Where are all the boaters?

[David Mack]

17 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

And a recent brief glance at ABC accounts suggest that their growth is based on leveraging purchases via debt. A typical process these days but if the underlying business is sensitive to interest rates can end in tears.

Indeed. But presumably anyone building a new marina from scratch is going to be doing the same.

[Ange]

On 29/04/2024 at 13:04, Naughty Cal said:

We do still browse the boat brokers websites and there has definitely been an increase in the number of boats for sale with some hefty reductions on some.

 

Hadn't really noticed with the vans because we have not been looking with no plans to sell ours, but yes it does seem that numbers for sale have ticked up. Autotrader has been since we bought ours in 2021 ticking along with around 150 vans across the Benimar range for sale at any one time. Just checked now and it's closer to 260.

We're looking for a motorhome at the moment and it looks like our timing is good, there's a lot of choice out there for our budget.

[Momac]

On 28/04/2024 at 17:53, Naughty Cal said:

Turns out it was three years today we had our first night out in the van 😀

 

 

The council put a stop to camping at that location.

 

 

 

Boat sales seem to have declined local to me although the cheaper end of the market seem to be doing okay.

I have seen some big reductions in asking prices for the more expensive boats  . The post covid price jump seems to have evaporated. 

 

As for boat movements must confess  we have not been very far at all in April , due mostly to the weather which has not been to the chief officers liking.

I am expecting a rush of boats moving over the coming bank holiday weekend as the weather forecast looks reasonable (at the moment).

 

The hire boat prices mentioned above made me think the cost of keeping my own boat not so bad after all.

 

 

Edited May 1 by Momac

[Naughty Cal]

1 hour ago, Ange said:

We're looking for a motorhome at the moment and it looks like our timing is good, there's a lot of choice out there for our budget.

There do appear to be some good deals available at the minute. Plenty to choose from.

 

Hope you find something that suits you.

41 minutes ago, Momac said:

The council put a stop to camping at that location.

 

 

 

Boat sales seem to have declined local to me although the cheaper end of the market seem to be doing okay.

I have seen some big reductions in asking prices for the more expensive boats  . The post covid price jump seems to have evaporated. 

 

As for boat movements must confess  we have not been very far at all in April , due mostly to the weather which has not been to the chief officers liking.

I am expecting a rush of boats moving over the coming bank holiday weekend as the weather forecast looks reasonable (at the moment).

 

The hire boat prices mentioned above made me think the cost of keeping my own boat not so bad after all.

 

 

Yes it was a great shame to lose that park up. It was a lovely spot.

 

Mind you we have found plenty more to make up for it. 

 

We have not let the weather put us off using the van this winter and spring. Doesn't really make much odds when we are out in that. If we were at home we would have to go out and get wet to walk the dog so we can do it from the van just as easily 

 

We are off up to North Yorkshire for this bank holiday weekend so expecting it to be a bit busier on the roads.

 

We are at Wells next the Sea for the next bank holiday which is when we would have usually gone with NC. Will be interesting to see how many boats there are out and about then. The visitors moorings were usually quite busy and we would often be rafted two or three deep.

[Mike Todd]

19 hours ago, David Mack said:

Indeed. But presumably anyone building a new marina from scratch is going to be doing the same.

Mostly but not all. Some were constructed by the farmer/landowner using their spare time and plant.

[peterboat]

3 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

There do appear to be some good deals available at the minute. Plenty to choose from.

 

Hope you find something that suits you.

Yes it was a great shame to lose that park up. It was a lovely spot.

 

Mind you we have found plenty more to make up for it. 

 

We have not let the weather put us off using the van this winter and spring. Doesn't really make much odds when we are out in that. If we were at home we would have to go out and get wet to walk the dog so we can do it from the van just as easily 

 

We are off up to North Yorkshire for this bank holiday weekend so expecting it to be a bit busier on the roads.

 

We are at Wells next the Sea for the next bank holiday which is when we would have usually gone with NC. Will be interesting to see how many boats there are out and about then. The visitors moorings were usually quite busy and we would often be rafted two or three deep.

