Cal

We have hired an Alpha 31 before albeit an older one from Barnes, Joy when it was in the fleet. Now all sold into private hands. They were nice easy boats to handle and had a view to the back of the boat from the helm to the back doors if you left the interior door into the bedroom open. We did look at the Viking 31 when it was for sale at NBS. Lovely boat that appeared to be fitted out really well. I'm sure it will hire out really well given the very reasonable hire price. It will be interesting to see how the fit out stands up to hire use, same with the Haines 32s.

We used to love hiring in October when the rivers were quieter. Never stayed in the hire yards!

Don't forget all of the new private boat owners as well as the hirers!

Absolutely agree with this. Although sadly there are some people who are already complaining that places are too busy and we are not even into the summer holidays yet. Scotland will be fed up of motorhomes by the time we get up there at the back end of September.

On our boat which we used most of the time off grid but then was plugged in back at the marina when we went home the batteries lasted about 3 years. But that was with use off grid pretty much every weekend and four or five full weeks a year plus they were jolted around at sea which they don't tend to like. After three years they started to show signs of loss of capacity so we replaced them before they let us down. Our old batteries we always gave away to other boaters and they usually went on to give another year or two or more of good service to them. But we preferred fresh batteries so that we knew that they wouldn't let us down. I think our domestic battery on the motorhome will last a good deal longer than three years with it being fitted with a solar panel which keeps it topped up. The battery is almost always full even when we are off grid. It drops a little during the evening but by the time we are awake again at 8am it is charged up again.

Excellent news.

It was when we were up there in 2017 with Naughty-Cal. Le Boat advertise the WHS boats for hire through their website and instead of shutting down the WHS website they advertise the Le Boat boats for hire through WHS website. Strange way of going about it I agree. I believe all of the boats operate out of the Le Boat hire base at Laggan.

They can't have sold the whole class of Braemore, Kingfisher and Curlew to Barnes as they still have some on the Le Boat and WHS websites for hire into next year. I just picked a random week next April and results returned all three classes of boats as available. Unless of course they have not updated the website yet!

Im guessing the pictures are library pictures on the Hoseasons site. NBS have a Viking 31 for sale (31 ft single level Alpha hull): https://www.norfolkboatsales.co.uk/inventory/?post=5933 And a Haines 32 is a sedan style cruiser. https://www.hainesmarine.co.uk/the-range/32-sedan/

You are right of course it is all about demand which has to make you wonder why Le Boat/WHS are selling them off. Surely there must be demand for the Caledonian as well? We know from the motorhome groups that Scotland is a very popular place for people with vans to be visiting this year.

They will have to rename that one. They already have a Braemore in their fleet!!

Ouch!! Hope you get sorted soon.

No certainly not kind at all. We went on a few for drinks up while we were there and they were all very shabby. We certainly wouldn't have been happy had we hired any of them. I would have hoped that Barnes are going to give them a freshen up before hiring them out but that doesn't seem to be the case!!

Le Boat took over the WHS fleet a few years back. The WHS fleet looked very tired when we saw them a few years back when we took Naughty-Cal up that way. I'm surprised Barnes are buying them and putting them straight in the fleet. They looked ready for some major refurb work!!

Hadn't noticed that but you are right. This one is a Kingfisher: https://www.leboat.co.uk/boats/kingfisher-whs Odd that Barnes have taken the Kingfishers on as they are very similar to the Ladymore Class that they already have which are for sale. https://www.norfolkboatsales.co.uk/inventory/?post=9529

Looks like Barnes have bought the Kingfisher class boats from the Caledonian as well. They have just appeared on their website.

They sell them from York Marina https://yorkmarina.co.uk/boats-for-sale/boat/?Make=Custom&Model=58-x-12-6-Galactica-IN-BUILD&BoatID=7329221

That's reminded me of the first proper holiday we had on our old boat Naughty-Cal. It was a glorious sunny week and on the first day I sat up front on the bow with my bare feet dangling over the edge. An hour or so later the bottoms of my first were completely sun burnt Had a couple of very uncomfortable days trying to walk on them before the burning subsided. Lesson learned though. I never did it again!!

Some of us are having to work through this glorious weather

Looks like Barnes Brinkcraft have just bought the Curlew Class boats from Le Boat on the Caledonian Canal. They are quite tall boats so are limited by bridges and won't pass under Yarmouth, Ludham, Wroxham or Potter Heigham so have quite a limited cruising range! https://www.barnesbrinkcraft.co.uk/our-boats/detail/brinks-curlew-class/

That's a bit unfair. We always found it to be a very welcoming place. Always enjoyed a nice meal and a few drinks in there after a run down the coast from Boston or Hull.

It will come good in the end. It's annoying but at least there is an end in sight and Richardson's are not being funny about changing the engine.

I agree not a bad looking boat. We were supposed to be hiring one on the Thames at Easter but that got cancelled due to Covid restrictions. Would be a little bit too restrictive for us for hiring on the Broads though at 9ft air draft.

Depends on the length of the boat. On a shorter boat, if you are going to have bow mooring lines long enough to moor at Yarmouth then they are going to be long enough to reach the prop.

Of course the weather will be better by then. We are out in the van for a few days It is getting the rain in now while we are stuck at home and not going anywhere this weekend