At a General Meeting of the Broads’ principal boating organisation, the Norfolk & Suffolk Boating Association (NSBA), there was presentation of a highest-impact award for Sail-Training; their Chair presented the Association’s Mike Evans Award to the Excelsior Trust which is also an Affiliate of NSBA; the following glowing citation accompanied the award :-

EXCELSIOR has taken to sea over 11,000 often disadvantaged young people people,  since re-commissioning by HRH The Princess Royal at Lowestoft in 1988.

Taking last season (2024) as an example,  EXCELSIOR visited fourteen countries in seventeen weeks and participated in Sail Training International's Tall Ships Race in the Baltic, as well as visiting the Faroe Islands.  EXCELSIOR was the only British Registered vessel to compete in the 2024 race.  At their Corunna conference in October, STI awarded EXCELSIOR the Sultan Qaboosh Trophy for her performance during the race.  This is the STI top award and the first time it has been awarded to a British vessel. 

The Excelsior-Trust is also a member of the UK Association of Sail Training Organisations.  With a similarly intense programme for 2025 it was planned to compete again in the STI Tall Ships Race in the North Sea (making much easier the logistics of weekly crew changes),  as well as voyages to the Netherlands and briefly back to the Baltic. 

Excelsior at sea © Excelsior Trust

Sail Training at sea changes lives:  it works differently to other forms of engagement and it usually takes at least three days to 'reach’ deep into a young person.

Regularly, the first time a new EXCELSIOR crew member has done anything as part of a team, is when they pull up EXCELSIOR's mainsail;  if they don't hoist that sail, the boat doesn't move.

They sail out through the harbour mouth, relax and begin to enjoy the experience;  within a couple of miles, they lose mobile signal,  which will not be available again until they make next landfall.  A little later, it dawns that they cannot get off;  they are stuck - entirely out of their comfort zones, with unfamiliar crewmates in confined quarters below deck and in a sailing environment they don't understand.

They all lend a hand with cooking, washing up and sail changes;  they are taught some basic navigation and all have a go at helming EXCELSIOR. Before long, they decide that night watches can be fun and they are picking up new skills at every turn and it's something they have done for themselves.

A different, more confident young person steps off EXCELSIOR at the end of their trip.

One can delight that so many of the young crews volunteer and return to help with EXCELSIOR's winter maintenance at the Lowestoft shipyard.

Originally the plan was that we, three couples and two dogs, would take a leisurely cruise on the Canal du Midi in a very comfortable hire cruiser operated by one of France’s premier boat hire companies Nicols, who design, build and operate some 400 cruisers. This plan was much like the cruises on Nicols Boats that some amongst us had done in the past before Covid, but this time we planned to cruise on a section of the Canal that we hadn’t explored previously.

Over the past twenty years or so, given that several amongst us are experienced seafarers, we have undertaken cruises on a number of different models from Nicols’ extensive range of cruisers and have then provided reports both on the boats themselves and on the cruising areas that we explored. On this occasion we planned to start and finish our cruise from Port Lauragais, one of Nicols bases on the Canal du Midi between Toulouse and Carcassonne. As I said, that was the plan!

A day or two prior to our departure from the UK I received a call from Nicols to ask whether we might like to consider a change of plan and rather than starting and finishing in Port Lauragais we could instead take one of their latest and largest cruisers from the Nicols base at Le Somail near Beziers north up the Canal du Midi to its home base at Port Lauragais.

The idea was quite appealing but there were a couple of logistical issues that we needed to address before agreeing on the change of plan. Nicols were very helpful and cooperative as regards these, including allowing us more time to complete what we correctly anticipated could be quite a challenging 120km cruise through no less than sixty locks, fifty-nine of which were “uphill”, to the summit of the Canal at the Seuil de Naurouze 190m above sea level - only the last lock from the summit to Port Lauragais was a less demanding “downhill” one.

So, after a lunchtime meeting in Cholet with a representative of Nicols management team, it was agreed that we would board our boat, one of the latest 15m long Sixto Fly class cruisers, at Le Somail the next afternoon with the aim of delivering her to Port Lauragais the following week-end giving us at least seven full days to complete the voyage which looked quite feasible had everything gone to plan and had the weather not had other ideas!

Despite travelling from different parts of France, all three couples and our two dogs duly arrived on the Saturday afternoon in glorious sunshine at the very attractive port village of Le Somail. Once we had sorted out who was to have which of the three cabins, stowed all our gear and parked our cars in the secure car-park at the base, we welcomed the Nicols engineer aboard to go through the usual procedure of showing us how everything worked including the heating, air-conditioning and on-board 240volt generator. We then completed the necessary paperwork at the office.

However, by this time, it was late afternoon so we made the decision to book a meal at the very popular local Auberge for that evening and to spend the next hour or two exploring the beautiful historic village, including a visit to what is the biggest bookshop any of us had ever seen!

The village of Le Somail is really not much bigger than a hamlet. Long before its development as a tourist centre, it was clearly an important commercial port on the Canal during the 17th - 19th centuries with some 28,000 travellers passing through the village in one year during the 19th century. The buildings themselves, such as the Auberge, the former port office, the chapel and the warehouses are indicative of Le Somail’s past importance. Today it’s not only one of the most popular of Nicols Boats hire cruiser bases it is also a tourist destination in its own right and attracts lots of visitors from far and wide; it boasts a busy and very helpful tourist office too.

We spent a couple of hours during the late afternoon exploring the village, visiting the bookshop and the “provisions barge” that’s moored on the canal to stock up with various supplies, such as fresh milk, that we were likely to need during the early part of our voyage before enjoying a pleasant meal at the Auberge alongside the Canal.

