Tillerman Boats

[peteandchrissie]

Just been reading the forum with regards to Robin Hood boats and are now a little concerned. We have booked a holiday with Tillerman boats which we believe to be linked with Canaltime has anyone got anything to say about them good or bad!!

[dcruk]

Tillerman boats, From my experience they fill in the vacant gaps when Canaltime boats are not going out on a timeshare or RCI exchange. The boats are reasonably well equipped , but the lack of front doors and easy access to the bow can put people off. If i can help with any other questions PM me , I was based with them on the Llangollen, hth, Dave

[Sam]

Just been reading the forum with regards to Robin Hood boats and are now a little concerned. We have booked a holiday with Tillerman boats which we believe to be linked with Canaltime has anyone got anything to say about them good or bad!!

 

yes they are CanalTime boats.

You will turn up to a CanalTime base and take a CanalTime branded boat.

 

We did (on the cheap... never again) last year and I think it broke down at least 5 times... and had to keep meeting the mechanics along the way for various things.... mainly oil!

It was getting through it like mad.... (LOTS AND LOTS!) then on the last day the engine basically ran out.. as it was just running straight through into the bilge...

 

We ended up walking the boat back quite a way to a boat yard where we could be picked up by the CT people.

 

We were not impressed... and the runners of the base couldn't give a dam.

 

 

To summarise..

Not good experience with CanalTime / TillerMan for me i'm afraid.. although I'm sure some people have had great trips with them.

ps. (I am used to a private share boat too...)

 

Sam

Edited January 16, 2008 by Sam

[peteandchrissie]

yes they are CanalTime boats.

You will turn up to a CanalTime base and take a CanalTime branded boat.

 

We did (on the cheap... never again) last year and I think it broke down at least 5 times... and had to keep meeting the mechanics along the way for various things.... mainly oil!

It was getting through it like mad.... (LOTS AND LOTS!) then on the last day the engine basically ran out.. as it was just running straight through into the bilge...

 

We ended up walking the boat back quite a way to a boat yard where we could be picked up by the CT people.

 

We were not impressed... and the runners of the base couldn't give a dam.

To summarise..

Not good experience with CanalTime / TillerMan im afraid..

Also someone was killed off of one of the CT boats last year.... fell over the back railings and had upper torso / head mangled by prop.... apparently they were trying to leap off at a lock.... there is speculation this would have been avoided if the crew can get out the front!

 

*rant over*

Sam

 

 

Sam many thanks for your reply it has certainly opened our eyes to the point that we are now considering cancelling the holiday later in the year. Can I just ask which base you took your holiday from?

Many Thanks

[dcruk]

Also someone was killed off of one of the CT boats last year.... fell over the back railings and had upper torso / head mangled by prop.... apparently they were trying to leap off at a lock.... there is speculation this would have been avoided if the crew can get out the front!

 

*rant over*

Sam

 

 

The accident report here has it slightly differently , the lockwheeler was already off the boat , it was the helmsman who was tragicaly killed.

It doesn't look like the lack of front doors came into it ( though the lack of them may just save someone from sinking the boat in a lock)

Dave

[RichardH]

Before starting our own hire boat company I would have merrily waded in with my northern opinion on this subject so I will be a bit reserved as I am sure that there are things Tillerman do far better than us.

 

My opinion purely from my days as a private boater is that the boats are not as well kept as they could be and that the training leaves a little to be desired. At one stage the company used to replace the boats on a regular rolling cycle but now they remain in the fleet longer.

[Sam]

EDITED OUT

Edited January 16, 2008 by Sam

[dcruk]

I knew it wasn't mentioned in the report... hence the 'speculation' ... meaning between boaters I know...

Also forgotten it was the helmsman.

 

Still will never use Tillerman again..

 

 

I bow to your superior speculation , obviously you know better than the accident investigators. I hope no one from Canaltime takes you to task for it

 

Dave

[Sam]

EDITED OUT.

Edited January 16, 2008 by Sam

[Sam]

Sam many thanks for your reply it has certainly opened our eyes to the point that we are now considering cancelling the holiday later in the year. Can I just ask which base you took your holiday from?

Many Thanks

 

Hi.

If it is your first holiday.. in a way i would say go for it as you will not have expectations.

What I forgot to say that we took this holiday after having boated for many years.. including with private share boats.. so maybe our expectations were higher? - although this does not excuse the engine problems - there again these are probs. very rare!!

 

Although on the flip side of the coin... if you can... I would suggest going with someone like Viking Afloat or Alvechurch Boat Hire (run by same company).... as I only have good things to say about these companies.... they are perfect... and their fleet is very nice!

