Royalls

[Gallipoli]

I remember when Brinkcraft tokk over Moores that was a sad day although unlike royalls there boats wee getting poorly maintained, as a result only 6 of the boats remain in the fleet (if i have counted correctly  ) so it wouldn't suprise me to see most of the Royalls boats get sold next year  

[NeilB]

Two points I remember about Royall's is that their boats always looked immaculately clean on the outside.  The only other yards that I can recall keeping the exterior's looking so clean are Silverline and Summercraft.  To be fair it has been 2 years since my last trip so this may have changed.

The 2nd point is that I nearly had a job at Royall's, I was interviewed by Alan in one of the boatsheds.  Must have been around 93/94, they were thinking about a 2nd engineer as they had lots of work on but eventually decided not to go ahead.

[Broads01]

9 hours ago, Gallipoli said:

I remember when Brinkcraft tokk over Moores that was a sad day although unlike royalls there boats wee getting poorly maintained, as a result only 6 of the boats remain in the fleet (if i have counted correctly  ) so it wouldn't suprise me to see most of the Royalls boats get sold next year  

There's a wide range of designs and ages in Royalls 9 boats so I think some will be sold eventually but others may remain.  Ambassador and the Commanders are well maintained but starting to look dated now in my view.  At the other extreme Swan is the newest boat,  3 or 4 years old I think so I'd be surprised if Barnes sold that one.  In common with the other large yards Barnes,  at least for the moment,  do retain boats at the budget end of the market,  Aries and Brink of Peace for example. 

[Gracie]

We tried to hire one of the Commanders on a couple of occasions but were always fully booked up way into the next season, a testament to a brilliant yard, although we never eventually got to hire from them whenever we had dealings with them they were lovely people. It's such a loss to see them go

I hope Barnes continue hiring them out, a fine little fleet and just maybe I can scratch that itch and hire a Commander

I'm just glad that Barns have taken it over, rather that than some cruise through McDonalds or some such lol

Grace

[BuffaloBill]

Why does everyone seem to jump on Barnes so quickly? They have

bought the yard and will honour any bookings for this year. I don't expect

any changes in the coming year due to their other projects. I knew about 

this weeks ago but kept it to myself as I do many other things. At least

people who tell me anything know that it will go no further. I know of at

least one other yard that did look into buying it too. Matthew and Daniel

are good business men so it was purchased for a good reason.

[Hylander]

2 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

Why does everyone seem to jump on Barnes so quickly? They have

bought the yard and will honour any bookings for this year. I don't expect

any changes in the coming year due to their other projects. I knew about 

this weeks ago but kept it to myself as I do many other things. At least

people who tell me anything know that it will go no further. I know of at

least one other yard that did look into buying it too. Matthew and Daniel

are good business men so it was purchased for a good reason.

Very much a plus in my opinion.     I hope the new yard is up and running soon as it will be another place to moor in Wroxham along with services hopefully.     Change happens, and at least this is not a yard that has been purchased and will be no longer a yard but just a pile of bricks called apartments.

[Broads01]

Royalls has always been a good place to moor in Wroxham being convenient for town and yet quiet.  I assume it'll continue to be so under Barnes ownership which is a good thing. 

[trambo]

I'm a bit amused that everyone seems a little shocked the BB has bought Royalls. The yard is virtually part of BB anyway, being right next to the original Brinkcraft yard, will anyone not in the know actually realise there has been a change of ownership? If BB had not bought it then I would have been very surprised.

What is disappointing is that they had indicated they would run until the end of this year and if you look at their booking availability compared with any other Wroxham based yards, you will see there are going to be some miffed punters out there, they booked with Royalls for a reason.

As for Royalls, what an excellent fleet it was. Always immaculate with everything of good quality. What I didn't like about them was that awful livery on the 90s boats and the lack of style of their interiors, it somehow never seemed to gel together for me. However for many it did and the boats and boatyard experience provided resulted in the Broads fleet that booked quicker than anyone else.

Fred

[quackers]

Yes, as one of the aforesaid punters, it is disappointing. just as it was disappointing when the original Brinkcraft, from whom we used to hire (Brinkster 2, Brink of Time and Brinkeeta 2), was taken over by Barnes in the early 70s.(Can't tell you exactly when, because Bill Maxted's got all my old Blakes brochures!!). I'm beginning to get a bit paranoid.

I have spoken to a very pleasant girl at BarnesBrinkcarft, who said that everybody who had booked with Royalls for this year will be getting letters from Royalls and Hoseasons fairly shortly.

I enquired after Paul and Steve, and was relieved to learn that they both have jobs with Barnes.

[Vaughan]

I am sorry if my reply to comments yesterday was - shall we say - a bit blunt, but it is sometimes easy to forget how desperate things became for boatyards, in the 70s and 80s. 

