Early Spring Norfolk Mini Rally - 2024

[Justin Greig]

Three boats (Anoushka, Rondo and Peggy) braved some rather blustery weather at the end of April to explore the northern Broads. Peggy has a mooring at Horning Sailing Club so that was where we met to launch Rondo and Anoushka, and fortify ourselves for the coming blast in the nearby Swan.

Facilities at HSC are fairly spartan but the Commodore and others turned out to welcome us, and make sure we had access to all that we needed. Our first leg of sailing took us from Horning down the Bure and left up the Ant toward Barton Broad. This involved dropping masts at Ludham Bridge - accomplished without incident, although there was much interest in the three different approaches to Gin Pole design adopted by the three skippers.

The first day's sailing ended in the Dog at Ludham and we spent the night at the public free moorings on the north side of Ludham Bridge (it is a mistake to go under the bridge in hope of finding free moorings on the South side - a mistake I have made on a previous trip).

Our second day involved sailing from Ludham Bridge to Horsey Mere. Dropping the masts at the start of the day’s sail revealed some fairly fundamental design flaws in my Gin Pole design - suffice it to say that the yoke fell out of the ring bolts on the tabernacle and the mast lowering was accomplished rather more quickly than I had intended. No damage other than to my pride.

The breeze was pretty fierce (gusting 40 kts at times) and the temperature quite brisk, so we motored to Potter Heigham, reflecting on the way how to make my Gin Pole behave as well as the Sadler prototype. However, once we got to Potter Heigham (with its low bridge posing an even greater challenge because of high river levels) the Brett brothers / engineers had decided that what I needed to do was ditch the instability of a single pole and adopt the more usual Norfolk Broads A frame pattern. After a visit to the cafe to restore circulation, the Potter Heigham garden centre produced two long poles which were crafted into a fully functional A frame by Ian and Jeremy. More on that in a separate post.

The highlight of the short rally was the visit to Horsey Mere, the vast number of seals at Horsey Gap, and an excellent supper at The Nelson. We moored at the Water Pump - a National Trust site but the moorings are owned by the Buxton family trust, whose scion we met the next morning when he came to collect the mooring dues. The charge was well worth it both for the beauty of the spot and the excellent ablutions block.

Next day we sailed up Hickling Broad to the Pleasure Boat Inn (undergoing renovation at the moment) and then a downwind leg in the direction of Acle. We decided to call it a day when we got as far as Upton Dyke and found an excellent mooring at Eastwood Whelpton. A call to the manager gave us the access code for the shower block so we well provided for - and the visit to the White Horse (a community pub) rewarded us with a Pig and Cider festival and a live band.

We needed to be home on Monday so Sunday saw us returning to Horning - seemingly dead into the wind no matter how the Bure twisted and turned. All in all an excellent weekend and a good warm up for the Scottish muster.

A few photos can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sKRWw1m2vJvF1DdA7