(we moved one of their boats for them last summer - brand new fleet that they are introducing.. which is very nice indeed)

 

Can't remember the name of the base... but it is close by to the Ashby Canal.

 

One other very bad point about this base was that they had left everyones credit card details over the seats in the 'hut' where you check in and where the staff 'hang out' - a bit worrying seeing as everyone (especially staff) had access to all your details.

Edited January 16, 2008 by Sam

[DHutch]

I dont really know anything about tillerman, or if they have any conection with canaltime. Or used a canaltime boat.

- From a bit of digging around, it seams that maybe they use some ex canaltime boats, and there does same to be some photos (but no mention) of canaltime boats on there website.

 

That said a lot of canaltime users seam very happy with there holidays, so maybe its not that bad anyway.

- The no doors thing is faily unusally, and common thoughout canaltimes fleet (making the very noticeable when sold into private ownership) and i could quite see that some would find it uninviting.

- However we basicaly dont have any way out of the front of emilyanne (we have a smaller side-hatch-like pair of doors and gunnel hight, but there only really ever used for ventilation).

- And ive certainly not heard any suggestion that the gastly accident that occured on that canaltime boat had anything to do with the lack of front doors, or even geting on or off at locks. More boat technique, or potentially the design of the rear deck.

 

 

Daniel

[dcruk]

Some time back Canaltime split slightly with Sawley being run by different people to Alvecote, Union Wharf and Blackwater Meadow. Tillerman fill in the gaps in the timeshare and RCI exchange bookings at the latter 3 marinas and it looks likely that "hireacanalboat" do the same kind of thing at Sawley.

Tillerman dont have their own boats , they are all Canaltime ones and probably all showing their age a bit now, mostly being over 5 years old

 

Dave

[tillergirl]

The hireacanalboat one we had in October was showing its age and although it did'nt break down at all we decided that we would not use them again. The holiday was brill the boat was a huge disappointment for the money we paid for an out of season break. But I expect you can get that with any hire firm. We've used Pennine twice and although the last time we had a bit of a niggle (i.e. they'd forgot to out the big curtain up at the front door to keep out the draughts - a necessity in February!!) we have always been pleased with them. Another couple we met last time out with Pennine had a hell of a time and swore they would never use them again. I don't really think its a case of you get what you pay for because all hire firms seem to be on average more or less the same price (give or take £100 or so) I believe its more a case of what you are expecting from the holiday and breakdowns aside (that must have been really annoying) maybe sometimes we big the canal boat holiday up and then its sometimes a bit of a let down.

[woolies]

Just been reading the forum with regards to Robin Hood boats and are now a little concerned. We have booked a holiday with Tillerman boats which we believe to be linked with Canaltime has anyone got anything to say about them good or bad!!

We hired canal time boat last year at sawley, marina, really clean boat well equipped

Friendly staff and good instruction. I would use them again reason we use canal time and not tillerman was we had a pet dog. Had lots fun great week. This year weve hired from chasharden

On the Llangollen canal

 

obviously thats my oppion over people may of had diffrent view........mark

 

ps any ever hired from chasharden on the llangollen canal

[Dan]

Hi Woolie

 

Chas Hardern are based at Beeeston, so you can certainly head for the Llangollen, but they aren't actually based on it.

 

The company offers good value, nicely presented boats (rather than top luxury rated craft, as probably gathered when comparing prices) and, from what I hear with friendly, well supported staff so I'm sure you'll have a good time with them.

 

Enjoy!

 

Dan

[RichardH]

ps any ever hired from chasharden on the llangollen canal

 

I am a big fan of Chas. Great people and well built boats. We were at Ellesmere on Snowmane and my wife felt she was going into labour. Without any hesitation one of the base staff came out and ran us back to our car so we could go to the local hospital to have things checked out.

[woolies]

I am a big fan of Chas. Great people and well built boats. We were at Ellesmere on Snowmane and my wife felt she was going into labour. Without any hesitation one of the base staff came out and ran us back to our car so we could go to the local hospital to have things checked out.

yeh thanks richard,,,Snowmane is the boat weve hired,,,we go in aug the staff did seem nice when booked cheers mark

[kerching]

We have just returned from a weeks hire with Tillerman out of Blackwater Meadow Marina on the Llangollen. The boat was the 55ft, 6 berth type and was absolutely fine and as stated elsewhere it was a canaltime boat.The training we recieved was good and the staff were friendly and helpful. The lock training is apparently done on a model as there are no locks within miles of this marina, plus there is a video on board which you can watch with all this information on. This didn,t matter in our case as we had hired elsewhere before. All in all it was a good holiday hire and good value, i would not hesitate to use them again.