New Hire Boats For 2022

[marshman]

Never quite sure of the relationship between Ferry and NYA - I don't think its that close. I expect that if they wanted to put it in the hire fleet, they would have to buy it!

To be honest, I think they now have too many hire boats - as always something has to give and some private berth holders may be questioning whether the Cators give the same service as Len did.

[andyg]

Apparently on quite turnaround days with the fleet sitting in they really struggle to fit all the boats in. Quite a few boats moored opposite the ferry not being used. I assume thats the cators land.To be fair I don't think the cators have added many new boats since they took over. It was already at bursting point under lens ownership. The current owners seem to have concentrate more on updating what they already had. 

[Mouldy]

3 hours ago, marshman said:

Never quite sure of the relationship between Ferry and NYA - I don't think its that close. I expect that if they wanted to put it in the hire fleet, they would have to buy it! . . . . . . . . .

If it’s under brokerage, they only have to take it back to put it into their fleet, surely.  This was on their FB page last year, when it was launched.  With their winter maintenance programme underway, I wouldn’t have thought that they’d build another one on spec, with limited space in the shed.

[andyg]

I hear whispering Reed craft have withdrawn bitten. Shame, but totally understandable with the bridge becoming more and more of a problem to navigate. 2nd hand boat prices are high so from a business point now is a good time to sell if that's there thinking. I remember watching them launch bitten she was a cracking little boat and incredibly popular to boot.

[oldgregg]

15 hours ago, andyg said:

I hear whispering Reed craft have withdrawn bitten. Shame, but totally understandable with the bridge becoming more and more of a problem to navigate. 2nd hand boat prices are high so from a business point now is a good time to sell if that's there thinking. I remember watching them launch bitten she was a cracking little boat and incredibly popular to boot.

That's a shame.

I've hired Bittern a few times for days and weekends and she's a great little boat. She was built around 2004 and has a nice neutral fitout. Unusually for a 740 she was also shaft drive so nice and quiet and responsive, and had quite a bit of power in reserve.

[Oddfellow]

One of the problems with Hickling is that the BA needs a licence from Natural England to do weed cutting in Hickling as its the site of a rare water plant and NE has all-but withdrawn licences to cut.  How long before Hickling has virtually no navigation? I am told that the effects of the weed growth is causing a lot of problems with props, dagger boards, keels and rudders. 

 

[marshman]

Don't think they have stopped cutting the channel but its always been the case that outside of the channel, although growth is monitored, only a modest amount of cutting is allowed and that only to a certain depth. If its any consolation Hickling is home to some very rare water plants.

However climate change is clearly having an impact as longer growing seasons just encourages more growth - some years some varieties grow more than others but I doubt anyone really knows why!!! I remember in the 60/70's they had a huge problem with some weed but then it just died away!!

[Broads01]

19 hours ago, andyg said:

I hear whispering Reed craft have withdrawn bitten. Shame, but totally understandable with the bridge becoming more and more of a problem to navigate. 2nd hand boat prices are high so from a business point now is a good time to sell if that's there thinking. I remember watching them launch bitten she was a cracking little boat and incredibly popular to boot.

Thanks for the update, Andy. I agree it's a shame but they must have their reasons. I hired it for half a day in 2016 and it was brilliant. Even if it could rarely fit through the bridge now I'd gladly have hired it for one or two nights.

[Andrewcook]

As to Hiring Boats out of Season say February. where can you get the Water plus Pump Out? As to the likes of Barns Brinks still shut.I belive

[webntweb]

We hired Bittern for a day a couple of years ago. Like Simon we were thinking of a couple of nights on her in the near future just to do a spot of fishing and pottering around above Potter.

[unclemike]

[Captain]

What a shame about Bittern. I hired her 3/4 times including spending an entire long weekend under Potter and would happily do the same. I never forget that weekend, spent a night or more at Catfield staithe watching a kingfisher fish from the bow unfortunately no photos as I didn't want to scare it and Bittern did bobble around a bit. The River to Catfield was so narrow I believe she was touching the reeds both sides at one point. She did catch the wind a little however one person could turn her round on the ropes at Catfield and Horsey.

