Cal

Agree with this. As much as it would be nice to sit around safe and wait it out until this virus has been eliminated it just isn't a viable option. People have to go back to work, the economy has to get moving again. Yes with that comes some risk but it has to be a measured risk.

I certainly think that the staycation will be popular this year while Covid 19 is still fresh in peoples memories but next year it will be back to business as usual. You only have to look at the number of people buying boats at the minute to see that staying at home is going to be popular this summer. Most of these will be for sale again next year when people have had enough of the UK weather and boating!

We have put all ideas of a motorhome on hold for now. We know what van we want but just feel that right now is not the right time to be taking out finance on a vehicle. What we would get for the boat would not be enough to buy the motorhome we want. It is no great hardship keeping the boat for an extra couple of years or so until things settle down again and return to some sort of normality. After a year away from boating we actually both enjoyed out little day trip out on Saturday, so perhaps we were too hasty with our decision to sell up just yet.

You will have to let us know how you get on with the motorhome. We should have one sat on the drive by now but the sale of our boat fell through in March, so given the circumstances we have decided to hold onto the boat a bit longer before buying a motorhome.

We get all of our fruit and veg from a local farm shop. It comes in whatever shape it has grown, is almost never the "perfect" shape and tastes so much better than supermarket bought veg. It is also much cheaper then the supermarket.

We are hoping that we will be able to stay on the boat from 4th July. We have the week starting July 4th booked off work and have done since the back end of last year. We were supposed to be going camping in North Norfolk and our boat should have been sold by now. But with the turn of events and the sale of the boat falling through we have cancelled the campsite and are looking forward to a quiet week on the boat instead. All fingers and toes are fully crossed.

The statue should be placed back where it was. You can not change history and Bristol's history and fortune were made around the slave trade. No amount of marching, protesting and rioting can change that. And no. I am not a racist either.

Daft isn't it? They will queue for over an hour for crap food but can't get out of the car to put their rubbish in the bin. The local McDonalds opened last week. We have already seen a huge increase in their litter. KFC as well which is even more annoying as the nearest KFC is a good 15 miles away.

We hired Swan Ranger last year and found that the internal stair to the flybridge was very steep. We mostly used the external stair up to the top. Perhaps that is the reason for the latest versions not having the internal steps. It does also mean there is more space to put some extra saloon seating as the saloon is quite squeezed with the internal steps in the way.

None of the boats we have hired or owned have had rails at the stern. I don't think it is that big a problem.

I don't mind that for a small hardtop cruiser. Plenty of internal space, the bathing platform looks plenty big enough and is far bigger then the platform on our own boat and there are plenty of grab rails on the roof and cabin sides. I don't mind that galley up design and it is something that we really like about the Greenline 33 with the galley being able to be opened up the the outside and the saloon tucked away downstairs means you can get comfy down there without people peering in at you as they walk by. I think that is a nice little two berth boat and it is nice to see that the hire companies are still catering for couple and offering ice modern boats for couples. I can see that is would be a handful in a crosswind but many smaller lighter boats are.

I'm sorry to say it is probably our fault the weather has broken this coming weekend. Naughty-Cal is due to go back in the water on Friday

We stayed in a Locaboat yard when we hired a Le Boat in Brittany and their boats looked head and shoulders above the Le Boat fleet, far better maintained and presented. The Locaboat staff also fixed a few minor problems with our boat to get us on our way again after none of us could contact the Le Boat service team. We would certainly consider them if we go to the Brittany area again.

They really are very poor value for money and the fuel pricing is outrageous. But there really isn't much hire yard choice in some areas.

Having seen the state of the boats at the Brittany yard that arrangement wouldn't be for me. There was not an inch of the boat we hired that had not hit something at some point that season. Not in our hands I hasten to add. Engine was sweet though.

They are not selling the Horizons. They are leasing them back! Not sure why anyone would desire to own one though. They are ugly as sin. Perhaps we will like it more after we have hired it! I don't think they have that many of the Connoisseur boats left in their fleet to sell!

The hideous looking Horizon 1 that we are hiring next year is £200k for a 2019 boat. I thought that was a lot then I read further and realised they still hire the boat out and manage it at that, so it isn't fully yours for £200k!

We are relative newbies to this. Our first hireboat holiday was in 2000 on the Broads onboard Brinks Breakaway for a week. (Now used as dayboats and renamed Brinks Sunrise) It was an incredibly small boat for a week away but we loved it none the less. Here it is pictured outside the Reedham Ferry in the little cut out well aground as the tide had gone out. We had a good chat with the owners of the boat with the green hoods you can just make out on the far left of the picture in the pub that night while we waited for the tide to float the boat again so we could shift it somewhere more sensible. We met the same chap again in 2007 at the sales yard where we bought our boat Naughty-Cal and are still good friends all these years later.

£70K and one could be yours! http://www.leboatbrokerage.com/brokerage-boats

Agreed. In much the same way fish and chips taste so much better at the coast.

We found with all of the single level sliding cockpit boats we hired that there was a line of sight from the helm to the stern if you left the cabin doors open and the rear door open.

Mine is sighing also! The OH has just dropped the prop shafts off for repair, I am ordering more Volvo Penta parts this morning, we have got 11 months of storage ashore to pay for and mooring fees. I know why we were selling it now

That's why we took our own boat to the Caledonian. Even factoring in the £1200 road transport it was cheaper to take our own boat then to hire one!

Sounds like Norfolk Lady is also under propped if you need to be getting up to 2000rpm!! The one we hired in Brittany, which looks very similar to yours with the cream stripe and rails on the coach roof was doing about 4mph at 1300rpm and about 5mph at 1500rpm.

It won't be expensive to run of you keep the revs down and don't thrash it around. We hired a Broom 29 with a Nanni 50 in Brittany a couple of years back and it used less than 1.5 litres per hour on a weeks hire which included some use of the heating as well. The engine was well suited to that boat but it was under propped as most hire boats tend to be.