• Karen Morris
    BRAG Chair

    Karen Morris: BRAG Vice Chair

    So, who is Karen Morris?  – I’m a Yorkshire lass , long time lover of The Broads and 17 years a boat owner here .  I feel very strongly about what The Broads represents –  as a place where, with care, people and nature can share the beauty & tranquility in harmony.

    I’m a long standing moderator on the original Norfolk Broads  forum where I’m known, or so I’m told , for being a forthright but hopefully fair challenger of opinions, and a passionate contributor when it comes to the place we love as our second home.

    With a long career in Insurance and Training , some years chairing a trade union committee , and generally being driven by a very simple principle of fairness and reason, I am always happy to speak up.

    In my spare time I enjoy gardening, fell walking and crafting, and I am a regular volunteer for our local hospice. I’m an animal lover and a bit of a tree hugger too!

    • Jamie Campbell
      Vice Chair

      Jamie Campbell: BRAG Vice Chair

      When I moved off onto the 505 open meeting circuit. I spent a year crewing a Flying Dutchman in the 1970s but returned to spend in total, probably ten years in 505s. God’s own dinghy! I moved back to Norwich in 1980 and very shortly afterwards began to sail Dragons, based at Lowestoft. I was also doing some two-handed ocean racing at the time and competed in several Yachting Monthly Triangles, a two-handed Round Britain and Ireland Race, an Azores and Back race and a Transat. I have a Broads River Cruiser (that I really must finish one day), it seems I now own a Great Yarmouth One Design, National 12 number 2 and I still have my first boat, a 9’6″ wooden Landamore lapstrake built for me in 1962 (my father needed a tender for his River Cruiser at the time). I suppose I’ve had my moments. I once won a German 505 National Championship, I’ve been in the winning boat for the Gold Cup a couple of times and won the Gold Roman Bowl in the Round the Island race. I too am a lapsed dinghy sailing instructor (done my bit). I have two children and five grandchildren. My son skippered superyachts for a living but now lives with his family in Majorca managing superyacht rebuilds. My stepson is a master mariner in the merchant service. I’ve been known to scribble a bit and I’m historian for the International 14 Class and the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club. I sit on the NSBA General Purposes Committee and belong to RN&SYC, The Norfolk Punt Club and Brancaster Staithe Sailing Club. I have chaired the Excelsior Trust for a number of years. Excelsior is an authentically restored, century old Lowestoft sailing smack that we run as a sail training vessel. Todate we have taken over 10,000, often disadvantaged young people to sea. It’s an act against economic gravity. We’ve just about finished rebuilding a 1906 Great Yarmouth shrimper at our shipyard in Oulton Broad (on the salt side), which was begun as a lockdown project to keep people occupied. My next two books off the Press will be a comprehensive history of Yarmouth shrimpers (and also a lecture at UEA Local History dept on Friday February 24th) and a history of the Norfolk 14′ Restricted Class (an almost unrecorded Broads fleet of lugsail dinghies that amalgamated into the National (later International) 14 class when it was formed in 1922.

       

      • Chris Edmondson
        Committee Member
      • Mike Morris
        Secretary
      • Stuart Ogden
        Committee Member

        Stuart Ogden: BRAG Committee Member

        I’m Stuart Ogden , 57, living in Jarrow, (  where the march started ) , not far from Newcastle upon Tyne.

        I’m an operational Firefighter serving Tyne and Wear Fire And Rescue Service. I worked in the motor trade up until the age of 36 before joining the Fire Service in 2001

        I am an active member of The Fire Brigades Union which gives me some insight of  how to apply pressures in the correct form in an attempt to get the required result.

        I regularly hired on the broads from around 2010 before being fortunate enough to purchase my Aquafibre Diamond 35. Although I live 265 miles from my mooring, I try to get down once per month

        Although my skills lie mainly with engines and all things associated , I am trained in Heavy rescue, rope rescue , large animal rescue and water rescue. I think being involved with a trade union helps to develop skills that I hope I can apply to help us achieve what we are about to set out to do.