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Wacked and wacked again and again


Brigid-Mary

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We have just got back to Lowestoft from a relaxing holiday on the River Yare, or was it?

The original plan was to visit Ramsgit and return via the Orwell ect, but as the weather 4cast was unsettled we opted to go up to Yarmouth and overnight at the Berney Arms, in the event we were so relaxed we stayed for 3 nights, but on the Tuesday morning we got hit by a hire cruiser, quite hard, only to see him disappear over the horizon! nice of him to stop and apologize!

Thursday we moved up to Reedham Quay, moored up had a cup of tea and Whack, hit again! This time the fellow was mortified and couldnt apologise enough, there is some good folk out there after all.

Saturday whilst enjoying a lunch with family up at Woods End some choice Herberts decided to launch an attack on Frigid Brigid and piled on ramming speed and smacked into our Port bow not once but twice! They then decided that it might be a jolly Jape to bug_er off which they did, hurling abuse at us as they went on their merry way. Silly me I shouldnt have been there, sorry chaps. At least the owners said that they had asked the BA rangers to intercept the kind gentlemen, weather they did or not remains to be seen.

Left Yarmouth on Sunday accompanied by the new pilot boat which I believe is going to Ramsgit. Looks very nice and as we left the piers at Yarmouth she was a blurr on the horizon, cant remember her name but I am sure Rod will furnish the details. Driven by Mr Goodchild himself if I am not mistaken.

1000 sovs worth of damage and I still had to pay the Broads Toll!!!!!

Apart from all that had a very relaxing time and saw many people we know.

By god that dog in the smelly nelly at Reedham is some size isnt it?

Paul

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Oh! and by the way, Whilst up at Woods end, I had a very nice cover made for my generator whilst we were alongside having lunch, by some one on this forum, cant remember his name but SNUG comes to mind!!! Perfect, delivered to the boat on completion.

Paul

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Oh! and by the way, Whilst up at Woods end, I had a very nice cover made for my generator whilst we were alongside having lunch, by some one on this forum, cant remember his name but SNUG comes to mind!!! Perfect, delivered to the boat on completion.

Paul

That would be Rich aka snuggtops

Jonny

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Unfortunately a drawback to the broads but unlucky to get hit that many times Paul.

I work on only once or twice a month on the southern broads. Bad enough when the people on board the hire boats are civil about it but people wonder why hire boats are treated with suspicion until they have carried out a manuovre with a degree of competence in view of you.

We all had to learn but I would like to think that most of us were and still are apologetic of our mistakes.

Could have been worse, you could have been up north but if BA are serious about attracting more visiting boats to the broads then something has got to be done about the general standard of instruction before hirers are let lose to smash up private boats on the broads.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2

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Unfortunately a drawback to the broads.

Could have been worse, you could have been up north but if BA are serious about attracting more visiting boats to the broads then something has got to be done about the general standard of instruction before hirers are let lose to smash up private boats on the broads.

Ouch! :naughty::naughty::naughty:

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We have just got back to Lowestoft from a relaxing holiday on the River Yare, or was it? 1000 sovs worth of damage and I still had to pay the Broads Toll!!!!!

Apart from all that had a very relaxing time and saw many people we know.

By god that dog in the smelly nelly at Reedham is some size isnt it? Paul

Wish we'd been about to meet up with you, Paul.... and hopefully not in a confrontational way! cheersbar

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Ouch! :naughty::naughty::naughty:

Maybe inflammatory John but unfortunately true. Please don't take it out of context as there are plenty of good helms behind a hire boat wheel and a few bad ones inside the private ones but proof is in the pudding as they say.

Once you have seen the hire boat carry out one manoeuvre you know whether you are in danger or not, yes they could still get it wrong but if they do it is unlikely to result in damage if they are doing things at the right speed. If as a boat owner you can tell if they are safe to be in a boat after seeing one manoeuvre, then how come the yards letting them out, with years of experience in assessing new hirers, cant?

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Whilst the hire Hire companies maintain that they provide basic instruction to their customers, before setting them loose with several tons of boat, I have to wonder if they emphasise the need to come into a mooring with the boat head to the tidal flow. A flow that can be quite significant on the rivers.

I say this, because I see so many hire cruisers doing exactly the opposite, and bashing other moored boats as a result of doing so.

Dave

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I might be wrong (usually am) but I was under the impression you needed an ICC to hire a boat in parts of Europe http://www.boatability.co.uk/powerboat- ... cense.html . So why not apply the same to the UK?

Sorry, back to topic.

Not required in Holland and if they applied that here the Norfolk Broads Hire Fleets would all be bankrupt in a week! :naughty::naughty::naughty:

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Mainly I think because it would put the hire companies out of business.

Even in countries where an ICC is compulsory for inland boating in a private boat, such as Holland, the hire companies seem to be able to let loose a person with no experience whatsoever and wave them on their way.

