Lads Week 2022

[Bikertov]

3 minutes ago, grendel said:

... and the team went into  action, accompanied by a nurse who happened to be on a  vessel just mooring. He was quickly patched up .

 

How convenient you managed to pick up a nearby nurse ... I hope she was in her uniform and gave him a bed bath too 

[Smoggy]

9 minutes ago, grendel said:

arrived and had a drink or two, one of the  lads fell while disembarking,

In that order? Are you sure it was one or two?

[grendel]

He was on his way to the bar, not returning

[FlyingFortress]

9 hours ago, grendel said:

We will be having a morning with  no issues to report, a lot of these issues are minor faults that some hirers would not bother reporting, or notice, however we like to make sure the boats are in tip top condition when we take them back. Ready for the next hirer to have a stress free week. And the boats are old and tired by this end of the year. We have nothing but praise for the engineers, did you know they have a 7 day stint, of being on call 24 hours a day.

You do realise that quite a lot of people work on a 24hr call out system don't you. In my job before retiring we were on call 24hrs for 9 days. 

[andyg]

5 hours ago, FlyingFortress said:

You do realise that quite a lot of people work on a 24hr call out system don't you. In my job before retiring we were on call 24hrs for 9 days. 

We have 2 what we call surgery vans at our depot, a basic mobile workshop. All the fitters do a week on call, that's ontop of there normal hours. So yep 24/7 been like it years..by the way they get paid very well if called out. 

[Vaughan]

14 hours ago, FlyingFortress said:

You do realise that quite a lot of people work on a 24hr call out system don't you. In my job before retiring we were on call 24hrs for 9 days. 

The manager, or owner, of a Broads boatyard will be on duty 24/7 without any let-up, for six months, from Easter through to November.  No days off and no weekends.

In my father's day, staff had a contract which forbad them taking holidays in the summer.  Instead they had a generous holiday allowance in winter.  They had a 40 hour week with Wednesday afternoon off, and Saturday afternoon was overtime.  Sunday duty was double time if called out.

Even as the manager of a 50 boat fleet, It was always me who took the out of hours calls on my mobile number and it was almost always me who went out if necessary.

It is a seasonal business and a way of life, that is not obvious, or understandable, to those who only see it from the river bank.

[ranworthbreeze]

After nearly 50 years in the service industry, it is a way of life that you put up with the pitfalls or you leave the industry/

 

[andyg]

8 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

The manager, or owner, of a Broads boatyard will be on duty 24/7 without any let-up, for six months, from Easter through to November.  No days off and no weekends.

In my father's day, staff had a contract which forbad them taking holidays in the summer.  Instead they had a generous holiday allowance in winter.  They had a 40 hour week with Wednesday afternoon off, and Saturday afternoon was overtime.  Sunday duty was double time if called out.

Even as the manager of a 50 boat fleet, It was always me who took the out of hours calls on my mobile number and it was almost always me who went out if necessary.

It is a seasonal business and a way of life, that is not obvious, or understandable, to those who only see it from the river bank.

The same could be said for any business in fairness Vaughan. I have mates that run there own companies and its pretty much 24/7 it's quite frustrating on a meal out and their phones don't stop ringing. At least with a broads hire yard the pace drops off come the end of October. Staff return to a Monday to Friday working patten. 

[FlyingFortress]

I think it's quite hard for people who work normal hours to comprehend that some folks have to do irregular hours as the norm.

I do remember some years ago returning from a job on Christmas day at 0300 ish wondering where all the traffic was going on the A12 at that time. It was too late for people returning from a night out and too early for an early shift start. I did speculate this with my driver who was also working on call. 😳

[Meantime]

59 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

It is a seasonal business and a way of life, that is not obvious, or understandable, to those who only see it from the river bank.

