Any New Hiring Boats 2021

[NeilB]

51 minutes ago, rightsaidfred said:

If the AF38 your referring to is Lady Alexandra its on the Bure, I wont be more specific out of respect for the owners.

Fred

That the one, if it's kept it's colour scheme should be quite noticeable.  They had 2 built at the same time and one of my first jobs was piloting one in red board conditions, makes the tides at Yarmouth look a little tame and gets the pulse rate going!

[oldgregg]

39 minutes ago, NeilB said:

That the one, if it's kept it's colour scheme should be quite noticeable.  They had 2 built at the same time and one of my first jobs was piloting one in red board conditions, makes the tides at Yarmouth look a little tame and gets the pulse rate going!

I've seen her too, yes very little changed from the Thames days.

They're quite distinctive with the double side doors too, I don't think there were any others built to that spec.

[oldgregg]

3 hours ago, Cal said:

You are right of course it is all about demand which has to make you wonder why Le Boat/WHS are selling them off. Surely there must be demand for the Caledonian as well?

Well if LeBoat have assumed control as you say, then they won't want to be running anything other than their core offering.

Also, those boats need to go somewhere they can get a bit of TLC and they won't be able to get that at Laggan.

[Cal]

1 hour ago, oldgregg said:

Well if LeBoat have assumed control as you say, then they won't want to be running anything other than their core offering.

Also, those boats need to go somewhere they can get a bit of TLC and they won't be able to get that at Laggan.

They can't have sold the whole class of Braemore, Kingfisher and Curlew to Barnes as they still have some on the Le Boat and WHS websites for hire into next year. I just picked a random week next April and results returned all three classes of boats as available. Unless of course they have not updated the website yet!

[Broads01]

11 hours ago, andyg said:

wonder what has happened to the new sedan mould that was produced. Put on the back burner I guess. 

I saw it this afternoon in Richardson's shed, still in an incomplete state as you would expect.

It's a shame. They built so many if the forward drive version of the 38 footer and it would have potentially made a very good sedan and centre cockpit also.

[Broads01]

9 hours ago, oldgregg said:

I've seen her too, yes very little changed from the Thames days.

They're quite distinctive with the double side doors too, I don't think there were any others built to that spec.

I have Lady Kristina booked for next year (first time with Kris Cruisers) and I spotted the double side doors. It's a really good feature.

[Davydine]

On 03/06/2021 at 07:00, andyg said:

Exactly, good bit of business me thinks. I done a quick check on hoseason website and there is virtually no availability for boats across all waterways this summer. It's been said on TV this morning that after just a few weeks of allowing tourists from the UK  back in,Portugal may be put back on the government's red list. Overseas travel is such a changing and fluid situation, you really are taking a gamble when booking. There is still 20 weeks left of this season, you could raise the titanic and probably let that for 15 odd weeks after you'd tidy it up a bit 😉

Absolutely Andy! I would imagine that most boatyards would be looking at what's for sale that could be given a quick overhaul and added to a hire fleet to make the most of this summer. A 25 year old boat has done most of it's depreciating so as long as the condition is OK will hold its value reasonably well. Something like this: https://www.boatshed.com/faircraft_entrepeneur_34-boat-301476.html

That could be on hire within a month and would probably mostly pay for itself within a couple of years and then be sold for nearly the same price.

[Vaughan]

7 minutes ago, Davydine said:

That could be on hire within a month and would probably mostly pay for itself within a couple of years and then be sold for nearly the same price.

If only the world of boat hiring were that simple.

[Davydine]

29 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

If only the world of boat hiring were that simple.

Yes, I suspect my view is somewhat naive! Having said that, Barnes do seem to be making hay whilst the sun shines...

[andyg]

23 minutes ago, Davydine said:

Yes, I suspect my view is somewhat naive! Having said that, Barnes do seem to be making hay whilst the sun shines...

I don't think it's naive at all, it's exactly what is happening. It's a very strong market at the moment. Yards like barnes could turn around a boat very quickly and put into the fleet with the workforce they have. It may even work out the boat let's really well and is kept on for next season. Who would of thought they'd of kept the old dual steer Alphacraft boats in the fleet for so long. 

[Davydine]

35 minutes ago, andyg said:

I don't think it's naive at all, it's exactly what is happening. It's a very strong market at the moment. Yards like barnes could turn around a boat very quickly and put into the fleet with the workforce they have. It may even work out the boat let's really well and is kept on for next season. Who would of thought they'd of kept the old dual steer Alphacraft boats in the fleet for so long. 

Naive in as much as I don't know what is required to make a boat suitable / safe / legal to be part of a hire fleet. Barnes have taken boats that are already in a hire fleet, which may be easier to make ready for hire, than the example I gave, which is currently in private ownership.

