New Members appointed to the Broads Authority

Two Norfolk men with an intimate knowledge and love of the Broads have been appointed Members of the Broads Authority.

The Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has appointed Matthew Bradbury, national Director of Operations for the Land Trust, and John Ash, who was administrator for the Broads Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund for six years.

They will each take up a four-year appointment to the Authority on April 1st. 

Matthew Bradbury, Director of Operations for the Land Trust

Matthew, who lives in Hingham and comes from a farming family, has lived and worked in Norfolk for more than 40 years. He learnt to sail on the Broads and likes to spend weekends canoeing and wildlife watching throughout the Broads National Park.

In addition to running the family farming businesses, Matthew worked for more than 20 years as a consultant to landowners, many in Broadland, advising them on the implementation of the Rural Development Programme, cooperative purchasing and marketing.

He was then employed by the Broads Authority working on water quality and conservation projects before becoming Head of Nature Reserves at Norfolk Wildlife Trust. He managed more than 70 sites including a number of major Broads Nature Reserves - Barton, Hickling, Martham, Ranworth, Alderfen and Upton – as well as visitor centres and an extensive grazing operation. 

Matthew now has responsibility for the management and development of the Land Trust’s national land portfolio of 2500 hectares comprising green space, nature reserves and parks. He also has responsibility for fundraising, income generation and voluntary support to enable the land to be managed sustainably for environmental, social and economic benefit. 

He is currently a board member of the Thames Gateway Local Nature Partnership and a trustee of the British Mountaineering Council’s Access and Conservation Trust.

John Ash, Chairman of Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust

John Ash, who lives in Brooke, is a retired chartered civil engineer who has spent 40 years working in flood and coastal defence in Norfolk, including the Broads, the UK and Europe. His work has included a wide variety of projects associated with environmental management, economic appraisal, climate change and tourism.

John says living and working in Norfolk has given him a real love and affinity with the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads where he has sailed in dinghies and wherries. He took over the chairmanship of Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust (WYC) from Aitken Clark, the first Chief Executive of the Broads Authority, when he died. The Trust has since restored two Edwardian wherry yachts and a pleasure wherry to sailing condition and, together with its other vintage wherry yacht and recently acquired second pleasure wherry, they now offer holiday charters and educational visits on the Broads. 

John represents WYC on Broads Tourism and has a working knowledge of tourism issues. For the past six years he has been Administrator for the Broads Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund providing grants to organisations in the Broads, many of them focused on developing the opportunity for young people to experience and enjoy the Broads.

Farrington 25 Broads Cruiser at Martham Boats.

Today I was at Martham Boats to Survey and Value this Broads Cruiser for Insurance purposes. The river cruisers of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads evolved during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to meet the requirements of this unique inland waterways system - light displacement, tall rigs, low freeboard, well proportioned cabin trunks with lifting roofs to give headroom when moored, and masts that lower to allow easy passage under bridges. The sheltered environment has allowed many of the early boats to survive giving the Broads possibly the greatest concentration of traditional boats in the UK.

To meet the rise of interest in these craft new yachts started to appear in the late 1970's and one of these was the first Wolstenholme design to reach the water, the 25ft GRP hulled timber composite river cruiser for Kingsley Farrington launched in 1986 (below). She was followed by the timber epoxy 'Cirrus', the GRP Farrington 30, the cold moulded 'Storm', timber epoxy 31footers for Native Yacht Company, 28ft Bure Classic for Colin Buttifant, the beautiful 'Moonshadow' of 2004, and the recently launched GRP timber composite 26 footer again for Colin Buttifant.

she obviously sails well! 

Martham boats busy as usual on restoration work and mast making 

Kingsley Farrington - The Builder. 

Surveyors comments: In 2012 Colin Buttifant launched ‘White Swan’, a close sister to ‘Cirrus’, and then in 2013 Richard Mace (who had ‘Cirrus’ built and subsequently sold her) working with Paul Bown launched ‘India’, a repeat of ‘Cirrus’.

