The Toll for Puddle Marchers

The Broads Authority delivered its toll requests this week with more than 3000 emails being sent and some 7000 letters covering around 12,000 boats on the Broads.

As anyone would expect, the annual cost increased across the board again in 2020, with some boats commanding an eye-watering toll. Our flagship vessel has a bounty of almost £1300 as an example.

The delivery of this annual A4 envelope is never welcomed of course. The five-figure sum at the bottom of the totals column is a uncomfortable read. And it is at this time of year more than any other that I take a look at the Broads Authority and wonder what we get for all this money. Now, I use the word “we” in an all-encompassing way here; by no means do I mean just Freedom.

The BA takes a lot of stick for its activities and a great deal of it is wholesomely deserved; the waste within the authority is epic, its draconian approach to planning borders on self-harm for the area, and its cronyism is perhaps only topped by Downing Street: I don’t have a lot of time for BA policy and politics. However, I do feel that its River Tolls, whilst seemingly high, are very reasonable and I fully expect (and hope) to see a level of disagreement in the comments as I write these regular blogs in a way that should strike a chord with people, whether major or minor.

I should state at this point that I tend to write these blogs within an hour or two of them being published. In this case, I have absolutely no figures to back up any of my comments other than the well-known 1% rise in unpowered and hybrid tolls and 2.9% rise in powered craft. I don’t know what the BA budget is, I don’t know what money it receives from government. I do know what I have been told by BA workers and volunteers who see with their own eyes what goes on.    

Why are the BA tolls OK?

Let’s first start with a comparison between other waterways; it’s anecdotal but let’s not stop the lack of hard facts from being the basis of an argument.

A year or two back, I called a boatyard on another river system to see whether they could do me a cheap couple of days away as a kind of “trade discount”; obviously, I would not require a huge amount of their time in handovers and so on. I spoke to them about a boat they had that was the same as one of mine (mine has a more modern fit-out) but they are essentially the same. They were happy to move a little on the price for me but their absolute bottom line was still considerably higher that our advertised price for the same boat for the same weekend. I explained this and they told me what their annual toll alone was for that boat and I was taken aback. If I call our tolls eye-watering, theirs would be like having Ridley Scott’s Alien burst out of your chest.

And it’s the same on most (perhaps all) other navigations; the BA tolls are low when you work in comparison terms. There are 125 miles of navigable river here on the Broads. That’s a lot of water to manage and, of course, the BA is responsible for rather more than just the navigable elements. The tolls give unrestricted use of the Free 24 hour moorings (65 at current count, so as an average, one collection of free moorings for every 1.93 miles of river), does dredging (though not as much as many would like), maintains banks, recovers abandoned and sunken vessels, and a whole heap of other stuff.

Toll Trols

I don’t want anybody to start thinking that I am a fan of the BA; I am not, but I am fair with my criticism. There are many things that the BA is justly criticised of and being a virtually unregulated, unelected quango that appears unanswerable to anybody is the root of most of this criticism. But then again, we elect town and county councils and then sit back and do nothing but moan about their conduct for four years and then re-elect the very same people that we’ve just spent the last 48 months moaning about. Considering this, I have a complete lack of expectation that actually having the BA become an elected bunch of officials would change anything deep down. If there’s one thing the UK electorate needs to learn is that few things vilify politicians more than re-election.

I happen to think that the BA Tolls provide the best value for money of any navigation in the UK. And whilst I know there is much waste within the BA and that this undoubtedly inflates the costs which are already high, I appreciate too that the costs of maintenance do nothing but rise also. However, the enjoyment offered by the Broads each year is immeasurable whether you own or hire boats or even just cycle, walk or drive around.

Boat ownership 'ain't cheap

If you own a boat, you will appreciate that it’s rarely something that a low-earner can afford. It’s a privilege and privileges have a cost attached.  If you hire boats, you’re quite possibly better off than some of us who own them as they are often seen as floating holes that you drop £50 notes into; indeed, there is a phrase that was told to me by a director of a large tobacco company a few years ago. It was told to him by an Arab Prince, “if it flies, floats or fornicates, rent it”. (NB, he didn’t use the word, “fornicate”). I am told by people I know who fly that planes are even more expensive to own; there is no way that you will be seeing Freedom Flights Ltd any time soon.

