Anchoring in Kirby Creek

Kukri said:
What a fun thread. I have:

(a) anchored in Kirby Creek after 1963 but before the layings started
(b) lived in Hong Kong, eaten chicken’s feet and belonged to the RHKYC (which doesn’t serve them) and
(c) bought a couple of dozen natives from Owen Bloom, who was very agreeable and said that he sold his catch to Belgium but could and would sell them to anyone who walked up and asked as long as there was an R in the month.

so I ought to have an opinion, but I haven’t!

However I would like some support for my long running campaign to get the RHYC to serve Gunners when there isn’t an R in the month and Hoi Loongs when there is.
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Chicken's feet are on my list of things I'll let Hong Kongers keep to themselves.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Don't worry - I think they eat every bit of a chicken. They think I'm a bit strange because I'm the original Jack Spratt, who would eat no fat!
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A friend's son in USA was investigating a scheme to buy chicken feet from KFC and selling them to China by the container load. I never heard the final outcome but it showed initiative.
 
Dan Tribe said:
A friend's son in USA was investigating a scheme to buy chicken feet from KFC and selling them to China by the container load. I never heard the final outcome but it showed initiative.
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Locally, right here in Felixstowe, one of our many entrepreneurial characters got hold of Bernard Matthews the Norfolk turkey king and offered to take away all his heads and feet for a modest fee.

Matthews agreed. And from that day to this two reefer containers a week full of frozen heads and feet have been going off to China, where importers are more than happy to pay for them.

Often told round the port as showing the way in which the people who operate businesses of their own in the port work, on a small scale. And of course a Suffolk vs Norfolk story.
 
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Getting back to the original point, it would be very useful to be able to use Kirby Creek. It can get a bit uncomfortable in Hamford in a West or East blow.
Is there any way to get a definitive yes or no?
 
Dan Tribe said:
Getting back to the original point, it would be very useful to be able to use Kirby Creek. It can get a bit uncomfortable in Hamford in a West or East blow.
Is there any way to get a definitive yes or no?
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Thanks to Covid haven’t been back for a few months but live in hope for this coming summer.

If you cannot establish the status of the oyster beds, it is still possible to anchor at the entrance to Kirby Creek or down by Honey Pot Island. Both locations provide good shelter in a blow. Landermere Creek, entered about high water can also provide protection and you will stay afloat at all states of the tide.
 
nortada said:
Thanks to Covid haven’t been back for a few months but live in hope for this coming summer.

If you cannot establish the status of the oyster beds, it is still possible to anchor at the entrance to Kirby Creek or down by Honey Pot Island. Both locations provide good shelter in a blow. Landermere Creek, entered about high water can also provide protection and you will stay afloat at all states of the tide.
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Yes. It’s only going to be an issue if there is no room by Honeypot Island. And do beware of the spit that runs out from Skippers’ Island at the entrance to Kirby Creek. (Don’t ask me how I know this...)
 
Kukri said:
Yes. It’s only going to be an issue if there is no room by Honeypot Island. And do beware of the spit that runs out from Skippers’ Island at the entrance to Kirby Creek. (Don’t ask me how I know this...)
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Found it on my first ever visit to the Backwaters - rather embarrassing but fortunately, it was in a bilge keeler. ?

Made a lot of friends that summers day‼️
 
nortada said:
Thanks to Covid haven’t been back for a few months but live in hope for this coming summer.

If you cannot establish the status of the oyster beds, it is still possible to anchor at the entrance to Kirby Creek or down by Honey Pot Island. Both locations provide good shelter in a blow. Landermere Creek, entered about high water can also provide protection and you will stay afloat at all states of the tide.
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Landamere Creek used to be a favourite spot until one time we had our granddaughters aboard complete with an Oppie. We hadn't gone properly round the corner but anchored in the hole opposite Cunnyfur Ooze, [love that name].
It came on to blow an Easterly screamer during the night and were trapped until the tide rose and we had daylight. I've never been allowed to go back since.
 
Kukri said:
Yes. It’s only going to be an issue if there is no room by Honeypot Island. And do beware of the spit that runs out from Skippers’ Island at the entrance to Kirby Creek. (Don’t ask me how I know this...)
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Are we allowed to anchor by Honeypot Island? On Navionics, the deeper water to the east and west of Honeypot is marked as oyster beds... in contrast to Kirkby Creek, which isn't.
 
The warden's boat used to be around in both winter and summer patrolling the Backwaters and counting birds etc.

