Ferry Marina Discount

[Coryton]

On 16/05/2019 at 20:17, DAVIDH said:

It looks as though prospective holidaymakers are holding back on booking anything at the moment. The overseas market (Thomas Cook for example) says Brexit has caused many people to either delay booking or switch to a staycation. As such you would have expected the UK market to be booming this year but this is not evidenced by "up to 50%" off deals we are seeing at the moment. My own rough & ready figures show there to be around 18% more boats still available this year compared to last year at this time. 

I suppose it depends if overseas visitors have been put off for the same reason. 

Are the Broads popular with foreign tourists? Boating in Ireland seems to be popular with the Germans, for some reason.

[Matt]

Quite right! This year my weeks are May and July. Equivalent hire cost would have been £2500.
I will have spent a bit more in fuel than you, but covered a lot of miles.

We have been so often we tend not to go far these days.

Our May Half Term week would have been £1600 and our August week £1800........


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[oldgregg]

31 minutes ago, Coryton said:

Are the Broads popular with foreign tourists? Boating in Ireland seems to be popular with the Germans, for some reason.

They are, but yes the Erne system seemed to have at least 50% German hirers when we were there.

Those we spoke to said that they loved the peace and quiet and didn't know another waterway like it. You'd have to say they wouldn't be rushing to the northern Broads in high season if that's what they were after.

[oldgregg]

4 minutes ago, Matt said:

We have been so often we tend not to go far these days.

Well indeed.... But always nice to go down to the pretty side!

[MauriceMynah]

27 minutes ago, Matt said:

We have been so often we tend not to go far these days.

I said in a different thread some time ago that the more often you come to the broads the fewer miles you travel. My parents seemed to be the exception to this rule cruising as much as possible.

[Matt]

Well indeed.... But always nice to go down to the pretty side!

Don’t forget we spent about 5 years moored there!


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[oldgregg]

2 hours ago, Matt said:

Don’t forget we spent about 5 years moored there!

 

Yeah I guess I am forgetting that.

[Cal]

3 hours ago, Coryton said:

I suppose it depends if overseas visitors have been put off for the same reason. 

Are the Broads popular with foreign tourists? Boating in Ireland seems to be popular with the Germans, for some reason.

We have met folks from all over the world on our visits to the Broads. They are usually having a good time. 

One set that stick vividly in the memory were a group of Swedish, two couples who we met when moored at Stokesby Ferry. They had been in an accident (not their fault) on the moorings and asked for some assistance with filling in the accident form. Their spoken english was very good but they were struggling a little with the written english.

We helped them, had a few drinks onboard with them and then carried on in the pub later on. We were not at our best the next morning to say the least!!

The Caledonian Canal also seems to attract a lot of foreign boat crews both on hire boats and their own boats. We enjoyed the cruising up there.

[Cal]

2 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

I said in a different thread some time ago that the more often you come to the broads the fewer miles you travel. My parents seemed to be the exception to this rule cruising as much as possible.

We clearly have not been often enough 

We plan to see as much as possible again during our week later in the year in October.

Despite the shorter hours we will still see a lot of the Broads both North and South.

[andyg]

Been keeping an eye on herbert woods fleet movements since there new webcam went live. They seem to be doing ok, no idea if they offer the same level of discounts. Most weeks they have had over 60% of the fleet out with loads of space in the yard. 

[oldgregg]

2 hours ago, andyg said:

Been keeping an eye on herbert woods fleet movements since there new webcam went live. They seem to be doing ok, no idea if they offer the same level of discounts. Most weeks they have had over 60% of the fleet out with loads of space in the yard. 

They've been discounting as well. You can get the fleet out but at what cost?

[MrBlueSky]

If companies are having to discount to get boats out,dosn't this imply a problem with their pricing in the first place?

[marshman]

Not necessarily!! Its quite noticeable that it is the "older" boats at Ferry that seem to be in the yard more - despite the price it is quite noticeable that the newer boats let best, despite some people's view on the design. This, I suspect, is the view of most yards.

[Coryton]

56 minutes ago, MrBlueSky said:

If companies are having to discount to get boats out,dosn't this imply a problem with their pricing in the first place?

 

1 minute ago, marshman said:

Not necessarily!! Its quite noticeable that it is the "older" boats at Ferry that seem to be in the yard more - despite the price it is quite noticeable that the newer boats let best, despite some people's view on the design. This, I suspect, is the view of most yards.

Not necessarily indeed.

There may just be more boats than there are people who want to hire them this year, unless given an incentive by lowering prices - possibly to a point that's unsustainable in the long run.

[grendel]

I suspect that brexit is having an impact on holiday bookings, both at home and abroad.

[Coryton]

5 hours ago, andyg said:

Been keeping an eye on herbert woods fleet movements since there new webcam went live. They seem to be doing ok, no idea if they offer the same level of discounts. Most weeks they have had over 60% of the fleet out with loads of space in the yard. 

Out of curiosity I was looking at availability for the boat we've booked this summer (Beam of Light).

If this web site is correct, they have two Beam of Lights (Beams of Light?). For most of the summer they seem to have availability on both Saturdays and Mondays...so both boats available?

Maybe if we'd left it we could have got a discount. But we were happy to pay that price at the time and I imagine if everyone gets a big discount there won't be any boat yards around for long.

