Hire Boat Descriptions From The Past

[LondonRascal]

On another thread about Glenmore (a classic wooden boat from 1966) there was included the brochure details from 1972.

 

While we are now 43 years down the road, I do believe even in this modern age where we can look up a boat, and book it using a Smartphone as we are waiting for a train it would be nice to see ‘proper’ descriptions return.

 

This is the sort of information those booking in 1972 had to go on:

 

Features: A modern craft with very spacious accommodation for six persons.  Panoramic views from saloon windows when seated.  Lowering deck-house.  Ample storage for clothes, food, etc.  Rubber-mounted diesel engine for maximum economy 100 gallon fresh water supply from interconnected tanks.

 

 

It then went on...

 

 

Berths: Six singe. Foam mattresses.  Drawers under. Sliding doors to single cabins and toilets.

 

 

It goes on to talk about the galley and toilets etc in good detail too.

 

I really think a decent description is as important as it was then as today.

 

We can know there are drawers under the berths, there is ample storage on board for clothing and emphasis is made to the views afforded in a centre cockpit type of boat even when seated.  The cockpit ‘deck house’ we are told lowers so we know bridges are not going to be an issue we even know it holds a lot of fresh water and the engine not going to be causing too much vibration.

 

Am I the only one who enjoys reading these thoughtful informative boat descriptions from the past – and what do people think about this style of description making a return in this day and age?

[smellyloo]

Do people read now?

 

Or Would they prefer pics and a plan?

[BroadScot]

In the 70's Robin it was my winter reading about all the boats in both brochures. I agree, its great to get as much info as possible. But I suppose today column inches equals more costs.

 

 

Iain.

[VetChugger]

The descriptions used to go into even more detail than that! Told you the make of engine, capacity,, fuel and method of control. The yards often had their own brochures as well. Odd that Robin should mention "Glenmore" and Moores.

 

I have an original Moores brochure showing the hire fleet around the late 60's early 70's. I'm not sure how to post it except page by page (scans) which I will do if anyone is interested??

 

Edited to add that I think this is what Robin is looking at! I must have posted it when I bought "Glenmore"!

[stumpy]

Probably a vain plea, but if anyone out there has a Helmsman brochure from the late 70s with the details of 'FenDew' from Fencraft I'd be grateful for a copy or scan of the relevant page. TIA.

[LondonRascal]

It costs of course to have such space handed over to descriptions on printed form - but no such limit is found in the websites - sure they may charge for number of pages, but not their length (or number of characters).

I think therefore that when it comes to the websites of Boatyards each boat can and should have many large recent photos and a decent description – maybe even some flare to things could be added...

 

“The forward well complete with seating for 5 makes, an ideal sun trap but doubles as and safe ‘outdoor’ area where children can sit spotting passing wildlife all within sight of their parents”

 

Or

 

“The large saloon with comfortable supportive seating for up to 6 people  provides an elevated view of the passing landscape.  In fine weather the smoothly operated sliding canopy retracts allowing the outside ‘inside’ – great for dining in comfort yet being ‘alfresco’ at the same time furhter allowing passage under some of Broadlands lower bridges."

 

Does not do any harm to add something than bullet points and photos, does it?

[deebee29]

I used to love it when the old brochures dropped through the letterbox an think i would read them from cover to cover comparing between boats.

I agree also that up to date pictures of the boats in brochures and websites would be nice but I know it all costs money.

David

[Dan]

.....Am I the only one who enjoys reading these thoughtful informative boat descriptions from the past – and what do people think about this style of description making a return in this day and age?

 

People think in pictures so I think lots of pictures, layout plan, video tour and little text is probably the correct way to go for successful bookings, but it is interesting looking back, as you say

 

Dan

[LondonRascal]

 

People think in pictures so I think lots of pictures, layout plan, video tour and little text is probably the correct way to go for successful bookings

 

I'm not so sure.

 

The problem is as I see it is someone comes up with an idea, and then others jump on that band wagon.  The people that come up with the idea initially are usually the very ones a business's turns to for direction. 

