Le Boat 2010 brochure

[Dan]

Hi Everyone

My 2010 Le Boat brochure arrived today - top marks on the early arrival!

A few changes for 2010

The Wroxham base has been replaced with Horning, though this has actually happened recently... but I guess its kind of new for 2010!

Good to see that the Cirrus class joins the Norfolk fleet - a really nice dual steer 2/4 berth, a little high but hopefully will go under Ludham.

There's some early booking discounts depending on the boat grade... though even so I dont think I shall be tempted by their Norfolk fleet. Their 32ft Aquafibre dual steer "Tamaris" peaks at £1430 a week. The same boat design at Richardsons peaks at £947. That's over 50% extra for the same style boat! I'm not convinced the standard is far different either! This is all assuming Richardsons 2010 prices aren't increasing by 50% of course. I cant see Le Boat off peak craft letting too well at that kind of pricing structure!

Otherwise a nicely put together brochure on the whole. I think I'm going to book a month off work now to read it!

Has anyone else recieved there's and any thoughts?

Dan

[kadensa]

I received mine a couple of weeks ago. (We cruised the Venetian waterways last year and will be doing so again in just under 4 weeks time). However, I would not consider using them for the Broads and have already booked 'Rio' from Richardsons for next year - just over £800 for 3 weeks starting 4th October, unbelievably cheap!! I can only comment on the boats I saw in Italy, but they were very well kept, although most of them were a bit on the luxurious side for my taste. I prefer a boat to be just that, not some kind of floating hotel suite.

[Guest]

IIRC, and Dan will correct me if I do not, Le Boat on the Broads is born out of what was once Connoisseur Cruisers - by definition their boats were designed to be slightly upmarket compared to the your average hire boat. Assuming Le Boat is following in that tradition then their boats will also be designed for the luxury market. It appears to me that there are now a number of designs that they use which were never seen in the Connoisseur days.

[Dan]

That's right Simon.

The new additions are different as they have often come from what was previously Crown Blue Line in the case of the Cirrus class, and Emerald Star in the case of Tamaris, & Capri & Caprice (although Conneisseur did also run Caprice's in France etc). The once Emerald Star Capri's were fitted by Brooms and are very nice, as are the more familar Norfolk Admiral's & Emperor's which Connoisseur built to a good standard in the early nineties, still a good standard today though I'm not sure they are still top luxury status.

The Norfolk fleet is overpriced to my mind, a pity because they are quite nice boats as has been stated.

I always hire with them abroad (so farhave tried out a Consul, Continentale, a Mountain Star and have a Cirrus booked) as they seem the best option to me there, but in the UK they do not currently represent good enough value compared to others to get my business at the moment

All the best

Dan

[kadensa]

Our choice of boat has been limited recently as my husband has rheumatoid arthritis which affects mainly his knees and ankles, so we now choose boats which are all on one level. Last year our party consisted of my mother (86), parents in law (80 and 76), and our son and his girlfriend, both in their 20s so we hired 'Tower', and although not one of their 'top of the range' models was admired by all the other hirers we met, even those on the more expensive boats. One really good feature about Tower which is not available on similar Broads models is that it has dual steering and a table and chairs on the roof! I realise this would not be possible on the Broads owing to the low bridges but it was certainly a feature that we used all the time (we were, of course, incredibly lucky with the weather last October). This year only my son and girlfriend are with us,(hubby and I were originally going alone but an extremely painful injury to my shoulder in May meant I am not confident about my ability to manage mooring on my own, at the moment) so we've booked 'Merchant', which should suit us perfectly.

I suppose for people who have no health issues, it all comes down to a matter of personal taste, as to which type of cruiser to hire. For me, as long as a boat has somewhere to sit, a separate cabin for sleeping, clean facilities, a frdge and cooker, and some form of heating, I'm happy. Especially if the hire price is such as to leave plenty of money left over for the 'little luxuries' and I agree the Leboat boats do look to be rather expensive for what they are.