JawsOrca

Grace.. I think it's this smiley..

Sorry to hear that Andy.. Family should and must come first... With respect I'm just curious.. why have things appeared to have got hard(er) in last few years? surely there was a day where owning and running a yard was profitable and a good way of life otherwise the broads hirefleets would have dried up a long time ago? I thought stayathome holidays (I'm not using that american version) where on the up? Is there a means for the hire fleets to start talking up and trying to get some help.. the broads and norfolk will be a very different place if all hire yards vanish.

I understand Morco's are not sealed unit's though so look closely if you need a BSC.

I suspect the staff there are self employed, hopefully someone will know the chap. I do know Mark at MBA (whos a member on here) does fibreglassing.. worth Pm'ing him too.

Agree David this is a good column but it hit the facebook groups and forums recently because it was one off that had not been seen for many years! I understand your connection with Hoseasons. So perhaps best to agree to disagree on this one.

Thanks Paul.. that's the one I'm waiting on but they showed stock of the one with a spinner (I got a good deal lol). Dometic do have stock they just got to get there heads out and put it on a lorry. They are a dreadful company though. I don't really want to look about as I suspect every other dealer will be in the same position (Most show local stock but it's a lie, they mean dometic stock which is the problem). My chandlers will get through to them soon I've kinda sad I want a delivery date this week otherwise I will rethink.. probably won't be dometic though.

Dometics supply chain management are an absolute nightmate. I waited months for stuff on Orca.. And I'm having the repeated trouble with this boat.. I've paid more for an item in stock.. 2 weeks later it was due last friday which came and went with no update. My chandlers here get emails from them demanding they do not call them as they are too busy but to email them!!! But I'm making my chandlers call them daily for an update. They are good products but seriously bad service and supply chain management. Looking forward to meeting them at a show one day..

Hi David.. I'm no fan of adwords for a number of reasons (typically they are badly implemented and this is one example (But that's how google makes its money)).. Although some people may use the internet to search for bookings.. I believe by the time they are searching they already know what they are looking for. Although we can assume the broads are well known by all. That's a bad assumption in my mind.. A company like hoseasons, who's "Job" is to get punters to book hire boats has to sell the dream to people who may not know of the broads .. they have to do this with glossy advertisements across a variety of media not "Book a cheap boat from £249", (Certainly when the drive on hireboats is now a premium market).. Hoseasons in my eyes are falling short and should be doing more..and in a way could shoulder some of the blame for yards closing.

Without adding rumor. When we looked the boats needed work although we were advised that the work would be put good. The wasn't overly expensive by comparison but we found cheaper for the person we was looking for. The yard was closed and staff were not visible although it was the middle of the winter. I suspect the boats will be sold to another hire yard eventually. One again good luck to the Alpha family but it certainly looks a very sad end to the era.

Hi David. Certainly sounds like he has been very lucky. And top marks to hoseasons for taking care of a customer. From my experience with them (albeit a few years back now) this doesn't surprise me, they have been brilliant with us before. I'm not sure what makes you say this forum denigrates hoseason. I am vocal in raising their appalling advertisement efforts of the broads but I think I have every right! in the 90's (Not sure before then as I'm a little young!) they advertised a hell of a lot better now. Richardsons alone appear to have taken that lead and are doing a good job IMHO, it would be nice to see more but yup I guess it's not cheap. As for booking with hoseasons, I believe (from what I was told before), hoseasons offer the same prices as the yard directly so there's little point in booking direct.. not sure if that's still the case now but also your money is probably safer booking with Hoseasons just in case anything were to happen to the yards.. Personally though, I'd use a credit card and book with the independents.. It's better to support local/smaller firms IMHO...

Nah you want to ignore those bits... what you can't see won't hurt you lol

Lol certainly is.. it's shops a killer too.. They do demo's on weekends.. Must admit if we had space I'd love to get a small lathe and do small turnings (Thankfully no space though!).

That looks cool Stuart. I don't know too much about this side to the world, although a local company down here may help.. www.axminster.co.uk

^ What David said

I do love the advice to run the engine before use! Orca's works fine and she was used for a good 6 months before her engine ever ran (Although it was new). Autonomy's (age unknown) has been running 2 to 3 times a day for the last 2 weeks and we've never ran the engines. There's certainly a fault there if you need the engines running. I've read somewhere that there's something in the magic box which needs renewing (I'm really not sure). Can I suggest you contact Tom at JPC (http://www.jpcdirect.co.uk/) he's a sponsor of the forum and a UK dealer for these, he's very good and I bet he will tell you whats up in a matter of seconds.

"Celebration of the seas" Cruise ship... (Are most radio operators juniors?)

Brilliant trip review. Glad you guys had fun! Commodore looks and sounds amazing. Shame we didn't manage to get up and see you. Hopefully very soon though! P.s how did your wife get on in Milan of? Hope here excess baggage charge (all those designer cloths) was manageable!

It would be good to see more boats on this. Sadly as mentioned earlier Orca's not been run in enough yet (and she's not proven herself fit following her recent shark attack), So shes' a no for this year (Maybe next). Perhaps Andy at Freedom could allow some of his boats the freedom to explore the open seas (Good advertisement perhaps Andy?) Come on though chaps it will be good fun if you have a well maintained boat

Thanks Chaps. Don't mean to change the subject on this one. We did copy the name from another (it was actually the alternative boat) but I like the meaning. She's all changed now legally though I just need to do the stickers on the hull but it's a bit high in the air to do really so I may wait until she's afloat. I'll try and update my restoration the thread, although not much is happening at the moment.

Ohh very nice.. Although she's the type of boat you should have on the med .. (A friend of mind has a searay sundancer in Greece.. Next door to the airport.. £30 easyjet flights... sorted!).. Good to see you taking her out of the broads though.. A lucky girl.. If you all get a bit closer to here, we will bring "Autonomy" out for a play.. (next year onwards).. (Ipswich we could probably do).

Can you add your boat type (and ideally picture) so us inlanders can stare...

I can see all installments upto 5 Eric. Can you now? You may have had connection issues when submitting. If you are doing a long post it maybe better to do in word etc and copy over. The forum software should store the text in the reply box though so if you do have problems go back into the thread and click in the reply box.. it should still be there. I'll have a read of your tale shortly

Personally I only see a couple of things wrong. - The poor dog, I suspect he fell in and the props certainly not spinning from what I can see. All good chandlers (note Brian wards) offer liftjakets for pets so if it was wearing a jacket it would have been easier to recover. - Riding in a dinghy without a lifejacket on. Life jackets are supplied when hiring a boat. They should be worn at all times whilst the boat the boat is in motion and whilst on deck. You probably shouldn't ride in a dinghy whilst being towed because it's a bit dangerous. Stupid is a strong word, they look like they was having a good holiday. Perhaps they didn't think enough for their own safety. Neil take a chill pill, people are just responding to your post in their own thoughts, nought wrong with that in my book. Yes I'm a hypercrite depending on my mood as I'm sure you are. Please don't forget that beside every post there is a "Report" link, if a post is offence to you or in someway damaging to the forum/broads etc please click it, this will help the mods gauge opinion. As always I think the mods do an amazing job at allowing free speech and maintaining the friendly forum feel in here. Good morning from me

Good to hear you are about and thanks for your time and service. Hopefully we will never need your service.

Well done to all involved. Out of interest, Hemsby are you guys mobile and launch as and when or are you based near the river and just launch and motor as required? Just curious of your response times. We've seen you on a shout above potter so I guess potter to horning (even at speed is a good 15 - 20 mins?).