Breydon Water Catches People Out Again!

[andyg]

The sun paper holidays have been around years and are still going, they were doing them back in the 90s when I worked at wapping print centre for TNT. I can picture the adverts in the paper but can't remember which companies were involved. I'm pretty sure richardsons were with there hearts boat fleet. I might be wrong tho. 

[DAVIDH]

1 hour ago, FlyingFortress said:

When was this Sun thing? Please bear in mind I have never been a hirer?

This is the 2022 version. Back in the day, boating holidays would have been included
https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/13208886/how-book-9-50-holidays/

[FlyingFortress]

32 minutes ago, DAVIDH said:

This is the 2022 version. Back in the day, boating holidays would have been included
https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/13208886/how-book-9-50-holidays/

Looks pretty good value for money to me.

Am I being thick as I can't see how introducing a new audience to The Broads is a bad thing.

Last year when folks could not travel I met quite a few people who would not normally holiday on The Broads who thoroughly enjoyed the experience and planned to return.

One group of younger Lads who were obviously normally The Ibiza crowd had thoroughly enjoyed their week were even asking about buying a boat.

Could these Lads be the future Father's who will bring a new generation to The Broads.

Or maybe is there a more sinister attitude of "We don't really want that sort on our Broads" ?

Remember what Vaughan said earlier " Be careful what you wish for" and truthfully I agree with him as without The Hire Boat Industry The infrastructure of our Broads will die.

All I am asking is that some and I emphasize some companies simply up their game. One particular Boatyard in a Village I used to live in was simply an embarrassment when compared to The slick operation of The likes of Richardson's, BB, NBD, and The likes. Smaller yards such as Summer craft , Royalls, and Pacific can/ could give a very personal experience. Long may this continue.

Good enough is simply not good enough when paying the rates for a week's hire that it costs me to run my own boat for a year.

[webntweb]

The Sun holidays on the Broads were never as cheap as £10 per head. Just looked at the Invoices for three that I went on in the mid 90s with my wife. They were short breaks; either weekend or midweek and you had to pay for a minimum of four people. The boats were allocated by Hoseasons but you could put a choice to which part of the Broads you would prefer to start from. We did midweek breaks and the invoice in each case was £110 plus £15 non-refundable damage waiver plus fuel.

We weren't new to the Broads and while on one of the breaks we went into Brister's and booked a boat for the next week.

All the boats we were given were in good to excellent condition: Autumn Willow (lovely boat), Swan Roamer {older but well looked after); next one should have been San Rafael from Richardson's but previous hirer had removed the sliding roof on a bridge so they gave us a DC30 (Saucy Gem 4) which was quite old but very clean and everything worked fine.

[andyg]

The sun holiday promotion was/ is a huge success story for news International. On the nights they printed the tokens in the paper we would see a 50% increase in there logistics requirements. Which often meant hours spent on the phone to local hauliers trying to source extra vehicles. We'd often run trucks empty into wapping which back then was a big no no with TNT. But the sun was happy to pick up the bill. So it must of been worth the effort, cost.

[Captain]

Webntwebb,

We also did the Sun offer in the 90's including Goya Girl from Summer craft, they did not like being part of the Sun offer and we received surprisingly shoddy service, the domestic water pump stayed on permanently ie was clearly faulty, the fixing method we were told to  switch off, they didn't save any money as the system failed and they had to come out and replace it. 

I note you suggest Swan Roamer was an older boat than Autumn Willow, I believe Autumn was built in perhaps the late 70s. The Roamer in the photo dates from about 1988/89,  Roamer was one of the first new build Swan boats before they started the shadow and Alpha build programme s.

Neil

[webntweb]

Neil, point taken about the age of the boats, faulty memory, but I was just trying to get over that all three boats we were allocated on the Sun deal were definitely fit for purpose. Much more so than the two Pennant boats we hired two or three years earlier.