Sealine F37 for Survey at Burton Waters

I was at Burton Waters in Lincoln today inspecting this Sealine Motor Cruiser. The F37 is a very capable cruiser and one of the last of the old style and incorporates some very good design ides- the swiveling fly bridge chair but for one. 

Surveyors comments: Down side I suppose is access to the engines.. But apart from this there are no other flies in the Sealine ointment. If you decided to buy this Sealine it is unlikely you will be disappointed-unless your 6ft 3” tall or want to spend hours fettling with the engines! 

Broom 970 for survey at Horning

I was carrying out an Insurance Survey today in Horning on this Classic TSMY Broom. The 9/70 was designed to give the maximum possible space in a 32 footer whilst still providing a safe sea boat with the traditional good handling qualities of Broom craft. A slightly more compact version of the 10/70, the 9/70 was based on a John Bennett hull, with the superstructure designed by Andrew Wolstenholme, who also worked with Broom's own design team to provide the interior layout.

The aft cabin normally has a double bunk against one side, and incorporates an en-suite shower and toilet. Although this version had been converted into a double berth. The forward cabin was fitted with V-berths as standard although this could be replaced with a second double if preferred. Adjacent to the galley, a forward toilet served for day use and for guests. The design retains the twin helm positions, and as with the 10/70 there is no sliding door access to the saloon.

To ensure that the LPG system is leak-free it is tightness test using a manometer gauge for an Insurance Survey using the BS 5482-3 guidelines.  The standard specification provided for was twin 62HP Volvo MD31s although a more typical configuration for river and coastal use was like this example with a pair of 110HP Volvo TAMD30As. Surveyors comments: Good solid sea boats that always Survey well. Broom was founded in 1898 by Charles J Broom at first building individual sailing vessels for the local gentry to sail on the wide open spaces of the Norfolk Broads. Over the course of the next 100 years Broom have gone from strength to strength offering innovation and quality hand craftsmanship. In July 2010 Broom was sold to its current owner, Managing Director Mark Garner, a well known local businessman; the company then set about modernising production and design bringing a modern contemporary feel to both, the successful existing models whilst also moving back into the Coupe market. The ongoing redevelopment plans continue with a revised model due to be launched each year for the foreseeable future.

New dredging equipment for the Broads

The Broads Authority has taken charge of a second new mud wherry as part of a ten year strategy to replace old equipment.

Much of the equipment was given at no charge to the Authority when it bought the Griffin Lane dockyard from May Gurney in 2008 and it was always known it had a limited life and would need replacement.

Named Gleaner after an old timber sailing wherry that carried cargo into Norwich, the new wherry has been built to a bespoke design by local naval architect Andrew Wolstenholme to transport sediment dredged from the rivers to other locations for re-use. She was constructed in Ireland by John Kearney, the builder of her sister wherry Iona, and has joined her in dredging the River Ant this winter.

This new design of wherry is smaller at 16.5m long and can carry up to 40 tonnes of sediment in the hold. It is stable, manoeuvrable and is small enough to navigate the narrower rivers like the Chet and Ant.

A third wherry of the same design as Iona and Gleaner is being commissioned with delivery due at the end of 2015.

Also retiring is a steel hulled barge with a crane mounted inside which has given many years’ service removing sediment from the Broads. The crane is being removed and her spare parts recycled to help maintain the other cranes.

It is being replaced with a versatile 360 long reach excavator which will sit on linkflotes and dredge using a new hydraulic clam shell bucket.

Rob Rogers, Head of Construction, Maintenance and Environment, said:

“Over the last four years we have purchased three long reach hydraulic excavators, two new wherries and a set of four linkflotes.

“Maintaining the navigation of the Broads National Park requires different plant and equipment, as the width and depth of the rivers and broads varies, meaning a combination of small and large vessels are required. Modern excavators are able to swap between dredging, offloading, landscaping, watercourse management and piling much easier than the traditional grab cranes and offer a more versatile service.

The investment in the new equipment and vessels demonstrates the Broads Authority’s commitment to improving water depth, maintaining safe, clearly marked channels and minimising disruption to the users of the waterbodies.”