FredDrift

I seem to recall having not bad pub grub at the Bridge Inn just down the hill at Chirk Bank…

Same theme but pin hex in a plethora of sizes… https://www.tcfixings.co.uk/product/m10-x-30mm-h6-pin-hex-a2-button-head-security-screws/13201

Isn’t it the case that the Broads boat hire companies collectively fund bridge pilots at Potter Heigham & Wroxham and that no hire boats should pass under either bridge without the services of the pilot? You’d imagine damage occasioned by hirers hitting these bridges is outside of any insurance provided by the hire companies.

You cerainly didn’t offend me MrsM... I suspect a case of mistaken identity between me (happynomad) and the similary named @The Happy Nomad.

Our first ever narrowboat holiday was on Taw Valley out of Springwood Haven. If I remember correctly it was a 48/49 ft semi trad and we were surprised at just how smart and well appointed it was. We enjoyed the boat and our holiday enormously but for reasons quite unknown, and despite quite a number of years of three or four hires per year, we never hired from Valley again. These days, I think hire company’s are pricing themselves out the holiday market. Hopefully the staff of Valley will get some sort of pay / redundancy settlement and go on to find new employment opportunities.

My first bike came from (and was branded) Curry's which started as a bike shop but of course, have long since stopped them. How I loved that bike. It got stolen and was never recovered although I think the old man sold it for beer money ?

My vey first boating holiday was from Braunston in the sixties - grandparents took me and my brother for a week to get us out the way for the birth of third brother. It was on an outboard motor powered camping boat named Bluebird I / II / III or IV - (can't remember which now but there was a number of them available for hire and probably Blue Line too. We got as far as Banbury - working the locks and lift bridges, lock keepers in all of the lock keepers cottages, working boats (looked very very big compared to our little punt shaped camping boat. Probably twenty feet long with square bow and stern and very small foredeck on which two coal scuttle shaped tall water containers stood. To divid the boat into two 'bedrooms' a canvas divider was hung from the roof frame. I used to have an image of one of these boat - different owner and paint scheme though. My brother and I and I absolutely loved it.

I'm sure Clifton Cruisers used to hire out 'static' narrowboats - floating holiday cottage holidays type of thing at their base on the North Oxford canal. That they don't appear to do so now may suggest that there isn't a real market for it. If you look look at the current per week hire price of a narrowboat, hiring one to go nowhere makes little sense compared to hiring a cottage. The cost of operating a boat for hire, whether static or cruising is probably not going to be hugely different.

Having hired many boats, I don't recall one with a life ring on the roof but in every instance, life jackets were available if required.

I think that it's Black Prince on the Thames. The last time we did the south Oxford (hire boat from Ventnor Farm near Wigrams Turn) we managed Banbury and back in ten days. We did stop for a night in Braunston before back tracking but I think the peace and tranquility of the south Oxford is such that distance travelled became unimportant for a short relaxing there and back holiday.

Does anybody, anywhere actually care a nano-jot about your likes and dislikes?

in the same way that the cost of renting a lock up garage is borne entirely by the users of said garages and not those who choose to park at the kerbside. CCers don't pay for on-line moorings either so are they in any way pertinent to any discussion about marina NAAs?

From a CRT viewpoint would it be a hire? That would be the real stumbling block (given their requirements pertaining to hire boats) in terms of whether it was do-able and worth doing... ...as long as the respective insurers are fully informed and / or paid for appropriate cover It works insurance-wise with house - swaps, even where the use of a car is included (with exceptions - some companies apparently won't insure some overseas house swappers to drive privately owned cars in the UK). Not thinking of entering into such an arrangement - just a curiosity really.

Discounting a specific hire... If no cash is changing hands, i.e. the boat owner and the house owner simply agree to exchange their accommodations for an agreed time and both parties pay the day to day costs associated with the accommodation they are 'holidaying' in, - no cash benefit to either party - is it still a hire? Would it be any different in reality to allowing a friend to use your boat whilst you house-sit for the friend?

I certainly wasn't throwing stones and I rather hope I am not wrong... If I am then my entire career has been a complete sham and I need to get out of it before I am rumbled. Perhaps you would be so kind as to point out where, in the context of what I said, I am wrong...

Pedantic perhaps but the net figure (sales minus cost) is the bottom line... Surely only you are wasting your time by responding to PaulG's 'facile nonsense' Not sure what you are thinking here... Or are you just popping at George94? At its most basic, revenue is revenue, cost is cost whether direct as in cost of sales or labour or whether indirect as in variable or fixed costs. The bottom line is simply revenue minus cost. There is no net effect of cost - there can't be a net effect of a single item. The net effect (whether at gross profit or at operating profit level) is simply the result of revenue minus cost. ETA missed word in last line...

Casual Waiting Staff Required: The company profit share scheme should be good... extra £180k somewhere to share out amongst the team eh?