andyg

We have dazzling light booked for Oct and hope to get under Ludham bridge, I like the cruise up to Stalham. But oddly herbert woods state an air draft height of 8ft with screen lowered, but richardsons state a a height of 8.6ft for bolero, basically the same boat. Dazzling has the revamped upper deck area that bolero dosent have. I would of thought it should be the other way round. Or are richardsons over stating boleros height.

I would 100% agree with you about the scenery, its far better. Aren't the le boat boats,managed by Benson boats for them ?? I saw some broads boats back in April that clearly hadn't been taken out of the water over the winter. One particular elite fleet boat that looked absolutely dreadful, showing all the scares of the previous season. I'm guessing covid restrictions and staff furloughed played a part in the yards maintenance programme's. I have a rule of thumb that says if a boat looks that bad then it probably is..

Hi Neil, do kris build any of there boats or are they all built over in norfolk. I see from their fb post the winter maintenance is mainly done on there car park, that can't be ideal. I also saw this week that they have commissioned a 2nd pontoon boat from phoenix at potter. They seem a very busy yard with a large dayboat business aswell as the cruisers.

I always thought coral horizon was the old ex royall tango. Well there you go, thanks for the info 👍

Scratch that idea lol, just had a look on le boats web site, they are clearly marketing there boats at overseas visitors ( they must be ) damage wavier £203 per boat,ouch. Some of the add ons are laughable in my opion, upper deck cushion pack of 2 £12, why ? Final boat clean down £120 PER BOAT !!! Apparently this option allows you to enjoy your final evening afloat. Just bag your rubbish and go ( do ppl really fall for this ) etc etc. Le boat are definitely not for me lol....

I've only hired a cruiser once on the Thames and absolutely loved it, we hired from New horizon at Thames Diton. If memory serves me right the office was at the end of a row of houses and the carpark was some way away. They had a guy that followed you to the carpark in a car to return you the yard. The boats were all moored to a floating pontoon. It's was a August bankholiday weekend and incredibly busy. I did find hanging around waiting to transit the locks a bit of a bind, but that just me. The scenery was far far better then the broads IMHO. Would definitely do it again, kris cruisers have some really nice boats now and would be my first choice. Id love to explore much further upstream to Benson etc. One day maybe

The caravans were mentioned on the new horizon brochure above the advert for the freshfields brochure. I guessed it was the Thames. I remember all the boats sitting about at Stalham, quite a sorry site tbf.

The bbc click program run a piece on the pixel smartphone, and rated the camera very highly. Some of the photos they took at night with it were stunning. Sadly I haven't got a clue about camera settings,exposure times etc etc. My only criticism of the phone, it does look cheaply made and I probably wouldn't buy one if I'm being honest. But I'm a Samsung fan, virtually everything electrical I own is Samsung.

Do people really pay that money for old brochures, well you learn something new everyday. I noticed on the front cover of the new horizon brochure they mention riverside caravans, where these on the Thames??. Did rank actually make any money out of the boating fleets, I know they invested heavily at Stalham then to sold it back to Clive dad,but by then I think it's fair to say the new fleet was in a bit of a mess. I'd didn't quite realise just how big richardsons were back in the day.

I also have a Google pixel smart phone ( works phone ).The camera on that is pretty dam good. My wife use to be everything apple but discovered Samsung and swears by Samsung now. Nice pic though.

We find the camera on our Samsung smart phones to be far better then the iPhone we've had.

Wow that's absolutely awesome Griff enjoy. Closest I can get to that was a battle run in a Chinnock at night in Gremany whilst on exercise. Probably the most terrified I've ever been in my life, but i would do it again at the drop of a hat.

This is good to know, as I'm onboard for two weeks next year. I assume visiting hire boat can use aswell.

Excellent photos, I absolutely love them old ripplecraft boats Always have. Look forward to seeing the photos of the weekend. Kingfisher for me as well.

We dug a bit deeper into our choices last and have decided to book rose emblem from ferry marina. I did look at suncharm from Richardson's another favourite of ours but was quite surprised to discover she was the most expensive of that type we looked at. Although clearway is a nice boat I feel it's a tad overpriced ( just my opinion and not a dig at anyone ) rose emblem offered the better value in my view. So rose emblem it is then. I would say from my limited research that bookings seem quite heavy for next season already with quite a few boats fully booked.

I'm on dazzling light in Oct but she's way to big just for the two of us, I've looked onboard adventuring light 3 just after shed been put into the water. A bit too compact for me but a nice.

Apologies spelt his surname wrong. Yes that's him i remember him telling us he had built Gainsborough girl, the boat we were on. Seemed a very nice guy.

How on earth did you cope,poor chap 😉

I also remember seeing something about a refit on gala girl. I'd be surprised if she still had a gas fridge as she is fitted with a 240vlt system. Like I said earlier I saw her in Horning at the ferry inn the other week and she certainly look absolutely immaculate. The paint job looked quite new but then again there boats have always been well presented. On the subject of bisters doesn't one of the sons work at summercraft, he did last time I hired from them

Thanks for the input. We can't be flexible in our dates sadly, the wife is basically on a training course for most of next year. Sunshine is booked but the other two aren't. I'm leaning towards clearway now.

I guess we maybe in the minority but we have made the decision not to travel abroad in 2022. My wife has spent the last 18 months knee deep in covid and everything associated with it as an NHS nurse. The thought of having to wear masks on aircraft etc just doesn't do it for her. Caravan parks aren't really our thing unless we have our grandchildren in tow and I'm no fan of British seaside resorts ( nothing wrong with them, just not my thing ) so we've agreed on a return to the broads. But this time will be for two weeks. I've never spent more then a week afloat. I've narrowed it down to three boats. This is my normal process and no doubt il change my mind. I tried to hire clearway a while back but unfortunately she wasn't quite ready to go out on hire. So she's 1st on my list, gala girl is a boat I've always liked and saw her two weeks ago in Horning looking pristine but for some bizzare reason I keep being pulled to Pacific Sunshine. I haven't hired a boat from the southern rivers in a good 30 years and that was harrier from Alphacraft. This may sound really daft but the green interior and aztec type upholstery on sunshine is putting me off. I'm really no good at making decisions. Anyone had any experience of the above boats.

Apologies for calling the gunboat an mtb in my earlier post, us old army boys wouldn't know one end of a boat from the other.

The point your missing is the original post didn't say anything about anyone making a mistake. It's more a case of they were offended by the shouty note. Pram,toys come to mind and is it a real drama to have a quick check everything is how it should be. Let's face it a boating holiday is a different beast to staying on a holiday park or hotel, b&b etc etc.

Just put heart cruisers into the search bar and hey presto. I watched one this morning. Vaughan looked quite dashing in his shorts walking to school in the snow. How things have changed..

Another storm in a tea cup in my opinion. Andy hit the nail right on the head, couldn't agree more. One of the first things we do is check the bedding, any issues it's sorted by the time your due for the off. Never had a problem on occasion we've required a couple of extra blankets, quick trip to the office job done. On most occasions we have sent in our bedding request pre arrival the beds are made up for us on arrival. As for getting offended by a few capital letters on a bit of paper...oh please. But hey it worked, didn't it...