Kugababe

Awwwww... Thanks Hockham Admiral & goodall_m1 !

And this time we braved a Breydon crossing - and survived Sat 6th April - picked up Sapphire Emblem from Horning Ferry Marina, our 2nd boat from them as they are very efficient and we like their boats too ! Lisa & Pete helped us plan our Breydon crossing for the next day then we set off for Ranworth Broad for an afternoon cuppa stop, then onto Stokesby to moor overnight. Sun 7th April - Well shocked when we woke up to find ice on the inside of our windows and thick fog and heavy frost outside ! Then by 9:30am it had all cleared and the sun was out so we pootled off down to moor at the Yacht Station at Great Yarmouth and popped into town for some provisions, back to the Sapphire for lunch onboard before going under the bridges and crossing Breydon at around 3pm. It was much easier than we had been expecting albeit very slow as we were going against the tide, went straight down to Oulton Broad for a moor and a look around then back up to Oulton Dyke to moor overnight. Mon 8th April - After a very quiet night at the pontoon we went up to Somerleyton then across the New Cut to Reedham. Quick mention for the lovely family that have just opened up the Reedham Stores again 4 weeks ago (it had apparently been closed for 2 years). They are continuing to build up their stock and their alcohol licence should be through in a few weeks... Hope lots of Boaters use this store as the new family are really lovely and so keen to please ! We moored overnight at Loddon Basin. Tues 9th April - Left Loddon and went past the Reedham Chain Ferry - never seen one of those before - then stopped at the Berney Arms for lunch and after we crossed Breydon again about 3pm. This time we were going with the tide but it was REALLY, REALLY CHOPPY and quite hairy in places when the water was coming up over the top of the Sapphire front windows :S After safely crossing Breydon and negotiating all the traffic at the Yacht Station we passed through and moored at Acle Bridge for the night and had a really lovely meal in the Bridge Inn... Weds 10th April - Made our way up to Potter Heigham for the obligatory wander around Lathams and Herbert Woods yard etc... we decided to moor overnight in the HW yard as it was really quiet, but they did have loads of boats in. Thurs 11th April - After breakfast we got underway and decided to make our way back to Ferry Marina as the deisel guage was showing in the red Got as far as St Benets Abbey and then we were stopped by the BA Radar check, telling us we were doing 6.6 in a 5mph. Our 16 yr old Son who does most of the driving was gutted as we had seen the BA guys and we weren't concerned as we were only doing about 4mph or so we thought (we were doing 1200rpm and our boat states that 1200rpm = 4mph so we didn't go over that - except over Breydon!) They gave us a written warning... We then went over to Ludham Bridge but couldn't get under as we were 8' 3" and it was only showing 8'. So we decided to cruise up to Wroxham passing the webcam at Barnes and waving like crazies whilst talking to Nan & Grandad on the Mobile ! Yes they could see us :S We moored overnight in the NBD yard... Fri 12th April - After breakfast and wandering around Wroxham and all the 'Roys' we went over to Horning Staithe, moored and bought some preserves @ chutney from the little shop in Horning (can't remember the name sorry...) Then we had a wonderful lunch in the Swan - I can thoroughly recommend the Lamb, Redcurrant & Rosemary Meatballs sitting on Mashed Potatoes with Baby Spinach followed by the Churro's Sundae ! After this we waddled back to Sapphire and made our way over to Ranworth Broad for a walk around the Nature Reserve to hopefully walk off some of that lunch ! We left Ranworth about 5pm and went back up to moor overnight at Horning Ferry Marina for our last night onboard Sapphire. Thoroughly enjoyed our week on the Southern & Northern Broads even though it was VERY cold all week... We did the same time last year, but we noticed that this year was a lot quieter, not as many boats out on the rivers and broads as last year... Our aim is to try to fit in a week's hol on the Broads in some nice warm weather !!!

Hi James! Yay we are coming back to the beautiful Broads because we all loved the area ! We went over to Ferry Marina a few weeks ago to have a look at 3 of their boats. Our original choice was the Platinum Emblem after seeing it online, but in the flesh it felt very cramped, we chose the Golden Emblem because it felt very spacious and open even tho at 35ft long it is the same size as the Platinum - but felt much bigger. I had told 'Linda' at Ferry about our problems last year and she assured me that we won't be cold on the Golden as their heaters are very effective - we shall see.... Also if we were to have any 'issues' whilst we are out on any of their boats, then we just have to call them and things will be sorted - again we shall see..... We hope that we have made a good choice of boat & boatyard this year. Either way, we are really looking forward to cruising around the Broads over Easter - and we shall be doing lots of waving too !!! Thank you for your good wishes, Hub & Son are both good !!! (Our niece won't be coming with us this trip...)

So after our 'interesting' first ever week last October on the Broads, on Fair President 3 (please see Holday Tales for the story) - we have decided to give it another go... This time we have booked Golden Emblem from Horning Ferry Marina for a week over Easter. I would be most interested to hear your thoughts, advice or tips on this boat !