Sunday morning saw us preparing to cast off when we noticed that the fresh water pump appeared to be struggling to supply water at any reasonable pressure. We managed to get hold of the engineer who had given us our briefing the previous afternoon, which was lucky because it seems that the problem had not been reported by the previous hirers. Having to wait whilst a new pump fitted meant that we didn’t actually leave Le Somail until Sunday midday so it was just as well we’d agreed some leeway with Nicols as regards when we needed to get the boat to Port Lauragais.

So, in very pleasant weather but with a forecast of heavy rain and strong winds overnight and the following morning, we made our way through the four locks between Le Somail and the quite large port of Homps where we moored for the night after booking lunch the following day at the nearby restaurant. Homps is an attractive large village with the third biggest port on the Canal, a marina, a supermarket, an excellent wine shop and several restaurants all within easy walking distance.

The large canal basin/marina at Homps was one of the relatively few places where the 29m commercial barges could turn round and enjoyed a prosperous period in the 17th-19th centuries thanks to shipments of the local Minervois wines to Sete, Toulouse and Bordeaux.

The weather forecast proved to be accurate. During the night and the following morning we experienced torrential rain and high winds that, thanks to me having left our cabin window slightly open when my wife Lois and I went to bed, managed to soak all our bedding before our dog Fudge woke us all up at around 2 am. Lois and I ended up spending the rest of the night on the sofa bed in the saloon, and we owe a huge vote of thanks to our friends for lending us extra bedding for what was left of the night, and for helping us to dry out all our bedding, (including the mattress!)in time for us to use the following night.

With an overall length of 15m (the maximum permitted for hire cruisers) the Sixto Fly is one of the most sophisticated and luxurious hire cruisers operating on the French inland waterways but is designed mainly to take advantage of the summer weather conditions, especially those prevailing in the south of France. Hence the “Fly Deck” with its Bimini cover. There are two steering positions; one inside in front of the saloon, the other on a “Fly Bridge” which commands a far better all round view and helps no end as regards manoeuvring in restricted spaces, especially in the locks where there is no room for error! Hence we made a decision to use the fly bridge helm position most of the time rather than the lower inside position.

We enjoyed a very good lunch at the restaurant that we’d moored alongside at Homps. After lunch the rain eased up and we set off immediately to the next nearest port at La Redorte where we moored for the night having managed just a pretty pathetic 5km and only one lock that day. Obviously we were falling well short of our daily target which required us to average at least eight locks every day!

Come the next morning we got away early and managed to cover some 20kms and negotiate a dozen locks during the passage from Le Redorte to the port of Trebes about 10kms east of Carcassonne and its famous Cite. Trebes is a bustling town with a busy port where fortunately we managed to find a mooring with mains electricity and fresh water connections. So, after what had definitely been our busiest day so far, we retired to a nearby Italian restaurant which would you believe also served the local speciality Cassoulet which was enjoyed (I think!) by at least one of us.
The weather during this long day was fair but with a pretty fresh wind and even stronger gusts bordering on gale force. Previously we have had other boats, mainly hire cruisers, some of which were rather obviously crewed by people not used to dealing with strong and gusty winds. This made for some interesting experiences when the lock-keepers understandably wanted to accommodate two, three or even four boats in a lock chamber at the same time; a deliberate policy designed to conserve water.

However we were quite relieved to find ourselves alone after having shared a lock chamber on three occasions with one particular hire cruiser who appeared either to not understand or to simply ignore the lock keeper’s instructions. We finally managed to lose him when he moored so far back from a lock that the lock-keeper closed the gates before we could enter it.

To be fair, locking in the winds we were experiencing wasn’t that easy even for an experienced person on the helm, especially when several locks are only entered through a very low bridge requiring whoever is on the upper helm to duck down or even to kneel down on occasion. In fact the same cautionary ducking was needed for quite a few of the many bridges over the canal too.

Not only was locking quite challenging for the helmsman, it was pretty demanding and hard work for the crew too, one of whom had to be dropped ashore about fifty metres before the lock so he or she could make their way to the correct side of the lock chamber to receive fore and after mooring lines from the members of the crew still aboard. On a 15m long boat the mooring lines need to be pretty long and quite heavy duty which makes them distinctly difficult to throw to the person ashore, especially when the person concerned may often be 5m above the crew member on the boat! With our crew all retirees and three of them ladies it had been a pretty demanding day with the prospect of two more similarly interesting days to follow!

Despite the somewhat adverse wind and weather we were all enjoying ourselves. The two dogs Stanley and Fudge (both Cocker-poos) seemed happy with occasional walks along the old towpaths and longer walks in the evening. All in all we were all having a good time on this beautiful historic canal.

The next day dawned sunny but still with a pretty strong wind so we pushed on through the city of Carcassonne (with some very good views of the Cite) for some 30kms to our next overnight stop not far from the port of Bram. This stretch included no less than sixteen locks but, having left Carcassonne astern, there wasn’t nearly so much traffic on the canal. This meant that we were able to maintain a more consistent speed not only through the manned locks but also through the new automatic unmanned versions installed on the more upstream reaches of the Canal du Midi towards Toulouse.

Given the wind conditions my friend and former Coastguard colleague Malcolm, who like myself, had plenty of boating experience, had been sharing the helm between us. However, neither of us had ever encountered automatic locks before so we agreed to ask our other male crew member Mike, who’d been doing all the work jumping ashore, talking to the lock keepers and securing our mooring lines if he could now master whatever procedure was needed for us to operate these unmanned automatic locks. The procedure is actually pretty straightforward albeit that the instructions are in the form of diagrams alongside push-buttons and it’s not immediately obvious that having closed the locks gates behind you, and watched the lock chamber fill with water via the sluice gates, the exit gate will only open after you push the button again!

Our next stop involved a run of some 20kms and another fifteen locks to the town of Castelnaudary, famous for its Cassoulet of course. We were lucky to find a nice comfortable mooring with a mains electric connection in the inner basin opposite the harbourmaster's office. We spent some time here and took advantage of the harbour facilities that included the mooring, electrical and water connections, posh showers etc. All for €16.00 for 24 hours which compared very favourably to some of the campsites in the south of France!

