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Attitudes towards hirers


Robster123

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39 minutes ago, IanM said:

 

I've always said to people that automatically criticise hire boats that someone on a private boat could have just bought it a week before having no experience where the person on the hire boat could have been hiring regularly for the last 15 years.

 

 

 

I agree, a privateer is just as likely to have had only two weeks' boating experience per year to date of ownership, judging by the infrequency of use of most of the boats in Braunston Marina. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, IanM said:

 

I've always said to people that automatically criticise hire boats that someone on a private boat could have just bought it a week before having no experience where the person on the hire boat could have been hiring regularly for the last 15 years.

 

40 years... 🙂

 

Hire boaters are sometimes clueless, especially if they haven't done it before and have had inadequate training from the hire base. But at least they have an excuse, unlike some (not all!) obnoxious entitled private boat owners who think that they are superior, always know boating better than you, and should certainly have priority over hireboat scum... 😞

 

Many boaters of all kinds (including private, scruffy, shiny, ex-working...) are lovely people and a pleasure to be on the canals with. But you tend to remember the obnoxious ones who stick in the memory...  😉

Edited by IanD
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Anyone can be clueless about driving narrowboats and using locks. Some people take to it in 5 minutes with no problem at all - like me - I'm a mech engineer and have sailed quite a lot. Locks I like - very interesting but TBH compared with sailing, handling a narrowboat is rather simple, almost like slow motion! I guess if you're not the engineering type and never been on a boat apart from the cross channel ferry you might have more problem getting to grips.

Edited by Slow and Steady
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59 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

 I’ve always found hirers to be ok, as I always cut them some slack. As my train of thought is that they have spent a couple of thousand on the holiday and if like myself, your family only went on holiday 2 weeks in the Summer and worked all year for it, you looked forward to it for months. So they’re no problem as I’m on my boat 24/7 and never in that much of a rush, so just  want them to enjoy it.

  They’re not all perfect agreed, then again neither are full time boat owners. with speed and situation awareness They are often more chatty and not up their own ar$e like what I’m seeing with the new breed of the older middle class boaters, who have just bought a new £200k plus boat and set up a YouTube/Instagram channel to tell the world about their new fabulous life onboard. So I always give them a wave and a little bit of help if needed but treat them as just someone with a boat. 

Cranium size, real or imaginary has a lot to do with it.

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1 hour ago, PD1964 said:

like what I’m seeing with the new breed of the older middle class boaters, who have just bought a new £200k plus boat and set up a YouTube/Instagram channel to tell the world about their new fabulous life onboard.

 

Never realised that you don't like certain YouTubers ;)

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On hirers. Some are a bit inept, but I am also seeing some who are overly-apologetic because people have a go at them for little-to-nothing. An example: some folks on the K&A turning at a non-winding point, but where there was plenty of space (more than many official winding points). Someone yelled at them. They weren't in the way.

 

Even before that incident, I spoke to them and they were saying they were not trying to upset anyone when coming close to our boat (I was neither upset nor worried).

 

In other cases, some are pretty annoying, like those mooring at water points or lock landings. But the majority are fine.

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8 minutes ago, Thomas C King said:

On hirers. Some are a bit inept, but I am also seeing some who are overly-apologetic because people have a go at them for little-to-nothing. An example: some folks on the K&A turning at a non-winding point, but where there was plenty of space (more than many official winding points). Someone yelled at them. They weren't in the way.

 

Even before that incident, I spoke to them and they were saying they were not trying to upset anyone when coming close to our boat (I was neither upset nor worried).

 

In other cases, some are pretty annoying, like those mooring at water points or lock landings. But the majority are fine.

You’ll find when you spent a few years on the canals that full time boat owners are just as inept and spend more time on lock landings and water points not moving then weekly holiday hirers. I thought you might of noticed this on the K&A

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8 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

You’ll find when you spent a few years on the canals that full time boat owners are just as inept and spend more time on lock landings and water points not moving then weekly holiday hirers. I thought you might of noticed this on the K&A

 

Already aware of this. And I agree, the regular "problem boaters" are a far bigger annoyance, and the biggest threat imo to boating (as they may cause an overreaction from society in general).

