Middlewich Narrowboats

[CHUGALONG HIRE COMPANY]

The boat Rowan looks very nice and so do others. We are still waiting for our refund from Sarah for the cancelled trip booked for June 2012. We bought our first boat a year early end of September.

 

Good luck,hope the business goes well. Obviously you have Andersens to compete with.

 

 

Hi Darren

 

Please get in touch with Sarah, we'll get it sorted. You should do this quickly because the old owner has gone into liquidation and we can only recover this for you over the next few days but I can try. If there's a shortfall in the ammount the liquidator offers us for you, I may be able to make this up to the full amount for the sake of good relations and fair play.

 

Hope you enjoy your new boat.

Greg

[journeyperson]

A couple more from the same trip

 

Rochdale Canal:

 

 

 

Tim

 

I think that is lock 91 "Deansgate Locks", if it is it looks a bit better there today. The building on the right has been restored and is part of a bar now. The steel canopy on the left carries the pavement above and I think that's been rebuilt too, although it is still very congested there. (See photo below which is actually Nikki's (Odana) so I hope she doesn't mind me posting it.

 

Oak looks almost exactly the same, although as Dor says in an earlier post the superstructure is pretty rotten now, awaiting restoration.

 

[Teddy Bear]

We've had the same problem on two occasions when we've hired from them, never ready on time and waiting ages, does put you in a bad mood knowing its your time they're wasting. To rub salt into the wounds, it says in their documentation that if you're late back to base they will charge you.

 

We spoke to a family of Middlewich hirers last year who were waiting for their boat to be readied - very unhappy as they had arrived on time and their boat was no where near ready.

 

They were first time hirers and it was not a good first impression and they had no intention of hiring with you again as a result.

 

My impression of your boats is the boats look tatty and uncared for and as a result I would be reluctant to hire from you.

 

You did ask.....

[the grinch]

one thing that i've noticed is the stick the knife in mentality in this thread, the OP is the NEWowner of MN give them a chance! whilst we need to be honest and say what was wrong with the old, different bases offer different things

having worked at FBS where we would turn 3 boats and then at Clubline where we turned 15 boats on a saturday the organisation needed was vastly different.

one thing that Clubline did was ask for estimated time of arrival from hirers so that we could get the boats ready for the expected arrival times, sometimes things went wrong, boats arrived back late or damaged, one thing we always did in these situations where ever possible was to get the boats part ready so that the hirers could get in and settle whilst we finished off things like the toilet and engine servicing.

the smaller the boat the higher the hirers expectations seemed to be the 8 - 12 berths were rough and ready and they appealled to that sort of hirer whereas the 2-6 berths tended to have family groups with mother expecting a good standard.

[Alan Saunders]

. . . at Clubline where we turned 15 boats on a saturday the organisation needed was vastly different. one thing that Clubline did was ask for estimated time of arrival from hirers so that we could get the boats ready for the expected arrival times, sometimes things went wrong, boats arrived back late or damaged, . . .

The perception of the staff and the hirer often differ. Many years back, we returned a clean (cleaner than when we picked it up), undamaged 40' boat to Clubline at the appointed time, 9am - we moored outside the basin overnight for fear of incurring their late arrival charge. We had a long drive back to the South Coast but their customer representative angrily informed us that they had a lot of damage on one of their big boats and we would have to wait whilst they dealt with it! Two hours later we were sent on our way with no apology. Thirty years on and I am still advising friends not to hire from them.

 

A few years back I was seriously condidering the purchase of a boatyard but sanity prevailed! This is something you do, like farming, because it satisfies an urge, not because it is a good investment. Good luck to Chuggy! Many (most?) of the people who want to hire a basic boat may prefer it to look as if it is their own boat. i.e. no blatant advertising and a nice livery - looking well-used is good!

 

Facilities should be as easy to operate as those found in the average home. OTOH, my 11 year old daughter had to learn how to use a gas cooker on our boat because she was only used to a solid fuel cooker at home.

 

Good luck with MW Nb's, Alan

[the grinch]

no idea on that, but one thing was the size of the basin at stoke heath, we certainly always got the 3 70s in first otherwise we couldn't get them in, in all the time i was there if someone wanted to get away quickly we would do the checks out on the towpath and let them on their way. also never was anyone charged for being late back that i was aware of. in fact a couple of stragglers often helped!.

