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oldgregg
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Posts posted by oldgregg
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I think Tesla are creating trouble for themselves.
It's not so much the batteries as the shift towards building the structure from as few castings as they possibly can. Pretty much guaranteed to fracture in an impact and be horrendous to replace.
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Nice one, one of Duncan's old hirefleet - They were all nicely built boats.
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I think the market had gone hard before the Luton Airport fire. I was looking at an F31 335D a few months ago and the cost of insurance put me off. A lesser model was way cheaper and I didn't fancy funding the Aviva pension fund.
Looking at other models and brands I realised it was across the board and I guess will be because of cost of repair / replacement.
The Chinese have also been manipulating the supply of chips to the car industry and they're starting to realise what's really going on. COVID was the perfect cover but you'll notice there's no shortage of new chinese-built cars on our roads. Just how are there so many MG4's and why are they so cheap?
The insurance industry seems to flip-flop between 'hard' and 'soft' market conditions depending on how scared or reckless the market is feeling. When I worked in commercial insurance they had various ways of measuring the 'hardness' of the market because massive corporate clients needed hard evidence of why their fleet premium had just gone up by hundreds of thousands of pounds.
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I think you could do worse, for sure.
I did look longingly at the AF42 Mk2 they were selling a while back... Very original inside but had clearly been maintained and felt as though it could be had for a reasonable price.
The other thing with Sandersons is that their boats are in fairly inoffensive colours. No bright yellow, orange or some quirky 1970's shade of brown to cover up.
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I think Sandersons had a reasonable reputation for looking after the mechanicals, but the boats did have a tendency to look like they were from the past.
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I'd better fetch my weak lemon drink.
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Just spotted your other post and given the treadmaster colour and the badge size and position she looks like one of the old hirefleet?
Given the number of hull vents (which I assume have been replaced) I would guess she is one of the later ones, Cadet 4 or 5?
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Was the boat definitely built by Broom? As in was she fitted out by them and has the black 'C J Broom and Sons Ltd' plaque at the helm along with a build number and the correct Broom badges on the cabin sides (I've seen many boats with fake ones added).
There are a lot of those boats about, all were moulded by Aquafibre and they were fitted out by various yards (partly because Broom couldn't build enough for LeBoat) such as Darragh, Haines, Shannon Yachtfitters and others as well as Broom.
On top of that, the moulds were available for any other yard to fit out.
Some of the fitouts look very similar to a Broom, some are quite similar and others are very different. Brokerage listings pretty much always say 'Broom' because most of them don't know any better.
I know that BOC only allows owners of genuine Brundall builds to join.
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I think the boat might have been on trade plates at the time?
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They are quite an unusual design, never that popular and they seem to change hands a lot - But another 80's Aquafibre design that thinks very much outside of the box.
There's a lot to be said for having a boat that will reach all corners of the Broads and which can be tucked into the mooring spaces which are left at the end of the day... You'll often never quite squeeze a 45-footer in, but ten feet less and it's a different story.
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27 minutes ago, dom said:
One of my family member's boats has two doubles side-by-side to the aft in just 10ft 6in, including hanging storage between the two. It's 33ft long, will take 4 people in relative comfort and passes under Wroxham and Wayford bridges. Only has a single head, but a pretty luxurious seperate shower compartment. It's a 40 year old boat, but in my eyes far more suited to the broads than the current generation of boats and it'd be really interesting to see a modern take on the design.
I'm intrigued now.... What is the boat?
I was thinking AF Ruby 33 but the 10'6 beam rules that out.
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1 hour ago, SwanR said:
This is exactly right. We have probably had more short breaks than week long holidays as hirers. And we have never been through Wroxham, PH, Wayford or Beccles bridges. And that’s even with having hired forward steer cruisers many times. And we have had times when we couldn’t get through Ludham Bridge either. But every hire and every holiday has been amazing.
Some of the best bits of the Broads lie above those Bridges you mention... The Coltishall to Wroxham stretch is stunning when the sun is shining, as are the others really.
Why not take a dayboat down there one time?
I agree about short breaks - If you're working then taking a week's annual leave for boating is sometimes not really possible or you just don't want to use up that many days.
We often do a Friday-Monday or Saturday-Tuesday let and hand the boat back on the final evening of the hire then head home. On a bank holiday (or one of the rare double bank holidays) it's even better in terms of leave, though of course you do pay for it.
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17 hours ago, dom said:
I wouldn't mind betting that one gets breached fairly regularly.
Especially Fleet Dyke, Womack Dyke and Womack Water.
I wonder what, if anything, BA rangers do in terms of checking that oversize vessels aren't in prohibited areas.
Yep.
I personally think that either the rules need to be updated, or hire boats should be limited to the 'go anywhere' dimensions as there's no way the BA can adequately monitor or control where hire boats go.
It may seem sensible to update the rules and 13ft 6 beam (or thereabouts) does realistically allow two side-by-side cabins aft, but if the limit were raised then people will simply push the boundaries of whatever the new limit is.
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4 hours ago, Vaughan said:
The interior layout looks enormously expensive and I wonder if it was originally commissioned as a private boat. It is laid out with only two cabins and so that high hire charge is shared by only 4 people. I rather doubt that is commercial but who knows?
All of NYA's boats were originally built for private owners. They're mostly either Haines or Sheerline, the Alpha was Langford's own boat and has been refurbished.
They're adding a new build for next year, but she'll be to a similar standard. The price point is high but they aren't having trouble letting the boats as the service and quality of product is very high.
