• Location: River Bure

Today, St Benet’s Abbey is a site of 1000-year old ruins. This church was once the centrepiece of a monastery, which was the only one in England to not be closed by Henry VIII during his reign in the Tudor times. The ruins are now a statement landmark of the Broads.

Did you know: You can moor at St Benet’s Abbey for free overnight, but bear in mind that historic ruins may be spookier when dark outside …

Find out more about St Benet’s Abbey

• Extract from Broads Sailing Made Easy

‘If you have made up your mind that you are going to be a really good sailor then there is no reason why you should not be one. You do not need to have a father who sailed many times round the world in square rigged ships or have spent a childhood with boats and salt behind your ears. It just so happened I did.

I had heard of sailing on the Norfolk Broads. I thought how flat, how dull. How wrong I was! If the Broads themselves had been made specifically for small boats, and people like us who want to sail them, I for one could not have bettered their design.

Sailing on the rivers teaches you very quickly to handle your boat accurately, and as they wind through Broadland the apparently changing wind keeps you on your toes. For your very first sail I would advise you to try one of the actual Broads – there’s much more room to manoeuvre and a soft reed bank if all doesn’t go to plan.

Sailing, and perhaps racing yachts is something that once started is near impossible to stop. Like all real sports there is always something more to learn.’

Tim Whelpton 1965

Copies of ‘Broads Sailing Made Easy’ by Tim Whelpton can be purchased from the Boatyard Office. A copy of this excellent little book can be also found onboard each of our yachts in the Skippers Pack for you to read during your stay with us – and hopefully pick up a few top tips from Tim.

The Norfolk and Suffolk waterways have been for centuries been used for travelling and transporting goods, but by the early 19th century, ‘Broadland Sport’ or ‘Water Frolics’ (now known as Regatta’s!) became more popular. At that time in Norfolk, land was mainly owned by the aristocracy and tenants farmed the land. Villages spring up near the great houses and the rivers became a playground for the wealthy inhabitants and their friends. Sailing as a sport, racing and the pleasure craft industry was born.

By the 1830s ‘water frolic’ events were found throughout the Broadland area and there was a desire to develop faster and better sailing crafts. The ‘lateneer’ yachts (based on a Mediterranean design) was soon superseded by the Broads ‘cutter’ yachts – with a large ‘Gaff’ sail, long bowsprit and just one large foresail rather than the usual two. By the middle of the century boating had extended to the professional middle classes and the first sailing club was born in the area in 1859 – The Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club.

With the coming of the railways by the 1880’s Norfolk had begun to be a holiday destination particularly for the Victorian middle classes. Converted larger ‘Wherry’ trading vessels were also popular as pleasure craft providing onboard accommodation (including a piano onboard!) for family groups for their summer holiday. A small number of these beautiful large Wherries continue to be maintained and seen sailing on the water today. John Loynes, a local Master Carpenter, was one of the first to see the opportunity to build and hire smaller cabin yachts that would become more accessible and affordable to a wider audience and so the tradition of the Norfolk Hire Fleets began.

For more history – do take some time to visit ‘The Museum of the Broads’ based at Stalham. We are very proud to have been part of Broadland History over the last 60 years and the legacy of Broadland heroes like John Loynes, Percy Hunter, Tim Whelpton, can still be seen on the water today in our smaller but excellently turned out Sailing Hire Fleet, which now numbers around 60 yachts in total from 5 remaining Sailing Hire Yards.