[Hairy-Neil]

The perception of the staff and the hirer often differ. Many years back, we returned a clean (cleaner than when we picked it up), undamaged 40' boat to Clubline at the appointed time, 9am - we moored outside the basin overnight for fear of incurring their late arrival charge. We had a long drive back to the South Coast but their customer representative angrily informed us that they had a lot of damage on one of their big boats and we would have to wait whilst they dealt with it! Two hours later we were sent on our way with no apology. Thirty years on and I am still advising friends not to hire from them.

 

 

 

You can quit now, IIRC they packed in trading about 5 years ago...

[the grinch]

You can quit now, IIRC they packed in trading about 5 years ago...

yep reg and keith retired and sold it on, the people who took over failed to make a go of it and as far as i know the basin only has a few private boats moored there nowadays, but i haven't been up there for ages

[Albion]

one thing that i've noticed is the stick the knife in mentality in this thread, the OP is the NEWowner of MN give them a chance! whilst we need to be honest and say what was wrong with the old, different bases offer different things

having worked at FBS where we would turn 3 boats and then at Clubline where we turned 15 boats on a saturday the organisation needed was vastly different.

one thing that Clubline did was ask for estimated time of arrival from hirers so that we could get the boats ready for the expected arrival times, sometimes things went wrong, boats arrived back late or damaged, one thing we always did in these situations where ever possible was to get the boats part ready so that the hirers could get in and settle whilst we finished off things like the toilet and engine servicing.

the smaller the boat the higher the hirers expectations seemed to be the 8 - 12 berths were rough and ready and they appealled to that sort of hirer whereas the 2-6 berths tended to have family groups with mother expecting a good standard.

 

The OP asked for honest views about Middlewich nbs and, as far as I can see, has got them. I haven't noticed anyone sticking the knife in. In fact, this has been one of the more even-tempered, helpful threads that you're likely to see. The OP has thanked everyone for their honesty and frankness and, for marketing purposes the feedback must be very useful.

Roger

[Guest]

one thing that i've noticed is the stick the knife in mentality in this thread, the OP is the NEWowner of MN give them a chance! whilst we need to be honest and say what was wrong with the old, different bases offer different things

 

Can't agree with that comment at all Hamster. The OP came on here and asked for opinions about the reputation and experiences of the company he has just acquired - and people gave him just that, it's not 'sticking the knife' in at all, at least not in the case of the observations I posted, nor as far as I can see anyone else...

 

 

 

..

Edited December 9, 2011 by MJG

[Hastings]

Greg at MN -

 

Welcome to the local canal business world. We have a canalside shop by the Shroppie, and many MN boats come by. Also, we have known MN since the mid-80s, when we had a shop by the Trent & Mersey. The company reputation seems to be as providing fairly trad boats at a fairly low price, and I agree with other correspondents that there's a market for economy boats without burr walnut and marquetry kitchen cupboard doors, dishwashers etc.

 

But my main concern is that MN boats have been getting tattier in appearance over the last few years. Some look as if the hull above waterline hasn't been painted for two or three years, in that there's little black paint left. And some parts of the superstructure have patches of paint missing, bare wood, rust patches etc. Evenm with budget boats, this is unacceptable. But MN are not the only ones - some of the well-known bright yellow boats out there could do with a tidy up too.

 

Last year, we saw several MN boats with small gardens growing out the rear button fenders - unforgiveable! This only takes a couple of seconds to sort on turnround day.

 

So, may I suggest that you keep to fairly basic and economy, and trad style where appropriate, but just do something to show that the boats are loved. And get rid of that fairly recent logo flash applied to rear cabin sides. It doesn't work with trad boats, and you can't read it from more than a few feet away. They're trad boats - why not go back to trad lettering styles?

 

But do keep the colour scheme. It's a great asset and advertisement - just like Stone boats have been bilious green for forty plus years, Chas Hardern have always been red/green etc.

[Athy]

Sensible points, H. How did you find a canalside shop? Mrs. Athy and I were looking for one for ages, even advertised in the small ads of one of the boatimags for one, but got no replies. I never see them up for sale.

[the grinch]

 

 

 

 

was a shame that it was scrapped in my opinion, unique, quirky, hard to operate yes but a piece of history condemned to the scrapman so sad.

 

the comments made earlier were my perception of some of the comments made about never hiring again, tired boats etc. all i said was give them a chance to turn the business around, wasn't having a go at anyone.

 

kev

[Dalesman]

Sensible points, H. How did you find a canalside shop? Mrs. Athy and I were looking for one for ages, even advertised in the small ads of one of the boatimags for one, but got no replies. I never see them up for sale.

We looked at two back in the 1980s,the one at Grindley Brook and the other was at lock 57 on the Trent & Mersey, we made an offer for Lock 57 but it went for a lot more than we offered.