Unfortunately the same could not be said of our choice of a restaurant for our evening meal that night. It was on the harbourside and, had the weather been warmer that evening, we could have had a table outside. The choice of main courses was very limited indeed (mostly salads) and the quality was not at all what you would normally expect from a bistro in France – very disappointing. We later discovered that the quite a few British privately owned boats, who spend the winter months from November through to March here when the locks are all closed, use a nearby bar/restaurant which is apparently much better than our choice had been.

So to our last day’s run from Castelnaudary to Port Lauragais a distance of about 12km with a number of uphill locks leading to the summit of the Canal du Midi some 190m above sea level at the Seuil de Naurouzeour, where there is a monument to Pierre-Paul Riquet the engineer who directed the building of the Canal du Midi in the 17th Century. The monument, in the form of an obelisk, is situated about ½ km from the canal and if you want to visit it involves a pleasant tree-lined walk, thoroughly enjoyed by Fudge who had her first run of the week off her lead.

Finally we reached our last and 60th lock which, for the first time of course, was a DOWNHILL lock where the ropework is much easier as all that is needed is to take a half-turn around the lock chamber bollards and pay out the rope as the boat drops down as the water is released from the lock chamber.

In no time at all after that last lock we entered the spacious modern canal basin/marina at Port Lauragais, found the appropriate mooring, tied up and reported to the Nicols harbourmaster’s office before enjoying a good meal at the marina restaurant before what was most of our crew’s last night aboard before taking the taxi kindly provided by Nicols the next morning, a Sunday, for the hour and a quarter drive back to Le Somail to collect our cars. We then drove back to Port Lauragais to pack our things, clean the boat and prepare it for inspection the following morning for which Lois and I and Fudge stayed aboard overnight.

Judging from the feedback from our “crew”, everyone seems to have thoroughly enjoyed this cruise despite some pretty indifferent and at times quite challenging weather conditions and the pretty hard work undertaken by all those manning to the ropes. I think by the end of the voyage everyone, not least myself, felt a sense of achievement at having accomplished what we set out to do without any serious mishaps and without any damage at all to the boat apart from my having broken a bedside coat hook in our cabin when removing the bedding that had got wet during the second night’s storm! We all started out as good friends and we all ended up as good friends even though we did have a row one evening!

Would we all want to do it again? Probably, albeit in warmer and less windy weather, and preferably, given that we’re all retirees, on the south-eastern stretch of the canal where there are fewer locks!

Despite being brought up in Norfolk during the period of the 1953 floods all along the East  Coast, living on the Dorset coast for the past fifty years and undertaking my boating activities both recreationally and with the Portland Coastguard patrol boat mainly in the English Channel, until very recently I had given scant attention to the implications of climate change on our inland waterways.

My attention to the very serious implications of climate change on our inland waterways was brought home to me very forcibly as a result of my wife Lois and I relocating our boating activities to the Norfolk Broads a few years ago and my subsequent involvement as a member of the Norfolk and Suffolk Boating Association and Lois’s membership of the Broads Society.

Given the exceptionally wet weather over a period of six months and more since October 2023, coupled with several named storms and some exceptionally high spring tides it was hardly surprising that the Broads river levels including those on the rivers Bure, Ant and Thurne all “over topped” the quay headings in several places and that as a result lots of moorings including those at several large boatyards were inundated and in some cases became unusable.

Management of the waters of the Broads, especially as regards navigation, is actually quite complicated, involving the Broads Authority, Anglian Water, and the Environment Agency, with the added complications of there being several lifting and swing bridges operated under the control of the Highways Agency or Railtrack!

These complications are exacerbated by the fact that the Broads Authority is a actually a National Park but is unique amongst the UK’s National Parks in being responsible for navigation in addition to the normal responsibilities of the other National Parks. This is a unique situation whereby the Broads Authority is required to cater for the needs of people engaged in boating (both in privately owned vessels and in hired craft) and to cater for the needs of local residents and for the needs of the thousands of holidaymakers staying in hotels, guest houses, campsites etc! These two fairly distinct groups are known locally as “Navvies” and “Parkies”

Currently the most vexed problem as far as boating on the Broads is concerned is the recent increase in the annual tolls levied on local boat owners and hire boat operators alike; legally, according to the Broads Authority/National Parks remit these tolls are to be used exclusively to maintain the Broads navigation, including such matters as dredging, weed cutting and clearance, quay headings at public moorings, but there are suspicions being voiced lately claiming that a proportion of the tolls revenue is being used to subsidise non-navigational activities within the Broads area, arguably at the expense of the provision of mooring facilities, adequate dredging of those Broads used for yacht racing and other navigational matters, and that this problem has been exacerbated over the past eight months as a result of the extremely wet weather and increased flooding.

The future of the UK’s inland waterways, and the Broads in particular, at a time of very significant climate change is the subject of an interesting strategy document produced by the Broads Authority called the “Broadland Futures Initiative”

The story of the “Lifeboat for the Broads” really began in 1999 when following a call from Great Yarmouth Coastguard requesting the inshore inflatable lifeboat stationed on the coast at Hemsby to attend an incident several miles inland on Hickling Broad.
The Hemsby crew responded of course, even though to get to the scene of the incident meant having to tow the lifeboat several miles by road (courtesy of a local farmer) to a launching slip on the shore at Hickling Broad.

Although that was the first recorded incident of Hemsby Lifeboat having been tasked by the Coastguard to attend an incident on the Broads, the history of Hemsby Lifeboat station itself actually began many years previously in the early 1970s, following more than a dozen fatalities as a result of drowning along the coastal waters between Winterton and Scratby. The nearest lifeboats were an RNLI “D” class 5m inflatable at Happisburgh to the north and an old Liverpool Class all weather lifeboat capable of no more than about 8kts based at Caister to the south.