Back to the BA tolls which I don’t like paying but accept we all have to for the privilege of using the rivers. The dropping of that tolls demand each March on your doormat (or Ping in your inbox if you have gone green) is never welcomed, but you know it’s coming and you know it will be at least as expensive as last year and you have had 12 months to prepare for it.

If it’s happening to you, don’t go crazy over it; get mad over all the “burning injustices” in our country and around the world long before you let a bill from the Broads Authority ruin your day.


Visit www.FreedomBoatingHolidays.co.uk to book your broads boating holiday. 

  

Wild Weather

As we begin to recover from another stormy weekend, I am led to think about how to make the best of a bad weather weekend away from home. Indeed, it’s a hard one for me as I tend to shy away from venturing out in unsettled weather, but there are plenty of people who are more than prepared to do so.

Bad weather whilst being holed up in a boat, caravan or motor home is something you sometimes have to get used to or simply be prepared for. Last year, I wasn’t remotely prepared for two days of rain whilst at a festival and simply spent most of my time in the motorhome rather than getting out and enjoying the music. I moped about and had a thoroughly miserable time. It was mid-summer for crying out loud!

First Boats of 2020

This weekend sees the first holiday cruisers of 2020 on hire for us at Freedom Boats. Of course, with gale-force winds, the instructions to all those on boats was to moor-up safely away from trees and wait-out the storm; if there’s a pub and other facilities nearby, all the better!

But what do you do all day?

There’s the TV of course, but in bad weather, putting a TV aerial up on the roof is inviting trouble. But also, the chances of signal interruption increases too. At home, we couldn’t watch BBC1 last night as the signal quality was awful. DVDs then. A good few films will while away the time faster than you could appreciate.

Of course, most people have phones and tablets for entertainment these days, but these tend to be  more isolating rather than inclusive (though, to my mind, it’s not always so different to watching a group of people in a library just reading and interacting only when someone coughs and then only with a tut or an icy stare).

Card games are always good for inclusion and there are hundreds of options with a standard pack of cards alone. Other generic games like UNO and Dobble are favourites amongst our children; particularly our eldest who’s ability to see the contents of a Dobble card almost instantly is legendary; how she does it I have no idea but she usually clears up at least twice as fast as anybody else. If you haven’t see Dobble, they are circular cards with icons in various sizes; the idea is to match the card you are holding with the card face up on the pack; sounds easy but it seems, at least to this father, it is a game for young people or at least those who have retained all their faculties.

Jigsaws are another option, but the size of them makes it harder on a boat as there is restricted room. Perhaps one of those mats that allows you to roll the jigsaw up would help. Books are an obvious one and why not have a good read?

You could, of course, just roll into the pub and enjoy the hospitality and each-other’s company for the afternoon. Teas and coffees are on offer along with beers, wines and spirits and many pubs also have real fires to enjoy too.

Just Explore

A rainy day doesn’t stop you exploring either. Head out in decent wet-weather gear and go for a walk. If you’re near a bus stop or railway station, get a ticket to Norwich or Great Yarmouth and explore here too. Norwich is a great place to visit with its fabulous undercover market which has been held on the same site for over 900 years and is thought to be one of the oldest in Europe. The Norwich Lanes hide a wealth of independent shops and one of the retail operators in the country, way surpassing the likes of M&S and Sainsburys. Jarrolds, is celebrating 250 years in business in 2020. Of course, there’s also museums, cinemas, cathedrals and an incredible Norman castle sitting high on a mound looking over the city. Sadly, Norwich is often ignored by boaters; it absolutely should not be.

Great Yarmouth is the second largest seaside resort in the UK (Blackpool being the bigger). Its promenade offers the usual seaside fayre, there’s a pier, great beaches (though probably not so great in the rain), decent shopping, cinemas, a circus (I kid you not, the Hippodrome is a real jewel) and a few very good museums with the Time and Tide charting the town’s history, especially as a major fishing port and is housed in one of the few remaining herring smoke houses that used to litter the town. There’s Anna Sewell's house (the author of Black Beauty) which is currently a "Cakery", a historic museum ship in the Lydia Eva and a Theatre too. Incidentally, Black Beauty was first published by John Jarrold Printing in Norwich in 1877.

Navigation

Very windy days will prevent navigation on safety grounds, but rain shouldn’t so why not just make a rainy day part of your journey and head off to another location; maybe another pub stop for the night.

