Information

Welcome to the easiest way to locate facilities on The Broads and selected UK Waterways.

As of 27th July 2022, the database contains:
312 locations on the Broads
81 locations on the Lancaster Canal
74 locations on the Grand Union Canal, Scotland
47 locations on the River Orwell
54 locations on the River Deben (Woodbridge)
12 locations on the Thames

But we need your help and local knowledge - please consider signing up and contributing new useful locations and your photos.

Please note that this site is designed to operate with geolocation information from your phone or tablet. If this is disabled or unavailable, all distances will be relative to the point where the River Bure meets the River Yare near the Vauxhall Bridge in Great Yarmouth (this being the point where the North and South Broads meet).

You don't need a login to use the site unless you want to make additions, and I would welcome the help :)

The aim of this site is to enable boaters to find services in their vicinity.

In addition to the basics (pubs, moorings, bridges), I really want people to be able to locate particular services such as:
Groceries, Post Offices/Boxes, Chemist, Fishing Bait, DIY/Chandlery etc.

There are also many hidden sightseeing and sporting facilities that people may not be aware of.

You'll note that if you click on the small magnifying glass to view a record, it always displays a small map of the location. There is also a 'Get Directions' link to display a walking route from your current location to the target place.

Where possible, photographs are included to help identify the places. If the place doesn't have a photo, please feel free to duplicate the record and add your photo.

Eventually, I also plan to enable export of searched locations as NMEA / GPX waypoint files. I'd welcome any other ideas you may have.

Kevin Millican
Email: feedback@boatinginfo.co.uk

Update 14th July 2023
Added Login with Google option. Facebook login being worked on.

UPDATE 27th July 2022
New Look!
Underlying software updated and a new skin for the site. Several under-the-bonnet upgrades, including support for larger photographs and up to 3 per location.

UPDATE 1st September 2021
Added Gorleston-on-Sea tide data using Admiralty Data along with Great Yarmouth Haven Bridge height predictions.

UPDATE 21/07/2020 :
Somerleyton and Reedham swing bridges have been updated to include temperature limits. When you view the details for these records, the current ambient temperature will be checked for the location and a warning given if the temperature is high enough to have prevented the bridge operation in the past.

UPDATE 15/07/2020:
Improved the add and edit record pages so that they can capture a location from the address properly if lat/long details are not given.

UPDATE 18/06/2020 :
I've improved the user location capture because it wasn't always accurate to just get the current position. The website now watches your location for 3 readings before performing the query to find the distances.
When you add or edit a location, and press the 'Get Current Position' button it will take 10 readings to ensure accuracy and you can monitor the reading updates. You can press it again in the same dialog to repeat if needed.

I've also added a new feature called 'Track Nearest'. This is a bit experimental as it attempts to refresh the page every 15 seconds with your latest position, so be warned; this could use significant battery power and data.

BUSINESS OWNERS

If you're a business owner and want to take charge of your entry, please register and send me an email at feedback@boatinginfo.co.uk including some ownership evidence or your name and telephone number so that I can verify.

When logged in, you can copy the existing record, modify, and save it with updated details. When you do this, the new record belongs to your account. The old record will still be there but I will remove it when you let me know.

Also contact me if you notice anything about your listing that is incorrect or that you would like me to remove.

PRIVACY

I realise that this is very important to users. To prevent bots, I do need to insist that people register with an email address. Together with your username (which can be anything you like), this is the only information I hold in plain text. Your password is encrypted so even I can't read it.
When you register, the system sends an activation link which you need to click to activate your account. I get a notification that you register, but not for the activation. If you don't get the activation email, do check your junk mail folder as these often end up there. If you can't find it, send me an email and I will activate you manually.
Please note that there may be a delay between your activation and being assigned as an editor, as I may do this manually.
Whilst I will never pass on your email address to anyone (other than by legal warrant from UK authorities), I will remove your email address from the system if requested. In this instance you would need to contact me again using the same email address if you ever need to reset your password.

NB. if you create a new entry on the site, please ensure that you do not include any private information. Telephone and email addresses of businesses are fine, especially if they are already present on the business website or social media presence.

If business owners have obfuscated their email addresses on their website to prevent bots, please do the same when including them.

TIPS ON ADDING/EDITING PLACES

If you're using a PC to add records you can work with your favourite mapping website to find geo-coordinates (tip: for Google Maps, right click the point of interest and select "What's Here?")

Adding a new place using a smartphone is very easy if you're in that location:
1. Click add record.
2. Type a Description and select the place type.

Click "Get Current Position" to automatically get the latitude and longitude from your phone GPS.
[NB. My phone can be a bit lazy at getting the latest position. If this happens, it helps to have another application running in the background that uses the GPS, eg. Maps. Alternatively you can try pressing the button a couple of times]
Add a website address if known.
If you want to include a photo, click "Add Files" and choose whether to take a photograph with your phone camera, or select one already on your phone.

Tap all the facilities offered by this location.
Add any comments, and
Click "Save"

and you're done.

Please note that any records you create can only be edited or deleted by yourself (or me, if I think it's inappropriate!)

If you find someone else's record with incorrect information, or you think it could be improved, please email me. Feel free to create a new replacement record for consideration. You can copy the existing record as a starting point.

Thanks.

Kevin

feedback@boatinginfo.co.uk

DISTANCE ACCURACY

In order to keep calculations manageable in an SQL query, there is considerable simplification in the distance calculations.

These mainly affect the East-West part of the calculation.

Great circle calculations take far too much processing time, so simple Pythagoras theory is used. The latitude scaling is uniform but the longitude scaling depends on the user's position.

Over long distances this becomes significant, so the true distance between my home in Lowestoft and Edinburgh Castle is 310 miles, but the site estimates it at 316 miles. However, if I were to calculate the distance the other way round, the distance would be underestimated by about 6 miles (~2%). The closer you are to the same latitude, the smaller the error.