9 hours ago, oldgregg said:

They are, but yes the Erne system seemed to have at least 50% German hirers when we were there.

Those we spoke to said that they loved the peace and quiet and didn't know another waterway like it. You'd have to say they wouldn't be rushing to the northern Broads in high season if that's what they were after.

I would very happily go back to the Erne system, and may well do so one day. But first - the Broads! I imagine there are advantages and disadvantages of both Erne and the Broads.

You can't spend the night mudweighting (or anchored) in Lough Erne.

[Coryton]

4 minutes ago, grendel said:

I suspect that brexit is having an impact on holiday bookings, both at home and abroad.

Yes - and it must all depend whether extra bookings from the UK outweigh lost bookings from abroad.

[grendel]

 I think a lot of uk people are waiting until the last minute before booking either.

[DAVIDH]

I wrote earlier that I believed Brexit was having the effect of diverting attention from holidays in general and still think that is so. However, I think there is another factor in that after having had such a lovely summer last year, many were expecting the same this year and had decided to "staycation" .  Yet we have had no prolonged heat spell to start people thinking about a holiday afloat. Thus time rolls on and more boats stay on the moorings. From what I can tell, bookings have been falling behind month on month for quite a while now. I am due out on Goosander from the 6th July so I thought I would check Hoseasons availability so see how many boats were left to hire, to get an idea of how busy the rivers would be. Currently there are still 72 showing - I expected it to be 40 to 50. 

None of this can be good for the boatyards, or any of the infrastructure and makes me wonder if business are really struggling out there. Lets hope not terminally. It could turn out to be a defining year.

[CambridgeCabby]

It seems to me the the impending Brexit is being blamed for countless failings , not that many months ago everything was the fault of the EEC, economies change , habits change.

Cycles happen what is in favour today will be out hat soon , then the cycle begins again ; thankfully there are a few boring old f**ts like me left who continue to love “The Broads” and enthusiasts who keep the beautiful wooden Broads boats pristine and afloat 

[Graham47]

2 hours ago, marshman said:

Not necessarily!! Its quite noticeable that it is the "older" boats at Ferry that seem to be in the yard more - despite the price it is quite noticeable that the newer boats let best, despite some people's view on the design. This, I suspect, is the view of most yards.

As I said in my earlier post. During July Ferry, Marina had sixteen 4 to 6 Berth boats available with 30 free complete week’s between them as well as 3 & 4 day breaks. I was surprised to see that the two Golden Emblem’s didn’t have a single booking between them. 

 

[Cal]

10 hours ago, DAVIDH said:

I wrote earlier that I believed Brexit was having the effect of diverting attention from holidays in general and still think that is so. However, I think there is another factor in that after having had such a lovely summer last year, many were expecting the same this year and had decided to "staycation" .  Yet we have had no prolonged heat spell to start people thinking about a holiday afloat. Thus time rolls on and more boats stay on the moorings. From what I can tell, bookings have been falling behind month on month for quite a while now. I am due out on Goosander from the 6th July so I thought I would check Hoseasons availability so see how many boats were left to hire, to get an idea of how busy the rivers would be. Currently there are still 72 showing - I expected it to be 40 to 50. 

None of this can be good for the boatyards, or any of the infrastructure and makes me wonder if business are really struggling out there. Lets hope not terminally. It could turn out to be a defining year.

Is it not just a case that the school holidays have not started on 6th July?

What are the boat booking numbers for the weeks after when the school holidays have started?

As an example we have booked a lodge in Cornwall for a week starting on the 6th July. The following week on the Saturday that we leave the price of the lodge doubles for the same hire time period due to the start of the school summer holidays. It is booked throughout the summer period solidly!

[tim]

I'm out on the water on the 5th July and have been doing the same as David, I had a look yesterday and there were 77 from the 3/8 and 95 on the 17/8 Ferry had 9 and 7 available

So not selling in August particularly well, but there's still time if the weather improves which I'm hoping will be from the 5th!  

 

[DAVIDH]

1 hour ago, Cal said:

Is it not just a case that the school holidays have not started on 6th July?

What are the boat booking numbers for the weeks after when the school holidays have started?

Cal, I record twice a month, the number of boats available to hire over selected dates across the season (just Hoseasons). The last time I checked was the 16th June and at that time, based on 7 nights hire, 640 remained for hire weeks commencing 20/7 to 24/8. This compares with last year where the number remaining was 482. These can only be rough figures as they do not take into account boat classes where there may be more than one of a type remaining. It's an educated  guess I suppose at the state of the market.

I do agree with you that a sustained burst of sunshine and good temperatures will make all the difference however. The school holidays are the big money making weeks and I feel people are still to decide whether to spend them at home or abroad.

[Coryton]

1 hour ago, DAVIDH said:

 I feel people are still to decide whether to spend them at home or abroad.

Although that's probably not true for overseas visitors.

When looking at a holiday abroad I think people are generally somewhat fickle. If there is no strong reason to go to a particular country, why go somewhere with even a small risk of the holiday being spoilt? There's lots of countries to choose from, and you can always go another year.

I would expect Brexit uncertainty has caused more than a few people to decide this year isn't the time to have their holiday in the UK.