Astral Or Caribbean Light

[Davydine]

Hi everyone,

I just wondered if anyone had any experience of either Astral Light or Caribbean light from Herbert Woods?

They look similar, just a very slightly different layout and the description says Caribbean has a bow thruster, but Astral doesn't, have I missed anything else?

Thanks

David

[Matthew12]

On 18/07/2021 at 15:47, Davydine said:

Hi everyone,

I just wondered if anyone had any experience of either Astral Light or Caribbean light from Herbert Woods?

They look similar, just a very slightly different layout and the description says Caribbean has a bow thruster, but Astral doesn't, have I missed anything else?

Thanks

David

I dont have any experience with astral light or carribean light but i did notice astral light is slightly more expensive so it may have a more recent refit

[Davydine]

On 03/08/2021 at 09:29, Matthew12 said:

I dont have any experience with astral light or carribean light but i did notice astral light is slightly more expensive so it may have a more recent refit

Thanks Matthew, that was my first thought too. Strangely, Caribbean is the cheaper boat, but is the one with a bow thruster fitted and the pictures make the interior look slightly more modern. 
 

I will show them both to local management and she will tell me which one I like best!

[oldgregg]

On 03/08/2021 at 09:29, Matthew12 said:

I dont have any experience with astral light or carribean light but i did notice astral light is slightly more expensive so it may have a more recent refit

I'm not sure the words 'refit' and 'Herbert Woods' are often used in the same sentence? 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

3 minutes ago, Davydine said:

Thanks Matthew, that was my first thought too. Strangely, Caribbean is the cheaper boat, but is the one with a bow thruster fitted and the pictures make the interior look slightly more modern. 
 

I will show them both to local management and she will tell me which one I like best!

Good idea to keep local managment in the loop.

[Davydine]

1 minute ago, oldgregg said:

I'm not sure the words 'refit' and 'Herbert Woods' are often used in the same sentence? 

That made me chuckle! We have hired from HW a few times now. Lets just say I know what to expect! We have always been very happy with the service, but the older boats are, exactly that, older.

[Davydine]

4 minutes ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

Good idea to keep local managment in the loop.

I am not as stupid as I look!

[Matthew12]

5 minutes ago, oldgregg said:

I'm not sure the words 'refit' and 'Herbert Woods' are often used in the same sentence? 

Very true 

[Matthew12]

17 minutes ago, Davydine said:

Thanks Matthew, that was my first thought too. Strangely, Caribbean is the cheaper boat, but is the one with a bow thruster fitted and the pictures make the interior look slightly more modern. 
 

I will show them both to local management and she will tell me which one I like best!

Hmm.. Im not to sure then, best go with your personal opinion 

[jimbob88]

[jimbob88]

[jimbob88]

[jimbob88]

This video of Caribbean doesn't seem to be uploading. Neither boat blew me away but if I was to choose I'd probably got for astral over carabrean. 

 

[andyg]

Wasn't astral light originally with NBD at Wroxham, like a few of woods fleet. I would totally agree with the comments about the older boats interiors.. I hired florida light once and it was bloody awful inside and out the engine really had seen better days. The smoke it chucked out on cold sart up was dreadful. Me and the yard manager had quite a disagreement ( I believe it's still the same guy in charge now ) about the engine. Luckily I'd moored by the bridge pilots office the night before we returned the boat and the girls in the office saw all the smoke, whilst they were waiting outside the office that mooring and backed me up. He wasn't impressed. 

[Matthew12]

16 minutes ago, andyg said:

Wasn't astral light originally with NBD at Wroxham, like a few of woods fleet. I would totally agree with the comments about the older boats interiors.. I hired florida light once and it was bloody awful inside and out the engine really had seen better days. The smoke it chucked out on cold sart up was dreadful. Me and the yard manager had quite a disagreement ( I believe it's still the same guy in charge now ) about the engine. Luckily I'd moored by the bridge pilots office the night before we returned the boat and the girls in the office saw all the smoke, whilst they were waiting outside the office that mooring and backed me up. He wasn't impressed. 

 

[andyg]

There you go. Part of the cordon rouge fleet, I think that's what they use to call it..

