Honest Opinions on Hire Boaters

[FirstRateFirstMate]

Hire boaters seem to have a bit of a negative reputation around the canal network for being silly and moving too fast or slow but what are all your opinions. We started off as hire boaters and found everyone very nice so wonder if it is just a long standing myth. Now that we own a boat our opinion on hire boaters is no different, we love seeing them. They are always kind and polite, they love helping with locks which was a godsend at Hatton last month. Do you have any hire boater horror stories?

[PaulG]

Hire boaters seem to have a bit of a negative reputation around the canal network for being silly and moving too fast or slow but what are all your opinions. We started off as hire boaters and found everyone very nice so wonder if it is just a long standing myth. Now that we own a boat our opinion on hire boaters is no different, we love seeing them. They are always kind and polite, they love helping with locks which was a godsend at Hatton last month. Do you have any hire boater horror stories?

People are individuals.

 

Attempting to pigeonhole human beings on the basis of the boat that they occupy is crass stupidity.

[b0atman]

The majority of hirers are far better than the Newbys who have no feel for the boating life .

[Athy]

Very excited and scared sh witless at the same time, glazed, bug-eyed facial expressions, can't steer straight, bump into boats and locks, can't get through one gate of a broad lock so have to open two and waste every bugger else's time, stand within the tiller arc when steering, hang back rope over the tiller arm, don't know how to moor securely, no idea what the pole is for, talk about "freight barges", average one near-divorce per day...

 

Well, that was us on our first hiring hol on the G.U. in about 1994. How about you?

Edited April 12, 2016 by Athy

[DeanS]

You get good and bad. I think the real issue could be day boaters....a very different bunch compared to the family who pay thousands to enjoy a quiet get away week of bliss....

 

I've never had any issues with hire boaters except their lack of confidence when doing some locks (if they are new to it), which I think can be dangerous for them.....as a full time boater....I've had issues myself in locks, which have been far from safe.....so I won't be throwing any stones.

[Athy]

People are individuals.

 

Attempting to pigeonhole human beings on the basis of the boat that they occupy is crass stupidity.

No, it's called "observation".

[Mac of Cygnet]

No, it's called "observation".

 

Come, come, Mike! Don't know quite what you mean by that. We've all observed many types of boater and their boats, and if but these observations shouldn't result in pigeonholing of the boater by their boat.

[Athy]

 

Come, come, Mike! Don't know quite what you mean by that. We've all observed many types of boater and their boats, and if but these observations shouldn't result in pigeonholing of the boater by their boat.

Yes, I think you do. The OP opened an interesting new topic, gave his opinion and asked for contributions from other members, only to be met by a gratuitously crushing and aggressive reply whose sole aim appeared to be to kill the topic stone dead and to make to OP feel like a naughty child. I did not appreciate this.

[RLWP]

Do you have any hire boater horror stories?

 

Wouldn't that just support the suggested negative opinion of hire boaters?

 

Richard

[zimzim]

There is certainly a 'downer' on hire-boaters from some parties, but I suppose this is just human nature.

I notice that whenever there is a report of speeding, colliding, cilling, etc, almost always one of the first questions is 'was it a hire-boater?'

[saltysplash]

I have no problems with hirers.

 

I was approaching Braunston bottom lock once and a shiney private boat was just entering the lock. The crew of a hire boat was standing at the lock landing holding ropes and one of them called out to us to go through if we wanted as the other boat didnt want to have them in the lock with them.

 

As we approached, the memsahib decamped to assist working the lock but as she got to the steps the boat i the lock closed the gates on us.

She came back and informed me that the couple didnt want to share a lock with anyone as they said they prefered to do them alone.

I pulled alongside the hireboat which had about 8 crew members. We shared the locks to the top with them insisting on us staying on board while they did the work and had a very pleasent time with them.

[Athy]

 

Wouldn't that just support the suggested negative opinion of hire boaters?

 

Richard

We shan't know until we have read the stories.

[RLWP]

We shan't know until we have read the stories.

 

What sort of positive horror stories are you expecting, Mike?

 

Richard

[Paul C]

Having hired an "unwritten" hireboat, there is definitely a negative perception towards hireboaters.

[AftApeth]

I agree with OP. I have largely good experience of hirers. Always keen to help out at locks, and if they're new the excitement can be contagious. There also seem to be a lot of experienced hirers out there who have owned boats in the past or hired several times before.

