Cruiser Hire In February - Thoughts?

[Bluebell]

February on the Broads - you’ll be fine…😎

[Mouldy]

10 hours ago, Coryton said:

Interesting. Previously we've been told to run the engine before putting the heating on. On our hire last week, there was no mention of this, so we just put the heating on when we wanted it and it worked fine.

Except once when it just flashed a little green light at us. So I tried putting the engine in neutral and this time the heating came on. Not sure what was going on because we seemed to have plenty of battery left.

Im no expert, but heaters use a lot of power when firing up.  It may be that on the occasion that it didn’t start, the batteries were not quite up to the capacity required, maybe as the result of a short cruising day or that other appliances or lights had been used to use reduce what was available when you moored up.

[Vaughan]

DC appliances with a motor are sensitive to voltage and will cut out when they sense a low voltage.  Electric fridges will do the same, when they get below 12 volts.  When starting, the heater needs a lot of power to its glow plug, as well as to the electric fan and this is what causes the volt drop.

If your batteries are in good condition and reasonably charged, the heater will start.  If it doesn't, then you can start the engine, run it for a few minutes and try again.

Later, you can then clean all the mud off your windows, that someone has thrown at you for starting your engine on the moorings!

[Coryton]

15 hours ago, Mouldy said:

Im no expert, but heaters use a lot of power when firing up.  It may be that on the occasion that it didn’t start, the batteries were not quite up to the capacity required, maybe as the result of a short cruising day or that other appliances or lights had been used to use reduce what was available when you moored up.

Yes that all makes sense. But based on engine hours and what we ran from the batteries, they shouldn't have been lower at that point than others when we ran the heating.

Unless we left the inverter on by mistake maybe.

And we didn't have any neighbours to notice or complain about a little light engine running....

[andyg]

6 hours ago, Coryton said:

Yes that all makes sense. But based on engine hours and what we ran from the batteries, they shouldn't have been lower at that point than others when we ran the heating.

Unless we left the inverter on by mistake maybe.

And we didn't have any neighbours to notice or complain about a little light engine running....

We had dazzling light from hw a few weeks ago. It didn't matter how long we ran the engine the domestic batteries would go flat overnight. We called them out they replaced  the whole bank of batteries. Next morning same thing. Called them out again, this time the engineer done some investigating, turned out to be the fridge. It's has a 240vlt fridge on this particular boat and when loading the fridge up one of the girls had moved the thermostat by mistake. So basically the fridge motor was running 24/7 DOH. Thermostat adjusted back down, no more problems. No quite sure what happened to the batteries they took of tho. Waste of perfectly good batteries if they were scrapped.

[grendel]

they would probably go back to the yard, get charged and drop tested before scrapping, any that passed the test would be put into the stores ready for taking out to the next boat experiencing battery issues, any that failed would be scrapped. the boat yards dont throw away money.

[andyg]

I'd hate to think they just threw them away, the guy did say the local scrap man loved them this time of the year. The previous day they had hit a record and had changed 28 batteries. Which I could believe as we weren't the only hw boat at Ranworth that morning having battery issues. The thing is if we had managed to get shore power we'd of never had called them out as the problem only surfaced on the 2nd day when running on our own batteries. Dave back at the yard told us the 240 vlt fridges on there big boats were agro all year round. I checked everything I could think of before calling them but the fridge never crossed my mind...

[Smoggy]

The batteries on my boat at the moment are all genuine oem BMW batteries, a mate worked for a dealership and they always checked the batteries before releasing the cars but of course they had done short runs from production line to compound, compound to transporter, transporter to compound and probably lots more of the same before getting to a PDI bay so the batteries came up bad lots of the time, had they been charged first they'd have been fine.

So 4x 90Ah AGM batteries retailing for around £350 each for nowt was well worth bunging a £20 note to the guy sending them to scrap, all had manufacture dates embossed on the terminal posts and all within 6 months old.

Unfortunately he no longer works there as he retired, inconsiderate git...

[Bikertov]

You can get decent money back on old batteries at a recycling place if you get them weighed in.

I took about 100 small lead acid ones from old UPS's at work (similar in size to a burglar alarm battery) and got around £1 each if I recall ? Car batteries would be worth a fair bit more.

[andyg]

Going slightly off topic, looking at herbert woods webcam earlier and I was quite surprised to see them still sending a handful of boats out. Not all fishermen either, nice bit of late season revenue. 

[rightsaidfred]

4 minutes ago, andyg said:

Going slightly off topic, looking at herbert woods webcam earlier and I was quite surprised to see them still sending a handful of boats out. Not all fishermen either, nice bit of late season revenue. 

They keep a dozen or so boats available all winter.