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11 hours ago, Davydine said:
Why don't any of the yards offer an extra early booking discount to get the bookings for next year? Maybe then they wouldn't have to offer such big last minute reductions.
You see what you're talking there is common sense.
Unfortunately, that seems to be quite lacking in your average marketing person.
It's always "let's do a discount, let's do a post on social media, let's do a video of a cat". Ask them for strategic thinking and the room goes very quiet.
Allegedly.
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I think in general, the idea is a good one.
But as MM has alluded to, if it gains traction and becomes known as an organisation that one can always flog a spare bit of land to then it could achieve the opposite of what is intended.
But in principle, I do think a lot of Broads land (including riverside pubs) should be in the care of some sort of trust. The problem is you have to stop it being run by yoghurt-knitters and those 'committee' folk who have as much common sense and knowledge of commercial matters as a tea leaf does of the history of the east india co
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It could be a temporary site - If you've seen the ones that they deploy at Festivals and major events, they are quite substantial bits of kit.
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14 hours ago, Richie said:
I don't think I saw a single hire boat, elite premium classic or budget, that didn't look like it couldn't do with some TLC in the shed. I don't think it's fair to single out HW for external appearance. Their boats didn't look any worse than Richardson's or Barnes.
I wasn't singling them out for external appearance. I've seen on board their boats too.
The Connoisseurs aren't too bad but that's because they were designed well and built to take a battering.
Sorry, but there is a reason I will not hire from them.
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They're a great boat, like others have said it's just a shame HW haven't looked after them better.
The irony is that they were bought in and priced as a relatively 'premium' offering compared to what other had in the mid-range, and the only thing that has really stopped that being peoples' perception is the way they look after them.
Odd business.
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2 hours ago, Mouldy said:
Looks that way, sadly. I checked the Hoseasons website and there is only Gala Girl showing as available from Summercraft for next year. Given that the other Diamond 35 has been out of a fleet for a long time and the Summercraft livery would be hard to disguise, I feel the price may be a tad optimistic, but it have been well looked after.
The other issue with that one is the water damage to the laminates, which is the reason Summercraft had to buy it back from the last person that bought it.
Definitely optimistic given that she's also not in gel and would really need a professional repaint every 5-10 years to hide what's currently there.
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That'll be the Brundall one then, she's a 44.
Will she go into the fleet @DanBroadgate?
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If it's the one I'm thinking of then there were a set of Highliner (35 I think) mouldings that were bought by someone who worked at Alphacraft to use as a liveaboard.
Internally, it had a very rudimentary fitout and not all glazing etc was in place nor indeed most of the usual systems one would expect.
I would think it's that boat. Would probably make quite a good purchase to be gradually fitted out profesionally and put into the fleet.
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3 hours ago, Mouldy said:
The restrictions on overflying for drones weighing less than 250gms are comparatively relaxed and flying over built up areas is permitted, although they shouldn’t be flown over crowds. There is clearly some interpretation over what constitutes a crowd, but there is much more freedom to fly using a sub 250gm drone. The biggest area for potential contravention of the law would be maintaining visual line of sight, which obviously limits how far away from the drone pilot they can be flown.
As far as cost is concerned, to get a decent quality drone, capable of taking reasonable quality images, you are still looking at £1000 with a controller. Cheaper ones are available, but the quality is poor.
It's more relaxed now, but it wasn't when most of that stuff was shot. I'm thinking back when the world and his dog (and me) had a Mavic Pro.
I guess it depends on perspective, but a Mini 3 (with the RC-N1) is £429 and a secondhand Mini 2 is around £370 from somewhere reputable like mpb.
No, they're not immense - But they're not terrible either. You and I would be looking a tier up, but many would not.
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3 hours ago, Hylander said:
I read recently some of the laws regarding drones. Having seen drone footage I wonder at times if people realise there are awful lot of rules and regulations with regard to the using of drones.
There is (and always was) a minority of users who either don't bother to read the regs or think they are above them.
You do indeed see a lot of footage on YouTube which clearly didn't meet the regulations at the time - There are a lot overflying the centres of both Horning and Wroxham at a time when flying over a built-up area was most definitely not allowed.
It's probably going to get worse as they're far more accessible. You can now buy a half-decent drone for under £500 - A few years ago you had to add £1000 on to that figure. So a decent used one is going to be probably £250 and so pretty much anyone can buy one.
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Car Talk
in The Broadscot Lounge
Posted
Indeed.... But do you not think it's odd that the Chinese manufacturers have been able to source chips much more easily. There was a phase of huge demand for computer chips (particularly GPU's), but the bottom fell out of that market quite some time ago.
Look at the number of new MG's and other Chinese exports on the road in the UK and compare to the volumes of vehicles from other brands that were launched at a similar time.
The Chinese government is actively helping the domestic car manufacturers kill the legacy brands, just like they have done in many other industry sectors.
Many automakers prioritised China as their most important export market and now their government has introduced new emissions standards which make it very difficult to sell those products. There are huge stockpiles of unsold cars in China which has caused significant financial trouble for legacy auto.
And guess who makes cheap EV's which will meet those emissions standards. Yep, you've guessed it.
Nissan, Ford and VW group are in serious doo-doo. Others aren't doing much better. VW were having to basically give away their stock at below cost price.
There's lots of analysis on this, but basically China saw their chance and seized it with both hands. Control the supply chain and you control the industry...
Now that they've had 15+ years of partnerships with legacy auto they're done - They know all the secrets and which brands to buy (Volvo being one of them), they can build their own cars to the same standard so why would they need legacy auto. Big changes are coming in that industry.