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Maybe inflammatory John but unfortunately true. Please don't take it out of context as there are plenty of good helms behind a hire boat wheel and a few bad ones inside the private ones but proof is in the pudding as they say.

I didn't think it was inflammatory... only that it took some fair amount of courage to say it... :clap:clap:clap

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Not sure if this still applies but back in the 80's I hired a boat (Broom 30) on the Caledonian Canal. The minimum tuition was 4 hours on the afternoon that you arrived, 2 hours if you could prove you had previous experience. If, after 4 hours of tuition, the staff felt you weren't competent, you did another 2 hours on the Sunday morning.

I know we've flogged this subject to death before in other threads but we all want better standards of helmsmanship. If this means more tuition or ICC's then, IMO, so be it.

Opens can of worms and runs to hide behind sofa two guns .

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Well quite.......and when all the hire companies have been driven out of business by this you just may end up with a Norfolk Broads with no maintained moorings, dredged waterways and thriving riverside pubs etc............ :?

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Just to give out abuse & drive off or just driving off gets on my whick ... You wouldn't do that after just having a car accident even if it was a small bump well you wouldn't think people would ...

Jonny

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Not getting involved in hirer bashing, or privateer bashing for that matter,

But unfortunately Jonny

You wouldn't do that after just having a car accident even if it was a small bump well you wouldn't think people would ...

Some people do, even after a fatality.....

:Stinky

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Not sure if this still applies but back in the 80's I hired a boat (Broom 30) on the Caledonian Canal. The minimum tuition was 4 hours on the afternoon that you arrived, 2 hours if you could prove you had previous experience. If, after 4 hours of tuition, the staff felt you weren't competent, you did another 2 hours on the Sunday morning.I know we've flogged this subject to death before in other threads but we all want better standards of helmsmanship. If this means more tuition or ICC's then, IMO, so be it.Opens can of worms and runs to hide behind sofa two guns .

But it just couldn't work. I know Clive's guys put over 400 boats out each week in the Summer (???) and that would be down-right impossible to attempt.

NO, I think if you keep your boat on the Broads then:

a) If it's North you've got to expect a bash quite often

B) If it's South then hopefully only occasionally

verbum sapienti sat est

And hopefully that's the end of this thread! :clap:clap:clap

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Oh dear Paul, poor old Fridgid. :o

There are huge numbers of assholes around in all walks of life, looks like you encountered one of the few with enough brain cells to fill in a hire form, really sorry and I hope Fridgid can be nursed back to health.

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It is difficult to draw a comparison between the good and bad helms of both camps, because in my estimation, right or wrong, the number of hire craft outnumber the private boats, by quite a margin. So the odds of getting a bad helm in charge of a hire boat are significantly greater.

I guess like many of us, when moored up away fom my home marina, I often sit and watch the comings and goings of boats.

In doing so, I have seen some very impressive boat handling by helms on hire cruisers, which clearly shows that there are folk out there that know exactly what they are doing, and I would not be nervous about having them moor next me. Unfortunately, these people are in a minority group, based on what I have seen.

Conversely, I have seen those that really haven't got a clue, with everyone on the boat shouting at, and blaming each other. This is when I do get nervous, and it is not unknown for me to cast off very quickly, and move my boat out of harms way.

As has been said, there are also some very incompetent helms among the private boat owning fraternity on the Broads. I can recall several instances, and mostly when there has been a good flow on the river.

So, good and bad on both sides, but by shear weight of numbers the 'law of averages' says that the greatest risk of getting bashed is from a hire boat, and the risk gets significantly greater as soon as you venture north.

I still have bad dreams about my near disaster moment when I came under the Vauxhall Bridge at Gt Yarmouth from Breydon, close to low water slack but with a hefty ebb still flowing, only to be met by a very large, out of control hire cruiser coming at me sideways on across river. I started 'treading water' hoping he would sort himself out, but it became worryingly evident that this large and very heavy boat was going to hit me broadside onto to my bow at around 5 knots.

With shopping trollies sticking out of the mud on my port side, and moored boats to starboard, I saw that my only chance was to open the throttle, and try and squeeze between his stern and the mud bank and shopping trollies, hoping that there would be enough water and no obstructions beneath us to do so.

With a huge cloud of stirred up mud, we made it through. It was only then that I had time to think about what might have been, and remember that I had my then 8 year old grandson onboard.

Life jacket or not, the ebb is vicious through that channel.

That was my worst ever experience with a hire cruiser, and one that I hope will never be repeated.

Dave

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While I would agree that hire boats do more hours on the river, there are more private boats than hire, especially on the southern side and over a weekend there will be a lot more private than hire on the water. You are still far more likely to be hit by a hire boat, even if they are in the minority. Simple fact is the hire skipper is far more likely to be inexperienced than the private skipper.

With experience they can be just as good if not better than the private owner but if loose on the river with insufficient training they are an accident waiting to happen.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2

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