The result of these drownings was a commitment in 1975 by the local Hemsby community to form a local Rescue Service and to source an appropriate “rescue boat” in the shape of a 4.5m Avon inflatable on loan from Sub Aqua club. Later that year, thanks to the generosity of the Norfolk Broads Lions Club, The Hemsby Inshore Rescue Service (HIRS) was able to purchase their first boat, a 5m Avon Searider RIB with a 40hp Mercury outboard, appropriately named “Sealion 1” in recognition of the Lions Club’s support.

Following the purchase of their own rescue boat there was of course a need to source a boat-house to keep it in, but even more importantly to site this in a position that enabled the boat to be launched as quickly as possible in the event of a “shout”.  There was of course then a pressing need to equip the boat with essential kit such as life-jackets, VHF radio etc and to recruit volunteers to act as crew for the new boat and most importantly to provide training in seamanship, radio communications and first-aid for the boat and shore crews who initially numbered around thirty volunteers. In their very first year the Hemsby inshore rescue service responded to six incidents (nowadays usually referred to as “shouts”)

The next years, 1977 and 1978 were busy with all the administrative measures required for recognition by the Charity Commission, HM Coastguard and operational matters as well including the purchase of a Landrover for launching the rescue boat into the water, pagers for the crew, whilst during that same two-year period the HIRS responded to no less than 19 “shouts”

The1980s saw many developments amongst the most significant being the official recognition by HM Coastguard of Hemsby IRS as a “Declared Facility” and an integral part of the UK Search & Rescue organisation (UKSAR) Declared Facility Status, or DFS as its usually referred to is not an accolade that’s hard to achieve it also requires the station to conform to the Coastguard Code of Practice covering its range of operations and procedures, all of which are monitored annually by the Maritme & Coastguard Agency (MCA)

Other notable events during the 1980s and ‘90s included the building of a new purpose-built station building, the purchase of new boats Sealions ll, III and lV all against a worrying background of coastal erosion. During the two decades of the ‘80s and ‘90s Hemsby Inshore Rescue Services responded to more than eighty “shouts” culminating in 1999 with that incident described previously, several miles inland on Hickling Broad. This incident lead to a decision to purchase a dedicated “freshwater lifeboat” for use on inland waters, mainly of course for incidents on The Broads, where a shallow draft boat is needed and the usual RIB with its relatively deep hull designed for use at sea, often in rough weather, is really not best suited to the often quite shallow waters of the Broads.

So the turn of the century saw the introduction of the very first Hemsby Broads Rescue Boat, subsequently superceeded by similar types of boat culminating some few years ago with a 14 foot Seastrike/Goodchild Marine very shallow draft aluminium “dory” powered by a 30hp outboard and normally towed to one of some 32 launching sites around the 125 miles of the Broads inland waterways by a Mitsubishi L20 tow truck

This Broads Rescue Boat, known more commonly as the Lifeboat for the Broads, responds to an average of some 50 incidents on the Broads every year, while Hemsby’s sea-going RIB lifeboat also gets numerous shouts each year for incidents offshore, all made more difficult in terms of launching by the serious and on-going coastal erosion here which deserves far more from the government in terms of improved sea defences which if not forthcoming will result in the need for the whole Hemsby Lifeboat Station and its operations to be relocated.

An example of the type of “shouts” that the Hemsby Lifeboat for the Broads responds to took place earlier this month as described in the local press:

“Hemsby Broads Rescue was paged by Humber Coastguard last night at 23:40. Our assistance was requested by local Coastguard teams to help with the evacuation of a female in her seventies who had fallen on her vessel earlier in the evening.

It was agreed by the Coastguard and the medical team on scene that the best option would be to navigate the vessel to a suitable mooring close to the Ambulance, as the alternative would have been a significant walk and not in the best interests of the casualty or emergency crews.

We launched Broads Marley and, after locating the casualty vessel, put two crew on board to navigate to the selected mooring close to the ambulance. Helmed by a lifeboat crew, the vessel proceeded under escort from the Broads Rescue Boat and was safely repositioned.

We thank the Coastguard teams from Bacton and Winterton and the Ambulance Crew. Once the casualty was safe on board the ambulance Hemsby Stood down and returned to base for post-emergency administration and clean down at 01:45."

The internationally famous Three Rivers Race, organised by Horning Sailing Club, takes place on the Norfolk Broads, usually during the first week-end of June.

Background
The Three Rivers Race is one of the oldest remaining on the Broads sailing calendar. Running every year since 1961, it is also one of the largest inland yachting races in Europe, encompassing three rivers and two lakes or broads in rural Norfolk. Originally, the plan was to have boats crossing the estuary at Breydon Water with the three rivers being the Bure, Yare and Waveney. However, from a safety and tide aspect this proved impractical, so the northern Broadland Rivers of the Bure, Thurne and Ant were used instead, and remain the Three Rivers of the Race to this day.

The current challenge sees helms negotiate a course in the order of 45-50 miles, depending on conditions, rounding four buoys located at Ludham Bridge on the Ant, on South Walsham Broad or Fleet Dyke, on Hickling Broad at the top end of the River Thurne and downstream on the River Bure somewhere between Stokesby and Six Mile House heading towards Great Yarmouth, starting and finishing at Horning Sailing Club on the upper Bure.

The time limit for this is 24 hours from each boat's start time. There are also 4 mast lowerings required on the course to negotiate the pair of bridges at Potter Heigham and also the bridge at Acle both ways.

Despite all of these obstacles and sometimes complex rigs, the fastest boats such as Norfolk Punts and visiting Thames A Raters can complete the race in as little as 7 hours given favourable conditions. For those boats which cannot get back in time for a swift pint in the Swan, a cooked breakfast is provided at the finish in the clubhouse to revive weary sailors.