 

Example, there is an ongoing dispute near Saltford. Homeowners complaining about boaters, in one case a homeowner unmoored a boat that they didn't want in front of their house (they were given ASBOs). Here, I think some homeowners are being a**seholes. HOWEVER, when we moored there it was obvious that some boaters (shed-boats, specifically) were overstaying and being a general nuisance with engine running etc. Would the homeowners be a**seholes to all boaters, were it not for the few generally difficult boaters? Not sure, but the difficult minority seem to be harming the rule-obeying majority (if it is a majority, not sure anymore).

 

In Brentford now, we'll see if it's a similar trend round here as we head up the GU.

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2 hours ago, Thomas C King said:

 

Already aware of this. And I agree, the regular "problem boaters" are a far bigger annoyance, and the biggest threat imo to boating (as they may cause an overreaction from society in general).

 

Example, there is an ongoing dispute near Saltford. Homeowners complaining about boaters, in one case a homeowner unmoored a boat that they didn't want in front of their house (they were given ASBOs). Here, I think some homeowners are being a**seholes. HOWEVER, when we moored there it was obvious that some boaters (shed-boats, specifically) were overstaying and being a general nuisance with engine running etc. Would the homeowners be a**seholes to all boaters, were it not for the few generally difficult boaters? Not sure, but the difficult minority seem to be harming the rule-obeying majority (if it is a majority, not sure anymore).

 

In Brentford now, we'll see if it's a similar trend round here as we head up the GU.

Good luck with heading north from Brentford. We did that last summer and it was a nightmare. Nearly all mooring places taken until north of Berkhamstead. Little opportunity to pick up provisions as the supermarket 3 hrs moorings has long staying boats double moored. One lady got very irate with us as we asked her to move up 10 feet on a water point to allow us in for water. She said we were interrupting her conference call! 

We do like that stretch of the canal though. Hopefully it will not be too crowded this early in the season.

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8 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

Many years ago I was chatting with a bloke on a hire boat and it emerged he was the captain of a naval warship! 

 

He said the warship was much easier to handle than a narrowboat, as all he did was stand around issuing orders. When he tried that on the hire boat, nothing happened and he had to do it all himself...

 

Mooring at Napton for some time and often meeting the Navy's boats I would always give them plenty of room 

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2 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Mooring at Napton for some time and often meeting the Navy's boats I would always give them plenty of room 

Definitely too much " left hand down a bit". They once passed us with a totally naked crew!   Oh, how we did laugh!

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6 hours ago, Thomas C King said:

On hirers. Some are a bit inept, but I am also seeing some who are overly-apologetic because people have a go at them for little-to-nothing. An example: some folks on the K&A turning at a non-winding point, but where there was plenty of space (more than many official winding points). Someone yelled at them. They weren't in the way.

 

Even before that incident, I spoke to them and they were saying they were not trying to upset anyone when coming close to our boat (I was neither upset nor worried).

 

In other cases, some are pretty annoying, like those mooring at water points or lock landings. But the majority are fine.

 

My dear Mr King, you are too kind to these hire-boating scoundrels. 

I have already outlined a plan to CRT for teams of snipers to be employed at water points on the Llangollen.

Any hire boat crew that moors for lunch on a water point will be 'dealt with'. 

 

And before the namby-pamby SJWs start to protest, I am not proposing that we kill them.

Or at least, not all of them. 

The idea would be for the special ops team to open fire with rubber bullets as a form of 'encouragement' for the offending boaters to vacate the water point asap. 

The principle is very much the same as with a cattle prod.  

 

If any of these criminals should have the gall to stay put, the sniper team switches to lethal ammunition. Problem solved. 

 

In very much the same way, I am proposing that hire boats be fitted with an electrification mechanism, which would be activated whenever their boat comes within two feet of another boat. 

There would be several levels. On the first occasion, the electric shock would be akin to a police taser. 

The second time these monsters hit another boat, we turn the voltage up to a lethal dose. 

At first glance it seems harsh, I can see that- but you can't make an omelette without killing some hire boaters. 

 

 

Edited by Tony1
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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Mooring at Napton for some time and often meeting the Navy's boats I would always give them plenty of room 

 

One of those holds the record for passing my boat at the highest speed.

 

The waves not only wet the paving on my mooring but made it onto the lawn!

 

08:30 and already a collection of beer cans on the hatch. ☹

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