Speeding

[JawsOrca]

Dear all hirers if you speed past us when im doing 6mph. I will report you... Its disgusting up here this week..

[boycee]

Good idea Alan but I dont think that many hirers will be on the forum to heed your warning and neither do I think the Broads Authority will do a lot about it unless they receive several complaints about an individual boat.Thats why we moor on the Northern Broads but with the exception of March to May and mid Sept to end of Oct we spend all our time on the Southern Broads

Boycee

[JawsOrca]

True boyee. We are being overtaken constantly and at speed. Theres no need... perhaps its the limited moorings up here or something. I really think its time for gps speedo. I can see why people stay south. Im going off the north very quickly. I am honestly reporting serious offenders though.

[Viking23]

I know this is aimed at hirers, but we also need to include some private craft too, last year we were travelling down the Bure past Wroxham broad and we were overtaken at speed by a private gin palace which was earlier moored at Wroxham.

[CaptainJoshie]

Alan,

Good idea I'll do the same, but include the odd privateers that do it too. Wish I has a speed gun to use when moored up as well.

We could do with more Rangers, off their boats on the bankside, with speed guns at moorings to catch the speeders. We got well rocked about on the Ant last week.

This year the behaviour does seem to have slipped way down, but I have no idea why?

John.

[imtamping2]

You could try the old fisherman's trick....... it involves a pint of maggots and a catapult.

[JawsOrca]

Sadly we are currently seeing mainly hirers although sure if anyone overtakes us at a dangerous speed. Ticket on its way. Personally I think everyone needs to report it. Its ruining the broads.

[boycee]

Totally agree Viking. We were overtaken last week near Langley Dyke by a gin palace

doing at least 8 mph with a hugh bow wave. Found him moored at Coldham about half an hour later and let him know whatI thought of his actions-result no response

Boycee

[ranworthbreeze]

My impression is that the post is aimed at people speeding who ever they might be and craft they are on.

 

I wish that boats would adopt the practice used on the canals of slowing down going past moored boats. On the Broads slow down for fishermen (or Grace) and people in canoes or kayaks, we are all river users after all.

 

Regards

Alan

[Soundings]

 

 

I wish that boats would adopt the practice used on the canals of slowing down going past moored boats. 

 

Regards

Alan

Agreed, Alan. But then they would never get moving given the numbers on the northern rivers

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Colin,

 

Alas it was the same on the canals when we were on one of them last year, at one time it used to be your average MPH was governed by the number of locks, moveable bridges and tunnels, these days it is down to the amount of long term mooring that is allowed on the tow path by the River Trust, in some cases it is impossible to moor in some of the villages.

 

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

Perhaps one of those dashboard cam things you can get for cars would do the trick?

If you fitted it with a 12V plug you could move it from car to boat.

[ExMemberBobdog]

On the Broads slow down for fishermen (or Grace) and people in canoes or kayaks, 

 

Yes please.  Was out for a couple of early evening hours paddling my kayak from Thurne Dyke to Womack and back this evening.  Lovely and quite most of the way - but some a*s*h*l*s about.  Apologies for the swearing anyone that heard it - but I was nearly tipped over several times.  Most of the motorboats we saw were proceeding at a legal pace, and showed courtesy by pulling well wide of us, but others - steamed by with not a thought for the consequences.  Both hire and private boats were among the 'saints' and the 'sinners'.

[Soundings]

Hi Alan,

Depends where you are, but at least there are plenty of miles on the canals. Currently we are on the Great Ouse (not the canals I know) and it is brilliant - was working on the boat last weekend and saw four boats moving, Well three really as one of them was the same one coming back!

 

Going back to topic, there may have been loads of boats in your area but you respected that and slowed down accordingly. More should do that on the Broads. My comment was tongue in cheek - I agree the boats should at all times slow down, taking local conditions into account.

 

C&RT are starting to get to grips with tow path moorings as it is bad in some places (and not so in many more). There will always be honeypots and I guess the trend is for holiday boats to head for those. It will take time but they are enforcing the 1/2/7 day etc mooring and continuous cruising rules far more rigorously. It is upsetting some but not the majority

[senator]

We now moor Riverside at Reedham and do notice how many boats push the limit,

 

Ironically it is the bigger private boats that are responsible for some of the worst offences due to the Rail bridge closing for up to 40 minutes at a time, if they are five minutes away and told the bridge will close in 5 minutes they are going to push it.

 

Biggest problem with 5,6,7 or even 8 miles an hour is you are never going to get a successful prosecution for speeding.

 

There is no accurate measure of speed on the boats, the water is tidal and runs in different directions at different speeds, it is unreasonable to expect someone who has never helmed a boat before to be able to tell the difference between 4 and 6 mph.

 

Catch a boat on the plane and your onto a winner but other than that the only chance you have is recless behavoir by causing such a large wake it is obvious that something is wrong. 