We are off to Marple and then Bakewell with Chatsworth for Monday, should be ok can normally find free parking and the weather is better there than the east coast allegedly 

[ditchcrawler]

48 minutes ago, peterboat said:

We are off to Marple and then Bakewell with Chatsworth for Monday, should be ok can normally find free parking and the weather is better there than the east coast allegedly 

We have had a cracking day today and you don't get any further east without getting your feet wet

[Naughty Cal]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

We have had a cracking day today and you don't get any further east without getting your feet wet

It was nice here today but the forecast for the weekend doesn't look great!

2 hours ago, peterboat said:

We are off to Marple and then Bakewell with Chatsworth for Monday, should be ok can normally find free parking and the weather is better there than the east coast allegedly 

We are at Ripon for a night, then onto Hawes and then a night at The CB Inn which is Richmond at a guess.

 

We have booked on the CAMC site at Chatsworth for New Year's. Now that was a pricey do! 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

We have had a cracking day today and you don't get any further east without getting your feet wet

Had a bostin day here too!

I think I’m getting a suntan 

[peterboat]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

We have had a cracking day today and you don't get any further east without getting your feet wet

Weekend weather is better for the west or was

1 hour ago, Naughty Cal said:

It was nice here today but the forecast for the weekend doesn't look great!

We are at Ripon for a night, then onto Hawes and then a night at The CB Inn which is Richmond at a guess.

 

We have booked on the CAMC site at Chatsworth for New Year's. Now that was a pricey do! 

I used to work at catterick and the ex worked in Richmond nice little town it is

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

7 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Weekend weather is better for the west or was

I think someone said it earlier in the thread (or elsewhere) the forecasts seem to be pessimistic and edge their bets on the worst 
 

Just remember: everyday is an ice cream day! 

[mrpaulo]

Thanks to everyone for their input - my question was one of concern as what seemed a bustling community seemed very quiet when we went this year.

 

Interestingly we didn't know about the new narrow boat programme that started on channel 4 this week, or the amount of people who vlog on Youtube about their liveaboard experiences until we came back from our trip, so this seems to be a thing now!

 

Would it be fair for me to conclude that the holiday market has nose dived, most likely costs, but with the increase of work at home jobs, or flexibility in the workplace liveaboard has increased, which might mean less moving about? We still saw boats moored up it was the low amount of traffic that surprised us.

 

Sorry for the enquiries, it always has and will be a long term goal to own a narrow boat, so we are interested if the community feel we experienced in the past will still be there when we get to do it!

 

Thanks again

Paul

 

 

[Tonka]

21 hours ago, Ange said:

We're looking for a motorhome at the moment and it looks like our timing is good, there's a lot of choice out there for our budget.

hope the build quality of a motorhome is better then a caravan. I am repairing a 2004 Bailey caravan at the moment and boy are they poorley built and flimsey. Rivets into 3.6mm ply to hold corner brackets and staples used to hold fittings

[Naughty Cal]

3 hours ago, Tonka said:

hope the build quality of a motorhome is better then a caravan. I am repairing a 2004 Bailey caravan at the moment and boy are they poorley built and flimsey. Rivets into 3.6mm ply to hold corner brackets and staples used to hold fittings

Build quality varies between manufacturers, much the same as it does with cars, houses, boats, etc.

 

Plenty of info on the internet to help avoid those with a poor reputation for build quality though.

 

We opted for a mid range European brand which seems to have been a good choice to date. No major problem thus far, nothing has dropped off it or disintegrated and everything still works at it should.

[Momac]

You can probably tell the build quality of new motorhomes from the weight and the new price.

Certainly some brands are better than others just like everything else. 

A neighbour has bought an Adria motorhome  which I see is priced new at over £100k 

 

 

 

 

 

[Naughty Cal]

2 hours ago, Momac said:

You can probably tell the build quality of new motorhomes from the weight and the new price.

Certainly some brands are better than others just like everything else. 

A neighbour has bought an Adria motorhome  which I see is priced new at over £100k 

 

 

 

 

 

Weight isn't necessarily a good indicator of quality with motorhomes. 

 

All of the quality builders make a van under 3.5t for those with no C1 on their driving licence. 

 

There is an Autosleeper we really like that is 8m long. Usually plated at 4.5t which gives a huge payload. You can also get the same van as a 3.5t version with a pointlessly small payload! 

