Vaughan

Funnily enough, in all my time, I have never had a complaint about a dirty hull. What does happen (and there is no doubt of this) is that if you hire a boat which turns out to be of tatty appearance, with fenders missing, and you see another hire boat go by on the river, with all the fenders in line and a nice clean waterline, then that will be the boat that you hire next year! Yards who value their repeat customers will know this very well.

And they play merry hell with the gelcoat on the cabin sides. They used to be the bane of my existence!

Traditionally Blakes and Hoseasons always set diesel prices to include consumables. This is less relevant now of course, as we no longer have gas heating or gas fridges.

I guess drone footage is something we are all going to have to get more and more used to. It can certainly provide a totally new perspective on the Norfolk landscape that we thought we all knew well! I am not so sure about residential villages and marina moorings though. I know he kept over the river or on the southern marshes most of the time but am I the only one who was a bit uncomfortable with the possible intrusion?

Don't let's forget that the diesel price charged for a hire boat has always included other consumables - such as gas and lub. oil.

I am sorry to miss it - again! It is always a good one.

I naturally ask myself how much of the finger trouble could have been prevented by a better trial run. But then it also depends on how much of the trial run the customers actually listen to. Perhaps it also shows why I have aways believed that the trial run is the most important part of a hire fleet operation.

I thank Floydraser for his kind remarks. I am sure I don't deserve them! I have been looking for a paper I once did about batteries, for Crown Blue Line, which I may post later for interest. Meantime I have come across this, which was my annual report for the board, on breakdowns in 2003. I had other jobs in CBL but my own base was at St Gilles, in the Camargue. At that time the base had over 50 boats and we were also handling one way cruises from the base at Port Cassafières, in the Midi. I hope it is of general interest to the subject of the thread and may answer some of FF's questions.

I have nothing to add to what I have already posted, thank you. Good night folks.

The short answer is that batteries taken off a boat are charged on a bus bar for 24 hrs and then disconnected and "rested" just like your Sunday joint when you take it out of the oven. Only then can it be tested. The best test for a lead/acid battery is specific gravity, with a hydrometer. This will tell you at once if you have a dead cell. This test can even be done when the battery is in use. Drop testing is not good for a domestic battery. Nowadays, boats with shore power can be left on charge when moored and most yards in winter usually had a system of charging batteries on the boats in rotation, using portable chargers plugged into the bank. Water levels should really be checked every week as hire boat batteries are being "cycled" - that is discharged and recharged every day and this rapid charging causes them to "gas off" and lose water. Sometimes though, there is no time for this. Batteries are also designed for a number of "cycles" and this is usually marked on them. Most batteries will accept about 400 to 600 cycles. After that, they will die. This is why the batteries on a hire boat doing 25 week seasons, will only last 3 years.

There is no scientific proof or explanation for that statement. But I think it is absolutely true! They also say, in the business, that the maximum number of boats that one man can know intimately, is 25. That is why yards like Richardsons and Woods are split into sections on turnaround days, where each section has its own boats and its own staff.

Yes, I guess you are probably right, Andy. As it happens, this is the only Internet forum I have ever been involved in. How very sad indeed, that bad manners and the deliberate causing of hurtful offence should have become regarded as normal. I wonder how today's schoolchildren are going to grow up, if their elders (and betters?) cannot maintain basic standards of communication.

I have to say that if you had been involved in putting out the number of fires that I did, after gas explosions in the days of Jenners, you would have no doubt what the flame failure devices are for. As chairman of the technical committee of Blakes I was heavily involved in the installation of many such safety features.

You are quite right, the trolling was from another source and, strictly speaking, on a different thread. I guess I am just a bit tired, that's all. Tired of seemingly always having to defend the experience, organisation and service of traditional Broads boatyards from spurious bank-side allegations. I see it as pathetic to suggest that a yard has no system in place for the servicing of its boats and quite disgraceful to actually suggest to a customer on holiday that the safety appliances on his boat don't work properly as the yard hasn't bothered to prepare the boat beforehand. It leaves me in the position of not wanting to raise subjects for discussion or enter topics about hire boats, for fear of being put down in public by someone who then happily states he knows nothing about boatyards. Not in the best spirit of this forum, I suggest - and not good for its future.

Actually I finally retired 6 years ago. After quite a time in the business, one way or another. I gave my first trial run to customers, on an auxiliary yacht, when I was 13. I was a time-served painter and yacht rigger by the time I was 14. But no matter, the message is clear. I have enjoyed sharing my experience here and I hope it has been of use to those who have been interested. There is no fun, however, in offering help and advice based on a whole career of "hands on" if it is simply to be ridiculed by trolling.

