Bacchus

Hi @Mel Good - just to show solidarity, I am also in the process of buying a boat -- funnily enough also a Broom, slightly smaller than yours -- and one of the jobs that I know has to be done is resealing at least one of the windows... It is a little disheartening to hear it described by so many above as "a pig" of a job, but c'est la vie. I like a challenge... (not as much as I like an easy ride, but a challenge is okay 🙂), We'll have to compare notes when I get the boat home.

Yes. It must be. Who could have thought that that might happen in a country that has both been home to sabre-tooth tigers and hosted ice fairs on the Thames. Must be my diesel golf that causes it...

Perceptions may differ... the lovely summer was mainly in Surrey with the occasional foray to Yorkshire. Maybe it was just a lovely spring. This summer though -- apart from a five day heatwave, I am struggling to remember the last day it didn't rain. I want to paint my decks; the forecast is -- rain.

Out of curiosity... last year when lockdown was mitigated by a lovely spring and summer, nobody claimed "climate change", but this year when the weather is, for want of a better word, shit, there are articles galore saying "we said this would happen - it's climate change doncha know?!"

True. I have to get the boat first... I have put a deposit down and having her lifted on Tuesday week, followed by a river trial. If all goes well I will need to get her moved from the Great Ouse to the Thames on a low-loader, but I am stupidly excited. My current boat is lovely - good looking (much admired), comfortable accommodation, very well behaved, and everyone (self included sometimes) is wondering why I want to change her, but I am looking forward to a boat I can do different things with. Change. Change is good.

The boat was almost certainly in the Broom hire fleet so will certainly have been under Potter Heigham - I suspect the dc30 was designed with exactly that in mind. I will be happy if I can get as far as Guildford, and along the GU from Brentford. Maybe up the K and A, but I am not so keen on that one having lived in Reading and messed around up there on my little Viking.

Very useful - thank you. I will save a copy of that 2" to spare on the air-draft may be a little hairy at times (I shall have to remember to wear a flat cap rather than a bowler...), but should (just) be do-able under normal river conditions.

Only just seen this @Thames Bhaji So the EA - an organisation whose prime objective should be to keep the water clean (actually there's a lot of other stuff they're crap at, like managing navigation etc. but for the purpose of this thread, let's concentrate on the "Environment" part) informed you that they are making this much disapproved move and increasing the need for plastic hose ten-thousand fold because they have failed to do their job? I didn't think my respect for the EA could sink any lower, but this is amazing.

I'm going to get that on a t-shirt. As a philosophy it is simple and concise. BACCHUS (gazing dreamily skyward) Can there be anything up there? Can this aching void in our souls be a yearning to find a higher meaning? As a species do we need... a god? MAGNETMAN: Nay, lad. It's buckets. We need more buckets.

Particularly large tiller pin?

but not if I can't get under the bridge that @MPR cites.

So I could potentially get up as far as Guildford and turn around there? That would be something

I have been wet before... I didn't dissolve and I didn't rust (c: Funnily enough my old Bounty did have a weed-hatch, but I doubt that the Broom has. Poo. The Wey is lovely and very close to me. Do you have any info on where that would become a problem?

Thanks @David Mack, something to look out for! The Broom does have fairly wide side-decks and a sort of 45 degree chamfer on roof - possibly dictated by the bridge at Potter Heigham, actually this looks like a picture of a very similar boat going under that bridge... (link to the broads authority image - I hope that is ok? thought it better than pinching their image...)

I am in the process of buying a new boat - downsizing from a 36' Dutch Steel Cruiser to a 30' Broads boat. It is a project and requires a bit of refurbishment - but, apart from the fact that I simply like this style of boat for inland use (I used to have a 44' Bounty Buccaneer) one of the reasons I am doing this is that I would hope to be able to take the new boat onto a canal or two. The new boat is a Broom DC 30 (similar/identical to the Dawncraft (of Wroxham) DC30 - I believe the same hull as the Broom Ocean 30/Skipper). I have seen the draft quoted as between 2' and 2'6", the beam as 10' to 10'5", and the air-draft pretty consistently as 6'11" The most likely canals I would want to visit would be the Wey Navigation, K and A, and possibly the Grand Union so I don't think the beam will be an issue - but can anyone suggest any other issues I might have? Draft? Air draft? I am pretty sure that there isn't a weed hatch, will that be a problem on these waterways? Thanks in anticipation

I have a 400 litre water tank. I don't think it would be that quick.

value... not really. not yet, anyway... (c: I will give them a try, but happy enough with third party for now to be honest, which is virtually free. it does cover recovery if it sinks in a location where I am liable to move her

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It is a great help The boat in question is over thirty years old which, I think, is why it needs a survey. Craft Insure will do it third party only which might be an option, and then to have it surveyed properly when the renovations have been done (Craft Insure's website clearly states "surveyed and all recommendations carried out", obviously that can't be complied with until the work has been done!)

I am selling my Dutch steel cruiser on the Thames, and have put a deposit on a broads cruiser on the Great Ouse - she is a project (needs external paint, windows resealing, headlining, and a general tidy) but the hull and engine look good and well maintained over the years, however I will need to get her surveyed for insurance and was wondering whether anyone had any personal recommendations for a surveyor working in that general location. (I have tried searching the forum, found a lot of historical posts but nothing really suitable)

Yeah, but, when you swat a fly with a kindle, they stay swatted!

ta. I have bought the first one (amazon link)

Nice - congratulations! Are there kindle versions lurking anywhere?

Having already gone up by about fifteen percent over the last couple of years, it looks like mine will be going up another 8% next year, and then a further 5% the year after... except it won't, because I will sell the boat. I am fed up with paying more and more in return for less and less by one of the world's worst old boy's clubs in existence. They can **** off. Bye bye boating, hello motor-homing )c: I will get a little trailer sailer or something for a boaty fix