The New Hullaballoos

The New Hullaballoos, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

An old buffer writes.......

The views from Riverside Road to Pull's Ferry and from the same road across the playing fields to east end of Norwich Cathedral are possibly the most iconic and two of the best loved in the City.

If someone suggested that a caravan park should be built along Riverside partly obscuring these vistas their would be hell to pay.

I bring this up because there are a significant number of modern fibreglass cruisers that are no better looking than caravans and are often more garish and more intrusive than any caravan.

Holidays on the Broads are expensive whether they are spent in a hotel or a guest house. It is often quoted that one can get two and a bit weeks on an all-in package in Spain for the price of a week in a Broads cruiser. This is not necessarily a bad thing. We have the example of Great Yarmouth to show that the cheapo English holiday is unprofitable. Not only is that kind of holiday no longer wanted but the business model means there has to be cut-throat rivalry that drives profits down.

The Broads are not immune. Great Yarmouthism exists everywhere and especially on the north river.

Having said that there is really nothing you can do to legislate against the plethora of ugly cruisers for hire on the Norfolk Rivers. Personally I wish that all broads cruisers were built of wood as they were before the late 1960s but then I also wish trains still had compartments and corridors with engines that puffed out steam.

They are built the way they are because it makes them cheap to build and easy to maintain and clean but surely the boatyards must realise they are in danger of cutting their own throats? You cannot both "sell" the Broads as a place of natural beauty and then put those who want to be part of this into floating plastic crates.