Boatyman

The canal outside the waterways museum at Stoke Bruerne is 52 feet wide. I know this because I winded a 55 foot boat there in the late 1970's! One of the larger chunks out of the concrete coping is mine. As you can imagine, I had quite an audience who thought it hugely more entertaining than I did.

Presumably you are will be riding to the memorial to the cyclists who lost their lives in World War 1. (I got a warning letter from the police last year who reckoned their neighbourhood watch speed camera volunteers clocked me doing 51mph on the roundabout at Meriden in my van. At that speed my van would have been embedded in the memorial...)

Yep, we had that too! Or find a broken plate carefully placed back together half way down the pile. The other thing to do when a boat is stood for a week is to stick all the crockery etc through a dishwasher.

Hi Greg. Further to previous replies by others, it costs about the same to operate a 'quality' boat as it does a 'budget' boat. The only main difference is that your income will be lower. The operators who consistently do well are Valley Cruises, Napton Narrowboats, Rose Narrowboats, and others who all give the general hirer what they want - a good comfortable reliable clean boat with all the comforts of home. The hirers that want basic boats really want a cheap boat, but those boats won't pay the bills. You need to be looking at around a 30 week average to start to make a profit. The boats don't have to be brand new, but must be spotlessly clean inside and out, everything must work and must be reliable. Base and reception need to be welcoming and the staff need to be smart and take a real pride in 'their' fleet. (We used to ask for car reg numbers in advance and would have a staff member assigned as a 'welcomer' with a crib sheet waiting in the drive ready to greet each group by name as they arrived). Put plenty of systems in place to inspect everything on every turnround, complete engine check every turnround with an oil and filter change every six weeks. If any item is causing reliability concerns, replace it. (Diesel cookers?)There's nothing worse than a callout - the worst advert for a company is one of their boats with the engine boards up for everyone to see. Try to standardise parts (we kept spare engines and on occasion swapped them on the towpath). If you get a breakdown, you don't want to be trying to locate spares. Need an unusual drive plate on a Bank Holiday Monday? Help! You need one on the shelf. A hirer who suffers a breakdown on average tells ten others - not a good ambassador for the company. Leave a 'items needing attention' sheet on board for the hirers to complete, and make sure the items are attended to before the next hirers arrive. Cleaners were always a challenge. Our system was to get the bedding off, thorough clean, then cleaner would report to the supervisor who would inspect the boat and then issue the pre-prepared bedding and welcome pack, then supervisor would report boat as clean to manager who would re-inspect and mark it as 'ready to rent'. We'd deep clean any boat that was not due out and often black hulls to waterline and touch up gunwhales so they always looked fresh. We also pulled out all cookers and fridges to clean behind on every turnround. If you want to run more trad looking boats, look at the new boats Rose are adding - shells are based on Little Northwich plans. Good luck, and I hope the above helps. (I owned and operated various hire fleets for 20 years and learned a lot the hard way!)