TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

I have hired a motor cruiser (not a mast or sail anywhere) for a four day potter around one of England’s largest areas of open navigable rivers, an area often referred to as “The Norfolk Broads”, but perhaps it is best to drop the Norfolk, as some of the southern stretches are actually in Suffolk so lets refer to it as “The Broads”

This area of England is pretty flat and is drained by the rivers Yare and Bure and their tributaries, the Ant, Thurne, Waveney, Chet, and Wensum.

There are also several larger (or broader) areas of water, which are refered to as “broads”, most of these were actually man-made way back in history by digging out the marsh peat for fertiliser and for burning.

The broads and rivers are navigable if you have a suitable vessel and there is only one lock (but you can avoid that if you want to).

All the area is tidal, with the tidal range being about 7ft near the sea and decreasing inland. The main channels are navigable at low water (but its up to you to check the depth, don’t blame me if you find a bit that isn’t).

The main problems for navigation here are the fact that many of the bridges are fixed and fairly low (or in some cases ridiculously low!).

There are people who sail around “The Broads” but mainly using yachts with masts that are designed for the area (i.e. the masts and rigging is designed to make lowering and raising the mast fairly easy).

I would like to try it sometime but even then might sail with the wind behind me and just motor when it was against me. Tacking backwards and forwards across a river which is three times as wide as my boat is long seems like hard work…

There are several boatyards on the broads that will hire you traditional sailing vessels should you be interested in doing so, but the area is also home to some very large hire fleets of motor cruisers.

My vessel for this trip, Spitfire, is a 44ft (13.5m) Alphacraft Highliner with two steering positions, one in the cabin and the other a sort of fly-bridge on the cabin roof.

She has a beam of 12ft (3.6m) and an air-draft of 8ft 3in (2.5m).

Air-draft what is that? It is the height of the vessel above the waterline AFTER you lower everything that you can. In our case this involves lowering the upper position screens. Remember what I said about low fixed bridges…

Spitfire was the first of her class, with a very sleek looking streamlined superstructure but looks can be deceiving.  Motor vessels on “The Broads” waterways are subject to strict speed limits with most of the area having speed limits of 3, 4, 5, or 6mph (i.e. 4.8kmh to 9.6kmh) to prevent their wash damaging the riverbanks.

With her 5 cylinder engine governed down to a maximum of 1400 rpm I dont expect this Spitfire to fly!

Oh yes, whilst I am thinking about speed I should note that the “Broads Authority” who regulate “The Broads” find it easier to check a vessel’s speed by using SOG “Speed over the Ground” and not STW “Speed through the Water”. Now anyone who uses a boat knows that the size of your wake is proportional to STW but radar guns can’t detect the tidal flow so the speed limits are SOG! Regulating your SOG to 6mph when going with a 4mph tide under you is not easy!

Out of the boatyard dyke and onto the river Yare.

(Oops another Norfolk term that you may not be familiar with: A dyke is a narrow waterway, it may be natural or may be man-made.)

We turn to port and head downstream with aim of reaching the village of Reedham for to moor up there tonight.

The Yare is the largest of the Broads’ rivers and still has a limited amount of commercial coastal traffic. As such its bridges are all lift or swing opening, but will only open on request if they have too, i.e. if your air-draft exceeds the available clearance.

We are a little ahead of schedule so I swing a right into one of the two dykes that leads into Rockland Broad as I’ve never been there. This dyke is about 18ft wide and has a 3mph limit.

Rockland is very shallow so in a cruiser you have to keep to the marked channel.

At the head of the broad there are two more dykes. One leads up to the village of Rockland St Mary and the other joins the Yare downstream of the one that we entered on. Left hand down a bit and we are heading back to the main river.

Back on the river and back to a 6mph speed limit.

It is late March in England but the sky is clear and blue and there is very little wind and we seem to be the only boat that is moving.

Down past the Beauchamps Arms which is a riverside pub with moorings available outside (note that down as a possible stop for the return leg!).

We are then approaching Cantley, a riverside village with a very noticible landmark, the silos of the Cantley Sugar Beet Factory are visible for miles.

At the upstream limit of the village, partly obscured by the raised banks of the flood defences is another riverside pub, The Reedcutters. There is a section of BA (Broads Authority) moorings available just above the pub. (another possible stop for the return leg).

On the stretch after Cantley we see our first river traffic, another of Alphacraft’s hire cruisers is coming up astern of us. Probably trying to estimate their speed by their engine revs and not allowing for the current (I’m playing safe and have my handheld GPS set to show SOG).

They pass us with a wave and motor on ahead whilst we potter along at 6mph.

As we round another of the Yare’s meandering bend we cacth them up as they have reached the Reedham Ferry.

This is a small (two cars maximum) chain ferry that is the only way of crossing the river in the 30 mile stretch between Great Yarmouth and Norwich.

The chains ahead of the ferry will be taught, those behind will drop in a curve under their own weight. You can therefore get through behind the ferry once she is sufficiently far across the river.

Just below the ferry is another pub “The Reedham Ferry”. There are noorings on the northern bank both in front of the pub abd upstraem of the ferry.