A good insight to that is A Broad Experience written by Robin Godber. At least it is seasonal. There are those of us who have read that book and do have some idea. There ae also those of us who have worked in industries with 24/7 365 days a year call out. Try being on call for a company who's equipment is one of many pieces that form the network that keep a bank's ATM or credit card network going. Outages of seconds cost the bank hundreds of thousands of pounds. Outages of minutes are measured in tens of millions of pounds. All preventative maintenance and upgrades have to be carried out over night or at weekends, even Christmas day and Boxing day. Yes there were even those of us who were on call New Years Eve 2000 because of the dreaded Millienium bug. Some of us do understand the concept of proper preventative maintenance.

Whatever people do for a living, whatever working conditions or hours of work, or call outs they cover, one of the paybacks is a nice relaxing stress free holiday. I would imagine the staff of the various hire yards from yard hand, to managing director, in turn look forward to their own stress free holiday whether that be a hotel in the UK run smoothly with porters and night staff on call, or flying abroad on a plane that has been serviced through the night, or perhaps piloted by the on call pilot who has been drafted in at the last minute because the scheduled pilot was taken sick. 

[Mouldy]

29 minutes ago, Meantime said:

 . . . . . . . . .Whatever people do for a living, whatever working conditions or hours of work, or call outs they cover, one of the paybacks is a nice relaxing stress free holiday. I would imagine the staff of the various hire yards from yard hand, to managing director, in turn look forward to their own stress free holiday whether that be a hotel in the UK run smoothly with porters and night staff on call, or flying abroad on a plane that has been serviced through the night, or perhaps piloted by the on call pilot who has been drafted in at the last minute because the scheduled pilot was taken sick. 

Exactly!

[FlyingFortress]

33 minutes ago, Meantime said:

A good insight to that is A Broad Experience written by Robin Godber. At least it is seasonal. There are those of us who have read that book and do have some idea. There ae also those of us who have worked in industries with 24/7 365 days a year call out. Try being on call for a company who's equipment is one of many pieces that form the network that keep a bank's ATM or credit card network going. Outages of seconds cost the bank hundreds of thousands of pounds. Outages of minutes are measured in tens of millions of pounds. All preventative maintenance and upgrades have to be carried out over night or at weekends, even Christmas day and Boxing day. Yes there were even those of us who were on call New Years Eve 2000 because of the dreaded Millienium bug. Some of us do understand the concept of proper preventative maintenance.

Whatever people do for a living, whatever working conditions or hours of work, or call outs they cover, one of the paybacks is a nice relaxing stress free holiday. I would imagine the staff of the various hire yards from yard hand, to managing director, in turn look forward to their own stress free holiday whether that be a hotel in the UK run smoothly with porters and night staff on call, or flying abroad on a plane that has been serviced through the night, or perhaps piloted by the on call pilot who has been drafted in at the last minute because the scheduled pilot was taken sick. 

That's about the gist of it MT. 👍

Working 24hrs has been common for many people and IMHO becoming more so.

[Vaughan]

So why are certain members indulging in armchair judgements on Herbert Woods' mechanics?

[MauriceMynah]

I don't think they are Vaughan, more judging HW business model re preventative maintenance. 

[FlyingFortress]

6 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

So why are certain members indulging in armchair judgements on Herbert Woods' mechanics?

Who mentioned HW? 

Don't all Hire Fleets have people on call 24/7 during the hire season.

I think that a few of us were simply pointing out that being on call is Not exclusive to Hire Boat operations.

There are folk on here that are involved with Logistics, Hospitality and IT and many more that run 24/7 and have many people getting the phone call in the wee small hours. I have been both on the recieving end and the one making the call.

[andyg]

3 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

I don't think they are Vaughan, more judging HW business model re preventative maintenance. 

Spot on..

[PaulN]

As we are going back to our boat on Sunday, I thought I would have a look at Wroxham Bridge air draught just now (11:25) on BB's webcam, being about 1½ hours after LW. Looked like about 6'9" on the gauge.

