Having A Bad Day? (boats swept away on the Lot in France)

[webntweb]

11 minutes ago, oldgregg said:

Very much so. But LeBoat can't afford that level of workmanship.

Don't know why when they are charging over £5,000 for a week in August on the Midi.

Boat Hire; CDW; Unlimited mileage - fuel, oil, engine wear and tear; hire of a bicycle per person; End-of-cruise boat cleaning; Washing up liquid, etc; Starter Provisions Pack and a few other bits and bobs including a Captain's hat.

 

[JennyMorgan]

42 minutes ago, floydraser said:

Claim on the insurance then all the wrecks would be sold off as projects. Would that flood the market with cheap boats later on?

Twenty or so boats would hardly be flooding the market! Re insurance, if Norfolk is an example, then it may only be third party. 

Vaughan, would the lost boats be fully insured, especially out of season? 

[floydraser]

37 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Twenty or so boats would hardly be flooding the market!

No, but enough to set up a new business. I suspect LeBoat would want those boats re-used or gone for good.

[dnks34]

I would not be prepared to take on any of those wrecked hulls as a project even if it were given to me for free. 

Especially having seen what had actually happened to them.  I wouldn’t even be prepared to hire one should any miraculously reappear on hire!
 

[Happy]

18 minutes ago, dnks34 said:

I would not be prepared to take on any of those wrecked hulls as a project even if it were given to me for free. 

Especially having seen what had actually happened to them.  I wouldn’t even be prepared to hire one should any miraculously reappear on hire!
 

Does anyone know weather any have been recovered, or are they still drifting, or all now smashed to pieces?

[Vaughan]

33 minutes ago, floydraser said:

No, but enough to set up a new business. I suspect LeBoat would want those boats re-used or gone for good.

I don't think they will be much concerned about competition, in these present times!  If you look on the brokerage page of their website you can take your pick of the fleet, both old and new.  They have gone through a totally disastrous season in 2019 and I would think the last thing they would be considering is building new boats.  Considering they are now owned by TUI I would think the odds are even, whether they will start next season or not.  Companies that big, tend to make drastic decisions to cut their losses.  I remember when Rank pulled out of boating in the early 80s.  They were making big profits in Port Cassafieres but not on the Broads or Thames, so they sold off.

In Le Boat's case though, I am not at all sure who would buy it.  These are not good times, for overseas holidays!

 

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

Vaughan, would the lost boats be fully insured, especially out of season?

  They were certainly fully insured in the days of Crown Blue Line but what Le Boat's fantastic management have decided, I don't know. If the newer boats were built using venture capital then the financiers would insist on insurance.

It has also occurred to me that the bases were insured by a different company from the boats.  So the boats' insurers would presumably be claiming against Le Boat, as it was their pontoon which broke adrift?

[Vaughan]

13 minutes ago, Happy said:

Does anyone know weather any have been recovered, or are they still drifting, or all now smashed to pieces?

The water has not gone down yet, and towns in the Charente, Lot and Garonne are still badly flooded.

[Oddfellow]

1 hour ago, floydraser said:

No, but enough to set up a new business. I suspect LeBoat would want those boats re-used or gone for good.

Enough to set up a new business? In what kind of time frame? It would take a competent and decent-sized yard 2-plus years to salvage and repair those boats to a suitable hire condition again. 

[RS2021]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

I am not at all sure who would buy it.

Based on what's happening on the high street, I'm sure some internet based business would come along and buy the 'brand only'. Virtual overseas holidays anyone?

[PaulN]

Having a Bad Day reminds me of what happened to me in 1987, the year of the great storm. In those days, I was racing my Sigma 33 which was moored at Essex Marina, Wallasea Island, Essex. My berth was port side to along the pontoon. In those days the whole marina was secured with anchors in the main flow of the river.

After the horrendous winds overnight, I received a phone call telling me that the entire marina had broken away, colliding with all the boats on swinging moorings on its way across the river prior to grounding on the mud banks at Burnham on Crouch.

I drove straight to Burnham to see what the damage to my boat was and found her on her side, still attached to the pontoon with her keel under it and trapped between the marina and the shore. Fortunately I had 8 fenders secured to the pontoon and not the boat and so they were still doing their job.

The scene was carnage with many boats sunk and piled up on one another, with people in tears. I climbed aboard and stripped out the lockers under the starboard bunk, to see if the hull was intact and it seemed to be, with no water ingress. I then had the problem of re-floating her as everything had been pushed hard up the shore at high tide and releasing her from the ‘prison’ between the pontoons and the shore.

I walked both anchors and chains out through the mud to low water mark and dug them in, taking long warps back to the bow and stern and leading them back to the cockpit winches and then spent much of the day, cutting away my section of pontoon.

