I remember many of the hire yards in Oulton Broad in the 70's. I never hired from there sadly, but only for one reason, extra driving distance at the end of a 400 mile + drive.
We moored at Hamptons many times, a trim yard indeed, Newsons and Broadway we also managed to moor up at before sampling the local pubs etc. One highlight was sitting at the bow of the Bounty37 at Topcrafts yard watching the speedboat racing on a warm Thursday evening, magical.
With the annual toll charges I often wonder how any yard make decent money, considering for probably six months of that toll year the boat is not moving. Do the sums, profit margins cannot be high I don't think. Well maybe high season prices!
Running a boatyard must be extremely challenging these days, more so than say the late 70's. There aint that many left now to choose from to hire, so knocking them is not going to help matters IMHO.
Iain