Oddfellow

It's very hard to make a small boat yard pay its way. Very hard indeed. Ryan is still around building boat shells in Brundall. The design you mention is the new boat for NBD. He also did some of the new craft that WRC had. As I am largely out of the industry myself now, my info might be a bit dated so take the above and precede it with "As far as I am aware, "

Nothing is cheaper than before and if it is, it won't last longer than before if its a battery. There are fundamental differences between the technology of a wet lead acid cell and a Ii-po cell that's used in phones, cars and more. These things are very different animals, require different charging practices, require battery management systems to prevent over charging, cold and hot cut-out and so much more. The cost of a 110amp Lithium battery to replace a lead-acid battery on a boat is HUGE by comparison. I can buy a half-decent 110amp wet battery for about £90. A Lithium equivalent would be about 4.5 times more expensive for a CHEAP one. And, as I said, it's not just a drop in replacement as you need Battery Management hardware too. The benefits of a lithium battery are numerous, but only in a properly designed charging system.

I believe you're right. The Pondarosa was Stalham fleet and the one by the road was Acle.

Winter is a busy time for all yards, big or small. You know about how Bridgecraft does its winter work because it updates us on Facebook regularly. If you've ever been at Richardson's in winter you will know that both of those enormous hangars are stuffed to the gills with boats being repaired and spruced up for the next season. Bridgecraft is very efficient at its winter work and powers through craft with repairs and updates and it shows in the fleet every year.

A couple of sunset shots of Turf Fen windpump taken recently.

Last year, as I was winding down Freedom, a good friend with a very keen interest in the boat yard industry asked me when I thought some normality would return. I told him that I didn't expect anything to get back to "normal" until at least 2023. As we approach 2022, having seen infection numbers grow over the last month or two and with a new variant beginning to grow also, I wonder whether my estimate was conservative. The difficulty in predictions is not necessarily how Covid will continue to affect us, it's how measures designed to "protect" us are introduced and enforced. The latest mask-wearing instruction has met with considerable resistance from people who are all experts on the law, experts on the efficacy of masks but above all are selfish *&%cks. But it shows the weariness of people who are no longer prepared to endure very minor inconveniences for the good of everybody. We're seeing resistance in other countries too, but our problem is mired by mixed messages, "do as I say but not as I do" instructions and such and protection measures only work if we are all prepared to protect each other. My point being that the future is incredibly uncertain as society is increasingly unwilling to help society which will allow further transmission, further mutation and, very likely, a lengthening of the pandemic. The only way out of this is medication and that's another can of worms that the Government has opened and tipped out with fast-tracking of licences without proper testing and so on which is either a result of blind panic or making money. Very probably both. What this means for the Broads is as uncertain as ever. Yards have adapted to cancellations and should have nailed that one well into their new business practices but we also know that unscrupulous customers tried cancelling their boating holidays in favour for fun in the sun the moment they were allowed to travel again. We KNOW that international travel relaxation will have an impact on domestic holidays of all kinds and we also know that international travel restrictions has considerable impact on the holiday industry as a whole. What we don't know is how the new variant will impact our health, restrictions and laws in the future. We know it will and we know that other variants are equally likely. Until this virus is severely restricted in it's transmission, it will remain a big problem and one that will be hard to plan for,

Barnes never had a good web site in the past. This new one is a massive improvement but it has some significant UI flaws. It works much better on phones and smaller displays than it does on a big 4K desktop. But, functionally, it seems to deliver boat holiday searches just fine.

You will reduce condensation by doing this slightly, but boats will still stream with it. It's unavoidable. You just need to mitigate it.

HPC, NBD, Broom, Barnes, HW and Ferry are all building boats. Of the big yards, only Richardsons seems not to be now, but it has built a lot of boats in the last decade.

I will be very interested to see this finished. Looks sleek.

Bed your windows back in with ArboMast. Use nothing else. as for the material you can't identify, speak to Trevor Preece

Yes, but this first boat is being built for a private customer according to the post. The second moulding will be built for the fleet.

I love my Crystal 37. Sadly, been too depressed this year to fix her and get out on her. Looking very green currently. I really need to clean her before the temperatures drop.

