First Wallop Of The Season

[Liberty]

Moored up with lots of room, 6 of us having lunch onboard, wallop.  The boat shunts forwards & stuff goes flying.

One of Richardson's finest crashed straight into the back of us squashing the boarding ladder and I don't know what inside. 

First weekend of the season - what more to follow..???

 

[Poppy]

Sadly predictable......

[Liberty]

I miss the Southern Broads!!

[adam]

which boat walloped you?

[BroadAmbition]

Please tell me details were exchanged, apologies offered / accepted?

Griff

[Liberty]

Details - yes

Apologies - yes, from Ricko's over the phone.  Not Ricko's fault, but nice to get an apology from someone, if not the helmsman

Accepted - yes

I'm not publicising the boat as they are still on their holiday, and I don't wish to redden faces.

Apparently someone from Moonfleet is going to phone on Tuesday.  Be interesting to see how they propose to resolve it.  I fully intend to speak to my insurance on Tuesday too.

 

[Boaters]

Was on a friends boat which was hit and holed,the boat was going to make off but came back when hailed.He said blame the yard ! They did not  show how to stop ! It was his first stop an hour after picking up the boat.

[Liberty]

Good grief!

 

[vanessan]

1 hour ago, Boaters said:

Was on a friends boat which was hit and holed,the boat was going to make off but came back when hailed.He said blame the yard ! They did not  show how to stop ! It was his first stop an hour after picking up the boat.

That absolutely beggars belief! Or does it................?!

[Poppy]

2 minutes ago, vanessan said:

That absolutely beggars belief! Or does it................?!

I think not! Handover procedures by some of the bigger yards are a disgrace!       There are requirements attached to the licence (to hire out boats) but it appears they are not subject to inspection or enforcement.

[Liberty]

Last weekend at Ranworth Staithe a dad & lad had real difficulties with mooring lines.  The dad said they were shown once really quickly how to tie up, but only once.

[Viking23]

If taken individually it could be the crew, not alert, too excited to get away, but a log needs to be kept of all minor and major shunts, say by the BA and if a particular yard appears more times, (pro rata  based on fleet numbers lol) then an investigation should be made on what skipper training is given, with further sanctions put in place.

Can I volunteer to become a "secret skipper" lol all expenses paid. Please form an orderly queue, I was first lol.

I think all contact, large and small, should be reported to the BA, but they will probably be too busy looking up registration numbers, checking if Tolls have been paid.

Re stopping, some yards videos, say words to the effect...

"When moving forward, putting into neutral will slow the boat blah blah blah". Not if you are with the current, wind behind you etc, you loose all steerage control, they must engage reverse to start loosing forward motion. So I think some of the yards need to review this. I am not going to give names, or links to such videos, but they are out there.

No wonder there are collisions.

[Maxwellian]

I have hired from four yards in my time on the broads and one in Scotland. The one in Scotland, Maffetts and Freedom were excellent. They are assessing your ability and knowledge as they take you out. I have no doubt if you show you are not ready they will carry on showing you, indeed that is what Maffetts said they do. HW was back in the mid 80's and was very poor, so not really relevant today. Richardsons seem to have a set trial, down the river, turn round, stern moor and off. I think they do a side moor if you have not been before. Not sure what they do if you have not displayed competence.

i have been on boats quite a bit and always plan and read up well in advance. I think the real problem is the people that give no thought to what can go wrong. It does not mean that they are bad people it is just they way they are. The yards need to recognise this and educate.

 

 

[Poppy]

5 minutes ago, Maxwellian said:

I have hired from four yards in my time on the broads and one in Scotland. The one in Scotland, Maffetts and Freedom were excellent. They are assessing your ability and knowledge as they take you out. I have no doubt if you show you are not ready they will carry on showing you, indeed that is what Maffetts said they do. HW was back in the mid 80's and was very poor, so not really relevant today. Richardsons seem to have a set trial, down the river, turn round, stern moor and off. I think they do a side moor if you have not been before. Not sure what they do if you have not displayed competence.

i have been on boats quite a bit and always plan and read up well in advance. I think the real problem is the people that give no thought to what can go wrong. It does not mean that they are bad people it is just they way they are. The yards need to recognise this and educate.

 

 

And therein lies the root of the problem! They are just not interested.