Really, like any other situation, bad weather just takes a bit of preparation and planning. If you’re like me at a festival and see only the downsides of the situation, you’re probably destined to be bored, maybe even a killjoy. Watch the forecasts, pack accordingly and just go with the flow.

Your turn

What ideas to you have for enjoying rainy days on a boating holiday?

Walking Pace is flawed

Speed

Calculating your speed in a boat is challenging, especially if you’re not used to it. What’s worse is that there are many written resources out there that will throw you off too. For instance, you’re likely to read elsewhere that you travel at walking pace. The Broads Authority suggests this, so it must be right, right?

I have a counter argument to this idea of travelling at walking page.

I am sure this is the advice given in many places as it’s a relatively simple thing to understand. However, I am not sure it’s too helpful. Whereas this might be an easy to thing to understand comprehend (everybody understands walking pace, right?), it is important to fully recognise that  walking pace is very individual.

We are all individual (rip Terry Jones)

An average fit 20 year old walks about 75% faster than the average 80 year old. In general, if you assume that you walk at between 2-3mph, you’re not going to be far out. But, even this 1mph difference gives a margin of being a third faster or slower. Step onto a boat, cast off and you now have an additional problem of judgement because you are invariably looking at a reference point on the bank as it’s the only fixed thing to compare. That reference is a number of metres away so parallax issues creep in too.

I have heard some people argue that that the difference between 2 and 4mph is negligible anyway, but you would be wrong. It might be slow, but 4mph is double 2mph – that’s 100% faster. Expressed like this and you begin to see the importance. And for the record, it’s usually those people I have had reported to me for speeding that make these and other claims (your honour).

The effects of speed

Speed has a direct correlation with wash. The faster you spin the propeller, the more it digs the rear of the boat into the water, the more turbulence is created and the greater the wash. Wash has many important factors that are environmentally bad; a heavy wash will cause bank erosion, it upsets other river users (just imagine spilling boiling water all over yourself as some plank hurtles past you whist you’re making tea), causes damage to boats and can kill wildlife. This might sound fanciful, but consider the possibilities of wash causing eggs to fall from nests, Kingfisher nests being flooded with helpless young inside and so on.

More than ever, we have a responsibility to look after our environment and by committing fewer selfish acts like speeding on the Broads, we are all doing out bit.

How to properly measure speed.

Historically, hire boats have been fitted with a plaque at the helm that gives you am idea of the speed when the engine is doing specific speeds as shown on the rev counter. Historically, this was about the best measure that was necessary and it still works today. It is arguably much better than the idea of gauging walking pace to my way of thinking. But still, it is of course, prone to considerable error, particularly if you are being pushed along by a 3mph current and have the revs set at what the plaque tells you is 6mph. You’re probably doing 8, that’s a 25% increase.

These days, there is no excuse. Your smart phone will have a full GPS receiver built in to it (I don’t think there has been a smartphone device since the introduction of the iPhone 3G in 2008 that hasn’t). What’s a little more difficult though is finding an app that is capable of measuring such low speeds because many road-based mapping systems aren’t concerned with anything below 5mph.

Aweigh - Map View

There are a number of apps that are designed for boating though. Until recently, we were recommending Sail Droid for Android devices. But in summer 2019 a killer app was launched for Norfolk Broads boaters and that app is Aweigh.

Up, up and Aweigh. 

So, what makes this the best app for your boating holiday? The key attraction is that it is actually designed for the Norfolk Broads. It shows where you are on a live map, gives you tide data (for the current day only), emergency numbers should you need them, access to What Three Words and, crucially for this blog, your current speed.

Download it and become familiar with its simple user interface before you arrive on holiday and you won’t have any rangers waving speed paddles at you or pulling you over for a quiet word….  

Aweigh is available in the App Store and Google Play and is entirely free to download. It comes highly recommended.

Aweigh - environmental data

And, if you are wondering over the spelling, it isn't some random cleverness on the part of the developer; it is a naultical term referencing the anchor of a vessel. Most of us would have heard Hollywood captains giving the instruction to "weigh anchor", but fewer would have seen this written. To Weigh Anchor means to begin to raise the anchor and so begin a voyage. At the point that the anchor is free of the sea or river bed, it is said to be aweigh.