New Wherry?

[marshman]

Clearly all of you liking the wood idea have never tried it - I promise all of you who suggest it, that its a nonrunner!!

Whilst it is ok for the big bits, for every length thereof there is literally piles of brash which is of only nuisance value. The other issue is that unless the tree is immediately adjacent to the boat, everything has to be manhandled into the boat. In winter when it has to be done it has to be done wearing waders and woe betide you if you drop anything into the river, as it has to be manhandled out of it!!

The wood is either willow or alder, neither particularly good burners and if it could be done, Broadsword would have tried to achieve it. Anyone who follows their progress, especially down the top bit of Ranworth Dyke, will see just how hard and slow that type of work is, and with virtually no reward other than a clearer view and more wind for the sailies.

No  -  if it was a feasible idea, I promise you people might try it - but remember the wood belongs to the owner of the land and their permission is required for access   --  and that is hard to get!!!!!

More bright ideas???

Oh yes the peat - mud is not peat and removing peat releases carbon into the atmosphere. And that is highly frowned upon!! The dredging crews are monitored so that they dredge mud, and not peat for that very reason!!

Next?????

[JennyMorgan]

Another reason for not dredging peat is quite simply because by doing so the river is being made deeper than it was before and if it was deep enough before then it is deep enough now. A matter of costs too.

[BroadScot]

1 hour ago, marshman said:

Peat - mud is not peat and removing peat releases carbon into the atmosphere. And that is highly frowned upon!

Say that sentence on the Isle of Harris regarding peat Mr MM, and I think you would spend a fair bit of time in the cottage hospital there, recovering!

I know of three men from where I live, head up there every year to cut the peats,  it's a fuel an important fuel to crofters still to this day, just like all traditions, they should still be allowed to flourish! IMHO.

 Iain

[Viking23]

On 13 January 2016 at 9:53 PM, JennyMorgan said:

Will the new 'wherry' be rigged with a mast & sail, even an electric motor? Green credentials and all that!

If it was electric, and if it could get under Potter Heigham Bridge, then there is nowhere where it can plug into get charged, as the electic post at Whispering Reeds, is the only one North of the bridge, is for their own use. I doubt that would get down the cut anyway to plug in lol, so it looks like a very long extension lead to Martham Boats lol, or to one of the rental properties, when no one was looking... lol...

Could It pass under Wroxham Bridge, or even Beccles Old Bridge?

Thorpe and Jenner's moorings would be difficult to reach lol.

Anyone know the air draft? Does the cabin collapse or fold down, one fast pass under Potter Heigham could solve that. 

So if these are all the places it couldn't dredge, then what is in place to dredge these more difficult areas?

Not forgetting, this is only part of the equipment needed, as this is only the "skip" lol

[LizG]

2 hours ago, marshman said:

Clearly all of you liking the wood idea have never tried it - I promise all of you who suggest it, that its a nonrunner!!

Whilst it is ok for the big bits, for every length thereof there is literally piles of brash which is of only nuisance value. The other issue is that unless the tree is immediately adjacent to the boat, everything has to be manhandled into the boat. In winter when it has to be done it has to be done wearing waders and woe betide you if you drop anything into the river, as it has to be manhandled out of it!!

The wood is either willow or alder, neither particularly good burners and if it could be done, Broadsword would have tried to achieve it. Anyone who follows their progress, especially down the top bit of Ranworth Dyke, will see just how hard and slow that type of work is, and with virtually no reward other than a clearer view and more wind for the sailies.

No  -  if it was a feasible idea, I promise you people might try it - but remember the wood belongs to the owner of the land and their permission is required for access   --  and that is hard to get!!!!!

More bright ideas???

Oh yes the peat - mud is not peat and removing peat releases carbon into the atmosphere. And that is highly frowned upon!! The dredging crews are monitored so that they dredge mud, and not peat for that very reason!!

Next?????