Is it still about, and if so, what is their position with regard to anchoring in Kirby Creek ?
 
Kukri said:
(c) bought a couple of dozen natives from Owen Bloom, who was very agreeable and said that he sold his catch to Belgium but could and would sell them to anyone who walked up and asked as long as there was an R in the month.
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Does he have his own processing? otherwise it doesn't look like he'll be selling any more to belgium.
 
Owen Bloom and Naze oysters are no longer trading. As far as I understand the situation is that the Oyster beds in Kirby creek are no longer there but the bylaws prohibiting Anchoring are still in force for another couple of years?
 
turnstone said:
Owen Bloom and Naze oysters are no longer trading. As far as I understand the situation is that the Oyster beds in Kirby creek are no longer there but the bylaws prohibiting Anchoring are still in force for another couple of years?
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knowing nothing about such matters... can bylaws be cancelled if they are no longer performing a useful function and actually hindering 'law abiding' citizens ?
 
There's a very deep hole between Honeypot Island & Skippers Island, between the varnished yacht & the group of three older yachts. The hole is close to Honeypot, but the anchoring there can be tricky if the wind blows you around & closer to the mud beach of Skippers Island. However the mud is very soft. The larger, centre cockpit Hillyard, which has a buoy there, spent most of 2019 summer in Titchmarsh - being used almost on a daily basis, but not using his buoy. I asked him if OK to use & he agreed, but when I got round there somebody else had taken it.
 
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It seems extraordinary that the answer to such a widely asked and simple question isn't known. I'm rather of the opinion that if it isn't signed clearly then one cannot be expected to know - after all, how could a non local possibly have a clue that there might be some 'local bye-law' restricting anchoring?
If indeed there is a local bye-law then it must be published somewhere and someone must know where 'that' is. Who would make such a bye-law? If they don't make it obvious to us then we cannt be expected to know of its existence. Ignorance of the law etc is all very well but no court is going to convict you on a matter as tenuous as this so I say Go Ahead, anchor there all you like and wait until something comes out in the wash.
Or someone digs out the bye-law and erects a sign-board obvious and visible enough to be read from a passing yacht at dusk. Anything less amounts to no bye-law as far as I'm concerned.
 
oilybilge said:
An irate gentleman shouted at us last week for anchoring in the south part of Kirby Creek, between Honey Island and Horsey Island, claiming there were oyster beds there. (This was after he'd shouted at us for landing on Horsey Island, although we had permission to do so.)

There's a lot of conflicting advice, but the 2019 edition of the East Coast Pilot says 'The oyster beds and no anchoring signs in Kirby Creek have been abandoned and it is possible to anchor right up to where Kirby Creek divides around Honey Island.'

If there are indeed no oyster beds in the creek -- and I certainly didn't see any withies -- is there any reason you can't anchor anywhere along it, provided you have a shallow enough draft? I can't help wondering if this is a bit of nimbyism by the irate gentleman, who has a permanent mooring there.
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Just a view from ECP HQ - those words highlighted above were written for the 2019 edition following a very thorough tour of the Backwaters with a very knowledgeable member of WFYC, and I'm very confident that he knew what he was talking about! If anyone learns anything to the contrary, please let us know! Thanks.
 
I cannot find any reference to such a bye law.
The problem for me at any rate is no so much establishing the correct position (which is obvs important) but stopping people shouting to you that you are in the wrong. MrsP would feel very uncomfortable staying there - even in the right - and I would end up having to up anchor and move just so that we were assured of peace.
 
Slowboat35 said:
It seems extraordinary that the answer to such a widely asked and simple question isn't known. I'm rather of the opinion that if it isn't signed clearly then one cannot be expected to know - after all, how could a non local possibly have a clue that there might be some 'local bye-law' restricting anchoring?
If indeed there is a local bye-law then it must be published somewhere and someone must know where 'that' is. Who would make such a bye-law? If they don't make it obvious to us then we cannt be expected to know of its existence. Ignorance of the law etc is all very well but no court is going to convict you on a matter as tenuous as this so I say Go Ahead, anchor there all you like and wait until something comes out in the wash.
Or someone digs out the bye-law and erects a sign-board obvious and visible enough to be read from a passing yacht at dusk. Anything less amounts to no bye-law as far as I'm concerned.
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As I understand it, it's not Bye-laws, but ancient rights to oyster beds that is the problem. No doubt these are recorded somewhere, perhaps on vellum in the County Archives!
 
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