I always thought she was tightly restricted on speed until I realised you could push past the spring resistance on the lever and engage warp drive in an emergency. This I appreciated when I was day dreaming and nearly got T-boned by the Southern Comfort my fault entirely, applied warp the bow lifted up and I avoided becoming Southern's tender. 

A great little boat and the last Sheerline cruiser spec you can hire overnight. As to Potter I don't remember it needed more than 6 ft so not a great deal more than Marthams fleet and personally I would happily stay under Potter and enjoy the peace.

Neil

[DAVIDH]

Richardsons boats for 2023 have been/are being loaded onto the Hoseasons system now. The prices for 2023 don't look that different from this year. Maybe one or two slightly cheaper.

[Mouldy]

10 hours ago, DAVIDH said:

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . The prices for 2023 don't look that different from this year. Maybe one or two slightly cheaper.

The effects of endemic over pandemic, clearly.  With foreign travel opening up, many folk will be taking the cheaper option of fun in the sun, rather that spending 3.5k for a week afloat on The Broads.  A fly in the ointment might be the return of any restrictions due to the discovery of another mutation of the dreaded virus, but who knows what the future holds in that regard.

[DAVIDH]

1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

 With foreign travel opening up, many folk will be taking the cheaper option of fun in the sun, rather that spending 3.5k for a week afloat on The Broads.

Yes (as I keep saying), I'm surprised that the prices haven't dropped. Maybe the boatyard owners are banking on another round of Coronavirus mutations/restrictions. The news about The Ukraine this morning, will probably also have a mildly dampening effect on overseas holidays if the situation drags on.

[SwanR]

Then again with fuel prices on the rise, cost of living increases maybe leading to wage rises, perhaps for now they’re hedging their bets on people just accepting the higher prices as the current market price. And they can offer discounts later if appropriate. 

[Davydine]

5 hours ago, DAVIDH said:

Yes (as I keep saying), I'm surprised that the prices haven't dropped. Maybe the boatyard owners are banking on another round of Coronavirus mutations/restrictions. The news about The Ukraine this morning, will probably also have a mildly dampening effect on overseas holidays if the situation drags on.

Ultimately, it's easier to bring prices down than put them up, I think  they will wait and see how the bookings go before lowering prices. There can always be “special offers” later.

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, Davydine said:

Ultimately, it's easier to bring prices down than put them up, I think  they will wait and see how the bookings go before lowering prices. There can always be “special offers” later.

Trouble with that is that when someone has looked at the price of a boat for week in the summer and compared it to a week in the sun which is much cheaper, after they’ve booked the jet-away holiday it won’t matter how cheap a week on a boat becomes, it’ll be too late.

The only time that a price reduction might help might be for a half term week in October.

With the issues in Ukraine, the only way fuel prices will be going is up.  Those coupled with rising interest rates, food prices etc. will make folk even more aware of how they spend their money.

[RS2021]

The way prices are now done you don't always need 'special prices'. Prices are no longer published they are online 'dynamic' pricing so unless you are monitoring prices regularly (and I know some people do) you won't know if the boat you have booked is now cheaper. I also notice the trend away from 'classes' (where you would see if un-booked boats in your class are cheaper) to individually named boats, so once its booked you can't see what the price was anyway. So very easy to change the price if necessary.

Having said that I do think yards will introduce discounts ahead of price reductions. We only saw small loyalty discounts this year. There were no early booking discounts and few affinity deals around. I also noticed a tweaking of price periods which had a very significant affect on price - again hard to spot with 'dynamic' pricing. That could easily be tweaked back if necessary. Only time will tell.

If people do rush back to overseas holidays they will also be reminded of airport and flight delays which you don't get on the Broads. We've just had a very nice holiday in Madeira, but it ended with a 66 hour flight delay. Hopefully a one off, but if that became more common it does make you think.