If I'd had service like yours at Summercraft I definitely would have remembered it. Can't remember much about Willow cruiser except when we returned the boat they seemed happy to show us round one of their other craft. I'm sure Swancraft treated us like any other hire and at Richardson's the lady in the office apologised for having to change our boat and while we were boarding a second mechanic came aboard to check if some repairs had been done.

[Vaughan]

8 hours ago, webntweb said:

Just going "off piste" for a moment, the boat at the right is a regatta houseboat, called "Picken Jack" and owned by Cecil Jeckells - father of Peter and Raymond.  With her own engine, she was taken round all the regattas, where she could be seen on a mud weight, usually with a White Boat, a couple of Norfolk Dinghies and a launch alongside.  There were stairs to the top deck, where deck chairs were placed to watch the racing.  Beautifully wood panelled inside and usually kept at their mooring plot and bungalow, upstream of Horning Sailing Club.

A lovely, purpose-built boat from an almost bye-gone age.  I wonder where she is now?

[andyg]

There's a similar looking boat around Wroxham called Heather  I'm sure you know it Vaughan. Nigel Royall did some work on her. They are lovely looking things and a cry back to times long gone. Sorry if this is a silly question, but what is a white boat. I know its something to do with sailing. 

[Vaughan]

It is the nickname for a Broads half-decker, called a Yare and Bure One-design.  Very popular and nowadays the class has allowed them to be built with Fibreglass hulls.  Very similar to the Waveney one-design, which has a W as well as the sail number.

Edited to add : the White Boats are all named after butterflies.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Vaughan
line added

[JanetAnne]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

A lovely, purpose-built boat from an almost bye-gone age.  I wonder where she is now?

She is currently laid at Steve Evans  (the old Albatross yard) at St Olaves. You can see her alongside the roadway as you sit and wait for the traffic lights.

Steve rescued her some years ago and gave her a home but she was/is pretty derelict. It'd be a very brave restoration. 

I'll grab some pictures next week 

[LizG]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

It is the nickname for a Broads half-decker, called a Yare and Bure One-design.  Very popular and nowadays the class has allowed them to be built with Fibreglass hulls.  Very similar to the Waveney one-design, which has a W as well as the sail number.

Edited to add : the White Boats are all named after butterflies.

And moths

[tim]

On 01/05/2022 at 07:15, JanetAnne said:

She is currently laid at Steve Evans  (the old Albatross yard) at St Olaves. You can see her alongside the roadway as you sit and wait for the traffic lights.

Steve rescued her some years ago and gave her a home but she was/is pretty derelict. It'd be a very brave restoration. 

I'll grab some pictures next week 

Just used Google street view, and there she is on the left before the bridge heading towards the Bell

Shame, she must be approaching 100 years old, a piece of history but just sitting there    

[RegalSafari]

I crossed Breydon on Saturday afternoon, and I can see why people have got confused with markers if they are new to the area. It could be clearer especially when travelling from North to South. Boating incidents can happen to anyone including the experienced. I would assume the BA will have reviewed these matters already. 

 

[andyg]

I'm heading that way in three weeks time, I haven't traveled across breydon in a good 25yrs by boat ( how sad is that ) so I'd consider myself a newbie. Il see if I get stuck. How embarrassing would that be, 

[Roy]

 

The boat from earlier on in this thread a google earth street view of her 

 

 

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, andyg said:

I'm heading that way in three weeks time, I haven't traveled across breydon in a good 25yrs by boat ( how sad is that ) so I'd consider myself a newbie. Il see if I get stuck. How embarrassing would that be, 

If you do, don’t post it on here!!  You’ll never live it down!😉

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, andyg said:

I'm heading that way in three weeks time, I haven't traveled across breydon in a good 25yrs by boat ( how sad is that ) so I'd consider myself a newbie. Il see if I get stuck. How embarrassing would that be, 

Do it! You won’t get stuck I’m sure. We’ve been across Breydon lots of times now. The highlight of our trips. As long as you pay attention to the tides (and the marker posts) you’ll be fine.