In the dark that evening with high water approaching, I managed to hail a friend I saw on his powerful work boat (no mobiles in those days) and got him to secure her to the pontoon ready to pull the pontoon out sideways. At high water, with the work boat pulling hard and myself and another friend winching the anchors , we got her afloat and the engine started. Cutting the warps attaching us to the pontoon and anchors we motored in the dark upstream to North Fambridge Marina and spent the night there.

The next day and much to my surprise there was not a scratch on her, but I was the only one that had been so lucky. I then got a lift back to Burnham to retrieve the car and realising it was now low water, before I left, I waded out in the mud again and retrieved the anchors and warps, embarrassed at my luck and the sight of my friends still trying to salvage what they could from their boats.

A Bad Day, and a long cold day and night, but with a lucky escape.

[andyg]

Vaughan, I believe tui no longer own le boat, I'm sure they sold their travelopia business which included le boat back in 2017.

[NeilB]

Just had a Google.  As Andy says TUI sold the Travelopia division to private equity firm KKR, this also includes Sunsail who have quite a few boats worldwide.

[andyg]

18 minutes ago, NeilB said:

Just had a Google.  As Andy says TUI sold the Travelopia division to private equity firm KKR, this also includes Sunsail who have quite a few boats worldwide.

The only sailing trip I have ever been on was with sunsail. Our base was the harbour at Nydri on the island of Lefkada, stunning location. An Old WW2 Uboat pen you could swim into and the Onassis family tomb all located in the bay. 

[TeamElla]

How the British mark navigation hazards versus how the French mark them.....

 

 

 

 

first the benign Upper River Medway in Kent (sluices or weirs):-

 

 

 

[TeamElla]

Now the weirs on the River Lot

Actually the couple of buoys in this picture don't mark the weir at all (which is about 9 feet high and stretching across the entire river - it's almost invisible in this picture) but instead they just abouy manage to mark the side channel to avoid the weir:-

 

[TeamElla]

Those buoys are actually quite substantial compared to others that we encountered (and the underwater obstructions are completely unmarked)

The bed of this river is unforgiving rock

[Vaughan]

15 hours ago, andyg said:

Vaughan, I believe tui no longer own le boat, I'm sure they sold their travelopia business which included le boat back in 2017.

 

14 hours ago, NeilB said:

Just had a Google.  As Andy says TUI sold the Travelopia division to private equity firm KKR, this also includes Sunsail who have quite a few boats worldwide.

Thank you folks, I hadn't heard about that. I don't suppose it should surprise me in the least and it doesn't change any comments I have made previously!

[Vaughan]

13 hours ago, TeamElla said:

 

 

You have to watch out for buoyage in France as well - it's the other way round!

Unlike international rules, where a red buoy is left hand - in France it is right hand, as their buoyage  goes downstream, not upstream.

This is why the south bank of the Seine in Paris is known as the "Rive Gauche".

The U.S. is the same : international law reverses as soon as you go inland up river.

[Turnoar]

On 09/02/2021 at 11:07, Mouldy said:

With the travel restrictions that are likely to be imposed this year and possibly next and until a more reliable vaccine for Covid is in place, I think that is a more likely option.  They could probably move a few craft from other bases in the meantime to maintain their presence at the base if that is required.

I hope they do repair and maintain the base in some form, foremost I’m guessing livelihoods depend on it and from Vaughan’s vista in normal circumstances it certainly does look a beautiful place to relax on a boat which is what it’s allaboat. Maybe not a first timers venue but “for the experienced hirer” or such loyke. Would be a shame if this destination is lost, I guess if it weren’t for the broads hire industry and the subsequent export of the idea (and boats) to France then it may never have existed in the first place?

Unutterably sad watching helmless vessels seemingly resisting their fate but some probably being damaged almost certainly beyond economic repair in the procession to the end. The insurers look to have a bit of a mess on their books even if it’s just damage to others to worry about.

 

 

[Griff500]

Latest news from the Lot is that only 4 are repairable and that the other 17 have been destroyed 

[Oddfellow]

 

35 minutes ago, Griff500 said:

Latest news from the Lot is that only 4 are repairable and that the other 17 have been destroyed 

WOW. Gotta recover them first I guess. 

[Happy]

6 minutes ago, FreedomBoatingHols said:

 

WOW. Gotta recover them first I guess. 

I had assumed that the four repairable had somehow been 'rescued'?

[JennyMorgan]

Robin of woody Kingfisher fame has rescued some desperately sad looking synthetic boats that he's successfully brought back from the dark side. One man's write off might be another man treasure!   

[Oddfellow]

2 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Robin of woody Kingfisher fame has rescued some desperately sad looking synthetic boats that he's successfully brought back from the dark side. One man's write off might be another man treasure!   

It's all a matter of economics..... 

[grendel]

I would think they would still be responsible for removing the hazards to navigation caused by sunken and wrecked boats