All the boats are tracked at Horning Sailing Club for safety purposes. A team of 10 fixed motor cruiser guardships plus a range of other safety vessels keep an eye out for any problems and report back to base via radio. The efficiency of this system was underlined in 2001 when, for the only time so far in the race's history, strong winds caused abandonment of the race. Having issued the command from base at 6pm, all crews and the vast majority of boats were either at their home moorings or back at Horning Sailing Club by 11pm, despite being up to 15 miles away by river, thanks to the safety network.

Progress around the course is tracked using computer software which allows the Race Controller to see in an instant on which stretch of water each competitor was last reported by a guardship.

The start of the race is the time for spectators to view the fleet in one concentrated mass, waiting to be started in groups of around 10 boats upstream of the start line at Horning Sailing Club. The first start is usually at 11am and it takes over an hour to get the whole fleet started.

Once the fleet has reached Thurne Mouth, yachts can usually be seen heading off in both directions, and this decision is probably the most critical one of the whole race, dependent as it is on wind, tide and boat performance. The Three Rivers Race really is a test of seamanship over a long period and covering a wide variety of areas from close-quarters boat handling at the start to light airs sailing overnight and control at the bridge zones. Crews have travelled to Horning from all over the World to take part in a variety of craft, including the impressive Thames A Raters, Norfolk Punts, Half-Deckers, Yeomans, Yare and Bure ODs (White Boats), Reedlings, Rebels, Wayfarers, Enterprises and other dinghies, traditional Broads River Cruisers and Production Cruisers. No single-handed craft are allowed.

Leaving from Horning, competitors make their way through the street at Horning, before sailing on the more open waters of the Bure once out of the trees. Then it becomes a matter of tactics - ensuring that the tides and winds work in their favour, choosing which order to sail the remainder of the route, which includes Fleet Dyke to South Walsham Broad, the River Ant to Ludham Bridge, under Acle Bridge to Stokesby (or further, dependent on wind conditions on the day) and under Potter Heigham Bridge to Hickling Broad.

As part of this course, it requires the raising and lowering of masts to get under the bridges - always a great spectator sport, with popular viewing points including Potter Heigham and Acle, where the crowds can enjoy the excitement.

Today safety is at the forefront of the race organisers' minds, and the Three Rivers Committee, headed up by Kevin Saunders, has been planning the 2023 race since last year.

2023 Race

Hosted by Horning Sailing Club, in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, the race is a true spectacle not to be missed, as the myriad of boats set sail - where small dinghies such as the Norfolk Dinghy and Wayfarer can be seen sailing against the visiting Thames A Raters, with their tall masts standing at over 40 foot high!

This year a total of 103 boats took part, starting from Horning Sailing Club from 11.00 am on Saturday 3rd June. They set sail in groups of around 10 boats at a time, starting with the Yeoman fleet. These were followed by the Wayfarer dinghies, then traditional Broads boats including Yares & Bures, Waveney One Designs and mixed dinghies. More traditional Broads boats including Reedlings, Rebels and Broads One Designs followed, then halfdeckers and production cruisers. The faster dinghies, including Norfolk Punts and the Thames A Raters, started after a short gap.

With a fair wind behind them they all made their way down the River Bure before making their individual decision as to which route to take in order to visit all the ten marks, each of which is watched over by a “guardship” with a rescue boat alongside able to respond to any emergency or search for any missing or long-overdue competitor.

Other marks which had to be rounded were those at Ludham Bridge on the River Ant, near Stokesby on the River Bure, the Stracey Arms Windpump and in Hickling Broad above Potter Heigham bridges.

Some 50 river cruisers and hire cruisers make up the remainder of the fleet, from the highly competitive to those who just want the achievement of finishing the race. This is one of the things that makes the Three Rivers Race so special - it means something different to each entrant. It's fantastic that after over 60 years the race is still going strong and attracting competitors from all over the country (and even some from abroad) to take part.
This year, the race included both previous winners and a number of sailors participating for the first time.

The MNA Boat Club Guardship “ELSA II” and her accompanying rescue dory were crewed by Club members Clive & Lois Edwards, RNLI Lifeboat crew members Malcolm & Jill Wright and Steven (Rocky) Woolford. They were stationed in South Walsham Broad at the end of the Fleet Dyke alongside the Marine Tech fuelling jetty who’s owners were very supportive and allowed us to use their facilities throughout the whole 24 hours. Thank you Rod and Nina!

The overall winner was a Yare & Bure One Design “Dinghy Skipper” which completed the course in 8 hours 24 minutes followed by a Yeoman “Firefly” and a Wayfarer “Compleat Fiasco”.

As regards our contribution of “ELSA ll” as a Guardship we had a fairly frantic 18 hour period even before the race started because, on our way south down the River Ant from our mooring at Barton Turf, we suddenly started to experience a weird “surging” of our engine which we thought might be a fuel filter. However, when checked, it was in fact perfectly clear. We were then led to believe it might be weed round our prop and/or rudder resulting in us spending £200 on a diver, only to find that there was no significant amount of weed affecting us!

So at 22.00 hours on 2nd June, less than 12 hours before we were due to lay our mark at South Walsham we had an engineer, Rob Fearson, from Sutton Staithe Boatyard who very kindly turned out and finally diagnosed the problem which was a wholly unexpected lack of oil in the gearbox – the cause being a leak in the gearbox cooler allowing all the oil to mix with the cooling water and them pumped out through the exhaust!

Re-filling the gearbox enabled us at least to get to our mark at South Walsham, on time the following morning, and to get most of the way home on the morning after the race had finished without further trouble – needless to say a new gearbox cooler is now being installed!