Here is an update on my letter - now that I have received a reply... "At Norfolk Broads Direct we pride ourselves on our levels of service and support and I am sorry that you felt that the boat you hired was not to the standard you expected." "We have, after your holiday, tried to replicate the problem with the engine.... but cannot identify any fault as yet to enable us to diagnose if there is a problem, but we shall keep on trying." "You also state that the air from the heater in the bedrooms was "cold". We have investigated the heater and found it to be in full working order. However the heating system, as used in the boating world, does work on the principle of blowing hot air along pipes from a central location out through ducts at various points. Therefore the air coming out of the last vent will inevitably be cooler than from the vent nearest the heater. Closing one or two vents along the way should ensure a better distribution, however the system has a 5KW output so should be adequate within a boat the size of the Fair President and I am sorry that you felt it was not so." (N.B. We shut the vent in the central cabin to try to generate some heat towards the other 2 vents in the front & aft bedrooms - made no difference at all !!!) "I am sorry that having attracted a new customer both to us and the Broads that you felt we did not give you either good service or good value from Norfolk Broads Direct." "Ordinarily, as a gesture of goodwill in a situation such as this I would offer a disappointed customer a discount against a future holiday with us. However in this situation, and having already had what I believe to be the biggest and best we can offer, I am under the impression from your letter that this would be neither relevant nor appreciated. I therefore enclose without prejudice a cheque for £100 and in full and final settlement of the matter which I hope you will find acceptable." Well, I suppose that £100 is better than a slap in the face with a wet fish, however we won't be hiring from NBD again next year... and neither will our friends (family of 7) that were on a Fair Emporer the same time as us...

Oh dear Sunnysunlight - sorry to hear that you experienced the same problems on the FP3 - I wonder how many other hirers had the same issues as us? I wonder how many reported it to NBD? If anyone else did report these problems to NBD - did you do it verbally (as we did) and by letter (as we have done) ??? Did you get any response from NBD ? I wrote to the owner of NBD last week - and am currently being ignored No acknowledgement of my letter - Nothing - Nada !!! This is not good business practice NBD - Not good at all !!!! I think we paid a considerable amount of money to hire the FP3 for the week - £1450 - the very least I expected was to receive a reply from them - or am I expecting too much ??? I have my own business and if I ever ignored any of my clients/customers requests or comments - then I wouldn't deserve to keep them as customers or clients !!!

Thank you all so much for your input and for all your advice, tips & opinions since I posted my trip report... Even though most of the 'technical stuff (volumetric calculation ?!?) has wizzed right over the top of my head It's great to know that there are people on forums like this that are willing to help out first timers !!! Thanks again everyone

Thank you for your input & advice Daytona-Bill... The answer to your question re the boyancy aids is "No explanation or demonstration" - after we had unpacked, the NBD guy came onboard carrying 4 x boyancy aids and handed them to me and just said "Here are your 4 life-jackets" I did think at the time that it was all a bit lightweight - however we are cruisers (the 4500-6000 passenger size of ships!) so we have worn life-jackets before - albeit only for the Muster Drills thankfully !! Thank you also for your suggestion of a letter of complaint. I have this morning done this and called to get the name of the owner of NBD, and have posted the letter requesting partial refund to him. I will post again when (and if) I get a reply from him...

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention, we did think it was a bit strange not to have any guages or meters or any way of knowing what the levels are like for the water, or the waste tanks - is this normal ?

Erm.... What's a 'Broadsman' jonzo ???

Thank you for this tip NorfoldNog - I shall definitely have a look at Swancraft !!!

Thank you for your comments and your kind welcome MY littleboat, the answer to your first question is "not a lot!" When we arrived at the NBD yard we were told to park by our FP3 and unload and let the guy know when we had finished, this we did and we were then told where to park our car. The guy then came onboard and gave us our life jackets, and told us what all the knobs & switches do. He then showed us the engine and told us that every day we had to dip the oil, check the filters (and clean if necc) and then he told my Hub to start the boat and drive out of the yard an onto the river which he did, after a few minutes (certainly no longer that 4-5) he made my Hub turn the boat around and go back into the yard to let him off, as he jumped off he told us if we needed anything that the number was in the blue skippers file... And that was the sum total of our instruction...... We did all discuss as we were leaving Wroxham, that the 'instruction' was a bit lightweight, but we took it as a compliment that he obviously thought we were sensible enough to cope with the boat - even though it was our first time !!! The answer to your second question is "No"... No one mentioned the DVD to us. We actually drove over to the NBD yard in June for the day, to physically look at the boats, because it's quite difficult to gauge the actual sizes of the different boats from the website, and the amount of useable space that is on them. No-one mentioned the DVD to us then either, and that is when we paid the deposit in the office.... So Breydon can be a high point of a holiday ??? Sounds as though it could also be quite challenging too Note to Self: More Research definitely needed......

I seem to remember that most of the 'reserved signs' were on posts at Acle, Horning & Great Yarmouth, however in quite a few places, we did find that boats were moored by hook-ups, but they weren't actually using the hook-ups..... Hmmmmmm... is that part of the Broads Etiquette ?

Although we are first timers, those were our thoughts too Antares_9 !!! I wonder if NBD actually read my comments on their Feedback Form, and I wonder if they will act upon them - probably not I suppose..... Whilst we were looking at the boats at the Brinks yard and picking up a brochure, a lovely family of 7 came back in to the yard in a Melody (I think that is what it was called) and when they overheard us talking to the Brinks man about how cold we had been all week, they interrupted and asked if we would like to have a look on their boat, we did and it was like a furnace on it !!! They told us that they had hired from NBD last year and were also cold because none of the NBD boats had thermostats on them, so they did research other yards and found that Brinks does - they were very pleased with their Brinks boat and said that they would definitely be going back to them..... but not to NBD....

Really enjoyed it Antares_9 and we were not put off at all....