My understanding is that sallow/salix/willow was used to make charcoal historically?

[Viking23]

Just thought...

when this " mobile skip" whose toll plaque could be " MS 1" only joking..... that one might not be available lol..., is on it's way to the disposal point, what are all the staff and equipment doing at each end, I assume the digger or pump system, will have to follow the skip, to load unload. 

Surely a bigger contractor would have two or more skips, ideally a skip at each end, one being filled, one being emptied, one or two in transit.

Have I missed something.

Wouldn't a small shallow drafted tug with three large unmotorised skips like London trows, do a better job must be a few 2nd hand ones around ? I guess it all depends on how long it takes to fill and empty a skip, how far it is between locations, how many staff and support equipment, whether they have to move the skip during the operation, I mean, a wooden Wherry moves along quite nicely with a Honda 10 Hp outboard on a dinghy.

Better have some smaller skips for Waxham cut. old working narrow boats spring to mind 

Now... all this could go under Potter Heigham Bridge too. Digger could be a problem, but sometimes these are road based ones that could alight a suitable floating platform, at a suitable place.

I am not critisising the choice of boat that they have commissioned, but I am interested in the logistics on how this will fit in, and work with their existing infrastructure, and with the plans they have for dredging long term, after all, having expensive capital equipment like this sitting around is not good for business. It should be working most daylight hours upto 7 days a week. 

Now that's a lot of dredging.

 

 

 

 

[LizG]

Sorry to ask but I assume I have missed some news but why is the Waxham cut being mentioned so regularly? Since I failed to get WR up to to Brograve mill a few years ago - it was like the African queen I would love to go further. Not been to Waxham since the 60s

[marshman]

Viking -  its a 15hp outboard!!!

[JennyMorgan]

I've pushed the Albion along with a big old 'Seagull' when she was based on Oulton Broad. Four & a half horses turning a biggish prop, don't know how that compares with a modern jobby.

[riverman]

Just to clarify on a couple of points.

Tree clearance in certain areas for firewood is entirely viable using the right equipment. We do it. Fell straight into the water, yard the tree out, cut into cords, and float to a suitable drop off point. Not viable everywhere but some places, ideal.

The point around BA's farcical dredging is that it is made unnecessarily complex and expensive. The use of wherrys as apposed to lighters and a tug increase fuel and labour prices. The use of there pathetic clam bucket being used on Hickling is beyond a joke. Im not in favour of using there preferred contractor, whos base is suspiciously located in BA's yard however I would suspect that contract dredging would be more cost effective. 

The first new wherry I believe was priced by rdde in great Yarmouth and another local firm. They were too expensive.

[JennyMorgan]

Riverman, please, what is the difference between a wherry and a lighter?  

Re expense, what was wrong with building up the banks as was the way pre BA?

[VetChugger]

Am sure that I have read somewhere that the dredging heavy hardware, of Bam Nuttall I think it was, had been bought up by the BA?? Maybe that's why it looks suspiciously close!

[Poppy]

11 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Riverman, please, what is the difference between a wherry and a lighter?  

Re expense, what was wrong with building up the banks as was the way pre BA?

Isn't that exactly what is happening in the Broadland 'Flood alleviation' programme supposedly doing?

[JennyMorgan]

7 minutes ago, Poppy said:

Isn't that exactly what is happening in the Broadland 'Flood alleviation' programme supposedly doing?

Certainly is, but that is the Environment Agency for you. When it comes to the Authority though the policy appears to be one of double, even treble handling as spoil is treated as waste, often transported several miles for disposal rather than being used to build up or reinforce the adjacent banks, in other words the 'waste' is wasted. Seemingly very different attitudes between the two agencies. 

[MauriceMynah]

11 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Riverman, please, what is the difference between a wherry and a lighter?

You can't light your fag with a wherry!

 

Well someone was bound toi say it

[JennyMorgan]

1 minute ago, MauriceMynah said:

You can't light your fag with a wherry!

