel to Lodden and Rockland Staithe at high water (I may have asked this question before on another post)? Think you probably have a similar draft to me.

[Matt]

Hi Matt,

Because our Birchwood 340AC was built with a sea going specification the emergency tiller was part of the sea kit in case the hydraulic steering failed

Regards

Alan

Just pretend it's a Richo's hire boat and use the bow thruster to steer-it's all the rage "up Norf"

[BroadScot]

Just pretend it's a Richo's hire boat and use the bow thruster to steer-it's all the rage "up Norf"

Oh I will tell ALL the other boaters at 06.30am when I leave the quay with BOTH bow AND stern thrusters going I will say it was Matt's idea on the NBN Forum!

Nice to have the toys, but will use sparingly.

 

Iain

[Baitrunner]

So Iain will your excuse for crabbing down the Ant be that the bow and stern thrusters are stuck or just need to be tested every 5 minutes?    

 

You could always have a lie in and not leave so early as well.

 

So how many hands do you need? Throttle, bow thruster, stern thruster, steering, beer (or tea for you) - you must be an octopus  

 

Enjoy the toys

[ranworthbreeze]

We did see a few hire boats using the bow thruster to aid steering, I hope that the bow trusters used are constant rated or have a cut out to protect the motors. They also draw an awful amount of current from the batteries.

 

We only use ours when necessary well at least I do. The ideal use of these is getting out of tight mooring locations such as the side moorings at Ranworth Staithe.

 

These are not cheap for basically what is an heavy goods starter motor.

 

Regards

Alan

[Baitrunner]

Alan,

Your right there. You dont want to have to replace one of those motors.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Mark,

 

We are onto our fourth one however, we only had to pay for the second one when we were managed by a management company; £2500, ouch!!

 

Since then we have had free repairs by a couple of our fellow owners, who improved the motors by fitting additional thrust bearings and improved brushes and brush gear.

 

I current have our now refurbished bow thruster at home awaiting installation if required. 

 

Regards

Alan

[Baitrunner]

Double ouch!! Glad you have a spare.

Mine was less than half that but it still hurt my pocket!!!

I try to use it sparingly as well.

[ranworthbreeze]

Day 9 Tuesday 21st April.

Breakfast over using up some of the fruit and bread to try and cut down on the food we had to pack up ready for taking home. The last thing to pack up will be the fridge, for longer journeys I would use a cool bag or cool box and the freezer packs, but we only had to put a few bits in, a few cold bottles or tins of beer will help keep items such bacon, cheese and margarine cold if sealed in a couple of plastic shopping bags.

Tan did the washing up whist I took the boat round to Broom’s to get the toilet tanks pumped out and the fuel tanks filled (one toilet emptied £18 or both for £23) We used about £63 worth of diesel for our week plus aboard Ranworth Breeze; this included the fuel used for the heating at night.

Back to the marina I started on the jigsaw puzzle of getting all the bags into the car, Geoff will know all about this because I wanted the roof down for our journey home.

Car fully packed I went back aboard and checked out the engine, filled up the water reservoir and after shutting off the seacock removed the water intake filer which I took ashore to fully wash out. The filter was refitted nuts fully locked off seacock open and the engine turned over to check that everything was good.

Tan cleaned down the bathrooms/wetrooms, this is an easy task all you need to do is fill up the sink with warm soapy water and sponge down all the walls and fittings and then shower off.

After all the cleaning was completed by us both I refilled the water tank to full.

We completed the boats log indicating that the boat was cleaned by the owner/contractor, fuel and water tanks full and all checks done and nothing damaged or broken.

I had left the upper deck as the last job to be done before we would leave the boat.

We decided to wait for Rich & Lisa who had done their Roy’s shop and arrived down at the boat by about 11.30am (we used to be off the boat by 9.00am when the syndicate first started).

As always it is sad to leave the boat, we decided to go to Horning we wanted to look at a boat at NYA a Funnell 37 Sedan (2010), in the end we looked at three boats, the Funnell was the worst of the boats. We quite liked a Haines 32 Sedan (2013) but preferred a Westwood C340 Coupe which had a better specification.

Its ok we were only looking, but you can never stand still with boating.

We called in at Womak Staithe on our round about way home, we took in the sunshine all the way home and arrived back in Sheffield about 6.30pm.

Did I mention that this had been our 29th weeks visit to the Broads? Roll on the beginning of September.

You might be asking what happened to the 10th day? Of course I did not list our first day when we arrived down at Brundall on Sunday 12th April when we were lucky enough to take over Tony & Julie’s allocation.

We try and inform other owners if we are leaving early so they can take advantage of any extra time aboard the boat.

Regards

Alan

[BroadScot]

So Iain will your excuse for crabbing down the Ant be that the bow and stern thrusters are stuck or just need to be tested every 5 minutes?    

 

You could always have a lie in and not leave so early as well.

 

So how many hands do you need? Throttle, bow thruster, stern thruster, steering, beer (or tea for you) - you must be an octopus  

 

Enjoy the toys

Hi Mark,

 

I had them on Silver Harmony and only used them once. As the late Alan Johnston taught me, there is more than one way to leave a mooring, especially if its very windy! Bow thrusters are probably helpful to first time users, as for getting up and moving at 06.30am good god sir, no way   I am RETIRED remember! BTW not tea, Scotland's other national drink..Irn Bru  Failing that Low Alcohol Czech or German wheat biers,

 

 

Iain.

[GeoffandWendy]

Brilliant holiday read Alan & Tan, so glad you enjoyed yourselves, as did Wendy and I on our first Broads holiday. The beauty of it, is the fact that there are so many places to see and do. Moor up at different places every night and wake up to new surroundings. Just to get away from the hustle of road traffic for a week, yet still being able to cover long distances and see the unfolding countryside, full of wildlife, is something to enjoy. It has certainly whetted our appetite for more and we can't wait to get back in September, although we do have a week in Devon to look forward to as well, but this one on dry land.

 

Thank you for sharing your time on Ranworth Breeze with us.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Geoff,

Where about do you go in Devon?

We normally go to Hope Cove in the South Hams.

Regards

Alan

[GeoffandWendy]

Hi Geoff,

Where about do you go in Devon?

We normally go to Hope Cove in the South Hams.

Regards

Alan

 

We have booked a nice B&B hotel in Ilfracoombe for seven nights, but will be visiting all the places along that part of Devon. We love Lynton & Lynmouth and even Coombe Martin is nice. There is a quaint old 16th century pub in a village called Beranarbour that does excellent meals and all the houses in the village have all sorts of dfferent plant pot men hanging by their front doors. So that will be one evening meal taken care of.

We aim to spend half a day in Dunster after we check out and have booked two extra nights B&B (Sat, Sun) at a nice country pub near Gladstonbury and Wells, so we can visit those places before going home.