On a yard such as HW with a fleet of a hundred and more? I forget, you did say you know nothing about boatyards. But why, in that case, do you continue to "throw stones"? By the way your post sounds as though you are mixing different types of batteries on the same bank, which is certainly not recommended, especially if using an intelligent regulator or intelligent charge splitter. I point this out in the spirit of helpful advice.

Totally agree with this. A mobile phone can happily be charged on the little shaver point in the toilet, and/or the hirer can easily buy a 12 volt phone charging lead in any motorway services. There is no point in converting DC to AC just to plug in an appliance which has its own transformer, to charge on DC.

There is no doubt that the biggest technical problem on hire boats these days - by far - is electrical. The old Wilds Caribbean or the Bounty 44 would use less than 30 amp/hours a day, including engine starting and only had one 12volt battery on board. No separate domestic circuit at all. In the mid 90s I calculated that an 8 berth Crown Classique was using 250 amp/hours a day and that was without a TV or an inverter, or shore power. Nowadays, Goodness knows how much power a modern top end cruiser is using. Well over 350 a day for sure. Somehow, you have got to put that amount back into the batteries in just 4 hours cruising a day. Unless more shore power becomes available on overnight moorings in future then I am afraid the figures "just don't add up". Funny thing is, the old Wilds Caribbean was offering just as good a Broads holiday, back in the late 60s, as anything new on the rivers today. In my humble opinion of course . . . .

I appreciate what you say, and I can't pretend they are perfect! You mention management and on a large yard there will often be a difference between the ambitions of the manager, to have enough staff and logistics to provide the service needed and the needs of the owners, which may sometimes be more financial than practical! As it happens, I was offered the job of manager at HW, about 10 years ago when Reggie Reeve was retiring. It turned out to be just before the yard was sold. In hindsight I am glad I turned it down, as I think it would have been a millstone round my neck. I could see very well what needed to be done there for the future. But could the new owners?

I am not sure how you co-relate these two comments. So I am not sure what prompts you to make such spurious allegations against a business with getting on for a hundred years' experience in Broads boat hiring, other than perhaps the satisfaction of causing controversy? Excuse me but I am mindful of only a few days ago when you loudly accused me of knowing nothing about a subject. I certainly agree that the mechanic should never have suggested using the cooker as a space heater and there will be a sign in the galley which warns against this. CO alarms have a test button which can just as easily be tested by the hirer (in their own interests) as by the boatyard when servicing the boat. Meantime the hirers have contacted the boatyard. Do we know what the actual outcome of this problem is? Has it been properly sorted, or are we to rely solely on what you heard on the quayside yesterday?

By the way, I know for certain these boats have cookers with flame failure as I had them installed myself when I was technical manager for Le Boat.

It is not quite the case with Connoisseur, as their original fleet in the 70s was owned and built by Porter and Haylett but operated by other yards on a sort of agency basis. Much the same as Nicholls now do on the French canals. They own and build the boats but don't operate them. Bill Moore offered me a Connoisseur deal when I had a yard in Womack but I am glad to say I turned it down as I couldn't "make the figures add up". Other operators who took the boats found the same problem and some of them went bust as a result. In the end, Porters had to recall all the boats and set up their own operation in France. Blakes and Hoseasons had previously had a rule that all boats must be owned by the member yard, so Connoisseur were the first (officially) of the "sponsored" boats. Normally a sponsorship deal is 60:40 - that is 60% of hire income to the operator and 40% to the owner, with the operator covering operating costs. If the owner tried to take more of a cut than 40%, the deal was no good. The advantage to the operator was that he could have a brand new boat in his fleet without having to pay the finance on its building cost. Often the boat would only be hired for 5 years before it was sold, and the owner would then sponsor the building of a new one. This is how Sunsail used to work, in conjunction with Benetteau. I think I can certainly say that these Connoisseur boats were owned by P&H until they stopped operating them in Norfolk. If they are now privately owned I very much doubt that the owner is still Le Boat.

I suggest this forum should not indulge in armchair speculation. To suggest that a yard has boats with malfunctional or non existent safety equipment borders on the libellous.

That is because a Freeman is a semi-displacement hull, not a planing hull. This means no matter how much power, it will not get up "over the step" and plane across the surface. I have seen Freemans with Ford 4D engines, known as the Parsons Pike. Big, solid, indestructible lumps. Built, I believe, for the Thames Trader lorry.

I suppose that means it is also OK for another member to have his considered opinion dismissed as "Utter rubbish!" We would not talk to each other like this if we were standing at the bar having a pint in the Pleasure Boat, so why should we lower the tone of good manners and courtesy when having a discussion here. Some may think this normal, which is a very sad reflection on social media in general. Personally I am deeply upset by it and take no pleasure in it whatever.