Friendly Angler

Unfortunately, at this time of the year, people expect to see folk painting their boats, even ex hire boats thatthey have just bought. I have just painted my own 38 footer, with rollers, and it took less than three hours. Is she still on the canals? Well, I'm Broads based and there are a number of canal craft down here. Indeed there is a 'Holly' narrow boat in the shed where my boat is. Once again, seeing a boat being craned out is a spring time thing, why would anyone question it? All it takes is a lorry. I wish the owners well.

Thanks folk. already up to 85! As Tesco keeps telling us, every little helps. Special thanks to Fuzzy Duck, lot of Dawncraft on the Broads.

The Norfolk Broads is a long way from the canals, but we do have similar problems. At the moment our local waterways authority is promoting a private Bill through Parliament. Much of it relates to safety but not all. The Bill does ask for controls that are designed to restrict or prevent access or boat movement. And, being a member of the National Park set up, means that what happens here could then happen elsewhere. Not that it is likely to happen on the Canals but the Bill also sets out to legalise wakeboarding on our navigable rivers! In my honest opinion this is madness! Its akin to allowing formular one racing down the high street! I have recently posted an e-petition on the U.K. Parliament site, might be an idea for canal issues too, would you please consider signing it? Thank you for atleast reading this. Go to: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BroadsBill/ The wording of the petition is short and sweet but if any of you have questions then I will do my best to answer them. And if any of you could post this link onto other boating sites then I would be extremely grateful.

Lime scale is easily removed off paint and, dare I say it, glass fibre, by washing it down with 'brick acide', a product that is readly available from your friendly builders merchants. It really does work well but don't get it on your bare skin. Apply the stuff neat and it will bring back the shine to quite old G.R.P.

These cuts concern us all, they also apply to the Broads. As a proportion of income the cuts will hit the canal system harder than down here in sunny Suffolk & Norfolk. DEFRA has never been generous to us so we have never been dependant on DEFRA. You guys could be heading towards some hefty rises in tolls. The shortfall will need to be made up from somewhere, guess where! Considering the benefits of our waterways to other folk, anglers, walkers, twitchers etc., it is only fair that a reasonable amount comes out of general taxation. Still, we have got to finance a war that we don't want.

Andy, I'm not from the canals but I know where CarlT is coming from. I subscribe to two Broads based and one angling forum, and approaches such as yours are not rare. However, it is rare that anything ever comes of them, even when BBC researchers are involved. Your comment about a 'barge' indicates a lack of research by your good self. For myself I have become rather cynical to requests from patronising film makers, having spent very many hours with one film maker, with a promise of payment when the film was sold, only to find that it was never sold, or I had been conned. I am sure that you are not out of that mould, but having refered to a barge, whoops! I also suspect that CarlT's comment was more of a friendly wind-up than you realise!

Bit of a breeze down here on the Broads. Great fun for the kids amongst us though, great sheets of spray being carried across the Broad. Two to three feet from trough to crest in places. Thought we saw a narrow boat go broadside to the wind and then roll off downwind like a log . I have a Dell Quay Dory, one of those square ended, open boats that sailing clubs often use as rescue boats. Well, just had to go out and play! Surfing down the Broad was the only way, if I didn't want to fill up with the white horses that were galloping along, great fun. Coming back was not soooooooooo good though! If I opened up to ride over the waves I just knew that the bow was going to lift just one degree too much, and over we'd go! So we tacked back, with the pump on full blast. Soaked but that was some trip. I had a bad cold before I went out, totally disappeared now! And we also saw a real twister! There were a number of 'rodgers' as we call 'em in Norfolk, mini whirl winds at the top end of the Broad, just spray being drawn up in whirls, then three, maybe four were drawn up in to one big twister that went solid grey rather than just spray. It went several 100 yards before collapsing, dramatic stuff. The power has left the wind now, but still pretty choppy stuff.