On my little yard, by the end, I was paying 19% interest on my bank loan, when even base rate was over 13, so I was working for the bank, not me. Although there were vastly more hire boats than private then, the "multiplier" was 3 times that of a private toll, so no wonder the BA were well off! In addition, the Broads were suffering the usual bad press, and hire prices had been held the same for the previous 4 years, with inflation at 11%. The next year, when I decided to get out, the prices went down 10%! 

You just can't stay in business at that rate, and very few did.

Brian Thwaites was a good friend of mine and we did a fair amount of business together. He and his wife Jill decided to diversify, and started re-building BMC diesels and selling them to other yards, and private owners. Remember Barnes Marine Units? This was what saw them through the barren years of the eighties and when Brian sadly died early, Jill decided to keep the business going, for her family. They did it by diversifying, and now have several different "strings" to their bow. They also did it by long years of hard work and good business sense.

Jill, incidentally, can also re-build a BMC engine but I don't suppose she has done one recently!

During all this time they have always tried to offer the best of boats, and the best of customer service, to visiting boats as well as their own. I am certain that those who are booked with Royalls this year need have no fear of the sort of welcome they will receive.

Meantime, if the success of their business can now be judged by the number of Range Rovers parked outside their offices, then jolly good for them!

[16E]

We moored in Daisy Broad, across from Royalls from 1999 to 2008.  The care and work they put into the turnarounds had to seen to be believed.  Nigel had the workshop for slipping boatsacross the dyke, next to Tim Collins wood-shed.  The yard had a boat lift on the main quayheading.

As outsiders/newcomers we wer honoured to be on talking terms with Alan Royall.

Solace used to over-winter in a wetshed behind Alan's house down river.  Nigel used to bering her up to the yard in the spring to get her ready.  He used to moor her at the end of our quayheading.    I remeber he took her to Oulton Broad to do the hogging keel replacement.  He used their day boat as a pusher tug.

[JennyMorgan]

Vaughan, not just Range Rovers. Matthew is partial to a bit of speed!

Your business history back then reflects mine, dire times and I have never forgiven our political masters for that and never will.

 

[Poppy]

32 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Vaughan, not just Range Rovers. Matthew is partial to a bit of speed!

Your business history back then reflects mine, dire times and I have never forgiven our political masters for that and never will.

 

And not only on the road it is alleged . 

[BryanW]

2 hours ago, quackers said:

Yes, as one of the aforesaid punters, it is disappointing. just as it was disappointing when the original Brinkcraft, from whom we used to hire (Brinkster 2, Brink of Time and Brinkeeta 2), was taken over by Barnes in the early 70s.(Can't tell you exactly when, because Bill Maxted's got all my old Blakes brochures!!). I'm beginning to get a bit paranoid.

I have spoken to a very pleasant girl at BarnesBrinkcarft, who said that everybody who had booked with Royalls for this year will be getting letters from Royalls and Hoseasons fairly shortly.

I enquired after Paul and Steve, and was relieved to learn that they both have jobs with Barnes.

We are also one of the punters and yesterday I emailed and telephoned Barnes as soon as I became aware of the takeover.  Sheila at Barnes was very helpful and we ended up changing from Velvet 2 to Brinks Encore with no admin fee or loss of deposit (but at a much higher cost).  We did this because we had booked Velvet very early last year (for 2017) having had Satin for a couple of years but at the time we didn't appreciate some disadvantages (for us) of Velvet and Encore hadn't been announced, we had been hoping for an updated Aquafibre Opel for some years.  I was told that Barnes were honouring all of Royalls' bookings.

I had seen (on Barnes' Facebook page) that they had taken on Paul & Steve and that Dave had retired, so good news for them.  What annoyed was that Royalls' had stated on their Blog, Facebook and personally that they were continuing until the end of the 2017 season, obviously the offer was too good to delay.  When Royalls stopped updating their Blog, the boats didn't move and came off Facebook I did become rather concerned.

Many years ago we had exactly the same when Brister Craft closed down but then the boat we had booked was bought by Summercraft so we stuck with it.

[BryanW]

5 hours ago, Jonzo said:

I think in general the Royalls fleet were well maintained, but in my opinion they had rested on their laurels a little and not modernised - Really theirs should be a fleet full of the current-gen Alpha models.

Of course that's a tough call for some smaller yards, but for one that is consistently booked solid it shouldn't be. You have to have a replacement programme in place, and build the cost of replacement into any hire fee.

The boats won't need much work to bring up to standard, but hopefully Barnes will replace some of the more garish interior fittings - Have you seen the heads on Solitaire?

You're not wrong about their internal colour scheme, that orange bathroom on Satin put me off every time I went in there.

Although their boats looked superb from the outside (as do Summercraft's) last year I did think that Satin was needing some work when you looked closely, e.g. cracks in the gelcoat had been covered with white self adhesive tape, waste tank gauge not working.