[toffeedanish]

To answer the OPs questions:-

 

Yes, I have hired from you. As we took 'Willow' out just a few weeks ago, I am well placed to comment as to that particular boat. As to reputation: I am a firm believer that a lot can be gathered from a website. Looking at the Middlewich one, with a pricing grid page which is not customer friendly, ancient photos, and an amateurish feel, I didn't have a high level of expectations for the holiday. Would I hire again? Yes, but with the massive caveat that *you* take each of your boats out for a couple of days to see what they are like to live on, and then fix accordingly.

 

Note that the following is posted in this public forum solely as the operation has changed hands and advice is sought. I would be sorry to see any organisation fail and I am not here to rant.

 

Initially looking to book a particular date showing as available on-line, I received the email response simply stating that 'sorry, the boat is not available'. I'd have appreciated an update to the website that showed that it wasn't (which happened within minutes of my reply), and for something along the lines of 'no, but these other boats are available', or 'these other dates are available'. You might gain some more business if you standardised responses in a positive way.

 

As it was, I persisted and moved the dates. The booking and the welcome were well handled. In common with most replies on here, the boat was a let-down in terms of neglect. Externally the front fender was hanging off to one side, which a snapped chain on the other. Non-slip surface coating was practically all worn off, making boarding and alighting hazardous in the wet. Internally, there was moss growing in the sliding kitchen window. The front curtain rail was bust so one could not shut out the light from the front cabin making sleep difficult, coupled with old thin duvets and pillows. In the main cabin we had the opposite problem, as the bedside lights were broken. Although not a problem for us, there was a disconcerting sound of slopping water from under the floor in the wetroom (which in itself is a daft design for a hire boat, quickly getting very muddy). It was also an inconvenience that the bathroom door didn't lock as it was out of alignment. Just as well we knew each other well.

 

Spanner and screwdriver were pointed out to us. It turned out that the former was for re-screwing on the speedwheel, which was hanging off the cabin ceiling and needed treating very gently. The spanner proved useful to tighten the bolt at the base of the loose tiller which was shredded and needed daily attention. It appeared that the boats electrics were deficient, they may have been getting a poor charge from the engine. As such in the evenings it was not possible to have more than two lights on or the radio would cut out. It was not possible to use the TV at all. My suspicion was that a lack of power kept causing the diesel cooker to switch itself off. It was not possible to have hobs and oven going at the same time, which made self catering almost impossible. Pesisting as not to waste food bought in advance, I did become exasperated when I found that the oven pan provided in which I was making a meal turned out not to fit in the oven. When a knob broke off the oven so it could not be reset, we gave in and called the engineer. He advised calling into another operators boatyard to make the fix, which we did with no problem, and provided them with a big laugh on seeing the state of the boat. Despite having a solid fuel stove at home, we could not use the one on board, as these can be fickle things, and the instuctions for it appeared to be for a different stove.

 

In short it was a great boat for those keen on vintage engines, but poor for those who wanted to eat, sleep, or just relax. It was a constant battle with most items on board. I would focus short-term improvements on enabling a good night's sleep for all, and enabling a meal to be cooked. New instructions need to be provided to cover all of the boats idiosyncracies. Longer term a full overhaul of the basics is badly needed. I would be sorry however, for the boat to be 'modernised', or indeed, retired. It just needs what is provided to work well.

 

Good luck!

Edited December 12, 2011 by toffeedanish

[Boatyman]

Hi Greg. Further to previous replies by others, it costs about the same to operate a 'quality' boat as it does a 'budget' boat. The only main difference is that your income will be lower. The operators who consistently do well are Valley Cruises, Napton Narrowboats, Rose Narrowboats, and others who all give the general hirer what they want - a good comfortable reliable clean boat with all the comforts of home. The hirers that want basic boats really want a cheap boat, but those boats won't pay the bills. You need to be looking at around a 30 week average to start to make a profit.

 

The boats don't have to be brand new, but must be spotlessly clean inside and out, everything must work and must be reliable. Base and reception need to be welcoming and the staff need to be smart and take a real pride in 'their' fleet. (We used to ask for car reg numbers in advance and would have a staff member assigned as a 'welcomer' with a crib sheet waiting in the drive ready to greet each group by name as they arrived).

 

Put plenty of systems in place to inspect everything on every turnround, complete engine check every turnround with an oil and filter change every six weeks. If any item is causing reliability concerns, replace it. (Diesel cookers?)There's nothing worse than a callout - the worst advert for a company is one of their boats with the engine boards up for everyone to see. Try to standardise parts (we kept spare engines and on occasion swapped them on the towpath). If you get a breakdown, you don't want to be trying to locate spares. Need an unusual drive plate on a Bank Holiday Monday? Help! You need one on the shelf.