We have an increasing number of narrow boats on the Broads now, some really nice, and one or two horribly ugly. Quite unsuited to the Broads in comparison to a wide beam Broads boat. But people like 'em, I like 'em. So, if I moved to the canals I would buy a narrow boat both for that reason and because it is part of a developmemt and history that is worth maintaining. We love our traditional Broads sailing boat, great on the Broads, useless on the canals. We see ourselves as maintaining our little piece of Broads history. I am sure that that is just the same for folk who have, or who prefer to own a canal narrow boat. They are part of the canals' bloodline!

With regard to the expressing pumps go for electric. However, don't plug a 12 volt one in to 24 volt, or worse still, into the mains!

Got to say that I agree with the purists point of view on these things. We have numerous bling boats, gin palaces, 'orrible great things cruising the Broads. Personally I think that their owners look a tad amusing sat on a flying bridge covered in a pram hood, even when the sun is shining. Especially daft when the boats in question have a forward steering position within the cabin for foul weather cruising.

Moles, and a state of war, now that brings back some memories! Was moored up alongside talking to the landowner who was trying to gas the moles that had invaded his land. Its quite normal to gas the little beasties with the exhaust from a tractor but this guy was doing it with a calor gas cylinder. He was quite simply pushing a hose into the mole hill and turning on the gas. After he had finished he came over to our boat, explained that it was a good job done, lit his pipe and threw the match down. It wasn't so much an explosion but more of an extended whoooomphhhhh, his land now resembling a first world war trench map or aerial photograph. I swear blind that we saw two moles cart-wheeling into oblivion! We do meet some oddities in our travels.

Fuzzy Duck, thats me! Small world. Your picture, is that 'America'? Re the Albion, she's a local wherry, one of our cargo carriers, see: http://www.wherryalbion.org.uk/ If any of you are wondering where Fuzzy Duck has met me then I am guessing it's here: http://www.the-norfolk-broads.co.uk/ On the Broads I use the name 'jenny Morgan' as its the name of my boat. That has had some quite amusing spin-offs as some quite flirtatious males have e-mailed me! And there was me thinking that all Broadlanders would know what a Jenny Morgan was!

Are BW any better that the BA!?

A case of if I don't ask then I don't get! Up on the Broads we are having major problems with our reluctant navigation authority. They are duty bound to dredge, they have the cash, but the Broads are silting up at an alarming rate. The Broads Authority is a quango, and its fair to say that the office types are probably all otherwise unemployable academics who, in a practical world, don't appear to have a clue! Will you help us please and sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/sig...i?nbroads&1 No comments needed, although appreciated, but names would be great. Anf if we can do the same for you guys some time then just ask.

They have been around on Broads boats since the year dot, and horrible they can be too! The old plasticised canvas jobbies are dreadful, smell and are hard to fold away. A cloth very similar to Gortex, it might even be Gortex, is available and very good it is to. Folds up neatly and tidily, is quiet, exceptionally durable and a shop called 'Bits & Boats' in Norwich makes them up at very good prices. I'm not overly familiar with the covers on your boats but the quoted prices seem high!

Some of you might wonder what my avatar is, well, its a Jenny Morgan. Peculiar to the Broads yet it is modelled on a Welsh girl. No one is sure of its origins but it is the traditional vane at the top of a wherry's mast, and it carried a 6' red bob. Early models had N.S.E. and W on them but that was later removed!

Another one of 'Spray'. If any of you should ever wish to go foreign and take a trip on the Broads in a similar boat then the Hunter Fleet is the place to go: http://www.huntersyard.co.uk/ Most of our sailing cruisers can trace their ancestory back to the Norfolk Wherry, the 'Black Sailed Trader'. This is a post card of about 1950, but it is a scene that could be seen today. The wherry is a sailing cargo boat. We don't have tow paths so it was either go by sail or by quant. A quant is a long timber pole that you put your should against and push into the bottom of the river, you then walk along the side decks and forward you go!

The above are all typical Broads sailing cruisers, evolved to suit the limitations of the Broads. Many have cabin tops that lift to allow the occupants to stand up when not sailing. The cabin tops are also shaped to go under Potter H'am bridge, the lowest on the system. Most draw about three foot six inches and all have a mast set on a pivot, tabernackle, so the mast can be lowered quickly and easily by one person when coming up to a bridge. They vary from comfortable sailing homes to extreme racing machines, from 24' to 45' or so. Some are over 100 years old, some look like they are and some have carried on evolving. Thank you for your kind words. A useful link here:- http://www.rivercruiser.org/html/History.php That will tell you more about the boats. There are over 400 of them sailing the Broads, we are almost as obsessed with them as you folk are with your canal boat!