 

Take 'responsive' websites. This is relativly new and something that costs rather a lot to implement.  The BBC is doing this across it's portfolio and it is now the turn of their news site.  Myself and many others do not think it looks very good on a computer and makes finding content more difficult but because 47% of visitors now come to the site using a mobile or tablet the technical people believe it is the way to go - just as tablet sales are falling and also when they have a fresh (and well made) App. 

 

Back to boatyards - it is as if they were told at some point in time to reduce the size on a page that each boat took up for photos and its description, thus savings could be made on printing costs.  The likes of Hoseason's have in recent years taken this to the limit with ever smaller photos, less 'padding' around each boat's section and fonts that have shrunk.   Now I don't actually have any problem with that - but I do when it is then taken over to the digital medium.

 

Having a photo gallery and 'key features' is fine - especially being put right up there on the top of the page because that is what people are going to see first - the next important part will be how much does it cost and how easy that information is shown so a prospective customer does not feel there are any nasty surprises when they get their card out to book the boat.  Underneath all this I think many would appreciate an more in depth description of the accommodation on offer.

 

Every boat has differences and some of the smaller things can actually make rather a difference to on board life.  How long are the berths? What is the average headroom? is a boat more suited for those with mobility issues compared to one that has a higher freeboard or steps inside?  Does it have power sockets in each cabin or only the saloon?

 

On a webpage you could list these items for those who wanted to see it, for those who only care about the photos and the fact it has a bow thrusters and microwave they are catered too with the short description.

 

I think it is easy to forget about new visitors - sure they will read a little here and there about the area but really want to get down to what's on offer as far as actual boats go.  A photo does not give an idea of size since many are taken with rather wide angle lenses and plans are not drawn to scale so if you have a sparse description it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

 

Talking of descriptions and information, I've had a long hard look at my Blogs, and so for this year especially the boat reviews will change quite a bit.  I am going to try to bring some interactivity to them whereby your be able to opt for 120 second review of the interior and exterior  - a quick snapshot -  or you can choose to watch the full review.  This will be possible from within the actual video as you watch it so it has both bases covered.

 

I am also going to stop doing single long (30 minute plus) videos of each day, and instead produce 15 minute 'parts' of each day spread over a longer period - perhaps an hour's worth of footage spread over 4 parts each 15 minutes long so you can fit them in easily instead of taking a whole hour out of your time to sit and watch.

 

Hmm, I seem to have gone off on a tangent there..

 

Anyway I think it is important as I said to give good, up to date information while it might not be practically to have boats photographed annually, certainly I think it makes sense to have them photographed every 2 years  so changes such as new upholstery, flooring and the like can be shown off.

[MauriceMynah]

People think in pictures so I think lots of pictures, layout plan, video tour and little text is probably the correct way to go for successful bookings, but it is interesting looking back, as you say

 

Dan

Hmmm, I want to see the picture for...

 

"This boat will not normally pass under Potter Heigham bridge."

[smellyloo]

Hi LondonRascal,

 

you clearly love the written word and you should be comended for that, however for me, when surfing the web, pics catch my eye and then I look for brief clear text to confirm the content. I rarely read lengthy prose on-line unless i am researching a topic.

[DAVIDH]

Robin,

 

On the subject of responsive websites, the sort that resize your site to avoid having to swipe to the side to see the rest of the page, you are going to see a lot more of them. Google who every webmaster tugs their forlock to, has decreed that sites which are not responsive will be adversely effect in mobile search results come the 21st April. I have to agree that some sites do not fit nicely onto a smart phone. Who has the patience to look at a long list of features referring to a long list of boats for hire? But since in my case 35% of hits come from them, I am being forced into a rapid redesign with what is a steep learning curve.

 

Regards

David

[LondonRascal]

That is the beautify of a webpage compared to a printed page – you can cater for everyone (look how much i can put here at no cost) a few bytes for a few more lines of text is virtually cost free. So those like you who want the quick details and photos get what they want, and those who want the more ‘intricate’ details get what they want.

 

It’s not rare I am asked things like what is the horsepower of the engine in the boat (not for power but for idea of economy) and who the manufacture is or what kilowatt output is the heater onboard.  To some even the detail of if the boat has a wooden ships wheel and not a metal one is important to them or the placement of the 12v accessory socket.  I am ok with this but I am sure boatyards would regard this as tedious but if it helps get a booking of several hundred or over a thousand pounds it helps give answers.

