Herbert Woods Offer

[Ray]

Short notice but it sounds like a good deal so I thought it may be of interest. 30% off selected boats booked to start in July apparently. I'm still on their email list although I have my own boat now.

Could be quite a saving for anyone able to take advantage of it.

[Heron]

Looks like it is a bad year for the boatyards. As far as I can see Richardsons still have a lot of boats tied up and and a good number not hired next week.

With the economy up the creek and other factors, this could have a long term affect on the hire yards.

[Vaughan]

Travelling around the rivers in the last few days, I reckon most yards have around a third of their fleets lying in. You can't always tell with Richardsons as they turn boats round every day except Wednesday. Definitely a bad year, which started with a very late Easter and does not seem to have recovered.

It does mean you can find a mooring, though, at places like St Benets and How Hill. I even got a mooring outside the pub at Acle Bridge, on Monday lunchtime!

[NorfolkNog]

7 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

even got a mooring outside the pub at Acle Bridge

Get the priorities right Vaughan  

Tis a bit worrying though. I think I mentioned on another thread, the prices take a fair hike in June compared with April and May. Be interesting to see how the school holidays go.

[Broads01]

The prolonged spell of bad weather in June must also have had an impact. I worry especially for the smaller operators. 

[marshman]

I think Vaughan has hit one of the issues on the head and I don't think that seeing boats in a yard is necessarily reflecting a bad year. The nature of the beast has changed and yards are seeing far far more short breaks and unless you see their booking charts to see when it is next out, you cannot really make a judgement. Don't forget that short breaks are more expensive and probably give a higher return.

Having said that, it is, I suspect, going to be difficult - with Easter being late it just got off to a bad start. As one yard said to me, you just never catch up when that happens and a slow start to the year is probably indicative of an indifferent year.

[ranworthbreeze]

Lets face it the weather has not been kind to boaters this year and of course so far this year there has been only been a few occasions when Somerleyton Bridge has not been able to operate.

Regards

Alan

[chrisdobson45]

I tried booking a week in early August to tack onto a week previously booked staying on the North Norfolk coast. To be honest there wasn't much of a choice available, starting in Wroxham, and being flexible with our start date (either Friday or Saturday).

Brooms had something, but didn't really want Brundall as a start and didn't fancy waving goodbye to the thick end of £1600...

We ended up with a second week inland near Holt and a promise of a day boat for the wife...