The one with the long red bob is us lot, racing on Oulton Broad. Us lot again. To me this conjours up the magic of Broads sailing. One of the bigger boats, with well in excess of 1000 square feet of sail, and an all girl crew. White sails in the sunset. A bit of a creative type shot.

This boat, over 100 years old, is still sailing on the Broads. This is a post card from early 1900.

On the tidal Broads and rivers anglers often lease the rights to fish from a certain bank, so for others to moor against that bank, and fish from their boat, is hardly good sportsmanship. But I don't believe that it is illeagal. However, the canals are classed as private waters, unlike the tidal Broads, and the right to fish can be a valuable asset. Having paid for the fishing rights then, I suspect, others, even on a boat, can not legally fish it. You folk pay for the right to navigate the canals, others pay for the right to fish them. I am no expert but I suspect that I am not far off the mark on that one.

Janet, if I knew how I would post a picture! The old girl is just the typical, vintage, low draught sailing cruiser that were developed for the Broads. You have your narrowboats that were developed for the canals, our sailing cruisers developed in the same way for the Broads. I noticed someones comment about fishing within 25m of locks. We have a similar situation on the Broads but with numerous fixed bridges, the rag and stick brigade need to be able to lower their masts which are counter balanced and sit in a tabernacle so that they swing down and up very easily. We have notices pointing out that the yachts have priority at those points and I have to say that I find anglers fishing there are generally friendly and keen to take mooring ropes and so on, basically to help us on our way as fast as possible!

Thanks for the welcome, appreciated. Having had the odd holiday on the Oxford Canal, and having a great interest in the folk art of the canals I might just hang around. Our style of boating differs just a tad from yours though! Our old girl, 99 years old this summer, carries a gaff rigged sail and no motor. Speeds can vary from drifting backwards with the tide to pushing along in front of a gale. As for locks, we only have one set, at Oulton Broad where I live. And our boats are shorter than yours, mine is 28 feet over the waterline, and my toll is only £170.00!

Hi there, an interesting topic that has also been posted on www.anglersnet.com. Its an interesting one for me on a number of counts. Firstly, I'm an angler, secondly I sail and boat on the Broads, and thirdly, I sit on the Broads Authority Navigation Committee representing angling. I hear all the grouses, and see the letters of complaint. Most of the issues that relate to the Broads are the same as on the canals. Anglers hogging moorings, anglers leaving rubbish, anglers and screeching bite indicators, anglers with their long poles, anglers swearing, anglers camping on the bank, anglers urinating on the bank, anglers being noisy throughout the night and so on. I also see it the other way, boats speeding, boats mooring on top of anglers when there is alternative mooring nearby, boaters partying until the early hours, boaters emptying toilets over the side, boaters pushing litter behind shuttering, boaters spreading all their gear over the bank, boaters swearing, boaters mooring to angling platforms and so on. We have good and bad on both sides of the fence. Yes, we both have bad apples in our baskets! So, whats the answer? On the Broads we have a formal angling consultative that the Broads Authority actually listens to. We also have a users forum where both sides can talk and listen, and find a satisfactory answer. We also have an Authority that encourages anglers, with a view to reducing rifts. Anglers are invited to boaters meetings, and vice versa. Okay, so there are still problems, but these largely come from a complete lack of understanding of the others' ways and requirements. But there is still a major problem, and that is not down to either angling or boating as such, its down to society and the way so many are not even dragged up, they are simply left to find their own way in life. Consideration, respect, manners, unheard of terms to many folk. But lets be honest, on both sides of the fence the majority are a joy to share this world with. Just a pity about the unsavoury minority! Go slowly, stick to the centre line, and us anglers will love you, mmmmmmmmmwwwaaaaaaaaaa! :D