Very fortunately we had some much appreciated support from Richard and Rachel Card in their handsome motor cruise “Ness Nomad” who escorted us down the Bure and Fleet Dyke to lay our mark on the Saturday morning and then remained anchored in South Walsham Broad throughout the day in order to ferry Jill and Nikki back to Horning before we commenced our “night watch” Having “Ness Nomad” and Richard and Rachel’s sailing dinghy available on
stand-by to relieve us if we had any further trouble during the race was a huge relief in addition to which they were great company and help with recording the bunches of competitors rounding the mark so a huge “thank you” to them is due.

(Editor's note: The header photo is from the 2022 Three Rivers Race)

The Hemsby Independent Lifeboat Service came fully into service in 1977 following the formation of the Hemsby Volunteer Inshore Rescue Club in 1976 as a result of their having been nine fatalities as a result of drowning in the previous four years along the popular local North Sea beaches.

The Hemsby Lifeboat Service is especially notable as a result of it role in covering a very significant area of the Norfolk Broads as well as the nearby Norfolk beaches; in fact well over 50% of the call-outs for the Hemsby boats are in response to incidents on The Broads rather than to those at sea and one of the two (soon to be three) Hemsby Lifeboats is designated as “The Broads Lifeboat” and this well-equipped Dory style lifeboat can be towed by a dedicated Hemsby Lifeboat Station vehicle to no less than thirty-two launching sites around the Broads.

It is this towing vehicle, which is virtually identical to those used by the Coastguard Rescue Teams, which has recently become a “cause celebre” for those of us involved in maritime Search & Rescue because as a result of a complaint by a member of the public, the Hemsby Lifeboat Station has been informed by the Police that because the Hemsby Lifeboat is independent of the RNLI they are NOT authorised to tow their boat to call-outs using a blue light and/or two-tone horns (known to most of us a “blues ‘n' twos”).

As things stand, the Police are quite correct as regards stating that under current regulations only lifeboats belonging to the RNLI are allowed to use “blues ‘n' twos” so the Norfolk & Suffolk Boating Association, of which the MNA Boat Club is an affiliated member have written to the Minister of Transport to seek a change to the regulations that would enable independent lifeboat stations to use “blues ‘n' twos” in the same way that RNLI lifeboat stations are authorised to.

Support for this initiative by the NSBA, the MNA Boat Club and the Institute of Seamanship has been forthcoming from various organisations involved in maritime safety including from the Broads Authority and the National Independent Lifeboat Association, and the response from the Ministry of Transport has been positive at least as far as saying that they “have the question under review and that a decision is likely to be made by September this year”.

Before recommending to the NSBA management committee (as their rep on the Broads Authority Boat Safety Management Group) that the NSBA Chairman should make representation to the Minister about this restriction imposed on Hemsby and other independent lifeboat stations, I took the opportunity to make two visits to the Hemsby station. During these visits, I was made very welcome by both Daniel Hurd their cox’n and by their chairman Chris Batten. They took a lot of trouble to show me around their station and their lifeboats, vehicles and other SAR assets which were as impressive as any I’ve seen elsewhere in literally dozens of visits to (mainly RNLI) lifeboat stations. Indeed, on my second visit, I was accompanied by the former Lifeboat Operations Manager of an RNLI station on the south coast who said he wishes his local lifeboat station was as modern and well equipped as Hemsby!

So on behalf of our Club I wish the Hemsby Station well, not only with their quest to be treated the same as RNLI stations as regards the use of “blues ‘n' twos” but also because, as many of you will have seen on TV, during last winter Hemsby village, and the lifeboat station, suffered huge storm damage: several properties ended up being washed into the sea, and whilst the lifeboat station itself was safe, the slipway was largely washed away and their 7.5m ILB could no longer be launched from the station!

Normally the only way to get club members to attend an AGM is to catch them off-guard with a comment like “well I’ll see you at the AGM then” before they’ve had time to think up a plausible excuse for not attending....

So how were we to encourage a reasonable attendance at our first proper AGM since before the Covid pandemic?

The Merchant Navy Association Boat Club has some two hundred plus members scattered throughout the UK so the first obstacle is the question of a venue that suits at least a sizeable slice of the membership and then devise a format for the event that might be of interest, hopefully enjoyable and, dare I say it, even good fun!

The members who attended the AGM of the MNA Boat Club

If one has to travel two hours to and from a meeting it means, effectively, that it’s taking up a whole day. If you have to travel even further it probably means an overnight stay. Frankly who would want to spend the time and money for a two-day round trip simply to attend a formal meeting? Hence, our plan for the Boat Club’s 2022 AGM morphed into one for a two-day potentially interesting and enjoyable “event” with less than one hour of the two days dedicated to the formal Annual General Meeting.

Given that the MNA Boat Club has quite a high proportion of its membership living in or near to East Anglia and that we also have a very worthwhile “partnership” with the Norfolk & Suffolk Boating Association (NSBA) to promote our “WaterWatch” safety & surveillance initiative, we decided that a series of events on the Norfolk Broads would be an attractive proposition and so it proved to be, with the bonus of all-time record AGM attendance!

After much deliberation the following events were agreed:

⦁ a visit to the fascinating Museum of the Broads
⦁ a half-day cruise on the famous Norfolk Wherry the “Albion”
⦁ a further half-day cruise on several of our own local members boats

We obviously needed to make sure that there would be enough accommodation available near the venue at what, in early September, would still be a busy time with many holidaymakers around. We were very fortunate in making contact with three very pleasant and comfortable guest houses within 50 metres of the venue for the AGM in the village of Neatishead, where we had booked the mezzanine floor of the White Horse Inn for the meeting and an evening meal afterwards.

White Horse Inn at Neatishead

Our programme kicked off at 11.00 am on the morning of Tuesday 6th September with the visit to the Museum of the Broads. This proved hugely interesting and enjoyable, especially thanks to our being given a fascinating tour conducted by Bob a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic member of the museum volunteer team.