[Brundall1037]

If you are going to get hit by anybody I can thoroughly recommend being hit by a Freedom Boat, Andy came out to us as soon as the boat was back in the marina, and polished the mark out there and then.

[Viking23]

The problem with minor impacts, is that the gel coat doesn't always show any initial evidence, it's only when the star crazing, like a spider's web appears, some time after, as the dirt and grime high lights the impact, and you wonder where that came from.

[Oddfellow]

3 hours ago, Boaters said:

Was on a friends boat which was hit and holed,the boat was going to make off but came back when hailed.He said blame the yard ! They did not  show how to stop ! It was his first stop an hour after picking up the boat.

I am not at all surprised. The method of checking up on the handover procedures by the Broads Authority is by giving notice to the yard (at least a few days) so all handover staff can be pre-warned of an inspection and everyone doing it by the book. Unfortunately, the book means a handover that's at least 45 minutes long and many larger yards can't afford the staff to do 45 or more 45 minute handovers. But, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a full, proper handover when there's a notified inspection. 

We have petitioned the BA to deal with this glaring hole in it's procedures. The answer is that there is no money to do it any other way. I have pointed out that a solution is easily found - get secret shoppers from the forums to complete questionnaires about their hand-overs. There are plenty of hirers on the forums and FB pages that would be happy to do this, I am sure. 

From my point of view, we spend a mammoth amount of time handing over boats; with just nine boats, sending each one out with a full 45 minute plus handover is a job for three people on a day when all nine are going out and even with this level of staff, we invariably keep people waiting. It's a big investment of time and money on our part and we apologise to any customer who is delayey. We are looking at ways of reducing this time so that we can get more done with the resources we have and have a number of ideas that will help. It's worth pointing out that we have always sent a copy of the skippers' handbook out with all booking documents - this gives people a chance to read up on things before they arrive. Many people don't read it, but those who do are commonly away from the boatyard quicker. 

Often when I handover a boat, particularly Fair Freedom (our 44ft 10 Berth Bounty), I will get hirers to reverse off a mooring opposite the yard (remember, this is the tidal Rivar Yare) and back over to the yard, reversing stern on into a gap between boats that remain on our quay heading. That's the level of boat handing instruction that you can expect from Freedom. 

[Oddfellow]

49 minutes ago, Brundall1037 said:

If you are going to get hit by anybody I can thoroughly recommend being hit by a Freedom Boat, Andy came out to us as soon as the boat was back in the marina, and polished the mark out there and then.

Shame we had to. That bunch of hirers was a nightmare from the moment they cast off. Worst customers we had last year by a nautical mile. 

[Shreck]

Obviously Cap'n could not find the handbrake    

[BroadScot]

1 minute ago, Shreck said:

Obviously Cap'n could not find the handbreak    

Hi Shreck,

Welcome aboard the NBN Forum. 

Iain

[JawsOrca]

You will well cared for with moonfleet liberty.  

[Shreck]

1 minute ago, BroadScot said:

Hi Shreck,

Welcome aboard the NBN Forum. 

Iain

Thanks Broad Scott. (Iain).

[Liberty]

5 minutes ago, JawsOrca said:

You will well cared for with moonfleet liberty.  

Thank you .  Hope so!

[Shreck]

7 minutes ago, Shreck said:

Obviously Cap'n could not find the handbrake    

Should not the position of the handbrake should be clearly marked to comply with the BSS rules?  

[StillCruising]

Last year we were hit by a Rico boat on the lower Ant which smashed both windows of the rear cabin on the port side. The other boat did not stop but I immediately phoned Richo's to report the incident, as it was a Sunday afternoon  the office was closed but the details were taken by a pleasant woman on the phone. As the weather was closing in we stopped, covered the hole with bin liners and proceeded to our marina. When we took another look in the cabin the bed and floor were covered with glass and window fittings so we were obliged to check into the Wayford Bridge Hotel for the night. Next day we went into Rico's office who took all the details again and asked us to take the boat to Moonfleet, they also told us the hirer had not reported the collision. As ever the boys at Moonfleet were excellent taking all the bedding and mattress out and everything vacuuming twice. They also arranged to do the repairs if we left the boat with them on the way home and they would return it to our mooring when repaired an arrangement that we were happy with, Rico's also refunded the hotel bill.

Regards

Bob