 

As far as responsive websites personally, I don’t agree with them and never will. David says he has got 35% coming to his website on a mobile platform - so why do you feel you need to change to accommodate those people and not the much larger 65% who arrive on a computer and who will need to and will need to deal with the changes in look and navigation far more?

 

I never have been a fan of the ‘mobile revolution’ because people cannot create much but more consume.  Emails get shorter, messages too all because ‘it’s annoying to tap on a screen’ thus shorter sharper messages are sent.  But it is interesting that even mighty Apple are not doing well with iPad sales, some forecasting 30% falls in sales, others as much as 52% quarter by quarter during 2015.  That is not say millions will not be sold this year but Tablet sales growth is declining, and Apple is selling fewer iPads every quarter.

 

PC sales are improving. Ever-larger smartphones make great consumption devices. Microsoft has even realised Windows should be a desktop operating system, because PCs aren’t going anywhere.

Tablets used to seem like the future. Everyone would abandon laptops and desktops — or, at least, everyone would have a smartphone, a tablet, and a PC. But tablets are now looking more like a niche product.

 

Oh and finally as to patience to look through something how many times do you see people on the Forum book a boat, post how excited they are and then ask people here about it – any updated photos or thoughts.  There are plenty of people who do go through the finer details be it a washing machine and the specs, a new phone or a holiday the thing is those providing such often don’t include it on the basis they think people would not want to read and see the low down on things.

 

As far as tech goes it is why so may in-depth review sites have sprung up – fist place I go to when looking for a new camera is not Amazon’s small product description it is a review site with lots of detail, test photos and videos and then I can make my mind up to buy or not it is why as far as boating holidays go when you read the negative reviews left on various websites many a customer simple don’t realise what they are getting – smaller than expected, not much space to put things etc.

[DAVIDH]

"As far as responsive websites personally, I don’t agree with them and never will. David says he has got 35% coming to his website on a mobile platform - so why do you feel you need to change to accommodate those people and not the much larger 65% who arrive on a computer and who will need to and will need to deal with the changes in look and navigation far more?"

 

Robin, at the moment 100% of my visitors come from either mobile, tablet or PC. If I do not go responsive I will lose up to 35% of them because Google has decided it will not list my site as highly on mobile search and I do not want to lose a third of my audience. The remaining 65% will see very little difference because responsively they will be served the same site (or thereabouts) as they see today.

 

Perhaps I could have been clearer as to what I meant by the patience of the user to sift through the data. Take a look at the detail shown on an average Hoseasons boat description page - many images, berthage make up, features of the boat, customer reviews etc. All of this responsively will appear in one column on a smartphone. So you might not have to swipe to the right to see the rest of the page but you are going to have to scroll down and down and down just to see the details of one boat. Multiply that by all the other boats which might be of interest and it becomes a major undertaking!

 

Regards

David

(I am not an advocate of responsive - it is being forced on me!)

[JawsOrca]

. If I do not go responsive I will lose up to 35% of them because Google has decided it will not list my site as highly on mobile search and I do not want to lose a third of my audience.

 

Hi David,

 

I've not heard of this, it's sounds to be like scare mongering by bloggers. I've googled (no pun intended ) and I can't find anything other than on blogging websites. As responsive sites are still not really mainstream I would be very very surprised if google would punish a site. Google in the past have actually tried to be helpful to developers as it's in their (googles) interest for us to make their life easier. (Most SEO techniques are publicly available but they do change as people get more crafty!).

 

It wouldn't surprise me if it was to rank responsive sites above non responsive sites on a mobile search (as it should because the site is perhaps a better match for that device) but I'm sure it will still look at the usual things to see if the site was more relevant to the search criteria. So I doubt they would hide/blacklist a non responsive website just for that reason.. no more than it would show a completely unrelated website above yours if yours had a better overall match.  So if your website is in a small sector (/small grouping of keywords) and it's not a responsive website I'm sure you would notice no problems in your rankings.

