WRC Boats Moving To Nbd For Next Season?

[webntweb]

Just seen a post in the other place saying WRC are moving their boats to NBD Wroxham for next season.

[CambridgeCabby]

Must admit I’m surprised as I thought they were hiring well from WRC , also NBD basin is normally packed with the amount of craft they have there normally let alone the extra boats .

 

[NorfolkNog]

Agree, We were turned away for the first time in February due to lack of space. They have the trip boats too and I don't suppose they could get all the day boats on the front. Unless they are flogging off some of the older boats. 

[Hylander]

Not surprised as most of their boats are very high and they have to negotiate that god awful Somerleyton bridge and its peculiarities,  especially in extreme weather.    If it is too hot it does not open,  if it is too cold it does not open.   You have to wait for the tide to get anywhere.   Coupled with the journey down those country lanes to get there.   Sort of place you have to want to go to.    As has been said though,  what they are going to do with them all is a mystery.

 

 

[oldgregg]

Yeah I don't think it is terribly surprising, they will let much better from Wroxham.

It's a shame but the draw of the North is indisputable.

[vanessan]

Less boats down south then..............

[Poppy]

57 minutes ago, vanessan said:

Less boats down south then..............

No, fewer.

[andyg]

No big shock there,they certainly weren't letting very well before the covid and the staycation situation came along. NBD already have a couple of lens designs that let very well. Its just goes to show how hard it is to get a fleet up and running on the southen broads. I wonder how many more of lens dual steer boats will be built at NBD.

[marshman]

Could be any number of reasons - perhaps Len has just bought the boats to free up cash for WRC to concentrate on lodges, but like it or not, they will let better from Wroxham, especially for short breaks I would guess. I think if I am correct, most were actually built at Ferry - perhaps he just wants them back in "his" empire!!!

All speculation I know and we will probably never know!!

[vanessan]

36 minutes ago, Poppy said:

No, fewer.

I don’t care if it’s less or fewer, there won’t be so many! 😁

[Meantime]

3 minutes ago, vanessan said:

I don’t care if it’s less or fewer, there won’t be so many! 😁

There will not be so many!

[vanessan]

Just now, Meantime said:

There will not be so many!

That’s good then. 🤓

[vanessan]

Actually, despite the joking, it is a shame that the number of boats available for hire on the southern Broads is shrinking so much. With the expected loss of Freedom and now WRC, that’s a good number lost. I did understand that Sanderson’s we’re selling off too. Sad. 

[Meantime]

I liked your post, but it's more an agree. I really wish we had an agree button. Sometimes the current 6 just don't seem to fit the right emotion.

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

I've  long said, that I'm concerned with the number of pubs and boat yards decreasing. There are not so many free moorings  available  either. 

[vanessan]

1 hour ago, Meantime said:

I liked your post, but it's more an agree. I really wish we had an agree button. Sometimes the current 6 just don't seem to fit the right emotion.

 

I agree. 

[Vaughan]

3 hours ago, marshman said:

perhaps Len has just bought the boats to free up cash for WRC to concentrate on lodges, but like it or not, they will let better from Wroxham, especially for short breaks I would guess.

It's easy to indulge in speculation, and I see even Marshman is tempted, although he denies it, as usual!   

Knowing Len as I do, he will place his boats where they will be the more commercial.  He has only hired them out of WRC for a couple of seasons, so maybe the trial was not a success?

I have often said on here, that a hire yard must be in a good position for access, hence why almost all of them are beside old railway stations and are easily accessible by road.  The WRC is not, but that may not affect their trade in lodges, camper vans, yurts and glamping, which all generate day boat hire but maybe not weekly cabin cruisers. 

We are all told that next year is going to be fabulous, as all the bookings are flooding in and you can't get a boat "for love nor money".  That is until next June, when you find you have to cancel your booking, as you are not allowed to travel from your own home to Norfolk.  Just as is happening right now, this October.  

We don't know what next year is going to be like yet.

 

[JennyMorgan]

I do know that a number of WRC boat hirers have expressed distaste for the road access. Beyond that the suggestion that the neighbouring Bridges are a problem is a sound one.  My guess is that the hireboats are moving in order to make way for private boats or maybe an increase in private berths. My next guess is that weekend pub taking would go up if the hireboats aren't being turned around. Might also be a local shortage of boat cleaners. Haven't been  to the WRC this year, regretfully. 

[Vaughan]

21 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

My next guess is that weekend pub taking would go up if the hireboats aren't being turned around.

I think this also may be a wise guess.  The activities on the site revolve largely around the pub and the other facilities that it offers.  Pubs are not very easy things to run commercially, these days!

[JennyMorgan]

16 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

The activities on the site revolve largely around the pub and the other facilities that it offers.

Private boats go from Beccles, Brundall, Somerleyton and Oulton Broad to visit the WRC & Waveney Inn for the weekend. Trouble is that the hire-fleet takes up a lot of room on a Saturday, taking up moorings that otherwise would be used by pub customers. In my experience mixing hire & private boats is not always successful. Bouncing large hireboats off sometimes very expensive private boats is not always best appreciated. 

[Oddfellow]

I find it unbelievable that people would book any kind of holiday in the countryside and then moan about countryside roads. It's especially stupid to do so when, as a boat hirer, you have to travel them only twice.... The roads to WRC don't stop it being a successful and award-winning site.  

[ChrisB]

Simple economies of scale. The servicing and cleaning of the few WRC boats will hardly be felt at NBD.

[JennyMorgan]

20 minutes ago, FreedomBoatingHols said:

The roads to WRC don't stop it being a successful and award-winning site.  

They certainly don't, indeed I think that they actually add to the attraction of the place but apparently not everyone agrees with that sentiment. The place is surrounded by miles of unspoiled Norfolk countryside and marshland. 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

22 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

Simple economies of scale. The servicing and cleaning of the few WRC boats will hardly be felt at NBD.

Are you thinking that is the reason for shutting down the hire business at WRC.

[rightsaidfred]

25 minutes ago, FreedomBoatingHols said:

I find it unbelievable that people would book any kind of holiday in the countryside and then moan about countryside roads. It's especially stupid to do so when, as a boat hirer, you have to travel them only twice.... The roads to WRC don't stop it being a successful and award-winning site.  

Sorry but accessibility is very much an issue for a lot of people especially when you add local facilities into the equation for supplies etc.

Fred.