Jump to content
Print your own personalised forum logo

Returning To A Boat After Many Years

Broads01

By Broads01
in Broads Chat

 Share

Recommended Posts

Broads01

Broads01

Posted
Posted

In April I'll be hiring Silver Mirage having last hired it in 2004, a gap of almost 18 years. It's been too long - I loved it the first time around and it's had a refit since then.

What's the longest gap you've had between your first and second experiences of a boat (owning or hiring)? I don't mean just seeing a boat you've experienced before, I mean being on it for real. How did you find the return experience in comparison to the original one?

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SwanR

SwanR

Posted
Posted

Very interesting. We haven’t had a gap in the way you described but we have been hiring Swan Reflection 1 and 2 for 10 years now. Age is starting to show. And it is a different experience as the boats have moved from Swancraft to Richardson’s. We haven’t been back to the southern rivers since that change. 

No matter what other boats we hire, we still come back to this one especially for short breaks. Handles so well, quite cosy out of season and a reasonable price. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DAVIDH

DAVIDH

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, SwanR said:

We haven’t been back to the southern rivers since that change. 

Jean, if you do ever feel like doing the south again, I can recommend Silver Serenade. All the features of Swan Reflection as far as I remember, (which I've holidayed on with Swancraft), including the island bed. 

https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/silver-symphony-bh1404

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
addicted

addicted

Posted
Posted

I had no idea  how involved boat hirers were  with the boats they hired until I joined this forum and it totally changed my perception of boat hirers. I was given an an inklin  some years ago while moored  at Reedham Ferry when the hire boat moored behind us broke down and we got talking to the man on board who was waiting for  the  engineer. He told us that he had been hiring the same boat since it was brand new  many years before and he clearly thought of the boat  in the same way as if he actually owned it. We were astonished. I still find it amazing how knowledgeable some of the hirers are, they seem  to know more about the boats they hire than some owners do about their own boats. It's pretty remarkable when you consider it.

 

 

Carole

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Vaughan

Vaughan

Posted
Posted

In our case, it is 26 years.

When I was running a yard on the Thames, we had two AF38 Pearls, built by Pat Simpson.  In 2019 I ended up buying one of them, and she is still moored on Pat Simpson's Yard, where she was built.

 

DSC00235.thumb.JPG.ebac8c467522abd99700343c9a6ef1da.JPG

Unless you count the Ultimate Gem that we hired in 2017, which I had helped build, when I worked for Richardsons.  In that case, it was 42 years!

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites
webntweb

webntweb

Posted
Posted

Mine was only two years. Constellation II from Chumley & Hawke in Horning. July 1964 and September 1966.

Hired many times in 60 years of Broads' boating but never the same boat twice since; there was always too many new boats to choose from - a bit like being in a sweet shop I suppose.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mouldy

Mouldy

Posted
Posted

I think the only time we’ve return hired a boat with longer than a one year gap was Grande Girl 1, which we spent a week on in 2004 and returned to in 2015.  Aside from new upholstery and curtains, I can’t honestly say that my feelings were anything other than one of familiarity, having been on Yare Moonlight 1 from Brister Craft and Royall Commander 1, from Royalls, too.  The internal design of the AF Pearl, with few exceptions, is such that all three craft were very similar indeed.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Broads01

Broads01

Posted
  • Author
Posted
5 hours ago, addicted said:

I had no idea  how involved boat hirers were  with the boats they hired until I joined this forum and it totally changed my perception of boat hirers.

It's true, Carole, at least for us regular hiring types. I do feel a sense of ownership not only whilst hiring a boat but also when I see the boat on later occasions. The only other boat I've hired twice is Broadland Wave 2 (2014 and 2017). I loved it on both occasions and the sense of ownership feels even stronger.

 

5 hours ago, Vaughan said:

When I was running a yard on the Thames, we had two AF38 Pearls, built by Pat Simpson.  In 2019 I ended up buying one of them, and she is still moored on Pat Simpson's Yard, where she was built.

Remind me which yard you ran, Vaughan and what your boat used to be called?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Vaughan

Vaughan

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Broads01 said:

Remind me which yard you ran, Vaughan and what your boat used to be called?

The yard was Aquamarine Boats in Staines and the boat was called Diamond.

The yard only ran for just over 3 years as it was a way of conforming to planning permission for a new office development on the site.  I was asked by old friends in Norfolk to set it up and run it but I knew it was only a job for a limited time.  It did get me back into the boat business though, and from there I was able to join Crown Blue Line in France.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
YnysMon

YnysMon

Posted
Posted

Although we’ve bought not a syndicate now, we always look out for the boats we have hired. We feel quite proprietorial about them for some weird reason.

Compared to others on this forum, we discovered the Broads quite late (not until 2014 or 15), so we are relatively late comers. I remember seeing adverts for Broads holidays when I was a child, thinking that would be a lovely holiday. It wasn’t going to happen though, given our family was just Mam and me. Mam made up for it though, as she first took me ‘abroad’ when I was 7 (this was 1967). We went to Holland to visit a couple of Aunties and their families - that was a legacy of the Dutch Navy having been stationed in Holyhead during the war.

At the time none of my friends had been on holidays abroad. Looking back, I felt quite privileged. Mam worked for Sealink, then part of British Rail, so we had free travel. In the 1970s she took me to Switzerland, Italy and Norway (all by ferry/rail). 

Sorry, thread drift. It’s just that the thread prompted memories. Very happy ones. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Broads01

Broads01

Posted
  • Author
Posted
18 minutes ago, Richie said:

30 years for me for the same class of boat - Aston Nevada Oct 1985 to Song of Freedom Oct 2015.

Or 14 years for exactly the same boat - Aston Broadsword Oct 2001 to Sweet Freedom June 2015.

 I also hired Song of Freedom and it brought back childhood memories on Aston Goblin some 36 years earlier.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Vaughan

Vaughan

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, andyg said:

Very nice boat Vaughan, I bet you miss being able to use her. 

We've only ever used her once, so far!  We bought her in June 2019 and spent several weeks on board, but have not been back to UK since.  At least my daughter and her family get good use out of her, while Dad pays all the bills.

Well, why not?

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Sponsors

    Norfolk Broads Network is run by volunteers - You can help us run it by making a donation

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

For details of our Guidelines, please take a look at the Terms of Use here.

  I accept