Silverline Announcement

[CambridgeCabby]

Having seen the old Silverline fleet out and about this season I can assure you that they are far from being “delapidated” as you alluded.

[Broads01]

3 hours ago, nightwingvyse said:

I used to work on the Silverline fleet in various capacities for well over a decade since I was literally a kid. I only just found out that this happened. 

It's sad to see the fleet come to an end after such a long run, and it's even sadder to know what delapidated condition all of those boats are surely in now they're Richardson's...

They're not delapitated in the slightest. I was sad to see them go, especially having hired from them only last year in their last season. This summer I hired Silver Mystique from Richardsons and everything was in excellent order. Richardsons run a good business.

[ZimbiIV]

Unsure, having just got back from hiring an ex-silverline and knowing how Silverline ran things, it would not have left the hire yard like it was presented to us.

Everything was fine but the presentation was not up to Colin and Lesley's standard.

Silverline (as was) boats looked as good at the end of the season as at the start.

We would not go back to a certain BIG yard for the reason it was a BIG yard and prefer a cosier smaller yard.

So it seems we only have a choice of three yards.

paul

[Vaughan]

11 hours ago, ZimbiIV said:

We would not go back to a certain BIG yard for the reason it was a BIG yard and prefer a cosier smaller yard.

Interesting to see two such different appraisals from hirers of Silverline boats this year.

I could suggest that the very high standards kept by small family yards in the past have proved too expensive to be profitable.  I think that is what mainly brought about my father's decision to sell Hearts Cruisers.

[DAVIDH]

Richardsons do seem to keep the insides of their boats in good condition. It's the scuffs and black rubber marks on the hull I noticed on the Silverline boats I passed. Having hired through Silverline on a number of occasions, I can vouch that they wouldn't be there on a takeover from Brundall. 

But they were a small yard and unable to compete with the larger concerns economically in terms of advertising and promotion. So perhaps they reasoned (as did Summercraft and Brister before them) that to get business, their boats had to stand out on the river. And of course, they had lots of repeat business because of their high standards.

[Broads01]

I agree scuffs and so on were present, David and to be honest exterior cleanliness wasn't perfect. I think that's the practicalities of running a volume operation versus a small family one. I had no cause for complaint though and, as I've always found with Richardsons, spotlessly clean inside and everything worked.

[LondonRascal]

I think some like to see things all neat and tidy, but I also think overall a small fraction of customers would really care so long as the service is good, interior of the boat is clean and tidy and all systems work meaning a flawless holiday. If you had boats come back and as part of the pre-handover cleaning someone had to get a dinghy and go tidy up the hulls, that won't bring in any money - but will take someone either paid to simply do this, or otherwise slow down the fleet overall turn around time while they do the hulls, then clean the rest of the exterior. It is economics frankly.

What Richardson's do is a great winter program of maintenance - so come the new season the premium boats will have had a compound and polish, many of the legacy boats will have had a lick of pain on the hulls, ropes tidied up, new fenders if needed, curtains removed and washed etc. Now other yards do this too, but some (like Herbert Woods or Barnes Brinkcraft) seem to operate on many boats only having this level of work done bi-annually. So you see boats go out the following season with a light brush up, but lots of last seasons knocks and scraps, rust stains from rubbing strake bolts, dirty fenders - you get the picture. This is think can cause more customers to begin caring. It is one thing for a few knocks and marks on a boat, but when you tip a line and it moves to looking tired and unkempt, how well is the mechanics going to be maintained? Is the interior going to be clean? and then you've got reputation being questioned and you certainly don't want that can of worms opened as a business.

[Vaughan]

I don't want to appear callous or mercenary, as I have run small yards and have kept those high standards myself.   And it was always me who got in the dinghy and cleaned and touched up the hulls!

But I have also run big yards, where I had to very quickly learn the sad facts of the economics.  When your business is in the hands of accountants, it is all about the bottom line.  One of the first costs they will attack will be staffing, especially casual staff on turn-round days.  So I am afraid hull cleaning is the first job to go "out of the window".

I have had to deal with an awful lot of customer complaints in my time - I still wake up dreaming of some of them - but all I can say is, I have never had a complaint about a dirty hull.

[rightsaidfred]

First impressions are everything, while you don't expect a boat to look pristine towards the end of the season when it's scruffy or worse at the start of the hire season it tells you a lot about the yard it comes from, for clarity this is not a reflection on Richos.

Fred

[Aboattime]

I remember many ,many years ago we hired from Alfa craft, was told the boat was ready so started to load our stuff on. A few minutes later we were told to stop{ i think by Mrs Langford} as she wasnt happy with the state of the inside, and she sent the cleaners on again to do all once more.We were so impressed and booked for the following year, boats name was Sabre and over the years we grew very fond of her.