Clive Edwards with Bob, museum guide

Given that many of our members attending are former professional seafarers, we were particularly interested in the old WW2 airborne lifeboat on display (one of the very few still in existence). One of our members was even able to provide a hitherto unrecorded local story about one of them.

Members looking at Airborne Lifeboat

Moving on to the late afternoon and evening, having got through the AGM in good time, our members and guests proceeded to enjoy some excellent food from the White Horse’s extensive menu, including their own local “pie of the day”.

The following morning dawned fine but storms were forecast for the afternoon. Most of the members had elected to spend the morning (or in a few cases the whole day) on the wherry “Albion” sailing from her base at Womack Water on the River Thurne to Horning on the River Bure.

The afternoon was to be spent on one of our local members' boats exploring the River Ant and Barton Broad. Hence, everyone was aboard either the “Albion”, Richard Card’s “Ness Nomad” or Clive Edwards’ “Elsa II” by 09.00 at the start of what was to be an enjoyable and for some a surprisingly eventful day on the water!

The famous wherry Albion on the Norfolk Broads

Those aboard Ness Nomad and Elsa II were able to get a good view of Barton Broad and the River Ant as well as a short side-trip to Malthouse Broad with views of Ranworth Church known locally as the “Cathedral of The Broads”.

We had planned to all rendezvous at the Swan Hotel at Horning but unfortunately the mooring for the Albion was already occupied so she had to moor alongside the opposite bank whilst Ness Nomad and Elsa II were able to moor at Horning Sailing Club where Clive is a member. With the aid of Albion’s tender, we then had to ferry members back and forth during a brief break for a sandwich lunch so that those who had spent the morning on Ness Nomad and Elsa II, including MNA President Vivien Foster OBE, were able to make the homeward passage on the Albion whilst some of those who’d been on the Albion during the morning transferred to Ness Nomad and Elsa II for the homeward leg via the River Ant and Barton Broad.

Members on board the wherry Albion

So far so good, although sadly our Vice Commodore Paul and his wife Tracey had to depart by taxi and car to attend a medical emergency back in Essex (happily turning out not to be as serious as first thought).

Up to now the weather had been perfect and seemed set fair for the afternoon despite the previous warning of storms. Everyone set off from Horning in ideal conditions for what was mostly a leisurely and peaceful sail home - I say “mostly” because two-thirds of the way into the return journey all three vessels (and Paul & Tracey’s open-top car!) were hit by a series of seriously violent squalls, thunder and lightning and absolutely torrential rain that reduced visibility to about 50 metres! As both Ness Nomad and Elsa II are motor cruisers all we had to do was reduce speed for about fifteen minutes until the storm had gone through, but the situation on the Albion was significantly more dramatic and is the subject of a separate report by one of our members, David Cornes, who was on-board at the time, along with others including our President Vivien.

Clive Edwards, Commodore MNA Boat Club

Maurice Ward has been an active member of Coldham Hall Sailing Club for over 60 years and he is currently its President. In 1953, he and his brother, Terence, bought an Airborne Lifeboat which they called Pegasus. Here is Maurice's story of this very special craft.

During the Second World War, the talented yacht designer, Uffa Fox, came up with the ingenious design of the Mark 1 Airborne Lifeboat. Up until then, the aircrew from aircraft ditched in the North Sea had to rely on small inflatable dinghies and wait to be rescued. Uffa Fox's design was 23 foot long and could be carried beneath the bomb bay of a Hudson Bomber and then dropped with parachutes into the sea ready to save survivors. It was strongly built of multiple layers of thin wood and fabric to withstand the drop into the water, and contained waterproof hatches with emergency supplies and water, a cover, two inboard engines, fuel for 12 hours, a mast and lugsail, navigation equipment and an instruction manual. It needed to carry seven men and have a range of 500 miles.

Some 150 of these boats were built at Herbert Woods yard at Potter Heigham. In all, 500 were built and they helped over 600 aircrew survive.

After the war, my brother had read an article in Yachts and Yachting about converting one of these hulls into a sailing dinghy and told me that he had seen one abandoned by the sea wall at Southwold. We found the owner and did a deal. Then followed a year of hard work including replacing all the rounded decks and turning it into a comfortable sailing craft. Jack Broom made the mast and Jeckells made some dark red sails. We called it Pegasus, and she proved to be a very quick boat.

We had done no racing, but in 1957 the Northern Rivers Sailing Club held a competition at Thurne to find the fastest boat on the Broads. We took our boat, raced round the two mile course and, to our amazement, we won the coveted Cock of the Broads Trophy - even beating Norfolk Punts and Slipstreams!

After that we brought Pegasus to Coldham Hall where my wife, June, and I raced her regularly until 1986 when we decided that we needed something less physical.

Maurice and June Ward sailing Pegasus at Coldham Hall Regatta in 1976

The Three Rivers Race, organised by Horning Sailing Club and now sponsored by Yachtmaster Insurance Services, was first run in 1961, making this year's race the 61st.

Run over 24 hours, it is recognised as one of the toughest endurance races in Europe, with over 100 sailors from all over world travelling to Horning to take part. In 2014 The Three Rivers Race was nominated the third toughest mass-participation event in the UK in recognition of the many obstacles faced by competitors including three bridges to be negotiated involving lowering the mast and sails for each, frequent lack of wind during the night, and hire cruisers during the day!

The course is 50 miles long, and some 15 different classes are eligible to take part with competitors making their own individual decisions as to which order to round the four turning points and all are given a maximum of 24 hours to complete the course. Competitors’ decisions involve a lot of tactical planning to work out the best way to take advantage of the tides in order to get around all the turning points as quickly as possible.

Each turning point is allocated a “Guard ship” and crew who monitor and record the progress of each individual competitor when they round the turning point (marked with a large buoy including a flashing light during the hours of darkness). Each Guard ship crew is also provided with a “rescue boat” (in the shape of a Dory or RIB which can quickly be deployed should the a competitor get into trouble.

