Sovereign Light - Herbert Woods

[CeePee1952]

I thought I'd share my views on Sovereign Light that we were on 3rd - 10th Sep 21.  Overall, we were very pleased with the boat.  Considering we hired her towards the end of the season she was in excellent condition.  All equipment was clean and serviceable including the bed linen and galley utensils.  Cooking onboard was easy and everything functioned as it should.  We cooked a roast chicken dinner on one of the nights and it was just as good as if we had cooked it at home! The design of the galley and its location was perfect.  The boat  handled perfectly and the bow and stern thrusters (which I believe are hydraulically operated) were  very good when required. The ignition key must be left in the ignition on the lower helm panel after starting the engine for the thrusters to be operated from the upper helm position. One thing I realised very quickly is that because the bow is lighter than the stern (engine is at the back of the boat), you don't need as much input as the with stern thruster to do a sideways shuffle!!  This might be not so obvious with first time hirers? There were four adults on board for the week and we all showered daily and had numerous cups of tea and coffee.  The showers were excellent and well designed. The fresh water tank holds 250 litres of water and we never got low enough to panic.  We topped up the water on the 3rd day at Wroxham and the 5th day at Richardsons and that was sufficient to see us through to the end of the holiday.  We only had one pump out during the course of the holiday and that was on the 4th day at Ludham Bridge.  We kept to the speed limits and whenever possible cruised with the tide, I think this was a factor in how little fuel we used but I'm no expert on this!!  I attached a file in my blog on the holiday section showing the journey itinery and fuel used if anyone is interested.  We always helmed from the upper deck as we like to take in the scenery that is more accessible when higher up on the boat and this is the main reason why we always hire a dual steer.  Even in really wet weather conditions (not this time thankfully!) we will don wet weather gear and still helm from the upper deck.

The presence of a GPS readout on the upper helm was handy in referencing our speed although we always kept an eye out for any excessive wash at the rear when we were cruising. For a 44 ft boat she handled perfectly and presented no problems at all during the week.  Daily checks on the coolant, oil and weed filter were easy to complete, the engine access at the stern of the boat makes it a doddle!!   I was surprised at the lack of weed in the filter every day but then I don't think we cruised anywhere where there was an excessive amount of weed!  There was hardly any vibration throughout the boat when cruising and no niggly rattles.  Mooring lines were long enough and in very good condition.  The electrically operated mudweight was something I hadn't experienced before on any of our previously hired boats but was simple to operate and took the effort away from having to manually raise it and clean it off after use.  The boat comes equipped with all the standard equipment but I wish hire yards would remove that ghastly boat hook from their boats!  I admit it has it's uses (I think!) but in the hands of an inexperienced hirer it can be dangerous.  I quickly put ours on the saloon roof and there it stayed for the whole week!!  We never had to use the heating due to the excellent weather that week so I cannot comment on its efficiency.

Overall, I can highly recommend this boat and we would have hired it again for 2023 (our next holiday with our friends) but its unavailable for the dates we require so we have booked Royale Light from Herbert Woods instead.  It's more or less the same layout but has an extra cabin instead of a 3rd wash/shower/toilet compartment and some storage space.

A final word about HW staff.  Considering the circumstances, the staff were very professional and courteous and helpful.  We certainly have no qualms about booking with HW again and in fact we have now booked a further two seperate holiday with them, one in Oct 2022 and another in Sep 2023.

Chris