I take exception to this statement. You can't tar them all with the same brush, but you can tar the bottom of a cruiser and, it can be very effective as a barrier. I have applied black tar varnish to a few boats in my time. One Bounty that came through my yard was in the worst condition I had ever seen. The bottom was more pockmarked than an acne-ridden teenage boy who was suffering from a dose of bubonic plague. It was a ticking timebomb but the owners needed it protecting as much as it could be for as little as possible. Black tar varnish was the only option. Antifoul can last a long time and it's never just one coat. I suspect most Broads yards use a self-erroding antifoul which will probably do two, maybe three seasons underwater whilst the wind and waterline will likely need doing rather more often. Absolute Freedom (now TideWay) was a Broom-built craft that has a coppercoat and though requires no antifoul. It kept it in very good order for a boat built nearly 30 years ago. Bridgecraft does a stunning job of winter maintenance each year on its fleet and I can't believe their boats go much more than a season without a recoat.

It is preventing proper maintenance, simple as. These vessels go though a busy and very hard season, unlike most private pleasure vessels. Breakdowns are expensive on the business and can devastate a customer's holiday.

It has to be fuel starvation. If it were air in the system, it would not restart, simple as that. My suggestions: Trace the fuel initially from the tank to the fuel stop. If this is a ball valve, it should be a full-bore one. If it's a gate valve, there may be a restriction in it that has some debris restricting flow. My money would be on that from your description of the problem: I have seen it before. Check every union in the fuel line. A failing lift pump could cause such problems as could a failing injector pump. These are simple enough engines and such problems should be relatively easy to trace. I say "should" as I and Peachments had real trouble diagnosing one a couple of years ago that was leaching air into the system when it wasn't running. I sold the engine on, so I don't know what the fault was, but I am pretty certain it was the injector pump as we had ruled out everything else.

Disgusting. I never expected to hire from LeBoat again, but this is shocking and would certainly have a bearing on a future decision. Such a flagrant disregard for these assets.

Don't worry about the 45ft boats. Richardsons are selling off all the Ideal 45s and with Sandersons and Freedom gone, that's about 30 fewer boats for the 2022 season. Watch out for the tolls hike to compensate.....

Tim, Thank you for your help and if I can return the favours in any way, you know where I am. Stay well, my friend. Andy

We gave it up because of people being A holes, but there's actually a lot of demand. One of the key problems with tourism in this country is that EVERYTHING closes by 6pm. Vibrant, bustling tourist hotspots look like it's closed season after 6pm. On a warm summer's evening, there's people wandering around with money to spend and nowhere to go. It's a real shame. Bishy has done evening hire for at least two seasons now and I know it's been popular. I have seen Barnes' boats out in the early evening too. Maybe these were let with cottages?

You are quite wrong to suggest that day boats have to be back by 5:30pm. There is no ruling whatsoever on this and it is down to each individual operator as to how late into the evening they can have peeps out on day boats (within the legal navigation times, of course). Freedom used to operate well into the evening and I know that Bishy Barney Boats does too. I am aware that Barnes used to on occasion and, of course, many properties also have day boats as well. Don't fall into the trap that suggests you know what's best for somebody else's business because their current MO doesn't suit you or you can't understand their decision.

If I were building a new boat right now for Stags, Etc. I would struggle to find an existing mould tool that would work well. Probably only the Large Funnel Emblem boats would work and probably the new NBD one. I am sure than if an RC45 had been seen as suitable and profitable, there would have been a higher berthing one. I would also seriously question its earning potential as it would almost certainly only let for weekends for most of the year whereas a luxury 6 berth in the same form factor would be hugely more popular and generate more revenue. Therefore, if you want the stag market, you probably want an older boat that's proven its worth already.

As much as you think that discounting gives the trade a bad rep, I am not sure I agree. Holiday discounting is rife. It's the Norm. Just look at the Herbert Woods Model if you want a local example. Further afield, it's commonplace. People expect it and work with it. Lastminute.com made its founders millionaires selling short-notice holidays at discount rates. and that didn't collapse the holiday industry. People make a choice and pay their money on EVERYTHING they buy. Book early and lock in a decision without the worry of not getting a booking. Book Late and get a great deal but maybe on a less desirable trip or boat. Everyone is different. It's laudable to have a Fair Price Charter, but I wonder how much it really matters. It will ONLY matter to people who have booked already who might feel aggrieved, but sales of everything take place all the time and that dishwasher you bough 15 days ago might now be on offer with a £50 saving. That's life. We don't have to like it or agree with it, but that's what happens in virtually every market.

They should certainly be, if only for the relative cost of a caravan against a boat. When I was looking at those comparisons a few years ago, I was astonished at the cost of a tin box nestled in a sea of other tin boxes.

You'll never leave!