.png.5ff10cca1d0967e44a17e4a2edde2a80.png)
andyg
-
Posts
1,759 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
6
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Articles
Posts posted by andyg
-
-
Quite a good business decision this, win win for everyone involved. Richardsons no longer have the headache of new builds. They've brought a fantastic fleet of boats. ( think we all know we're that's going) and Robert and his team are great boat builders. End of tbh. The broads are clinging on to hire fleets. Ten years ago Alan royall predicted it would be the 4 big boys that would survive. He clearly knew what he was talking about.
-
2
-
-
8 hours ago, Davydine said:
I can recommend “Sailing Holidays Ltd” when you finally get round to it, a real family run company.
We stayed in the little resort of Nydri on the island of Lefkada some years ago. There was a big sunsail base there. I use to love sitting there watching the yachts set off on the holidays. An absolutely stunning location to start your holiday.
-
2
-
-
Absolutely no doubt there's some goodies hidden just below the surface along them river banks. Could you imagine them dredging the rivers in 500 years time. All they'd find would be a load of old asda trollies and them bright coloured scooters that are for hire everywhere.
-
1
-
-
10 minutes ago, YnysMon said:
How lovely! That will make the trip extra special. What memories!
It's gonna cost us lol...
-
1 hour ago, PaulN said:
Hi Andy. We have only ever done one cruise which was on Sea Princess in 2009 and we still have very fond memories, I'm sure you will have a fabulous time.
What surprised us was how many people gorged themselves all day in the buffet, with burgers, iced cream and cakes. If you have all inclusive like we had, I would recommend that you avoid that and save your appartitie for the fabulous restaurant in the evening. I remember our first evening on board when the waitress went to take our order and I said 'It's hard to make my mind up between my two favourites that you have on the menu this evening, Lobster and Beef Wellington'. She said, 'Thats easy, have the lobster as a starter and the beef as a main'. I said 'Can I do that', she said 'Of course, you can have it as many times as you want' We had fabulous meals in the fantastic restaurant every evening. Would love to go on another cruise, but financially now our spare cash goes to keep the Broads Cruiser going, which we love so much.
Have a great time!
I took earlier retirement back in January and Kim is doing the same this January. So it's a bit of a prezzie to ourselves for 40 years of bloody hard work. It's the most expensive trip I've ever had I just hope it's worth it, on a side note, we are staying on in Jamaica for a week after the crusie and our son and girlfriend will be flying down to join us. Kim is totally unaware they are coming. They have some exciting news for my wife. How I've managed to keep it a secret I don't know lol..
-
4
-
1
-
-
3 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:
I don't think they are Vaughan, more judging HW business model re preventative maintenance.
Spot on..
-
8 minutes ago, Vaughan said:
The manager, or owner, of a Broads boatyard will be on duty 24/7 without any let-up, for six months, from Easter through to November. No days off and no weekends.
In my father's day, staff had a contract which forbad them taking holidays in the summer. Instead they had a generous holiday allowance in winter. They had a 40 hour week with Wednesday afternoon off, and Saturday afternoon was overtime. Sunday duty was double time if called out.
Even as the manager of a 50 boat fleet, It was always me who took the out of hours calls on my mobile number and it was almost always me who went out if necessary.
It is a seasonal business and a way of life, that is not obvious, or understandable, to those who only see it from the river bank.
The same could be said for any business in fairness Vaughan. I have mates that run there own companies and its pretty much 24/7 it's quite frustrating on a meal out and their phones don't stop ringing. At least with a broads hire yard the pace drops off come the end of October. Staff return to a Monday to Friday working patten.
-
1
-
-
5 hours ago, ExSurveyor said:
Weight gain.
Take clothes with an expanding waist.
Your not the 1st person to give me that advice lol.. I have to say they do serve what looks like a very nice afternoon tea onboard. I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't noticed the cakes in the videos ive seen. Her in doors has already booked a couple of nights in the surf and turf restaurant as well. That's half a stone I've gain already..jeez..
-
1
-
-
We will be departing on our 1st ever crusie in 6 weeks. Absolutely no idea of what to expect of life onboard. We are both apprehensive and excited. The broads are a wonderful destination to visit and I could never get bored. I do have one major cruising regret. I've always wanted to hire a canal boat but never got round to it. Unfortunately Kim isn't keen on the idea and neither are my mates so I doubt it will happen.
-
1
-
-
5 hours ago, FlyingFortress said:
You do realise that quite a lot of people work on a 24hr call out system don't you. In my job before retiring we were on call 24hrs for 9 days.
We have 2 what we call surgery vans at our depot, a basic mobile workshop. All the fitters do a week on call, that's ontop of there normal hours. So yep 24/7 been like it years..by the way they get paid very well if called out.
-
3 hours ago, Mouldy said:
Frankly, I’m not surprised that they’re on call 24/7. The external appearance of a great number of their fleet is woeful. I also don’t think that it should be left to the customer/hirer to find the faults, whether their first year novices or experienced crews. The issues your group have experienced this year, after the issues you had last year should not happen. There seems to be little or no preventative maintenance and a lot of reactive maintenance with that yard. The vast majority of vans I’ve seen across the network, both north and south of Breydon this year have been from one yard. I’ve even seen one of their fleet in a southern yard having a new engine fitted.
This week there was a post on social media where a family had lost two days of their holiday due to an issue with the stern gland, causing the boat to fill with water, a frightening experience for the hirers concerned.
I admire your loyalty to the yard, but in my view, there have been too many faults that are indicative of a lack of maintenance. I’m with @ oldgregg here - I could never hire from there and I feel sorry for anyone who buys one of their ex hire boats. I fear that could be a very expensive error.
