FreedomBoatingHols

We already allow Freedom day boats and Pod to go up there. Not too many people make the trip, sadly. It's about a 90 minute return journey from the Freedom boat yard and we provide a detailed map of the river and hazards.

They are called Quick Cam connectors. They are commonplace hose equipment so any decent hose supplier will have them too.

Sent you a PM.

As a local, but perhaps without his ear to the ground, I know nothing of any food service from the Broadshaven, but I am aware that the place has been occupied in some way for some months. Be good to get it open again.

There are lots of fibreglass laminators in the area and Brooms have the tooling, so there is nothing to suggest that a building programme could not continue.

Damn stupid forum software allowed me to post this three times. Sorry. There was no indication it had worked so I clicked again.....

All three of these companies have their own mould tools and build their own designs. Since the loss of Alpha, this has been the only real option as the availability of shells for fitout was mostly limited to Alpha in the end. In recent times though, Richardsons have invested massively in new designs which are exclusive to them. Barnes bought the Aquafibre Diamond tooling and made their own modifications to it which became Serenade and more recently, Barnes also bought all the old Aquafibre tooling too. NBD has its own tools and will also fit out other mouldings and Herbert Woods has been busy with the smaller cruisers which became their Starlight fleet. Ferry Marina has a number of it's own, exclusive designs too. It's only the small yards (like myself) that have no real tooling to make exclusive cruiser designs (though I have our Pod open day boat.

Risks Business risk assessments are not for this purpose. They are peculiar to each business and each will handle things in a different way. None of this is for public consumption and as RSF says above, no company would make any such internal document public. Solo sailors need to consider the potential dangers of going out alone in varying different types of vessel / conditions and so on. None of it is rocket science; it's all about the risks of injury and incident and how you plan to reduce them by guidance and mitigate them through implementing change. Anyone can do one for anything; boiling a kettle for instance where the risks would include injury from boiling water, steam, electrocution or burning, spillages / slippages. Probably things missing from that list... If you solo with Freedom, you will be asked about your experience and skills and be expected to demonstrate them before we wave you farewell. You will experience the level of attention we give to solo hirers at that point when we do everything to ensure people are as well informed as they can be.

Why would you think anything else?

Unlikely to happen, Griff. Richardsons' decision is not insurance related and it's a red herring to think otherwise.

This will be an internal document, the likes of which would not convey the level of consideration and planning. It is not for public consumption in the same way that your bank statement isn't

Let me assure you that if anyone tries this with Freedom, they would be turned away for breach of contract. As most of you would appreciate, breach of contract would likely not attract a refund. I can't be more clear. It's dishonest. People sometimes try it with Security Deposits; they might suggest that they are a mixed group and then present as all males in an attempt to get away with a £50 per head refundable deposit. They say the ladies will be along later which is not true. A group tried this last year and got very indignant and rude when we insisted on the deposit before we would allow them to board. If you can't accept the rules, don't pretend to; safety is not a game, it could be a matter of life and death.

We really don't have "the time", but pride ourselves on the quality of our handover as investment of time up-front often means fewer calls from the customer which impacts positively on their holiday experience.

Indeed. There are one or two I wish I had turned away in the past!

Most is rather inaccurate. Some larger boats have bow thrusters. In reality, this is a tiny consideration. Handling is one thing, experience is something else. For example, we often see bow thrusters being used as an aid to navigation; lord knows how long some of these poor motors last out there. Thrusters are for positioning in close quarters only; not as a substitute for the rudder whilst underway. The concerns at Richardsons would have been many and varied and they would likely have been though a difficult process assessing the multitude of risks to hiring to solos and ultimately come to the decision that the risks were greater than they were prepared to accept. Anyone who's had to do a risk assessment for a business in the past will appreciate this process. Anyone who hasn't needs to appreciate that Risk Assessments are are vital part of business today in this country that impact massively on the safety of our lifestyles. Not only this, these assessments are challenging and costly to perform and need regular review and documentation and would be scrutinised in minute detail should anything go wrong and could land people in gaol. If I really thought long and hard about it, I would probably suggest too that solo boating for anybody would be a bad idea (including myself and all the river rangers who are out there alone for most of the time). We are a small family business trust the judgement of ourselves and our workers to make the right decisions based on their extensive experience of this business. Solo Hiring is not a big thing - Richardson's 25 people affected shows this perfectly well but it still considered risks outweighed the benefits. There is a great deal of negativity towards it for this move though I can see a great deal of sensible reasoning behind the decision.