Farewell Horizon Craft And Thank You

[Broads01]

As the end of the hiring season nears, Horizon craft will have boats and holiday crews departing from Acle for the final time. The light blue Acle labels will be replaced by generic Richardsons ones and come next season the ex-Acle boats will become mixed in with the Stalham fleet. I just wanted to say farewell and thank you to Horizon craft and I'm hoping others will do the same. I've holidayed with them on 4 occasions between 2009 and 2015 and had nothing but happy experiences. A friendlier more welcoming bunch of people you could not wish to find.

I'm coming up to the Broads next week and I shall go and see them and say goodbye personally.

[deebee29]

Never actually been with Horizon Craft myself but have only ever heard good things about them and their boats always looked immaculate 

Sad to see another yard gone, even though the boats are still there with Richardsons.

Best wishes to all at Horizon Craft

 

[loribear]

I thought i'd heard on fbook that horizon are buying the yard but only keeping 10 boats & changing the names of them. Lori

[ranworthbreeze]

9 minutes ago, loribear said:

I thought i'd heard on fbook that horizon are buying the yard but only keeping 10 boats & changing the names of them. Lori

Hi Lori,

Have a look at the following link:-

http://forum.norfolkbroadsnetwork.com/topic/11520-acle-overnight-moorings/?page=4

Regards

Alan

 

[jeffbroadslover]

First boat I ever took my wife on was Pearl Horizon.

That was when she got the bug almost as bad as I have. !

Jeff

[SwanR]

Moon Beam in September was our first hire from this particular yard. The staff were lovely and the service was excellent. One thing they did say was that they had been told that all the Horizoncraft boats would be kept together on one quay at Stalham. So maybe the fleet will still have an identity of sorts.

[Siddy]

Great team at Acle we've been with them a few times and used them for pump outs. made a point of calling in on way back from Stalham in Sept since we didn't get in during the week.

[pixator]

My late mother and father Mr & Mrs Latham from Birmingham who used to regularly hire a boat out most years in July from Horizon Craft and they had many happy holidays on the Norfolk Broads spanning over 30 years and the boatyard couldn't do enough to accommodate my late mother and father each year to make each holiday a spectacular 2 weeks rest and they even had my parents photograph permanently displayed in the managers office for everyone to see as a nice little reminder as well.

(Hazel and Gordon Latham)

 

Posted by Mr Richard Latham (SON)

[Broads01]

More than five years on now and I still miss them.

[andyg]

Whatever happened to the bbc ? They had big plans for acle as a hire base. They seemed to be spending money on refitting the boats they had and weren't they working on a new class of boat. Shame they disappeared. 

[DAVIDH]

16 minutes ago, andyg said:

Whatever happened to the bbc ? They had big plans for acle as a hire base. 

Bet that Nadine Dorries had something to do with it!

[Oddfellow]

2 hours ago, andyg said:

Whatever happened to the bbc ? They had big plans for acle as a hire base. They seemed to be spending money on refitting the boats they had and weren't they working on a new class of boat. Shame they disappeared. 

It's very hard to make a small boat yard pay its way. Very hard indeed. 

Ryan is still around building boat shells in Brundall. The design you mention is the new boat for NBD. He also did some of the new craft that WRC had. As I am largely out of the industry myself now, my info might be a bit dated so take the above and precede it with "As far as I am aware, "

[andyg]

I wonder if you'd ever get planning permission to dig out some of the land surrounding the acle yard and turn it into a marine. Hard to see what else you could do with the site as it stands. I guess richardsons are in no rush to do anything with the site. The rent they must get from the restaurant covers their costs of retaining the site. Good to hear Ryan is still involved in the business. 

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, Oddfellow said:

Ryan is still around building boat shells in Brundall. The design you mention is the new boat for NBD. He also did some of the new craft that WRC had. As I am largely out of the industry myself now, my info might be a bit dated so take the above and precede it with "As far as I am aware, "

Not sure they’re still building, to be honest.  A mould has been sitting outside their shed in Brundall and hasn’t moved for at least two years.  Obviously speculation, but surely it would have been finished by now if they were still trading?