Ive used woods twice in the last 12 months. I've only hired from there elite range, dazzling light 2 and Prince of light 1. Apart from having the batteries change ( which turned out not to be a fault as such) We'd accidentally turned the 240v fridge thermostat to full which was draining the battery. We had no problems or issue with woods or its staff. We've also hired a starlight for a day which was fantastic. Unfortunately I wouldn't hire any of there older boats because malcom is spot on with his opinion sadly. I also won't use them again as they allow pets on all there boats. I'm not anti dog before anyone jumps on me, I just choose not to get covered in other people's pets hair, and trust me we have. I see enough pictures on social media of dogs sitting all over bedding and soft furnishings. Not for us I'm afraid.
-
1
-
-
I hope you don't mind me asking Neil, but how do you find it living full time onboard ?? I guess the winter months will take some getting use to and adapting. I often watch Vaughans YouTube vids of his childhood on Thorpe Island and feel quite envious at times. It will be interesting to see how you get on. Looking forward to seeing Rosie new paint job. Best of luck.
-
Just spoke to my friend regarding his additional fuel cost. He paid an additional 67 pounds on top of his fuel deposit. They didn't make good use of the tides and covered most of the southern broads,they didn't go up to Loddon. They done the usual wroxham Horning potter visits as well. A couple of days were long days cruising. The boat was bright horizon 1 absolutely no idea what kind of engine is fitted. They used the heating at night and first thing in the morning. The chap who refuelled them mentioned they had used a lot of derv and asked where they'd visited. Once they told him he said its was about the right amount of fuel. So the op used roughly twice as much fuel covering roughly the same distances...me thinks not.
-
1
-
-
This case is obviously a mistake by the yard. They will know that. A decent owner will do the right thing and come to some kind of settlement.
-
2
-
-
52 minutes ago, Onthewater said:
Something similar to this although not the exact boat. When you a load of fuel what does that equate to in monetary terms? I’d heard a guess at nowhere near £400?!?!
Oh god no, I'm totally with you on this, I think you've had your trousers pulled down here to be perfectly honest. I for one would certainly not leave it. I'd be totally shocked if the yard in question tried telling you that was normal. Like I said our friends covered more distance then you didn't use the tides etc, they paid an additional 80 odd quid ontop of there 150 fuel deposit. Their boat was bright horizon a horizon 35. So they used approx 230 quids worth of derv. The guy said they had used a lot..
-
What I have noticed over the last few hires I've done, the big new boats we've are not very good with fuel consumption. We used a load of fuel on dazzling light the same on broadsman for the time and distance covered, prince of light a small little compact boat was exceptionally good. All hydraulic drive all fitted with all kinds of modern technology. In dazzling and broadsman cases they are big heavy boats to push along. It would be good for the original poster to tell us what type of craft. No names need to be mentioned.
-
Just now, kpnut said:
Isn’t the one at Sutton staithe like that?
I've no idea,I haven't been in the yard for donkeys to be honest. I'm sure there's still one or two about.
-
1 hour ago, RS2021 said:
I seem to remember that some yards use old style fuel pumps which need to be 'zeroed' between use. Is it as simple as the pump wasn't 'zeroed' and it has recorded two consecutive fill ups.
I haven't seen a pump like your referring to for years, but yes I do remember them. I seem to remember you had to remove the hose and switch it on. They then automatically re set to zero.
-
Slight drift here, the loos on these modern boat do seem to need pumping out way more then I've ever known. We had broadsman over a 3 day weekend, with 5 adults onboard. We used the loos in pubs when we could. The waste tank was showing full on return on the Monday morning. No way would that last a week with the max of 8 onboard. The amount of times I've heard engineers say ignore the gauges there faulty.
-
It's an odd one this, of course mistakes happen. But if the tank hadn't been re fueled from its previous hire, then surely it would of had an effect on the previous crew fuel refund. I'm sure yards keep records of fuel used etc. It may be worth calling them and ask the to investigate.
-
1
-
-
3 minutes ago, RS2021 said:
Fuel prices have risen massively since yards set their prices. I'm not aware of any introducing fuel surcharges, so that gives you an idea of how much profit is in 'all inclusive' pricing.
Unless of course yards we're able to buy and store a season's worth of fuel in advance.
Spot on...
-
1
-
-
Probably to late now I would think. I've seen some quite heated arguments at richardsons over fuel costs. The girls behind the counter must get fed up with it. It's always amazes me the amount of people that don't understand its a deposit and you could potentially have additional fuel costs on returning the boat. P
-
Richardsons have signs up in reception advising people about additional fuel.cost. I'm pretty sure I got a pre arrival email explaining it as well. Bridgecraft have a great system, the fuel is dipped in front of you using the boats fuel dip stick b4 you leave the yard. Its then re fueled again in front of you using the boats dip stick...that's right the boats still have a dip sticks.
-
4
-
-
That's definitely not right, even with the high fuels prices. I always check the fuel before I leave the yard. I've had to get one yard ( I won't mention names ) to top the tank up before i left. The guy put 18ltrs in, quite shocking to be honest. But mistake happen. Our friends have just returned from a week on bright horizon and covered most of the network, right up to Norwich, Beccles etc. They didn't make good use of tides etc and had an additional 88 pounds to pay ontop of there fuel deposit. Even the guy that re fueled them at richardsons was surprised how much fuel they'd used.
-
1
-
Silverline Announcement
in Broads Chat
Posted
That's absolutely fine, I've no control over what overs think or do, I also don't own a multi million pound hire fleet. But what I do know and see is small yard after small yard ( regardless of standing and quality) being taken over by thoses with big pockets or big overdrafts.