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Coryton

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Everything posted by Coryton

  1. From my local bus company (admittedly last year):
  2. But - if our recent hire was typical of them, and I think it was - in good condition and very well turned out.
  3. On our recent hire with them we were very impressed with the company. The boat was as you describe - looked like vinyl flooring and indeed berths. The beds could have been more comfortable but it didn't seem too cold even though the weather got a bit chilly. The heating was most effective.
  4. On our last visit we went from Acle to Wroxham on a rather breezy day. They must have kept the day boats in during the morning because of the weather then at some point decided it was OK, because we suddenly hit a wall of day boats heading South...
  5. You can easily see why canals were such a great invention when moving a cruiser along on the ropes.
  6. Fascinating. I'll have to wait for the one we were on to come out then. I thought it was in very good condition, particularly considering it will have been on the go all season.
  7. Before hiring this year I was a good boy and watched all the Broads safety videos. I'm pretty sure at some point they mentioned that it is a Bad Idea to sit with your legs on the outside of a moving boat. In any case it doesn't sound like a very good idea to me. So maybe photos of boats for hire shouldn't show someone doing just that? I think there might also have been something in the videos suggesting that life jackets are a good idea when on the deck of a moving boat.
  8. That's really interesting. The Tay Bridge followed us down on the way to Acle to hand back the boat.
  9. When we were there the week before last there were very few boats in the yacht station. I was a bit surprised given that everyone seemed to have all their boats out. I presume everybody was clogging up the Northern Broads (as we were later in the week).
  10. We had one of those overtake us last week. They do look rather odd, but I suppose they do the job.
  11. Absolutely. I'd walk past a row of boats looking rather the worse for wear then think that the next one looked pretty **** and span. Then realise that it was ours.
  12. I was very impressed with Bridgecraft on our recent hire - they seem to be a very friendly lot. I expect after the season they've just had they will have a busy winter, though there wasn't anything obviously wrong with our boat apart from a rather stiff throttle.
  13. I don't suppose it's much colder than it was last week, and we certainly weren't too cold then.
  14. Yes that all makes sense. But based on engine hours and what we ran from the batteries, they shouldn't have been lower at that point than others when we ran the heating. Unless we left the inverter on by mistake maybe. And we didn't have any neighbours to notice or complain about a little light engine running....
  15. Ah apologies for the confusion - I'd somehow got it into my head that the Forth Bridge 1 was a Mk II Lowliner. I did like the stern cabin we had.
  16. Interesting. Previously we've been told to run the engine before putting the heating on. On our hire last week, there was no mention of this, so we just put the heating on when we wanted it and it worked fine. Except once when it just flashed a little green light at us. So I tried putting the engine in neutral and this time the heating came on. Not sure what was going on because we seemed to have plenty of battery left. I'm just back from 4 days on Forth Bridge 2, and in a strange coincidence thie evening I've been comparing the interiors of the Lowliner Mk 1 and Mk 2 (Forth Bridge 2 and 1 respectively) from a boat yard on the Thames with some nice "VR" walkrounds on their web site. So far as I can see, the saloon space is exactly the same in both designs. If the Forth Bridge 1 is like the one I was just looking at, the extra capacity comes from replacing the dressing table in the rear cabin with an extra single bed. The Forth Bridge 1 gives you a rear door which avoids the need to climb around the boat at a stern-on mooring. On the other hand, the lack of a door gives you the nice diagonal bed that the Forth Bridge 2 has, and more storage space in the rear cabin. Apart from getting our luggage on and off the lack of a door wasn't really a problem, but it would be for some people I'm sure. The bed was....OK, though I have to say I don't think I've ever enjoyed my bed at home as much as getting back from the boat. Various reviewers mentioned problems with the boat none of which were apparent to us, and it was in very good condition inside especially considering it's the end of a very busy season. I'd happily hire a Forth Bridge again, though I would take a Diamond 43 over it any day - in almost every way the design is a great improvement (separate shower, opening canopies, both helms central, a bit more length so you get an extra proper cabin rather than quarterberth, the canopy doesn't get in the way of the wheel when down). The only thing that I'd say is better about the Forth Bridge design is that you can lift the 'hatch' to the upper helm without it blocking the view from the person at the helm. And the fact that it was actually available when we booked a replacement for our lost summer holiday. (Shame there's only 3 Diamond 43's for hire....and if I had the money and the time for it I'd be looking to buy a share in Thunder or Lightning when one came up). Happy to answer any questions about the Forth Bridge 2...
  17. Looking at their web site you can choose between printed and sown flags.
  18. I was told they had 20 boats (if I remember correctly). I can assure you that their hirers are not expert helmsmen because they've hired a boat to us. To be honest when we hired on the Broads before and the boat was looking less than immaculate it didn't bother me. It was quite reassuring in a way because any extra scuffs we picked up wouldn't show. But not below? I don't know....standards these days.....
  19. From what I've seen the boat yards still have every boat they have out - so can half term be any busier with hire boats?
  20. I think it says something about our society that supermarkets work very hard so that we have the same fresh food all the year round, and then we have artificially "seasonal" food like Cadbury's cream eggs.
  21. Interesting. My understanding was that it was deliberately introduced to France by an estate owner and then spread across Europe - almost certainly with some help. But the government's role was a futile attempt to prevent the spread. See this for example.
  22. Fair point - not much time to do maintenance while a boat is being turned round. And I'm sure if they can have the boat out every day in the season they will.
  23. It does sound like a lot! Our incident on the Broads last year where we completely lost steering near the start of our two weeks certainly didn't put us off boating. (Then again we weren't complete novices - it was our second go at hiring a cruiser). It was dealt with (out of office hours) quite promptly, though it did require the engineer to commandeer another boat to get out to us. It was all a bit of an adventure really. The only other thing that went wrong was the spring on the engine cooling fillter cap going sproing into the bilges and that was worth it for the chance to visit the Sandersons building where a replacement was found for us. If we'd had even more things go wrong I don't think it would have put us off boating, but it might have made us consider a different boat yard next time. (On the other hand we really liked the Beam of Light and there aren't many other Diamond 43's available to hire).
  24. OK somebody has to say it. 2921 is a long wait.....
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