[Davydine]

@jimbob88 Thank you for the videos, unfortunately they don't all want to open on my ipad, but the ones that do, give a flavour of what to expect. My gut feeling was for Astral too.

We are looking for a boat for a cheep weekend in April next year, as an additional Broads holiday. unfortunately the elite boats that would suit are all booked and anyway, I am perfectly happy with something more basic, it means we can afford a bigger boat and the kids have a cabin each, so fewer arguments!

This year we had Flash of light which was cheep as chips, but comfortable and worked perfectly, but I missed having the outside helm, I much prefer driving from outside, even in bad weather.

Thanks again,

David

[jimbob88]

[jimbob88]

[oldgregg]

It's almost as if you have a thing for Lowliners, James 

But yeah, if looking for an older / value boat that has actually had some maintenance then I think Richardson's would be a better bet. Woods do not seem to replace engines until they've chucked a rod through the block, but a lot of the older boats at Richardson's are running a Nanni.

The Classic Fleet boats don't always gleam on the outside, but they do inside.

[Broads01]

7 minutes ago, oldgregg said:

It's almost as if you have a thing for Lowliners, James 

But yeah, if looking for an older / value boat that has actually had some maintenance then I think Richardson's would be a better bet. Woods do not seem to replace engines until they've chucked a rod through the block, but a lot of the older boats at Richardson's are running a Nanni.

The boats don't always gleam on the outside, but they do inside.

I completely agree. I'm not a mechanical expert but even I notice how the engine noise on older Herbert Woods boats stands out.

[Davydine]

1 hour ago, oldgregg said:

It's almost as if you have a thing for Lowliners, James 

But yeah, if looking for an older / value boat that has actually had some maintenance then I think Richardson's would be a better bet. Woods do not seem to replace engines until they've chucked a rod through the block, but a lot of the older boats at Richardson's are running a Nanni.

The Classic Fleet boats don't always gleam on the outside, but they do inside.

Thank you, yes, we have hired from Richardsons in the past and have one holiday booked with them already next year, we are just considering options for an extra weekend break with some friends, so looking for two boats on a specific weekend means that options are more limited.

HW seem to be slightly cheaper than Richos, but I think that is reflected in the turn out of the boats. I was perfectly happy with Flash of Light and it had a newish Nanni engine, but the rumble when it was in gear made me think it needed some mechanical attention.

[oldgregg]

1 hour ago, Davydine said:

I was perfectly happy with Flash of Light and it had a newish Nanni engine, but the rumble when it was in gear made me think it needed some mechanical attention.

This is the thing. They may have replaced the engine but the hydraulic drive (I'm assuming she's not on a shaft, most Bounty 40's aren't) etc has probably not had a major overhaul.

Some yards will replace the gearbox, shaft, prop, bearing etc and some of the electrics (ie charging systems etc) when doing a re-engine and others will just do the minimum required to swap the lump out. It depends on the way they manage their fleet.

[Davydine]

3 hours ago, oldgregg said:

This is the thing. They may have replaced the engine but the hydraulic drive (I'm assuming she's not on a shaft, most Bounty 40's aren't) etc has probably not had a major overhaul.

Some yards will replace the gearbox, shaft, prop, bearing etc and some of the electrics (ie charging systems etc) when doing a re-engine and others will just do the minimum required to swap the lump out. It depends on the way they manage their fleet.

Actually I think Flash is on a shaft, she is a Bounty 40 and I know most of them have a rear mounted engine with hydraulics, but she has a slightly different layout to the standard Bounty 40 (two en suite twin cabins like Swiftway at Horning Pleasurecraft) and has the engine under the saloon floor. Not sure where the noise was coming from, but no way was the person in the aft cabin having a lie in when we were under way!

[jimbob88]

7 hours ago, oldgregg said:

It's almost as if you have a thing for Lowliners, James 

But yeah, if looking for an older / value boat that has actually had some maintenance then I think Richardson's would be a better bet. Woods do not seem to replace engines until they've chucked a rod through the block, but a lot of the older boats at Richardson's are running a Nanni.

The Classic Fleet boats don't always gleam on the outside, but they do inside.

I may have slight fondness for this design. Hard not to when they are this damn fine to look at. If only there was a syndicated one.