Fred

[andyg]

Just now, rightsaidfred said:

They keep a dozen or so boats available all winter.

Fred

I knew they did winter cruising I just thought it would be guys fishing. But these were families with young..bit to chilly for me but good to see. 

[rightsaidfred]

7 minutes ago, andyg said:

I knew they did winter cruising I just thought it would be guys fishing. But these were families with young..bit to chilly for me but good to see. 

Agreed and the right hire boats can be warm enough, not sure many Anglers hire during winter think most stay in cottages and hire fishing boats if they want to be afloat.

Fred

[YnysMon]

I've been surprised how many hire boats are out on the northern rivers this week. Quite a few HWs, one or two Richardson's, a couple of Bridgecraft and, perhaps most numerous, Ferry Marina. There were four high airdraft Ferry boats at Ludham the other day, but we've also seen their lower airdraft boats up the Ant. I don't recall seeing and NBD boats though. 

[SwanR]

1 hour ago, YnysMon said:

I don't recall seeing and NBD boats though. 

When I walked past their yard last weekend it was completely full with their own boats. No room for visitors. And no sign of any arriving hirers or boats being prepared to go out. I would have liked to consider them for a winter hire but they did look as if that was it for the season. And there wasn’t anything available to book on the website. Although I did wonder whether it was worth a phone call. I’m sure I’ve read other years that they’ve hired out over Christmas. 

[Captain]

I am sure I read on Facebook that NBD are closed for the season for boat hire,  I believe the holiday homes and maybe some of the trip boats remain in part service or for Santa cruises not sure about the day boats. I guess Len has decided winter hire isn't worth the hassle, more trade for Ferry, Woods etc I guess although less choice for customers.

Neil

[DAVIDH]

I don't think anyone hires out over Christmas. At least I believe I read on here sometime that it was because nobody wanted to be on call over that period - especially Christmas Day. The nearest you can get to it on Hoseasons is mid December with Brooms.

[Broads01]

I think NBD stopped hiring over winter a few years back. Ferry hire all year, Bridgecraft do as well but only by special request, I think. HW make a few boats available in November and February. I'm surprised there's Richardson’s boats still out - I thought they advertised November last year but pulled the offer in the end. 

[SwanR]

35 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

I'm surprised there's Richardson’s boats still out

I'm not sure whether last weekend would have been their last starting date so maybe once they all go back in, that will be it. Shame, I would have liked to take one or two of them out.

I'm thinking that it really looks like it will have to be Ferry Marina if we want to hire, but the boats I really want for out of season are a bit pricey.

[Coryton]

6 hours ago, andyg said:

I knew they did winter cruising I just thought it would be guys fishing. But these were families with young..bit to chilly for me but good to see. 

I don't suppose it's much colder than it was last week, and we certainly weren't too cold then.

[YnysMon]

Just too add...we've also seen a couple of Eastwood Whelpton boats out. Dawn Wind and another Wind. 

[andyg]

If your a small family yard and the boats are still set up to hire,why not. Im sure ppl that would hire this time of the year are fully aware of what there getting into. That said winter months are generally warmer nowadays. I've just had a cuppa in my garden and was just thinking I'd be quite happy to be afloat at the mo. I had my first dealings with bridgecraft this week making an inquiry and have to say I was very impressed with how helpful the guy was. I could here lots of sanding and banging going on in the background so clearly busy. We are going to be spending a few weeks afloat next year ( covid has put us off flying ) so I'm 90% sure il be giving them ago. 

[Boatingman]

Jean

Give the individual yards a call

I have in the past and have successful in getting the boats I wanted

Ray

 

 

[Coryton]

46 minutes ago, andyg said:

If your a small family yard and the boats are still set up to hire,why not. Im sure ppl that would hire this time of the year are fully aware of what there getting into. That said winter months are generally warmer nowadays. I've just had a cuppa in my garden and was just thinking I'd be quite happy to be afloat at the mo. I had my first dealings with bridgecraft this week making an inquiry and have to say I was very impressed with how helpful the guy was. I could here lots of sanding and banging going on in the background so clearly busy. We are going to be spending a few weeks afloat next year ( covid has put us off flying ) so I'm 90% sure il be giving them ago. 

I was very impressed with Bridgecraft on our recent hire - they seem to be a very friendly lot.

I expect after the season they've just had they will have a busy winter, though there wasn't anything obviously wrong with our boat apart from a rather stiff throttle.

[andyg]

2 hours ago, Coryton said:

I was very impressed with Bridgecraft on our recent hire - they seem to be a very friendly lot.

I expect after the season they've just had they will have a busy winter, though there wasn't anything obviously wrong with our boat apart from a rather stiff 

There boats still looked very smart considering the busy season they have had.