andyg

That's right it got stuck under the bridge and the whole saloon structure was crushed by the rising tide. Looked a total right off but they changed the design of the saloon roof to strengthen it. Took quite some time to fix I think. I'm sure Clive will have some photo's. Bolero had a really hard impact with the quay at Yarmouth and again sustained quite a lot of damage to its bow. That looked a total mess as with a great big hole in the bow, but was repaired quite quickly.

Different thing Andrew, very few day boats head to acle or stokesby. Maybe the odd one from bridgecraft. Everyone and the kitchen sink heads to Horning simple as that unfortunately.

Andrew the whole reason they priorities mooring for day boat is its deemed these are the ppl who are spending the money. You'd be surprised by the amount of hirer's that moor at the venue's you've mentioned that never use the pubs/ restaurants.

That could well be it, I can't remember what side it was. Search the forum for clives posts a few years ago re the damage to both challenger and bolero. They turned bolero around in a week I think, challenger was out of service for quite some time. Mind boggling how some of the damage happens.

I seem to remember one of the forth Bridge class, took some heavy damage to one of its stern corners. They done a temp repair and that's gonna have to have some serious repairs. Just imagine if you strip back all the paint off a lot of these boats. All the filler and patches you'd find. I doubt there's a single hire boat over 5 years old that hasn't had repairs to its Hull...

They are one of the more active yards on fb one of the guys at the yard is quite a good drone pilot as and has posted some good footage.

There boats still looked very smart considering the busy season they have had.

If your a small family yard and the boats are still set up to hire,why not. Im sure ppl that would hire this time of the year are fully aware of what there getting into. That said winter months are generally warmer nowadays. I've just had a cuppa in my garden and was just thinking I'd be quite happy to be afloat at the mo. I had my first dealings with bridgecraft this week making an inquiry and have to say I was very impressed with how helpful the guy was. I could here lots of sanding and banging going on in the background so clearly busy. We are going to be spending a few weeks afloat next year ( covid has put us off flying ) so I'm 90% sure il be giving them ago.

I knew they did winter cruising I just thought it would be guys fishing. But these were families with young..bit to chilly for me but good to see.

Going slightly off topic, looking at herbert woods webcam earlier and I was quite surprised to see them still sending a handful of boats out. Not all fishermen either, nice bit of late season revenue.

They seem to have outboards fitted, maybe more of the pontoon type boats They use 💁‍♂️

I'd hate to think they just threw them away, the guy did say the local scrap man loved them this time of the year. The previous day they had hit a record and had changed 28 batteries. Which I could believe as we weren't the only hw boat at Ranworth that morning having battery issues. The thing is if we had managed to get shore power we'd of never had called them out as the problem only surfaced on the 2nd day when running on our own batteries. Dave back at the yard told us the 240 vlt fridges on there big boats were agro all year round. I checked everything I could think of before calling them but the fridge never crossed my mind...

We had dazzling light from hw a few weeks ago. It didn't matter how long we ran the engine the domestic batteries would go flat overnight. We called them out they replaced the whole bank of batteries. Next morning same thing. Called them out again, this time the engineer done some investigating, turned out to be the fridge. It's has a 240vlt fridge on this particular boat and when loading the fridge up one of the girls had moved the thermostat by mistake. So basically the fridge motor was running 24/7 DOH. Thermostat adjusted back down, no more problems. No quite sure what happened to the batteries they took of tho. Waste of perfectly good batteries if they were scrapped.

I couldn't see a scenario where Richardsons withdrew from the hire boat side of there business, I can see them offloading the budget end of the fleet. Maybe a fleet of a 150 boats all of a mid to high range standard. The platinum fleet at Richardsons is incredibly successful and was before covid struck. This would also be inline with what is happening at there hemsby holiday park. But I'm sure there not going anywhere any time soon.

How sad what a dreadful last few hours he must of had. RIP.

As far as stag parties go, richardsons will hire you any boat, I discovered this on my stag with them. It was around the time broadsman was being introduced into the fleet. Some of my party wanted to upgrade onto one that was sitting in the yard. I told the guys the wouldn't allow them to, how wrong was I. They popped over to reception and were told that would be fine, they just had to as the difference in hire charges.

What year was this, how did the fire start ??

Think your right, Clive said he wasn't interested in the holiday park and there's some huge investment going on over there. A smaller more profitable operation is what I think your see at Stalham. Better quality of boat, hiring at much higher tariffs giving better yields. Simples....let's face it no ones making much money out of some of them older boats, regardless of whether they have paid for themselves. Staff still need paying and Richardson's in its current form are very successful. 33 new build in ten years is pretty good going but at what cost ?? Maybe things were getting to expensive and it's cheaper to buy in good quality boats. Weather you like the recent additions or not they are top quality boats and have only added more quality to the fleet.

Personally I think under the current pricing structure the Thames is looking quite attractive. I've only been once and loved it. The scenery etc and facilities are better then the broads.

I've never been onboard any of the challenger type boats I don't like them tbh. But looking through the internal photos of all of them I'd say they've all seen extensive updates over the years. Like many of Richardson's older boats the internal fixtures and fittings are all in good order. Virtually every bounty type bathtub I've ever hired from them has had new showers,galley, moden cookers fridges and soft furnishings. So if the engine and boat structure is in good order I'd say there probably a good purchase. Bearing in mind they've had a hard working life. I did notice the top end of the price range quoted has been increased by 20k.

Absolutely Vaughan, we have a approx 6hr car journey each way then the cost of days out. So I doubt it will end up being any cheaper then a week on the broads. The broads are a two hour drive from home, so there and back we dont use half a tank of petrol, we'll if the wife's driving it's a different story ( but il leave that there lol )

Vaughan have you ever seen Robins vid of the challenger, very spacious inside. Would probably make a very comfy liveraboard.

Havens Perranporth next September, a top of the range 6 berth van has cost us 1000 quid. So not cheap by any means. Andys description of a tin box in a sea of tin boxes is pretty apt. Add in the travelling cost, cost of day's out etc and it will end up being pretty much the same as a week afloat on a mid range boat I guess.

I'm 58 now and I'm pretty sure I was in my 3rd year of secondary school when superior gem was launched, remember them being built. Pink and white champagne are of a similar age. I'm sure Clive has said before that the blue gem type boats don't let so well. With acle now closed I wonder if Ludham bridge as played a part in offloading the challengers due to there height. There's not as many for sale as I thought there was going to be. The platinum fleet must be close to 60 boats now, so maybe not the disaster we had feared.

I'm sorry I wasn't but your be pleased to know I am aware of swift and have seen her on numerous occasions above that bridge over the years. I'm also a fan of the old ripple craft boats. I seem to remember some time ago you mentioning your hopes to go all electric with her. She another cracking old woodie. The person I was referring to recently started a new job 😉