[DAVIDH]

Dynamic pricing (where an algorithm assesses the state of booking levels at any one time and adjusts rates up or down accordingly), has been very successful in maximising profits for airlines and overseas operators. However, I've seen no sign that dynamic pricing operates on our Norfolk Broads holidays (through the course of last summer, when there was a clamour for school holiday availability, Commodores and Commanders stayed at £3,146 for one week's holiday, despite selling within days of coming back from cancellation). I think there are two reasons why I think it's unlikely to be applied here. First, the software investment is huge, and it would have to be born by both Hoseasons and the actual boatyards. As I keep saying, Hoseasons are just agents. They do not own the stock, so the incentive to spend money on dynamic pricing is low. Secondly, Hoseasons has feeds in from the likes of Richardsons, Barnes Brinkcraft and Faircraft Loynes. Each time they want to tweak a price, that then has to be reflected on the Hoseasons system. All of which just adds complexity and cost. 

[Vaughan]

Plus the fact that Broads holidays marketing is not "bums on seats" like the airlines or tour operators.

[andyg]

It would seem richardsons new fleet additions are going down to well with there customers. Tranquila has virtually no bookings for this season according to there own availability Calendar. With plenty of availability on two of the other boats. Not sure why as most if not all the platinum fleet is very heavily booked for the season. That's a lot of money to have sitting about. I could see some price reductions coming on here. 

[Dan]

10 minutes ago, andyg said:

It would seem richardsons new fleet additions.... Tranquila has virtually no bookings for this season according to there own availability Calendar. With plenty of availability on two of the other boats. ..

At over £2300 in summer for Tranquilla the pricing seems to be past 'on the high side' and a bit extreme!

The quality of the description doesn't really support/validate the cost either... both external pictures feature a different boat name on the image (removing it with photoshop if not taking a replacement photo on a nice turnaround day is not hard) and the description makes no sense... it mentions an en-suite for the rear cabin which the image shows as a lounge and it is only a two berth and the sleeping cabin is pictured as the forward cabin with two singles, yet the description mentions two forward doubles!

I think it is the worst, most confusing and totally inaccurate description I've seen, perhaps whoever wrote it should be flogged... but just to add the icing to the cake there is no layout plan, which other new additions for some fleets have so must be possible but perhaps at the operators insistence/persistence?  

https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/tranquilla-bh2702

https://www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk/boats/tranquilla/

Dan

 

 

 

 

[BrundallNavy]

18 minutes ago, Dan said:

At over £2300 in summer for Tranquilla the pricing seems to be past 'on the high side' and a bit extreme!

The quality of the description doesn't really support/validate the cost either... both external pictures feature a different boat name on the image (removing it with photoshop if not taking a replacement photo on a nice turnaround day is not hard) and the description makes no sense... it mentions an en-suite for the rear cabin which the image shows as a lounge and it is only a two berth and the sleeping cabin is pictured as the forward cabin with two singles, yet the description mentions two forward doubles!

I think it is the worst, most confusing and totally inaccurate description I've seen, perhaps whoever wrote it should be flogged... but just to add the icing to the cake there is no layout plan, which other new additions for some fleets have so must be possible but perhaps at the operators insistence/persistence?  

https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/tranquilla-bh2702

https://www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk/boats/tranquilla/

Dan

 

 

 

 

That seems a lot for a 2 berth. 

[andyg]

49 minutes ago, Dan said:

At over £2300 in summer for Tranquilla the pricing seems to be past 'on the high side' and a bit extreme!

The quality of the description doesn't really support/validate the cost either... both external pictures feature a different boat name on the image (removing it with photoshop if not taking a replacement photo on a nice turnaround day is not hard) and the description makes no sense... it mentions an en-suite for the rear cabin which the image shows as a lounge and it is only a two berth and the sleeping cabin is pictured as the forward cabin with two singles, yet the description mentions two forward doubles!

I think it is the worst, most confusing and totally inaccurate description I've seen, perhaps whoever wrote it should be flogged... but just to add the icing to the cake there is no layout plan, which other new additions for some fleets have so must be possible but perhaps at the operators insistence/persistence?  

https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/tranquilla-bh2702

https://www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk/boats/tranquilla/

Dan

 

 

 

 

Brink back Clive, but yes agree someone clearly isn't on the ball...