Round the next bend and there is the long length of Reedham Staithe.

(Yet another Norfolk term: A staithe is a small quay (or mooring point) usually associated with, and taking its name from, one of the riverside villages)

We go past most of the staithe and, turn to come in against the current and park up just downstream of “The Lord Nelson” (one of the village pubs).  Unfortunately we then discover that the Lord Nelson doesn’t open on Mondays (possibly just in the off season) so we have to walk down to “The Ship”, at the bridge end of the staihe for a meal.

March 23rd 2010

It is about 2 hours cruising time from Reedham to Great Yarmouth for most Broad;s cruisers and we want to be going through the bridges at Yarmouth at “slack water”, (when the incoming flood just cancels out the flow of the River Bure) which is about one hour after low tide.

Slack Water at Yarmoutn is about 9:15 this morning so it is up early and get ready for an early departure. We rise to a lovely sunrise with a low ground mist over the river and the surrounding fields.

We set off at about 7:15 and potter along at our normal 6mph.

Today is a special day for the most junior crew-member, it is Ryan’s fourth birthday!  We had brought presents, cake etc up to the boat with us and when he gets out of his bunk he opens his presents.

I am up on the upper steering position when I suddenly see soap bubbles drifting up out of the hatchand her the theme to “Thomas the Tank Engine” blaring out from the cabin… One of Ryan’s presents is a model train that blows a stream of bubbles from its funnel.

The river is mirror calm this morning and there are no other boats moving. One advantage of coming in the off season, even if the days are shorter and the nights can be chilly.

We eventually come down to “The Berney Arms” which is another remote riverside pub situated where the rivers Yare and Waveney combine. No sign of life at abought 8:15 and then we actually see another boat moving. A firsherman has just come down the Waveney and turns up the Yare towards us.

Now we are out onto the estuary and Breydon Water, which is a wide expanse of mud flats as we are nearly at low-water,  The deep water channel down Breydon is well marked with poles with red and green tops on them. (When on Breydon don’t be tempted to go outside the channel even if the water is high enough to cover the mud flats the mudis never covered by a lot of water…).

Ahead of us is the first of the bridges, Breydon Bridge has a lifting central span but small craft are expected to pass under the fixed outer spans if possible. These are quite high with about 13 feet or so clearance at high water.

Now to get ready for the two low bridges. Screens down. Switch the helm to the cabin steeriing position. The control knob wont turn… Swing the boat around and go back onto Breydon whilst we try to sort out what we are doing wrong.. Still can’t work it out and the tide is rising. Ok we know you can steer from either wheel, all that the switch does is enable the appropriate throttle so set the the throttle from up top and steer from below, we have to shoot through these bridges whilst the water is low enough! (We eventually tracked the problem down to the fact that you had to disengage the clutch on both morse controls before you could turn the switch over…).

Ok leave the wonkey yellow beacon to port and turn into the River Bure.

The first bridge is the old railway bridge and has 6’ 9" clearance at an average high water. The bridge board is showing just about 9’ 3" as we approach the bridge so we will have a good foot of cleaance above the boat.

Through that one and onto the road bridge which is about 3" higher so no problem there either.

Right screens back up and drive from up top again.

Up past the Yacht Station (closed as off season) and the “Marina Bar” (which has been closed for years) and we can see a helicoptor with its rotors spinning over at the heliport.

23rd March 2010

The river swings close to the main Yarmouth to Norwich road and then away again. The banks are lined with tall reeds but we can see over them from the fly-bridge. We can see where they have been harvesting reeds for thatching with sets of sheaves of reeds standing to dry out.

We pull into the moorings at the Stracy Arms wind-pump as there is a nice little shop there. The shop is still there but is being extended so it is currently closed! (Should reopen by Easter).

We stay long enough to cook a late breakfast and then continue on up river.

23rd March 2010

When we were on the Broads last year the kids liked the playground in the garden of “The Bridge Inn” at Acle Bridge.

We have arranged to meet George (Ryan’s Grandad) there for lunch. Normally you can moor right outside the pub but we find the moorings are closed for renovations (“Should be open for Easter” is getting to be a common phrase on this trip) so we have to moor up at the Horizoncraft boatyard which is just the other side of the bridge and walk back.

It is a lovely day and we pplan to eat outside whilst Ryan has a go on the various attractions but they are all shut down (too early in the season!).

All is not lost though as word with the bar staff results in one of their little quad bikes being wheeled out for us and Ryan can have his go after all.

After a nice meal and a pint of the local ale we take George back to the boat and show him around her.

We then light the four candles on Ryan’s cake and have a birthday cake dessert course.

We then take George out for a brief trip up the river before returning to Acle Bridge to drop him off and then going back up river again.

Up to where the river Thurne joins the Bure  and it is left hand down a bit to keep us on the Bure.

Along what is normally the busiest bit of the Broads the section of the Bure between the Thurne and the Ant.

Today it is quite quiet with only three or four boats in sight.

(In August on a Sunday afternoon I have seen it with three boats abreast moving through this stretch!)