 

A hirer who suffers a breakdown on average tells ten others - not a good ambassador for the company. Leave a 'items needing attention' sheet on board for the hirers to complete, and make sure the items are attended to before the next hirers arrive.

 

 

 

Cleaners were always a challenge. Our system was to get the bedding off, thorough clean, then cleaner would report to the supervisor who would inspect the boat and then issue the pre-prepared bedding and welcome pack, then supervisor would report boat as clean to manager who would re-inspect and mark it as 'ready to rent'. We'd deep clean any boat that was not due out and often black hulls to waterline and touch up gunwhales so they always looked fresh. We also pulled out all cookers and fridges to clean behind on every turnround.

 

If you want to run more trad looking boats, look at the new boats Rose are adding - shells are based on Little Northwich plans.

 

Good luck, and I hope the above helps. (I owned and operated various hire fleets for 20 years and learned a lot the hard way!)

[CHUGALONG HIRE COMPANY]

Thank you all once again for taking the time to reply to my question. I am astounded by the level of interest and the number of comments you have made and I take them all in the spirit of caring for the business and apparently, for the company.

 

What most of you have said is clearly obvious, it almost seemed too obvious. You all have my word that everything you have said will be taken into account as I refurbish each vessel and plan for next season.

 

I especially love the old photos of holidays past, Id love to put these on a page of the website, if any of you would like your photo on our new website when its launched in a few weeks time, perhaps under ‘Holidays Past’, see my latest thread.

 

Thanks again for caring,

Greg...

Or should that be Chuggy?

[Athy]

Definitely "Chuggy" I reckon! If you ever add a family-orientated day-hire boat to your fleet, that could be quite a good name for it too.

I'm sure I'm not alone in looking forward to seeing photos of newly gleaming boats on your revamped web site. I hope too that the interest shown here will translate into bookings, after all, not everyone on this forum has their own boat. Seeking "feedback" on your fleet from this forum was only slightly safer than putting your head in a lion's mouth, and evidently you have emerged still fully capitated, well done.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Athy

[David Mack]

Cleaners were always a challenge. Our system was to get the bedding off, thorough clean, then cleaner would report to the supervisor who would inspect the boat and then issue the pre-prepared bedding and welcome pack, then supervisor would report boat as clean to manager who would re-inspect and mark it as 'ready to rent'. We'd deep clean any boat that was not due out and often black hulls to waterline and touch up gunwhales so they always looked fresh. We also pulled out all cookers and fridges to clean behind on every turnround.

 

Another tip passed on to me by a friend who used to do hire boat turnrounds - Always take all the crockery, cooking utensils etc out of the cupboards, wipe the cupboards down and then check everything is clean before it goes back. It was not unknown for a hirer to leave a stack of dirty plates in the cupboard with one clean one on top. And you don't want your next hirer finding that!

 

David

[Boatyman]

Another tip passed on to me by a friend who used to do hire boat turnrounds - Always take all the crockery, cooking utensils etc out of the cupboards, wipe the cupboards down and then check everything is clean before it goes back. It was not unknown for a hirer to leave a stack of dirty plates in the cupboard with one clean one on top. And you don't want your next hirer finding that!

 

David

 

Yep, we had that too! Or find a broken plate carefully placed back together half way down the pile. The other thing to do when a boat is stood for a week is to stick all the crockery etc through a dishwasher.

[daveyboi2050]

do you still have all the boats in the fleet or have the previous owners kept any?

[CHUGALONG HIRE COMPANY]

All, thanks for the tips.

 

We have nearly all of the boats, I think we've lost one of the sponsored vessels i came along too late for him, he's a top man too so I hope to persuade him back one day.

I'm also surveying the boats one by one and I've had to remove one from the fleet so far, Poplar has gone I'm afraid.

 

Chuggy

[Athy]

Not Pop(u)lar then?

[CHUGALONG HIRE COMPANY]

Not Pop(u)lar then?

 

 

ha ha,

 

I think that popular may be a little way off for us yet.

 

nice one Athy

[daveyboi2050]

All, thanks for the tips.

 

We have nearly all of the boats, I think we've lost one of the sponsored vessels i came along too late for him, he's a top man too so I hope to persuade him back one day.

I'm also surveying the boats one by one and I've had to remove one from the fleet so far, Poplar has gone I'm afraid.

 

Chuggy

 

 

Is that Larch?

 

are you still hiring out at present during the winter?