Posted by Jock on December 06, 2005 at 16:33:36 from 84.64.131.122 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: ... through Yarmouth posted by Laurence Monkhouse on December 06, 2005 at 15:05:35:
But it can be done with a quant
When we first "did" Yarmouth around 1969, the Yare was being regularly dredged so that it could be used by sea going ships. This dredging made the Bure drain faster, reduced the deposit of silt and kept it deeper. Our quant did not strike bottom, but was employed as a sort of telegraph pole sized boathook/battering ram. In those days there was no Breydon Bridge.
On recent passages through Yarmouth, when going down the Bure we have been able to quant off the bottom keeping close to the right hand bank (looking downstream). We wait at the Yacht Station until almost slack water, employing the last dregs of the ebb to help us on our way. Once through the bridges we moor by the dolphin to raise our mast. Of course, on leaving Acle three hours earlier we booked our passage through the Breydon Bridge, bridge control have already seen us and the traffic lights are turning to red along the road... .
On a slightly different note, the silting up of the Yare is a scandal which has brought about the demise of Norwich role's as a small sea port. The property developers quickly closed in for the kill and destroyed what was left of the port installations, but the shallower Yare can now also be quanted through Norwich. However, we like to stick to tradittion and put a small donkey (crew member)ashore and make them tow.