 

Have you got any further details from google as I would be very interested to learn more

[DAVIDH]

Hi Alan and Jonzo,

 

The information was published on the Google Webmaster Central blog on the 26th February here:

 

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/

 

The following is taken from the post:

"Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices."

 

I expect Google WILL rank responsive sites above non-responsive in mobile and being as my site is not responsive yet, I am bound to lose out if I am pushed below these sites in the search results. I never meant to imply that those without responsiveness would be blacklisted - sorry!

 

Regards

David

[JawsOrca]

Thanks David.. Interesting.. Sorry is was me that implied the blacklisting not yourself (probably not the best choice of words but I'm never any good at things like that!) 

 

I think as I mentioned above, this change does make sense as googles job (which it does very well) is to provide relevant results on its search engine, so if you are a user searching on a mobile app it probably is correct to return sites optimised for a mobile device above non sites.  I'm not sure what your sector your business is in but I doubt there's many optimised websites in your sector to worry about at present.. I suspect though this may lead to a push in responsive sites though so you maybe right to worry but this will take some time.  Although I do feel this only one of the many many many things google look for so don't worry too much.

 

Again very interesting and thanks for sharing.. 

[Dan]

I'm not so sure.

 

The problem is as I see it is someone comes up with an idea, and then others jump on that band wagon.  The people that come up with the idea initially are usually the very ones a business's turns to for direction. 

Back to boatyards - it is as if they were told at some point in time to reduce the size on a page that each boat took up for photos and its description, thus savings could be made on printing costs....

I would imagine you will see a link here to the period holidays Abroad took off/Catalysed along.... when bookings/income drop off and companies struggle for the same revenue then cost cutting normally kicks in before long as a (sometimes percieved, soometimes very real) need for survival and a ramped up need to be more competitive to either protect profits or survive.

 

Dan

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I remember back in 1970, Hoseasons advert for the (Aston Vega" class. It had the picture of the boat, with the picture of the yard pennant, then sleeps 6-8.

 

Then it said Aston boats, Loddon. then it had "Length 39ft 6inins then beam 11ft 6ins, then Headroom 6ft 2ins then described in great detail which was purposely done to actually "sell" the boat to you.  It even described the beds having dunlapillow foam matresses, it even advertised the engine as a 2.2ltr BMC Commander deisel with single lever control.

 

I know exactly what Robin is saying, and i agree with him, but as Dan rightly says, times have changed, and with the internet and colour photos and video footage etc, people no longer have to think about it, or use their imagination to pick the right boat.

 

However, i do like Johns point (Maurice Mynor) about the bridge height. A couple of years back, we were chatting to a couple on a high top boat that were disappointed to not being able to get under Wroxham bridge, as the yard had`nt informed them about going under low bridges when they booked. The first time they knew about it was when the engineer told them on handover they don`t nee to know about bridges, as this boat won`t go under them.

[jeffbroadslover]

Having read quite a few reports on here I think that there are some people who would appreciate going back to the "old" idea of stating both Headroom and Length of beds.

 

 

 

 

Jeff

[Broads01]

Great discussion. I grew up with brochures and in recent years I've been frustrated with Hoseasons ridiculous little photos, limited information and mistakes. However, I also admit to now being an impatient internet browser, usually using my phone and wanting a 'quick hit' of the information I'm looking for. I think in the modern world there is always room for good information. Good information doesn't have to mean lengthy, so can be smart phone friendly. Customers, especially new customers, need to know about bridge restrictions yes and indeed other stuff like bed lengths.

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Yes, i forgot about bed lengths.   When my brothers brother-in-law hired "Tobago King" back in the late 90s (now Tobago Light from Herbert Woods), the yard informed him the fwd double was infact 6ft 10ins in length. Very appropriate as Mark is about 6ft 3ins tall.

 

Also, when we hired Maffett Cruisers Kingfisher 2 years ago, we slept in the centrl cabin with the engine under the berth. This meant the berth was higher than usual, meaning there was not much hieght under the side deck, so anybody over 5ft 6ins had to pull their feet up to clear the deck before turning over. A real pain in the derierre, as i can vouch for being a tad over 5ft 10ins.