Well someone was bound toi say it

But you can quench your thirst with a Wherry!

[Poppy]

On 15/01/2016 at 5:40 PM, marshman said:

Clearly all of you liking the wood idea have never tried it - I promise all of you who suggest it, that its a nonrunner!!

Whilst it is ok for the big bits, for every length thereof there is literally piles of brash which is of only nuisance value. The other issue is that unless the tree is immediately adjacent to the boat, everything has to be manhandled into the boat. In winter when it has to be done it has to be done wearing waders and woe betide you if you drop anything into the river, as it has to be manhandled out of it!!

The wood is either willow or alder, neither particularly good burners and if it could be done, Broadsword would have tried to achieve it. Anyone who follows their progress, especially down the top bit of Ranworth Dyke, will see just how hard and slow that type of work is, and with virtually no reward other than a clearer view and more wind for the sailies.

No  -  if it was a feasible idea, I promise you people might try it - but remember the wood belongs to the owner of the land and their permission is required for access   --  and that is hard to get!!!!!

More bright ideas???

Oh yes the peat - mud is not peat and removing peat releases carbon into the atmosphere. And that is highly frowned upon!! The dredging crews are monitored so that they dredge mud, and not peat for that very reason!!

Next?????

I spent several seasons working with 'Broadsword. I can assure you Marsh that the 'brush ' was not a problem. It was stacked in heaps as 'invertebrate habitat'. As for waders, what tosh, I never needed them, and never saw them in use !  Of course 'wellies' were needed - but not waders!

[Speleologist]

On 13/01/2016 at 1:33 PM, JanetAnne said:

And before you say we bought the wrong boat its a Gay Lady...

Do you know which Gay lady it was originally? I have fond memories of sailing Gay Ladies in the late 60's/early 70's when they were in the Herbert Woods fleet. I may well have sailed yours.

[JanetAnne]

She was the last one (No 13). Renamed Freedom 5, the name she still carries. Reg no A845

[Speleologist]

20 minutes ago, JanetAnne said:

She was the last one (No 13). Renamed Freedom 5, the name she still carries. Reg no A845

I never sailed 13. I must say I thought that 7 and 8 were the last, with the later number being converted from half deckers on identical hulls. I may be wrong, as that is only what I was told back then, but 7 and 8 were nearly new back then and were different in having plywood sides to the raised cabin roof rather than canvas.

We used to hire all the Gay Ladies (4-13) in those days, along with a gaff rigged 2 berth yacht called Peggy. When Woods sold them on we ended up getting yachts from several yards, mostly Eastwood Whelpton, but also Southgates and Martham.

[JanetAnne]

10 hours ago, Speleologist said:

I never sailed 13

Would you like to? It would be nice to have someone take her out who has expetience of them and set up the rigging properly. It's probably just fine tuning that's needed but a fettle would get the best out of her.

[JanetAnne]

Expetience? I get worse... Experience!

[Speleologist]

10 hours ago, JanetAnne said:

Would you like to? It would be nice to have someone take her out who has expetience of them and set up the rigging properly. It's probably just fine tuning that's needed but a fettle would get the best out of her.

I woould love to. I haven't sailed one since about 1973, but I can claim wide experience since then. (And some experience of tuning, the most demanding being fettling a Martham Javelin for the 3RR). If there's an opportunity when I'm in Norfolk that would be great.

[Polly]

Jason SOS24/7 owns  Gay Lady 12 which was called Blue Belle for a while . She has had a refurb and looks lovely. New mast and tabernacle, traditional paint job. Now he needs to learn to sail!

Robin, Javelin 3 3RR! For me that was all about the bilge pump.

[Speleologist]

11 minutes ago, Polly said:

Robin, Javelin 3 3RR! For me that was all about the bilge pump.

At risk of drifting even further off topic, my account of doing it in a Javelin can be found here.