 

The Adria's are nicely fitted but we have not found one with a layout that would suit us which is half the battle with a van!

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

CRT rent that Visitor Centre out for weddings at some daft charge, think it were £5000 6 years ago,

crazy money but folk pay it,

they get top floor and the grounds to themselves,

often it meant visitors for the museum were disappointed because access was limited,

but it’s  exactly what CRT should be doing,

making money from their assets,

not rocket science

 

the cafe at the tunnel end is a little gold mine,

 

 

 

I think Ive just posted on wrong thread,

I’ll try again 

 

Edited May 2 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

[peterboat]

3 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Weight isn't necessarily a good indicator of quality with motorhomes. 

 

All of the quality builders make a van under 3.5t for those with no C1 on their driving licence. 

 

There is an Autosleeper we really like that is 8m long. Usually plated at 4.5t which gives a huge payload. You can also get the same van as a 3.5t version with a pointlessly small payload! 

 

The Adria's are nicely fitted but we have not found one with a layout that would suit us which is half the battle with a van!

Ours is a 4.6 ton campervan, its reassuring that we can carry stuff in it as a van without fear of being overloaded. Its also handy that it's classed as a private HGV so pay a very small VED

[Naughty Cal]

9 hours ago, peterboat said:

Ours is a 4.6 ton campervan, its reassuring that we can carry stuff in it as a van without fear of being overloaded. Its also handy that it's classed as a private HGV so pay a very small VED

We could up plate ours as a paperwork exercise to 3.65t or 4.1t with some minor modifications. But then I wouldn't be able to drive it (without taking my C1 test) which kind of defeats the object really.

 

We have had it on a weighbridge loaded with fuel, water, gear for two weeks, beer, food, clothes, two of us and the dog and it came in at 3400kg, enough under that we are comfortable with it. Mind you we have both lost some weight since then so we could probably squeeze a few more crates of booze in now as well 

[peterboat]

50 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

We could up plate ours as a paperwork exercise to 3.65t or 4.1t with some minor modifications. But then I wouldn't be able to drive it (without taking my C1 test) which kind of defeats the object really.

 

We have had it on a weighbridge loaded with fuel, water, gear for two weeks, beer, food, clothes, two of us and the dog and it came in at 3400kg, enough under that we are comfortable with it. Mind you we have both lost some weight since then so we could probably squeeze a few more crates of booze in now as well 

I often carry heavy stuff in the campervan, I made sure 1 ton bags will fit so it's a compromise for us.

[Tim Lewis]

We have just spent three days boating from Aylesbury to Little Venice and I doubt if we is e passed  dozen boats travelling in the opposite direction!

[peterboat]

1 hour ago, Tim Lewis said:

We have just spent three days boating from Aylesbury to Little Venice and I doubt if we is e passed  dozen boats travelling in the opposite direction!

When we went out the other weekend it was dead, honestly it can't be all down to the weather I think cost of boating is the restriction and it's just going to get worse with more licence increases 

[Arthur Marshall]

35 minutes ago, peterboat said:

When we went out the other weekend it was dead, honestly it can't be all down to the weather I think cost of boating is the restriction and it's just going to get worse with more licence increases 

I don't even think it's the licence increases, they, tbh, aren't that much, and we are all are stuck with them anyway. I think it's the hugely increased running costs, gas and diesel, repairs and maintenence. Combine that with endless stoppages which just make it more stressful going out for a long trip while wondering if you'll get home and you have to think harder about whether it's worth it. Leisure boaters are probably, like me, doing fewer short 1 or 2 week trips and saving the money for a single long summer cruise.

[SLC]

Well we haven't been out as we went on an ocean cruise in a sunny climate. The weather does make a difference and I am sure if we had had a warm and sunny early spring there would have been more about. I am not one for opening lock gates in the rain and trying to keep dry and sometimes that wind has been biting. It will be interesting to see how things progress over the next few months - just as we are out and about!

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

2 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

We have just spent three days boating from Aylesbury to Little Venice and I doubt if we is e passed  dozen boats travelling in the opposite direction!

I’ve not been meeting many boats at locks on the Lee until yesterday when I met 5. 
I caught up with 2 and was followed by 3. 
All going to Little Venice. 👍

 

Hopefully you’ll have a good turn out.