Thames vs Broads

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miket

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Took our new Haines 32 Offshore from Horning (north Broads) to Brundall (south Broads) where it was craned out prior to transport to Reading.
Never been a fan of the Broads for no particular reason. Now realise why. Banks are covered with reeds and background is flat so nothing to really look at! Did visit Beccles last year, which was pretty.
Sorry, Broads fans, but Thames does it for me.
If we could only lose the liveaboards!
 
We prefer the Norther Broads to the Southern Broads.

Far more to see and do and less reeds blocking the views.

That said whenever we take our boat we always make an effort to see both the North and the South. We were last there July last year and had a cracking week.

This year as most of our holidays have been taken up by a nearly three week holiday taking the boat to Scotland, we have hired a boat at the back end of the year on the Broads.
 
Broads do have the bonus of not having locks so open pretty much all year and much cheaper moorings. I have to say i quite liked it, will be back.
 
miket said:
Took our new Haines 32 Offshore from Horning (north Broads) to Brundall (south Broads) where it was craned out prior to transport to Reading.
Never been a fan of the Broads for no particular reason. Now realise why. Banks are covered with reeds and background is flat so nothing to really look at! Did visit Beccles last year, which was pretty.
Sorry, Broads fans, but Thames does it for me.
If we could only lose the liveaboards!
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What is wrong with liveaboards, or was that meant as a joke? If you're going to Reading you'll find a marina full of them. It's the weekenders with their little white plastic boats filling the locks up that are the problem.
 
AuntyRinum said:
What is wrong with liveaboards, or was that meant as a joke? If you're going to Reading you'll find a marina full of them. It's the weekenders with their little white plastic boats filling the locks up that are the problem.
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What??? The weekenders move! It's the plebs who tie up for months or years at a time that are the problem
 
miket said:
Took our new Haines 32 Offshore from Horning (north Broads) to Brundall (south Broads) where it was craned out prior to transport to Reading.
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Why? Surely the clue is in the name of the boat! You could have had a great weekend / week travelling by sea :-)
 
AuntyRinum said:
I agree with that, but not all liveaboards are static river pikeys.
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I'm aware of that. I envy the real liveaboards and those who I've spoken to feel the same way about the squatters as I do.
If anything, it's worse for them. Tarred with the same brush by some and in danger of having their legitimate way of life ruined by the others. What cheeses me off, is by the time I'm in a position to join them, I don't think it will be an option anymore.
 
You are of course correct, but time did not allow that.
As someone who has cruised from N Holland to W Brittany, Channel Islands, West Country and others over a period of 20 odd years I think I am entitled to the odd trip around the M25!
Looking forward to a few Barrie's on the riverbank this year.
May manage a week or two on the Essex and Suffolk coast later in the year.
 
the grass is always greener :)
For most of us home turf is fine for most of the time but the entire point of having a boat is the ability to up sticks and explore every now and then, instead of trundling yet again up and down a well worn path to destinations that your boat could now find without you being on board, it could probably do the locks better as well.
At some point the Broads will beckon but its just a long old trip up the East coast to get in.
 
I have a boat on the Thames and the Broads (& also East Coast). The Broads experience is very poor IMO. No easy way of emptying a porta potti, visitor moorings almost impossible near the popular locations, huge numbers of very large hire boats on the move, strange withdrawal of rubbish disposal points and the worrying Broads Authority surrender on leased moorings back to land owners and subsequent closure (the two BA mooring areas at Horning given last year leaving the village Staithe which is so popular I've never seen a free space). I'm giving it one more season abd them looking at moving that boat to the Fens. Only one big plus is the BA monopoly on moorings is virtually no liveaboards.
 
ianc1200 said:
I have a boat on the Thames and the Broads (& also East Coast). The Broads experience is very poor IMO. No easy way of emptying a porta potti, visitor moorings almost impossible near the popular locations, huge numbers of very large hire boats on the move, strange withdrawal of rubbish disposal points and the worrying Broads Authority surrender on leased moorings back to land owners and subsequent closure (the two BA mooring areas at Horning given last year leaving the village Staithe which is so popular I've never seen a free space). I'm giving it one more season abd them looking at moving that boat to the Fens. Only one big plus is the BA monopoly on moorings is virtually no liveaboards.
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We didn't find any of that when we visited the Broads last July. We got moored everywhere we planned, had all the facilities we needed and got rid of our rubbish every day as neccessary.