Low and behold, what should I see! 'Boys on Tour' on BA, just going under the bridge towards Coltishall. Have a great time guys

[BrundallNavy]

51 minutes ago, PaulN said:

As we are going back to our boat on Sunday, I thought I would have a look at Wroxham Bridge air draught just now (11:25) on BB's webcam, being about 1½ hours after LW. Looked like about 6'9" on the gauge.

Lo and behold, what should I see! 'Boys on Tour' on BA, just going under the bridge towards Coltishall. Have a great time guys

He’s early should not have been there until 12-30 H

[PaulN]

3 minutes ago, BrundallNavy said:

54 minutes ago, PaulN said:

As we are going back to our boat on Sunday, I thought I would have a look at Wroxham Bridge air draught just now (11:25) on BB's webcam, being about 1½ hours after LW. Looked like about 6'9" on the gauge.

Lo and behold, what should I see! 'Boys on Tour' on BA, just going under the bridge towards Coltishall. Have a great time guys

He’s early should not have been there until 12-30 H

Hi BN. Very odd, your message starting 'He's Early .....', seems to have come out on my message instead of being separate 

[Roy]

 Before some members shoot me down I have never ran a hire boat business but I have ran my own business for a few years and I can’t understand why woods would wait for brake downs to happen then send an engineer out when boats could be checked though on a change over day as it’s all time and money surly a more costly way to send an engineer around the Norfolk countryside? 

especially when people having a good holiday and not braking down every few minutes should be their priority as a unhappy customer won’t return. And bad publicity spreads so far especially with social media in this day. 

Thats just my take on running a business. 

 

[grendel]

We popped through the bridge to show the new lads, then came back and moored at  Barnes.

[annv]

How can you check a Alternator to see if it will not break down/not charge? Would you not expect an impelor not to last a season?. It's not unknown for brand new items to stop/break down. Thats why they go to the expense of 24hr engineer coverage. John

[Meantime]

6 minutes ago, annv said:

How can you check a Alternator to see if it will not break down/not charge? Would you not expect an impelor not to last a season?. It's not unknown for brand new items to stop/break down. Thats why they go to the expense of 24hr engineer coverage. John

According to the Nanni service intervals for their engines an impellor should be changed every 200 hrs or once a season, whichever comes first. I would imagine 200 hrs on a hire boat is 6 to 8 weeks usage, so probably at least twice a year, and there is preventative maintenance you can do on an alternator annually. Blow out any dust. Check the brushes for wear. Check the bearings for play.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

48 minutes ago, Roy said:

 Before some members shoot me down I have never ran a hire boat business but I have ran my own business for a few years and I can’t understand why woods would wait for brake downs to happen then send an engineer out when boats could be checked though on a change over day as it’s all time and money surly a more costly way to send an engineer around the Norfolk countryside? 

especially when people having a good holiday and not braking down every few minutes should be their priority as a unhappy customer won’t return. And bad publicity spreads so far especially with social media in this day. 

Thats just my take on running a business. 

 

My parents used to run a small fleet of six wedding cars. Rolls Royce and Jags in the main, these werent new cars by any standards but were well looked after and every time they went out my parents were praying nothing would happen causing the bride to be delayed on their big day.

We all know about Murphys Law dont we!

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, Meantime said:

According to the Nanni service intervals for their engines an impellor should be changed every 200 hrs or once a season, whichever comes first.

Sorry, but no.

Oil change every 200 hours but the impeller?  Every 5 weeks, in the season?  Definitely not.

If an impeller is taken out in the winter, refitted in spring  and properly greased, it will last 4 or 5 years.  It will only be damaged by impurities in the water (bad filtration) or being run dry by lack of water (blocked filtration).  Both of these are nothing to do with either preventive, or routine, maintenance.  They are unforeseen breakdowns.

Some yards change impellers every spring as a routine, others see no need to.  I am in the second camp, on that one.