The Guard ship at the turning point in South Walsham Broad, “Elsa II” was provided by myself as Commodore of the Merchant Navy Association Boat Club and crewed by me and Paul Battagliola the Club’s vice-commodore and Lois Edwards, another MNA Boat Club member. Plus Alix an elderly Westie and Fudge an 8 month old Cockerpoo puppy…

We got to our location in South Walsham Broad on the Saturday morning about an hour before the start of the race. We laid our turning point buoy about 200m inside South Walsham Broad and moored ourselves, and our rescue Dory, about 100m away at the head of the Fleet Dyke leading from the River Bure into the Broad. This meant competitors had to pass with about 50m of us so we could readily read their sail numbers, get their race number and record the exact time they rounded the turning point. We would then communicate this information by VHF radio to Race Control at Horning on a regular basis every half a dozen or so boats.

With a fresh breeze from the north-west, the first competitors rounded our mark at around 11.45 and from that time on we were kept busy with a steady stream of boats throughout the day and evening until darkness fell around 22.00 hours. After that only a dozen or so more boats were logged before everything went strangely quiet. Just before 05.00 more boats started to arrive at intervals of about five minutes, until 07.30 when there were less than a dozen boats left to visit us. By 09.00 that number had dwindled to just two. One of which subsequently retired, leaving us waiting for what seemed like ages but was actually only about 40 minutes for the very last boat!

By about 09.30 we were able to use the Dory to recover our marker buoy and head back to Horning Sailing Club but just as we turned into the River Bure we came across a competitor’s large sailing cruiser with her sails set and her bow buried firmly in the reeds along the river bank! There appeared to be no-one on board but we agreed with Race Control at Horning that the situation warranted investigation so we duly got as near to the yacht as we could without running aground and by means of our horn and quite a lot of shouting we eventually got a very sleepy response from a member of the yacht's crew, as following their earlier retirement they decided to run into the reeds and catch up on some sleep!

So all was well but ours was not the only Guard ship to have ended up investigating this boat and we suggested to Race Control that competitors ought to be required to carry an “OK Board” to display if they have dropped out or stopped for any reason NOT requiring assistance as this would leave the guard ships and their rescue Dory free of distractions and thus able to concentrate their resources on potentially more serious incidents; in fact competitors are advised in the regulations to inform Race Control if they drop out, but not everyone carries a radio - so an OK Board would probably be just as appropriate and more likely to be used.

We were hugely impressed by the organisation and the welcome provided for support crews such as ourselves by the whole of the Horning Sailing Club 3RR team – and by members of the Club not directly involved with the race at all - to such an extent that since my wife and I now confine our boating almost exclusively to the Broads we are very seriously thinking of joining the Club ourselves!

Hierarchy:

If you see anyone in trouble in the water then follow this procedure, but do NOT put yourself at risk and become a casualty yourself!

• As a general rule CALL the emergency services by phoning 999 or 112 or, if you’re at sea, call the Coastguard on VHF Channel 16 (or by making a Mayday call from your VHF DSC emergency button). HOWEVER, if there is an imminent threat to someone’s life that requires an immediate personal response, you should act accordingly whilst trying to get someone else to call the emergency services on your behalf.
  
• TALK to the casualty advising them to keep calm and FLOAT on their back with their head resting on the water and their arms extended to slow their breathing. Let them know you’re there to help and try to guide them to the safest place to deploy available rescue equipment.
• SECURE YOURSELF to avoid the risk of being dragged into the water.

• If you are afloat and can reach the casualty with a boathook or long piece of stick drag them alongside. If you cannot reach the casualty deploy the rescue equipment you have to hand (e.g. lifebuoy, throw bag, boarding ladder, rope, boathook etc.). Pull them slowly towards the point where they can be helped into your boat.
• If you’re ashore, proceed as above dragging them into the bank or at least into the shallows. The best place to land a casualty will depend on your surroundings but always be careful to avoid sharp obstructions or entanglements and avoid getting dragged into the water yourself.

• Be aware that the casualty is likely to be tired, cold and confused and unable to help themselves. They may well need medical attention especially if they have been under the water - they should not be left alone for 24 hours following immersion.

There are three main dangers from immersion in cold water:

• Cold Water Shock from inhaling water, resulting in hyperventilation leading to a stroke or cardiac arrest.
• Mid-term immersion causing their temperature to drop with a consequential loss of strength and coordination, making grasping a rope or climbing a ladder very difficult if not impossible.
• Hypothermia resulting from immersion in the water for more than about 30 minutes with consequential exhaustion, lack of coordination and unresponsiveness.

  Bear in mind that, even if you’re able to effect a rescue yourself without help from the emergency services, there is still a very strong chance that the casualty will need emergency medical assistance. Therefore, before performing a rescue, try to ensure that someone is alerting the emergency services.

Throwing a Lifebuoy, Throw-Bag or Rope

1. Choose safe sites for both throwing the equipment and recovering the casualty. Make sure the line is long enough, free from tangles, knots or loops and is coiled neatly before you throw – do not wrap the end round your wrist.
2. Before throwing get a secure footing that’s not slippery or unstable, brace yourself and, if possible, get someone to hold on to you. Avoid standing in loops of the rope.
3. Aim by pointing your arm in the direction of the casualty trying to get the rope as close to the casualty as you can. In the case of a hard and/or heavy lifebuoy AVOID hitting the casualty on the head with it!
4. Depending on the wind and tidal conditions, it might be necessary to throw the line over the top or to one side of the casualty for them to grab it. Therefore, it is important to warn them beforehand.  Shout or show them the rescue equipment so they understand what you’re about to do.
5. Once the casualty has grabbed the equipment try to make them secure it to themselves before you start dragging them to the chosen landing place.