1 hour ago, andyg said:

 . . . . . I guess richardsons are in no rush to do anything with the site. The rent they must get from the restaurant covers their costs of retaining the site . . . . . . 

Not sure that’s still open either.  It was closed when we were there in October, their FB page hasn’t been updated since April last year and their website doesn’t seem to be working, or for me at least:

https://www.pedrosrestaurants.co.uk

Again, speculation, but it all seems a bit strange.

 

[andyg]

I've only ever heard or read good things about Pedro's, oh that's a real shame. We wanted to try it later this year. Let's hope it's only a temporary closure. 

[Oddfellow]

1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

Not sure they’re still building, to be honest.  A mould has been sitting outside their shed in Brundall and hasn’t moved for at least two years.  Obviously speculation, but surely it would have been finished by now if they were still trading?

 

 

I think its dangerous to speculate on a business like this.

Projects get shelved, put on hold and so on all the time in business. Just because you can't see activity outside means nothing, especially when you don't work on GRP outside if you can help it. 



 

[YnysMon]

Yes, it's a shame. We've always enjoyed our meals when we visited. It was a nice to have an alternative to the classic pub meal that you get in the Acle Bridge. 

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, Oddfellow said:

I think its dangerous to speculate on a business like this.

Projects get shelved, put on hold and so on all the time in business. Just because you can't see activity outside means nothing, especially when you don't work on GRP outside if you can help it. 

Get that, but the mould is complete - superstructure on the hull with a window and door cut.  It’s been like that for over two years and hasn’t moved.  As I said originally, speculation, but it does seem odd, especially after the fanfare with which the boat building operation began with almost four years ago.

[Oddfellow]

38 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Get that, but the mould is complete - superstructure on the hull with a window and door cut.  It’s been like that for over two years and hasn’t moved.  As I said originally, speculation, but it does seem odd, especially after the fanfare with which the boat building operation began with almost four years ago.

I don't think it's odd at all. It could be an in-house project that was started and had to stop for client work. It could be a cancelled order that needs a new customer. They can't store it inside and have it waste space and if there's paying work going on in the sheds, then it will get left until such a time that there's a need to revisit it. That's speculation too, but positive speculation that won't impact the business should others read it and think negative things. 

 

[andyg]

Andy, I get your trying to be positive. But come on, there's only so many times you can kick a dead horse before you realise its dead. Ferry marina had one of lens aft cockpit boats sitting on the yard at Horning all wrapped in plastic for ages. No one wanted to hire it let alone buy it. Even stevie wonder could see that the bbc at alce has gone, the owner made a big fanfare on social media about his plans and the move to Brundall. My understanding is he came from a background of running guest houses and his Pedro's restaurants. Brilliant, because I hear Pedro's is or was a great place to eat spend an evening. Sadly life isn't all puffy white clouds and candy floss. Life's poo at the moment and many a good  business have fallen by the wayside  that's just life. We need to stop being over protective of things. I feel your coments are driven by your own bad experiences of social media and bad reviews aimed at freedom, that you have publicly commented on here on this forum. Personally I see no wrong in what Mouldy has posted and if your right in what your saying then fair play to Ryan for pushing through. But what kind of forum would this be if we stiffel all its opinions etc. The world's gone PC madd. Nothing personal just bored with the snowflake society we live in. Life's crap then you die springs to mind.. 

[Vaughan]

As someone who also got forced out of a small Broads business in the early 80's, by recession and press publicity, I can see both sides of this discussion.

Yes we are a discussion forum, as I often remind us myself.  But we also love the Broads and want its boat businesses to succeed - and survive - as we know that the Broads area itself depends mostly on tourism for its own survival as we know it today.

I happen to know a few things about what happened at Acle and I am sure Oddfellow does as well, but I see no need or purpose in posting them here.

Perhaps social media doesn't have much room for "gentlemen" any more.  That is to say those who, if they haven't got anything good to say about someone, prefer not to say anything.