A little history

The Broads, for me, have been a life-long love affair. My first holiday was on board Brooklyn Bridge, an aft-cockpit cruiser from Bridgecraft in Acle at the tender age of about six months. That was my parent's first Broads excursion too and the beginning of many years of boating and chalet holidays.

Over the years we rented countless boats from many yards, most of which are no longer around. I honestly can't remember all the boats or companies we rented from, but here's a few: An Aston Thames class vessel (possibly even the boat that was to become Rambling Freedom) from Loddon, an Horizon 35 from Acle, Connoisseur from Porter and Haylett, a sedan style boat from Womack, Dawn Supreme, a Bounty 35 or 37 from Wroxham, a Caribbean from FB Wildes just after Guinness took over and lord knows how many more.

Some years we'd hire a chalet from Potter Heigham's Riverside Rentals and a day boat from Maycraft. We probably had six or seven chalets in our time and my grandparents would often share the holiday with us. Many great times can be recalled and a few sad ones too. One year, we'd arrived in the most horrendous thunder storm. Fork lighting cut through the darkened afternoon clouds - it should have been seen as an omen. My nan had recently discharged herself from hospital in London to come on holiday, and just one or two days into the holiday, she passed away.

We stayed away from the Broads the next year as the memories were just too vivid and I just don't remember coming back for quite some time.

Many years later, after I lost my Mum, my Dad decided to buy a cruiser and get back to enjoying the rivers. This was in 1992 and we spent weeks trawling around boat yards on the Broads looking for a suitable boat; I recall viewing a stunning timber vessel at Percival's in Horning; it was the right price but we (sensibly) went with our head and not our heart and chose something else.

Eventually, we plumped for a Freeman 23 and managed to mix GRP with a classic wooden interior. Sadly, though, the Boat was not on the Broads but on the Ouse in Cambridgeshire. This ended up working well as it was a much shorter journey for my Dad who lived in London and for me as I lived in Bedfordshire. The shorter journey made it easier to use the boat and most weekends in the summer were spent on-board. We never changed the name her and, to this day, our first boat is still in the family. She's looking a little dejected now as most of my time is spent on the Freedom fleet, but she's got a new coat of paint on the hull is looking better than she has for many years. Time permitting, I'll polish the GRP superstructure this year, renew all the window rubbers and maybe even get the fittings re-chromed. Her name?

Dragonfly, of course.