We were hit by a hire boat a couple of weeks ago on the S Oxford which caused quite a dent in the port side bow guard iron. This was despite hard reversing manoevres on our part.
I won't go in to all the ins and outs but the incident could have become a lot worse as the hire boat had 2 young people on the gunnel at the bow barefoot and one hand on the hand rail.
Anyway, keeping calm and taking details of time, boat name, location witnesses etc (ex copper so habits are hard to lose) we travelled on and eventually we went back to the hire fleet within 36hrs and relayed the story,only to be told that the hire boat story was somewhat different (surprise). On stating that on our boat we had 3 people who were nb trainers and witnessed the whole episode must have helped our cause somewhat. I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of hire fleet instruction but need to say that the hire fleet were superb in arranging a welding repair - and when we turned up at the alloted day and time they were all ready and prepared.
2 hours later - job done - foc - thanks all round and off we went with a clean looking guard iron.
In the first instance we had to stand our ground as to what happened but the hire fleet manager and staff certainly took on what we said and took a course of action that was appreciated. Those of you that know the S Oxford - the hire fleet is just downstream from Wigrams Turn at Napton.
Our faith in hire fleet operators has been restored to some degree.