I know one of @C.Ricko's new boats was in private hands but it looks as though they have had an extensive refurb before joining the hire fleet, certainly not a quick engine service and ready for customers.

My own opinion is that demand for UK holidays will remain high through 2022 whilst people gradually regain confidence in foreign travel, 

[oldgregg]

20 hours ago, Cal said:

They can't have sold the whole class of Braemore, Kingfisher and Curlew to Barnes as they still have some on the Le Boat and WHS websites for hire into next year. I just picked a random week next April and results returned all three classes of boats as available. Unless of course they have not updated the website yet!

Where / when did you hear that WHS had sold out to LeBoat? I'm guessing if they have done so then getting the website shut down might not have been high on their list of priorities. It won't have been done in-house.

@Broads01 I think there is a plan for the two unfinished boats in the shed at Ricko's to be completed. I suspect you may see some other boats added to their fleet before that happens, though.

[Cal]

14 minutes ago, oldgregg said:

Where / when did you hear that WHS had sold out to LeBoat? I'm guessing if they have done so then getting the website shut down might not have been high on their list of priorities. It won't have been done in-house.

@Broads01 I think there is a plan for the two unfinished boats in the shed at Ricko's to be completed. I suspect you may see some other boats added to their fleet before that happens, though.

It was when we were up there in 2017 with Naughty-Cal.

Le Boat advertise the WHS boats for hire through their website and instead of shutting down the WHS website they advertise the Le Boat boats for hire through WHS website.

Strange way of going about it I agree.

I believe all of the boats operate out of the Le Boat hire base at Laggan.

[oldgregg]

Okay, but what I'm asking is where did you hear that LeBoat had bought WHS out?

West Highland have operated boats for LeBoat (and Crown Blue Line before that) for years, alongside their own fleet from their Laggan base.

The better stuff was always on the LeBoat website as well as their own, and the older / more specialist stuff (such as the yachts they used to run) was only on their own website.

[oldgregg]

I googled it...

https://www.leboat.co.uk/west-highland-sailing

I would guess Ray Norris was going to retire so they bought them out to keep a base there? He did our handover in 2007 and would be about the right sort of age.

 

[DAVIDH]

Sephora now has new internal images. Looks good.
https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/sephora-bh2676

[andyg]

Richardsons website, now has the two new boats listed with interior and exterior images. Both boats are listed as new for 2021. Two very smart looking boats. 

[MrBlueSky]

Am I missing something as both these boats seem all inclusive when you look at the pricing on Richardsons Web site ?

[DAVIDH]

1 hour ago, MrBlueSky said:

Am I missing something as both these boats seem all inclusive when you look at the pricing on Richardsons Web site ?

It's just the way Richardsons have started to price their boats. Last time I checked, the price is the same as on Hoseasons with all the bits added. 

[Broads01]

Photos taken at Barnes this afternoon. I think the Kingfisher could be made an additional Ladymore if they wanted.

[DAVIDH]

Interesting that boatyards are snapping up craft that can be put into service relatively quickly. Clearly this year will be oversubscribed, but I think 2022 will also be busy. Things are no where near getting back to normal regarding overseas holidays, and the latest twist with Portugal will put most people off booking a holiday abroad this year, unless the situation stabilizes. I can't see that happening until next summer. By then, people will want to see destinations open up and stay open before committing themselves to a summer holiday on the Costas.

[andyg]

9 hours ago, DAVIDH said:

Interesting that boatyards are snapping up craft that can be put into service relatively quickly. Clearly this year will be oversubscribed, but I think 2022 will also be busy. Things are no where near getting back to normal regarding overseas holidays, and the latest twist with Portugal will put most people off booking a holiday abroad this year, unless the situation stabilizes. I can't see that happening until next summer. By then, people will want to see destinations open up and stay open before committing themselves to a summer holiday on the Costas.

Absolutely spot on there David, I showed my wife the new richo boats last night, she loves the haines boat. Sadly I don't love her snoring enough to make it a viable option 😪 I looked again this morning and was amazed at how many booking appear to have come in overnight for both boats. 

[BroadAmbition]

It was on the main tv news last that bookings for staycations are at an all time high, basically saying GB holidays - We are full!

imho this is good news for the home economy getting GB back on its feet

Griff

[Cal]

27 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

It was on the main tv news last that bookings for staycations are at an all time high, basically saying GB holidays - We are full!

imho this is good news for the home economy getting GB back on its feet

Griff

Absolutely agree with this.

Although sadly there are some people who are already complaining that places are too busy and we are not even into the summer holidays yet.

Scotland will be fed up of motorhomes by the time we get up there at the back end of September. 

[DAVIDH]

1 hour ago, Cal said:

Although sadly there are some people who are already complaining that places are too busy and we are not even into the summer holidays yet.

Well the Broads won't get any busier than they are now - it's already sold out until late September (apart from the odd cancellation or 3 night weekend break)