Davydine

If it is a metered supply, the marina should be reselling electricity at the same rate that they are buying it. Are they really paying that much? They can of course charge you a service charge as in John's example above. Ofgem regulations for reselling gas and electricity

Quite! I don't mind if someone makes a saving by booking early and I pay more by leaving it late, but if a company has had my deposit in the bank for months and then someone gets a last minute discount I will feel annoyed and unlikely to book early in future.

Well, of course, 100% occupancy at 100% of list price is the utopia that any holiday business would aim for but I doubt there are many boatyards that would expect to achieve that and if they did, then they should be looking to expand their fleet or increase their prices. I would argue that we have seen some yards offering substantial last minute discounts and that encourages customers to delay booking in the hopes of last minute discounts. If those boards of directors or investors lack the imagination to promote strategically to maximise the balance between occupancy and profit then they shouldn't expect much sympathy when they have to offer massive discounts in a desperate attempt to stimulate some bookings and cash flow. As @CambridgeCabbysaid, the “book early for best prices” model works very well in the airline / travel industry.

Herbert Woods do offer an early booking discount if you book for next year, but if, say, they offered a double discount for a limited period they would get the deposit in the bank and would have a good % occupancy rate for the following year. Additionally, if I was looking to book for next year and I could see that availability was reduced then I would be more likely to book to secure my boat, If there are loads of boats available then I might leave it to see if there was a late availability discount. It's not rocket science is it?

This thread raises some interesting points. Ferry Marina and Herbert Woods are polar opposites in terms of pricing and yet both are offering last minute discounts. Personally, we tend to hire from HW for our annual Broads trip, I know that they are not the best maintained or the best turned out boats, but they have always offered good customer service and good value. Ferry have some lovely looking boats (and some that are, in my opinion, really ugly) but they are sooooo expensive. I have just compared pricing for Beam of Light and Jasmine Emblem, essentially the same boat,for a weekend break in May next year. Jasmine Emblem is £1300 total compared to £815 for Beam of light and with Beam, you will probably get a chunk of your £175 fuel deposit back. The difference in cost would easily pay for us to eat out for every meal on our weekend break, so it's a no brainer for me.

Why don't any of the yards offer an extra early booking discount to get the bookings for next year? Maybe then they wouldn't have to offer such big last minute reductions.

Did anyone see the episode this evening? Interesting placard on the instrument panel in the vintage glider flying out of Tibenham…

I was about 18 months old when I first set food on a Broads hire boat (Wavemaster from Brooms) they made a cot side for one of the bunks so that I didn't fall out. The thing that I remember and associate with holidays and happy family time is the smell of diesel exhaust! I know that is a bit weird, but I must have made the mental link as a child!

Hi Paul, I don't, but there is one on brokerage at waterside marine sales Potter Heigham and I think Norfolk Boats in Horning might have one. cheers David

Sorry, I am late to the party on this, thanks for the update, it looks as though the norfolk-broads.org tide tables have been updated to 2028 now.

I don't think anyone has mentioned High Craft at Thorpe, who used to have boats named after hills in the Peak District I think?

Is the Dog Inn, Ludham worth a visit?

To be fair to the hirer, the batteries were probably mostly flat when they took over the boat. The previous hire probably moored relatively close to the yard on the last night used power then only ran the engine for a short while to get back to the yard. If the shore power hadn't been plugged in then i doubt the batteries were well charged. I am surprised that the engine battery was flat, I always assumed that it was isolated from the house batteries by some sort of blocking diode, but perhaps that is wishful thinking. I would have thought that fitting uprated alternators, smart chargers and maybe a solar panel would easily pay for itself with reduced call outs and fewer replacement batteries. In the last month we have hired two boats from a yard that has a number of the old connoisseurs (we didn't have a connoisseur, both of our boats were, shall we say, more regal?) The shore power connection only seemed to run a battery charger. The sockets all ran from the inverter.

Thanks for sharing this Simon, sounds like you had a great trip, I t was lovely to meet you all in Ranworth. The picture of the old Broadland Riverine Boats makes me rather sad, the first Broads holiday that I really remember was on an AF38, specifically Seafarer 3 from Brooms. I have a real soft spot for the seat on the bows. In this picture, I am on the far left…

I am not 100% sure, because I wasn't looking specifically, but I think there was a service at 9.30 on Easter Sunday. Certainly the Palm Sunday service was at 9.30.