Broads01

Well what should be on my doormat when I arrived home from the Broads yesterday but Hoseasons 2011 brochure! It's a very similar brochure to before. Same good points, like plenty of interior photos including some new ones of boats at the cheaper end of the market. Same main bad point for me though which Hoseasons have had for some years now, being the need to play the 'match the photo to the boat plan' game. There are one or two gaffs as well, such as labelling the Broadland Apollo interior as San Remo. Still love reading it though! Now how much are those cruisers in Scotland....

I very much like the look of Pacific Star from the Pacific website- from the colour scheme it looks certain to be ex-Rexmore.

There's nothing wrong with budget boats, nothing wrong with luxury boats. Everyone has different needs which explains why there is such a range of prices and styles out there and all will get bookings in the current market. Personally I tend to default to booking something I would call 'mid range', because I don't see the need to pay for the very top end stuff like Fair President and so on but to be honest I might struggle with Magic Gem. I really like Summercraft, Royall's and Silverline amongst others because they cater really well for us mid-range types! Back to the NBD subject. I really like the 2011 brochure and full marks to them for sending an old-fashioned paper job out to me. I'm on their mailing list from previous years even though I've never booked. The huge exterior shots sell the boats really well.

Good thought Dan. The difference between two boats of the same design between two different hire yards can be very marked in my experience. Regarding the exterior driving position. there is a lovely photo of it from above on the Summercraft website and it just makes me want to be sitting in that helmsman's seat right now. I have no intention of using the interior position unless the weather is really horrific and even then I might not bother!

Thanks for your replies everybody. Don't mind you being honest at all Mark but I still like it and I'm going to stick with it! As I said I have looked aboard Grecian and other similar boats in the past so I know what I'm getting in part. Thanks for the pic Dan. Never tried the toilets though I must admit...

Funnily enough Mark, the enclosed saloon was actually one of the appeals of the design, as whilst I love steering and sitting about outdoors my children like doing their own thing out of the weather, so a saloon with a sliding roof can cuase arguments! For the same reason I like the Alpha 42 centre cockpits because the saloon is permanently indoors and even I like a break from the weather (good or bad) when I moor up. Take your point though and I like the Richardson's boats you mention, but they're priced a fair bit higher than Grecian.

Almost the full list Howard, except you've missed Moonfleet Marine at Stalham. Hoseasons confuse things by insisting on keeping the Horning Pleasurecraft name as well, even though Richardsons themselves don't bother with it at all.

I've made a booking for next summer which I'm pretty excited about, Grecian Girl from Summercraft. This will be our second successive year with Summercraft (Gainsborough Girl last time round). I've always liked the look of the design and I've looked aboard Grecian but I've never hired it before. However, I'm aware that there are some mixed opinions as to whether it's a good design or not (Mr Daniel Horner, you have my permission to comment!) and I'd be interested in views, good and bad and what some of the pitfalls are. There are a few similar boats about, such as Swan Rapide, Alpha Phantom and Rio Light so if you've hired any of those I'd be interested to hear as well.

Bizarre! The logical thing would be for Hoseasons to ditch the Blakes brand and move everything across. I guess Blakes must still have loyal boatyards and loyal customers that Hoseasons would upset by doing that.

Received my 2011 Blakes brochure today. It's a better brochure than before I think with a fair few new internal pictures. Even at the budget end of the market the Sanderson's boats are featured internally whereas only a couple of years ago there were no internal pics at all for that yard. Very strange to have a Blakes brochure without Woods in there - first time that's happened since the Pennant Holidays days of the 80's and early 90's. On the Thames longtime Blakes stalwarts Kris Cruisers have disappeared also. It's a thin brochure at 126 pages.

An improved site I think. The internal shot thing really seems to be catching on now which is excellent. It's a bit sad that the Blakes choice as dropped yet again with the withdrawal of Herbert Woods. It makes me wonder whether the likes of Barnes & Faircraft Loynes really need Blakes and what they're gaining from being there.

Whilst there's no doubt that the boatyard websites are great in terms of immeediate and plentiful information, there's nothing like a good old fashioned paper brochure with lots of sunny Broads pictures. Well done to Le Boat for having there 2011 version out already. Are there any others out yet?

I agree with what's been said so far. It really is good to have so many 360 degree internal views available. I'd like to have an 'Our Fleet' link though just to go straight to the boats without needing the availability thingy. The home page is too busy and confusing for me, but that's probably personal taste. It opens on the 'choose your adventure screen', which is fine, but when you click on boats you still get all the other stuff as well!

Very pleasing to see, it'll be interesting to see the new ones photographed once they're built. The website content has improved but I find it one of the most frustrating sites to use - too many categories of number of berths makes it harder to find the boat you're looking for!

Blue Kestrel from Topcraft now has photos at http://www.hoseasons.co.uk/webpages/euboat/ProductDetailPage.aspx?ISDLNK=1&SCODE=TOPC&ACODE=BH2000&TINDEXPD=0. Looks rather nice.

Absolutely fab work Dan, well done. Nice to see a couple of my pics on there too.

Any chance of the Acle fleet expanding more than that Clive? I know yard space is much more limited there but having hired from both I think in many ways it works better as a start location.

Wow James, 2 weeks on a boat that goes under no bridges whatsoever (except Acle) - my worst nightmare! Glad you had a great time though. You'll enjoy San Julian. I've looked aboard and hired boats of the same design 3 times and they're fab.

I was thinking the same as Neil about work holiday days but I can see the benefit in the roads having less holiday traffic. So Clive, which boats work better for short breaks?

Just run an availability check for August 2011 on Richardson's website and I notice they're now offering Thursday as a start day for the first time. Presumably this is to be able to cope with the increase in the fleet.

Thanks Dan & Carol. So the mysteries of Le Boat's pricing strategy deepen even further. Looks like I'll have to use my vouchers for something else then. Ferry tickets to Ireland so I can go boating on the Shannon perhaps....

Having amassed a fair few Tesco Clubcard vouchers (about £250 worth if I apply for one of the 'Tesco Rewards' offers, I perused the Tewsco website to see if there were any boating deals in the holidays section. That led me to Active and Afloat (activeandafloat.co.uk). I also picked up a brochure for the same from a travel agent. The good news is, from the photos and locations offered, it seems I could use the vouchers towards a Broads holiday because it seems Le Boat is somehow linked in to Active and Afloat. The bad news is that neither on the website nor in the brochure isthere any detail whatsoever about boats, prices or anything. Does anyone have any experience of this holiday operation?

I don't know exactly Carol but I've got a feeling it's low enough to squeeze under Wroxham Bridge if conditions were right. I'm guessing the Bounty 27 sedan was a kind of limited edition version of the much more common aft cockpit (a la Pacific Swift). There used to be more of them on hire at one time (I recall Swan Craft having one) but I think Sandersons have the only other one now.

Nice! Tidy interior and good to see they've kept things simple by pricing the same as both Swift and Emerald. At £325 per week including damage waiver for a week low season you can't go wrong.

There is a new 2-4 berth that comes up on the Pacific Cruisers availability search, priced the same as Pacific Emerald. There's no details of the boat yet elsewhere on the website - does anyone know any details?