[JennyMorgan]

Tape over cracks is no bad thing as it keeps the 'wound' dry until it's convenient to repair. The downside is that what is a temporary fix can become permanent. I would like to think that had Royalls kept their boats then a proper job would have been made of it.

[tjg1677]

Vaughan, you mentioned yesterday about anti fouling and that you were going to elaborate on it later. I am very interested to hear more so please could you write a bit more about it, it sounds really interesting.

 

trev

[SEAMASTER]

Hired from Royalls a few times in the past lovely finished boats great friendly service and a pleasure to have hired from them. I would of said they was the best Yard I hired from. You don't get that from the bigger yards. I've Hired from Richardsons and Barnes and even the worse hire I've had at silverline it's sad to see the Royalls brand gone. 

[ranworthbreeze]

4 minutes ago, SEAMASTER said:

Hired from Royalls a few times in the past lovely finished boats great friendly service and a pleasure to have hired from them. I would of said they was the best Yard I hired from. You don't get that from the bigger yards. I've Hired from Richardsons and Barnes and even the worse hire I've had at silverline it's sad to see the Royalls brand gone. 

I am surprised at your Silverline comment.

Regards

Alan

 

 

 

[deebee29]

3 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

I am surprised at your Silverline comment.

Regards

Alan

 

 

 

Me too

We've always found Silverline to be  a great yard with a friendly personal service from Colin & Lesley and the boats are always immaculate inside and out.

Nothing has ever been too much trouble

We always feel like we are seeing old friends when we go back

[SEAMASTER]

1 hour ago, deebee29 said:

Me too

We've always found Silverline to be  a great yard with a friendly personal service from Colin & Lesley and the boats are always immaculate inside and out.

Nothing has ever been too much trouble

We always feel like we are seeing old friends when we go back

Your very lucky then because are time was awful and unfriendly and I know of others who have had the same  unfriendliness. Shame tho stop us hiring on the southern side. 

[JennyMorgan]

I've known Colin for years and am surprised at the charges of unfriendliness, indeed I would have thought it would have taken quite a lot of aggro to upset him. I'm not looking to hire but if I was then Silverline would be my first port of call.

[Vaughan]

3 hours ago, tjg1677 said:

Vaughan, you mentioned yesterday about anti fouling and that you were going to elaborate on it later. I am very interested to hear more so please could you write a bit more about it, it sounds really interesting.

Yes, I was indeed, but I thought I would keep it separate from the discussion about Barnes Brinkcraft.

Antifouling is a very special, chemically designed paint that never quite goes off and so it is continually releasing poison (yes poison) into the water to deter plant growth. This is why it should be re-done every year as, by that time, the poison has run out. There are several varieties but they are basically two types : "hard" and "soft". A racing yacht, or a hire boat, will need a hard paint as they are moving through the water most of the time, so the paint must not erode too quickly. A private boat will need a soft paint, as it spends most of its time on a mooring, in still water, so the paint must be able to release its poison more readily. Most types called "Broads" antifouling are a soft paint, but always read what it says on the tin!

Wooden boats must be protected by antifouling (or in my case I prefer tar varnish) but a GRP hull has no need of this. Remember that neither paint nor antifouling offer any protection against osmosis. If you're gonna get osmosis, you're gonna get it!

Being a paint that is designed to erode easily, it is no use on a waterline since as soon as you try to clean it, it will scrub off! Hence private boats often use a "boot topping" in gloss paint of a different colour, to set off the line and make it easy to clean.

On a GRP hire boat you just need to paint the waterline in gloss paint down to a few inches below the surface, so that the line can be cleaned, and then leave the bottom bare. If it collects a bit of weed during the season, then it goes a bit slower. That is what people all want hire boats to do, isn't it?? When you haul it out in the winter, just 10 minutes with a pressure washer will get rid of all the growth. Don't leave it to dry on the hull though, or you will end up using a scraper.

The paint by the way, for the topsides as well as the waterline, is Permoglaze. Good old British decorator's exterior enamel. As good as any other oil-based paint you will buy and half the price. Why? Because it doesn't have the word "marine" in its name!

It is true that there will be a bit more electrolytic action on a bare GRP hull but as long as you fit anodes and change them regularly (as you must anyway) then no problem.

Finally, there is the ecology. Antifouling is a poison, which affects fish stocks and other marine life as well as just weed, especially on a fresh water river. If its use can be avoided, in cases like hire boats where it is really not necessary, then that is all to the good.

 

[SEAMASTER]

Be interesting if any others on here who have had bad experience with them.  It's different if your friends with them. When your paying customer and things are not right. Then you've got every right to say. 

[Broads01]

I've only hired from Silverline once but they were excellent.  I've called there several times since for water and they've always been friendly.