[Soundings]

Is it not made more difficult at Reedham due to the tides? The water really does push down there and if going with the flow you have to keep up with it or lose steerage.

[Viking23]

You could try the old fisherman's trick....... it involves a pint of maggots and a catapult.

Well if we were confronted with that, and there would never be a situation where that would happen, as we are very considerate to all river users, then we might just let them have the contents of our elsan lol...

Brings a new meaning to the term "recycled toilet paper".

Mind you... some anglers are so well camouflaged amongst the reeds that sometimes you can't see them.

They could do with a flourescent flag on the rod end.

[alexandlorna]

Funnily enough we arrived at the swingbridge at Reedham on Monday and as we approached it started to open 

I carried on keeping hard right and there close to the dolphin protecting the pivot was a large Gin palace 

Due to tide and such I would have. Given way but he was still unable to proceed,  so I kept right and went through, receiving looks that would kill from some woman perched on his port side
My point is he should not have been there so close to the bridge, a sudden engine failure would have seen him pushed against the bridge

He should have been on the pontoon provided

I "waved" vigorously! 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

One thing we must ALL remember, and that is on a hireboat, there is a plaque on the dash that gives a speed per RPM, which is governed by the boat travelling in tidal water. Going against the tide, at an RPM of say 1,750 at 6mph, and say 1,250 at 4mph, your speed over land will increase or decrease depending on whether you`re going with, or against the tide. If the speed limits are to be applied as over land, then in some fast tidal areas, it will be very difficult to maintain 4 mph while going with the tide, and also you will be seriously reducing the amount of steerage. As for GPS speedos, we had one on Maffett cruisers Kestrel last year. Wile punching the tide, at max revs, we could`nt get any more than 4.9mph over land. Imagine how much slower we would have been going if punching a hard tide through Gt Yarmouth.?.

 

 

It`s all very well saying you`re going to report someone, but why not name and shame the yards for having boats capable of being able to go so fast. we were passed by a number of hire boats over recent years, and quite fast too, but i wonder how people would react if i mentioned the yard of the majority of boats that we see regularly speeding?.

 

Instead of reporting it to the BA report it to their home yard, and see what their response is.

 

What IS unforgivable is speeding past moored boats, fishermen, and people in unpowered small personal watercraft. That is just downright bad manners and inconsiderate, possibly also dangerous.

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Is it not made more difficult at Reedham due to the tides? The water really does push down there and if going with the flow you have to keep up with it or lose steerage.

 

Don`t forget Gt Yarmouth.

[alexandlorna]

We have witnessed lots of speeding all the way from Berney to Surlingham most hire boats but more than a few private vessels too

I think most hire vessels should be drastically governed down 

They could still have their full power for going up the Bure if it was done based on Gps mapping /tracking 

Come to think tracking would let hire companies check boat speedsand location 

The downside cost and complication so it will never happen

Nice to dream though

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I forgot to say, years ago, long befor the invention of GPS systems, ALL boats relied on speed through the water, and most still do, so why do we now have the stupid system of speed over land, which then allows the faster offshore designs to LEGALLY do a possible 7-8 mph over water at somewhere like Gt yarmouth, which would be something like 4 mph over land, and creating a huge wash which could be dangerous to moored boats.?.

 

I think it might be so the BA can stand around with speed guns rather than patrol the rivers?. Or am i just being a tad scynical again?.

[Hockham Admiral]

Unfortunately, Neil, there's no other way they can apart from following you. And that's just not possible with the number of speeders about.

Alan has brought up a subject dear to my heart!

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Hi John

 

I know speeding boats can ve a real problem, but things have got worse since the instigation of the new way of measuring it over land.  There was a lot less of it before, and now a lot of people are jusyt jumping on the bandwagon, and wanting to say what is the right thing. I`ve been hiring for 45 years, and i`ve never heard of so many so called problems before this stupid system came into being.

 

I like to slowly chug around and enjoy the slower pace of life afloat just like many on here. But when a hirer is told the figures on the dash panel are what they should be doing on a handover, what else are they to do?.

[senator]

Is it not made more difficult at Reedham due to the tides? The water really does push down there and if going with the flow you have to keep up with it or lose steerage.

 

Why the obsession with speed? Speed over ground is irrelevant, only speed through the water has any affect on the banks, small craft and moored boats. Reaction times are hardly tested by 5 or 6 miles an hour, so it is not as if speed kills,  but with water flowing at up to 3 or 4 knots through Reedham Yarmouth and the lower reaches of the Waveney you could be doing up to 8 knots difference going with it downstream to against it upstream at the same speed over ground, 

 

8 knots is one hell of a wash on most boats

 

Why not campaign for speed to be in through the water instead on over ground if you want to make any difference. That way the speed limit is 2000 rpm or whatever it equates to and if you want to get there quicker go when the water is going the same way as you.