 

The only bad experiences I've had are two occasions of being moored next to a weekend hire boat full of 20-something lads getting blind drunk, playing loud music and throwing empty cans in the canal.

[Hawkmoth]

The majority of boat owners probably started as hirers. Like in all things, there are good and bad. We had good experiences with both groups and bad as well. I can feel more disgust for owners who are arrogant than with hirers who may be simply in need of experience.

Bob

[zimzim]

Some years ago I was hiring on the Shroppie for the first time and chatting to the guy doing the boat handover to me....

I asked him if there were many 'shouters' on the Shroppie.

He smiled and said that when he was steering his own boat there weren't any, but when he was steering one of the hire boats there were a lot!

 

Very insightful, I thought.

[Athy]

 

What sort of positive horror stories are you expecting, Mike?

 

Richard

I shan't know until I have read them. I have just said that once, did you not read the thread?

[RLWP]

So, we were approaching a lock, say three boat lengths away, and a boat was leaving the lock with the gates open for us. A crew popped up from below, looked at us and turned the lock.

 

The reason? We were 'only a hire boat'.

 

Now, as it happens we aren't a hire boat, we just look like one. And the other crew had until the end of the day to be the other side of the junction before the enforcement officer started the proceedings he had been threatening for ages if they didn't move

 

It left a bad taste in the mouth, right up until a woman from the next crew coming up popped out from under the bridge and said 'Isn't it a lovely day!'. And she's right, it was

 

Richard

[captain birdseye]

I have been treated in a negative way when on a 12 berth hire boat, which we had took out to accomodate the number of people we had with us, whilst working down a flight of locks, being told I should be careful as it was a big boat and I might hit the shiny boat coming up the flight, as I was a hire boater and therefore didn't know what I was doing.

 

When we had got to the bottom I walked back up to give my brother a lift with the locks, and he asked me to steer so he could get some exercise for a change, and I had just worked down the flight once. The people coming up were very complimentory about "my" beautiful boat with "proper" engine and traditional paintwork. They didn't realise they had already spoken to me until I pointed out their earlier comments to me.

 

I have generally found most hirers to be alright, and ready to learn. Lots of hirers are old hands at it who hire instead of owning a boat, or like we used to do, hire with friends to see a different part of the system.

 

It also might be worth noting that the boats that get into trouble and "cill" their boats, hardly ever seem to be hirers.

 

edited to remove fat finger mistakes

Edited April 12, 2016 by captain birdseye

[RLWP]

I shan't know until I have read them. I have just said that once, did you not read the thread?

 

You are very spiky today Mike. I replied to the OP about what he asked for i.e. horror stories about hirers

 

Richard

[NB Lola]

Does not matter how you come to be on the waterways, just how you behave.

[PaulG]

Does not matter how you come to be on the waterways, just how you behave.

Precisely.

The role of water-borne prat is hardly exclusive to hirers.

And if some of them are hesitant and inexperienced, then make allowances.

Everyone was a new boater once.

[Guest]

People are individuals.

 

Attempting to pigeonhole human beings on the basis of the boat that they occupy is crass stupidity.

Indeed. We have seen both sensible and stupid people on both hire boats and private boats, in about equal proportions. Of course not all hire boats are obvious.

[The Toad in the Hole]

I have met some proper idiots on the Llangollen. The majority of them were on hireboats. Therefore most hireboaters are idiots.

 

Except of course they aren't. The majority of boats moving on the Llangollen in Summer are hire boats, therefore the boats you are going to meet are hirers. A proportion of these are first timers and most of them meet their first lock at New Marton. So at New Marton you have a stressful busy section of canal, with a number of inexperienced boaters. The idiot count therefore seems quite high, but in reality it's just busy and sometimes a bit slower than it might be.

 

The real idiots are a very small proportion - all the cliches - the drunks, the speeders, the arrogant tosspots, and because of the sample at New Marton being mostly hirers, it would appear that the population of hireboaters has a high proportion of buffoons.

 

So lets look at a different set of locks - Hurleston has a number of hire boats, but because of the big marina at the top, and the logistics of a weeks holiday, the sample of boats here is usually much more diverse. The proportion of idiots is probably the same, but the number of hiring idiots is smaller.

 

tl;dr There are idiots on boats. How many of them are hirers is a matter of perception, based on location, time of the year, day of the week, time of day even. Oh, and personal prejudice.