Sailing on the Norfolk Broads

[bellamia]

Hi All
Almost finished my boat (an Evolution 22) & are planing to take it to the norfolk broads in july for its fist outing. Any advice on sailing on the broads would be appreciated. We are looking at going for 4 days & not sure where to launch the boat & park car & trailer for that time. Also not sure what distance we can cover in that time & if its possible to come back a differant route or go one way & get a taxi etc back to car & trailer? Also would like to sail on one of the larger expanses of water for part of the time. We have visited the river Bure & loved it. Would be interested to here from someone who done this with a trailer sailer. Many thanks

 

[m1taylor]

I have just come back from a Broads holiday sailing a hired 25ft cruiser. I would caution that the water is very low at the moment, and anything with a keel is likely to frequently hit the mud! We had quite a frustrating time in that respect !

 

[brownsox]

We took our 24ft trailer sailer to the Broads at Easter - a jaunt with The Trailer Sailer Association, who arranged that we launched at Martham Boat Building & Development Company, Cess Road Martham. A good launching place and parking for trailer and car. Our boat isn't properly set up to get the mast down low enough for Potter Heigham bridge so we stayed on the Martham side of that, restricting us to Horsey, Hickling, West Somerton etc.
We had a brilliant time - left the boat there and went back 4 times, each time for 4-5 days, returning to Martham. We had our keel partly lifted so no problems there. Horsey Mere is a good expanse of water to sail on - we did lots of practising there. You need rond anchors (hooks to stick in the bank) and something to hang from guard rails to stick the broads licence disc onto, if you don't want to stick it on your boat, 2 at front one at back - you buy the licence from Martham. We loved it and will go back next Spring. There are pubs walking distance from 3 places mentioned above but shops are scarse so take plenty of vital provisions if you are that side of the bridge.

 

[Hardley]

The Southern Rivers are much quieter and offer better sailing, not so many trees as the Northern Rivers.
Try the Yare and Waveney.
Launching sites at Buckenham SC, Langley.
Greenway Marine, Loddon.
Waveney River Centre, Burgh St Peter.
Beccles ASC, Beccles .
Broadlands Holiday Park, Oulton Broad.
No problem with depth of water, on these rivers.
Buses run between Norwich-Loddon - Beccles - Oulton Broad.
Times of course depend on tides and wind; Oulton Broad to Beccles 3 Hours.
Oulton Broad to Reedham 3 hours.
Reedham to Norwich 5 hours.
Loddon to Reedham 1 hour.