We did the Fens the year before and whilst we enjoyed it, it wasn't the Broads.
 
CX54WEK said:
We didn't find any of that when we visited the Broads last July. We got moored everywhere we planned, had all the facilities we needed and got rid of our rubbish every day as neccessary.

We did the Fens the year before and whilst we enjoyed it, it wasn't the Broads.
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In the space of two posts...
Right thats it , the Broads are off the list.........
back to.....
Yup going to give it a go....

Mind you being a denizen of the much abused MERDWAY in all its manifestations, there is not much that can put us off boating just about anywhere . :)
 
oldgit said:
In the space of two posts...
Right thats it , the Broads are off the list.........
back to.....
Yup going to give it a go....

Mind you being a denizen of the much abused MERDWAY in all its manifestations, there is not much that can put us off boating just about anywhere . :)
Click to expand...

Perhaps we were just lucky the last few times we have been. The sun has been shining and we have always got the pair of boats moored where we wanted to get despite putting in long cruising days.

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Several times we've been past the Ferry Inn at Stokesby (first two photo's) been triple banked mooring. The 3rd photo, of Potter Heigham - we were lucky last October and got a mooring on the electric supply (just visible in your photo) but it's very hit and miss below the bridge, we're lucky and can drop the mast to go through. Chances of getting moorings anywhere at Horning (Staithe or Ferry Inn pub) and Ranworth seemed very slim when we've been there. There's almost no casual meadow type moorings on the Broads (ie like Medmenham/Days/Beale Park) it's either a pub, or more likely a BA 24 hour mooring.
 
ianc1200 said:
Several times we've been past the Ferry Inn at Stokesby (first two photo's) been triple banked mooring. The 3rd photo, of Potter Heigham - we were lucky last October and got a mooring on the electric supply (just visible in your photo) but it's very hit and miss below the bridge, we're lucky and can drop the mast to go through. Chances of getting moorings anywhere at Horning (Staithe or Ferry Inn pub) and Ranworth seemed very slim when we've been there. There's almost no casual meadow type moorings on the Broads (ie like Medmenham/Days/Beale Park) it's either a pub, or more likely a BA 24 hour mooring.
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We called in at both Horning and Ranworth for short stays. At Horning we both got in but at Ranworth we had to leave one boat at anchor and just take one across.

We didn't do it this time but the last time we went we just nosed them into some reeds on Sutton Broad when we fancied a quiet night.
 
We've enjoyed the Broads as hire boaters on many occasions :o last year we took our boat to there (by road) for a short holiday and found it a very different experience. It was the start of the school holidays, so there were lots of hire boats and day boats out, you don't get swarms of boats on the Thames. Moorings were a bit thin, but we always found one. Emptying the porta potty can be an issue (as mentioned above) but we found the smaller boatyards with pumpout very willing to help FOC (I always gave them a drink for their trouble). There are places that have showers available, but not many and they don't appear to be listed anywhere we could find. You certainly don't want to be bathing in the Broads :disgust:......but overall we enjoyed it and will be taking our boat back this year for another short break :)
 
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Invariably porta potty official emptying is at boatyards. Several yards on the official maps noted as having the facilities don't have them (South Walsham & one of the Matham yards being examples). If you ring some & ask whether their elsan disposal is available you have to describe what an elsan is. The yard at Ludham has the facilities but is not open on a Sunday. Invariably the "facility" is a manhole cover. I noted several public loo's have notices not to empty your chemical toilets - I wonder why. We found we were above Potter Heigham bridge for a week and there was nowhere which would admit to having the ability to dispose of chemical loos. It should be noted there are several exemptions which allow boats to discharge sea toilets direct into the rivers. The whole set up is for large hire craft who presumably have large holding tanks, sorted out when craft return to base.
 
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