Hire Boats Looking Uncared For This Season

[Baitrunner]

Be interesting to understand why they only have 6 boats left if it's such a thriving business? I suspect on the surface for 6 weeks it is, but the rest of the year maybe not so?

Maybe he had to sell some of the boats off to pay bills, maybe these boats have been recently damaged and he cant take them out of service during peak demand? Maybe he cant afford to repair them full stop and this may be his last year?

Maybe to make ends meet and make a profit and keep his boats in top order he would have to double his prices. Would they be so sought after then I wonder? Or would that just be a quicker death knell to his business? Is it family run and the kids dont want to take over and he is having to retire?

I am sure people don't deliberately run a business into the ground if it's doing well - you would sell it as a profit making concern. Would love to know the reasons.

[BroadScot]

I remember many of the hire yards in Oulton Broad in the 70's. I never hired from there sadly, but only for one reason, extra driving distance at the end of a 400 mile + drive.

We moored at Hamptons many times, a trim yard indeed, Newsons and Broadway we also managed to moor up at before sampling the local pubs etc. One highlight was sitting at the bow of the Bounty37 at Topcrafts yard watching the speedboat racing on a warm Thursday evening, magical.

With the annual toll charges I often wonder how any yard make decent money, considering for probably six months of that toll year the boat is not moving. Do the sums, profit margins cannot be high I don't think. Well maybe high season prices!

Running a boatyard must be extremely challenging these days, more so than say the late 70's. There aint that many left now to choose from to hire, so knocking them is not going to help matters IMHO.

Iain

[MauriceMynah]

These days running a boatyard is a difficult business to be in.

These days running a public house is a difficult business to be in.

These days running a thrutchasauraus farm is a difficult business to be in.

In fact, these days running a business is a difficult business to be in.

My next business venture will be to open a gold mine, but I bet I still run it into the ground.

[Timbo]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

These days running a thrutchasauraus farm is a difficult business to be in.

I beg to differ...a bloke in Zambia keeps emailing me telling me how the bottom has not fallen out of the thrutchasauraus industry and would I like to send him £3000 so he can send me £500000000000000 in gold bullion? 

Mind I do have to say the last couple of times we hired from Herbert Woods the cleanliness of the interior of the boat left a lot to be desired. Bits of old soap, long hairs stuck in the sinks...and the sheet that had been darned so often...it was all darn and no sheet.

[Regulo]

3 minutes ago, Timbo said:

Bits of old soap, long hairs stuck in the sinks...

Can I have them back now, please?

[Viking23]

On 22 August 2016 at 9:47 AM, Bound2Please said:

I do wonder at times, would the OP if going around a holiday area of say static caravans, find a vantage point to check the cleanliness of their roofs?. No I thought not, the hire yards do an amazing job in a very short time to turn round boats.

Also how on earth has a damage waiver become part of the cleanliness of said boats. When we hired we took boats back as clean as possible,

Charlie

What are we talking about static caravans for? you don't see many people sunbathing on Static caravan rooves, but you do on boats, and they have to put their clean towels on a dirty roof. That's what the OP was about, also the damage waiver has nothing to do with boat cleanliness, it never was in the original OP  it was to do with the Cavalier attitude that some hirers have regarding the care they take with the boat.

 

[riyadhcrew]

I know that when I hire a boat for a week - that boat is mine for a week - and I treat it like it was my own boat for that week. Simples really.

[Bound2Please]

1 hour ago, Viking23 said:

What are we talking about static caravans for? you don't see many people sunbathing on Static caravan rooves, but you do on boats, and they have to put their clean towels on a dirty roof. That's what the OP was about, also the damage waiver has nothing to do with boat cleanliness, it never was in the original OP  it was to do with the Cavalier attitude that some hirers have regarding the care they take with the boat.

 

1,  Is it a safety thing to do sunbath on a boat roof NO

2, So clean towels on a dirty roof shouldnt come into it.

3, I wasnt the one who brought up damage waivers in this thread

4, Its not just not just hirers with a cavalier attitude.

Charlie

[unclemike]

update to my earlier post

[unclemike]

this guy also runs the fishing tackle shop and this is his office/liveaboard which has no reg numbers,ergo no toll

[BroadScot]

4 minutes ago, chameleon said:

update to my earlier post

Strueth Mike, they look like remnants after a bad storm and nothing done to them...not good at all. 

Iain

[unclemike]

just senn this on sales website 

http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/2009/Nordhavn-40-II-2990204/United-Kingdom#.V7yjljWNPE8

[BroadScot]

How do they pass a safety certificate of boat worthyness? Or do they?......

[jeffbroadslover]

15 minutes ago, chameleon said:

just senn this on sales website 

http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/2009/Nordhavn-40-II-2990204/United-Kingdom#.V7yjljWNPE8

Maybe he is trying to sell this so that he has some spare cash to spend on his fleet of day boats !*! lol

[Viking23]

3 hours ago, Bound2Please said:

1,  Is it a safety thing to do sunbath on a boat roof NO

2, So clean towels on a dirty roof shouldnt come into it...

Charlie

I have often seen people subathing on cabin roofs, is it now written into the handbook that no one should? Over the years I have seen some interesting sights, but not this one lol.

 

[Baitrunner]

My guess is once the boat is sold, the business will be wound up. 

Looks a good solid sea going boat though. And well looked after. 

[Gracie]

I have always sunbathed on a boat roof and I am still here to live the tale, when I get a chance to, I will do it again

Grace

[Viking23]

Just noticed that the boat picture of the sunbathers didn't come out.

Actually thinking on, had the boat roof been polished to a shine, and someone did use a towel, they could go on their own toboggan run, most modern cruisers have a sloping roof onto the foredeck, so they could go for an early swim, with the boat ploughing after them. Aghhh.

Hmmm, maybe having a clean roof is not that good after all, as the later cruisers have smooth roofs not like the older boats with trackmark, or track mark type pattern moulded into the grp.

I wonder if this hazzard has been looked into.

Richard

 

[ChrisB]

Nordhavns are beautiful boats. They are built like trawlers, full displacement, single engine (normally) and about 1000 gallon fuel capacity. If you are happy at 6 or 7 knots then your range will not be far off 3000 miles. I was made very welcome on one at Excel about 10 years ago. These are boats for serious ocean cruising not like some of the flashy  jobs from Poole, Oundle and here in Norfolk the range of which means hopping from port to port to bunker.

[JanetAnne]

That fleet are really so run into the ground they need either a total refit or replacement. It's such a shame that this is one of the images visitors to Oulton Broad take with them. 

Admittedly those boats don't do a lot of work but looking at the state of them I suspect would be customers are put off. Would you hire one?

Like Mike and many others on here, I well remember that fleet of 24 nicely painted day boats that there was a queue for day in day out. What we have now is almost embarrassing.

[JennyMorgan]

22 hours ago, Jonzo said:

Unfortunately sometimes I think businesses are run by people who have very little vision in terms of what they should be achieving and they just muddle on with it because it's what they've always done and no-one these days will bother to tell them otherwise.

The aforementioned proprietor will complain that there's no trade anymore of course, unaware that there's plenty just that no-one wants what they're offering... True in any business sector I think not just boating.

The proprietor, when there were twenty well maintained boats, had a severe stroke and eventually died. Since then they have gone through several ownerships. Now the priority is to fill the river bus. Unfortunately Oulton Broad suffers from Lowestoft's overflowing traffic carnage.