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Honest Opinions on Hire Boaters


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

 

Richard

No. I am not in the least "spiky". You may have noted that I proffered a brief resume of our less than exemplary boating skill on our first hire, from Wyvern at Linslade, all those years ago. It is a fact that beginners at just about anything can, and will, make mistakes. Some of these will be amusing or entertaining, though generally only in retrospect. As I suspect that the majority of our colleagues on here started as hirers, I thought it possible that some of them would have similar tales of ineptitude, and that reading some of them could be entertaining.

 

As a postscript to my own "horror story" I should add that Mrs. Athy and I arrived home after our week's boating in a state akin to nervous exhaustion, but that within about a fortnight we started to investigate where we could hire the following summer. I also didn't mention, because I had forgotten, that our very first hire had been in a 23 foot cruiser on the Canal du Nivernais the previous year - shorter boat and wider waterway meant that our inexperience led to fewer tricky situations, but that we spent most of the first two days zig-zagging: we must have covered about 50% greater distance than if we had managed to steer in a straight line.

 

Where is the harm in such reminiscences?

Edited by Athy
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Having lived in a canalside house for the past two years, which is part of a popular "ring", I have had plenty of opportunity to study different boaters.

 

In my observations, I note that you cannot single out anylon particular type of boat for poor boatmanship, speeding, drunkeness or anything else.

 

They are all steered by people, who come in a variety of types, attitudes and capabilities.

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Having lived in a canalside house for the past two years, which is part of a popular "ring", I have had plenty of opportunity to study different boaters.

In my observations, I note that you cannot single out anylon particular type of boat for poor boatmanship, speeding, drunkeness or anything else.

They are all steered by people, who come in a variety of types, attitudes and capabilities.

This is true of course, but statistically I'd say that on average hire boaters are more pleasant, helpful and happy than owner-boats. When hire boaters make a mistake or are incompetent they generally look sheepish and apologise. When owner-boaters make a mistake or are incompetent (as plenty do/are) they try to bluff it out with "attack is the best form of defence" attitude or pretend nothing has happened. Generally we prefer to share locks etc with hire boaters.

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When owner-boaters make a mistake or are incompetent (as plenty do/are) they try to bluff it out with "attack is the best form of defence" attitude or pretend nothing has happened.

Really? In such circumstances my general response is to say "Hmm, cocked that up, didn't I?"

What would to the canal systems if we did not have hire boats?

 

Keith

What would to them indeed? As I mentioned, probably the majority of boat owners started by hiring. From memory, we hired for a week each summer for four years (Nivernais, G.U., K. & A., Middle Level) before getting a boat of our own so that we could spend more time practising making cock-ups and working out how to extricate ourselves from them.

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This is true of course, but statistically I'd say that on average hire boaters are more pleasant, helpful and happy than owner-boats.

Probably because they don't have to pick up the bill when things inevitably go wrong! BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand. :)

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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.

Personally I didn't find Paul's reply crushing or aggressive at all. In fact your reply to him seemed more far more aggressive to me. Just my observation.

 

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

 

Richard

Indeed. Your reply was just another observation.

Edited by Claude
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I was talking generalisations. Anyway, I'm sure you would never make a mistake...

You're most kind, but on the contrary. Even now, when after some 19 years of boat ownership we think that we're really getting the hang of this boating thing, a situation arises which makes us realise that we still have a way to go. Like getting stuck in the shallows on the offside South of Cropredy last autumn, on a stretch which we had gone along dozens of times and which we thought we knew.

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You're most kind, but on the contrary. Even now, when after some 19 years of boat ownership we think that we're really getting the hang of this boating thing, a situation arises which makes us realise that we still have a way to go. Like getting stuck in the shallows on the offside South of Cropredy last autumn, on a stretch which we had gone along dozens of times and which we thought we knew.

That's appalling. I'd never be so stupid as to run aground!

 

(Looking for nose-extending smiley)

 

and stopwatch started for the inevitable...

Edited by nicknorman
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Personally I didn't find Paul's reply crushing or aggressive at all. In fact your reply to him seemed more far more aggressive to me. Just my observation.

 

 

That's what a discussion forum is all about: we all have different views, and of course most of us think that our own view is the normal, sensible one, because it's our own. However, I would be interested to know what I wrote which was as crushing or aggressive as Paul's unequivocal expression "crass stupidity".

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Very many of us 'private boaters' started out as hirers one way or another. As a complete generalisation I would say that, in my experience, I would much sooner travel with a hirer rather that a private boater who bought his/her boat on a whim and ventures out from their chosen marina just once or twice a year. For me hirers are enthusiastic and willing to learn. Though I will concede that stag/hen parties are best avoided.

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One of our best boating experiences was with a group of blokes on a hire boat last year on the GU. They were brilliant at everything including locking and were extremely friendly people. They all happened to be profoundly deaf which made me try and remember the little bit of sign language that I had learned from my daughter.

Generally we have had some good experiences with hire boaters.

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Puts me in mind of a cruise out on the A&C one day when we came across a privately owned boat coming the other way at Pollington when I saw a lady engaged in conversation with Jan who was on the tiller of our boat. I could see Jan nodding and encouraging the lady to come up to the lock pedestal where I was about to operate the lock. She has apparently asked Jan if she thought her husband would mind showing her how to operate the locks. The last one they had done was Sykehouse and it had totally befuddled her (anybody that knows the lock will know why this might be). When she came up and we got into conversation it turned out they had borrowed a friends boat and had been given the briefest of instructions on how to operate the boat and the locks.

 

The instructions hadn't included the peculiarities of Sykehouse and it had shaken their confidence in what to do considerably. They were most grateful for the help.

Just as the inept crew of a boat moving a boat of a deceased relative along the S&K were when we helped them do West Bramwith lock. It was the first time they had been on a boat on their lives and had apparently thought 'just how hard can it be?'

 

Inexperience comes in all guises.

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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.

 

 

 

I took a sign-written hire boat from Rugby down to Reading a few years ago. I was shocked at the difference in attitude displayed to me by a few other boaters compared to when I'm out on my own boat.

 

I too had the charge of 'you're only a hire boat' leveled at me by a bossy woman at a lock telling me what to do, when I told her it was my lock not hers.

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I think one of the most amusing experiences we have had at locks involved a crew of 3 guys who told us they hired every year. We were doing the Leicester ring and there was a total of 5 bodies. 2 steered the boats and the other 3 of us worked the locks. We got to a lock where the next one was not far ahead so I said I would walk ahead and set it and I set off only to find that the other 2 lock labourers were following me :-). This left the two boats in the lock and no one on the banking so Iain hopped on and off and worked the lock for both boats. In the pub that night, we explained what "setting ahead" meant and we all had a good laugh about it. It surprised Iain and I just how inept at locking these guys were considering they had been hiring together at that point for about 10 years.

 

haggis

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I would like to re-iterate my initial point. I LIKE hire boaters. As i said they are incredibly helpful and charming, I was only seeking other people opinions as I have heard bad things

 

boat.gif

Groans audibly as you have clearly missed the point of subsequent posts - but for clarity - I have heard bad things about all types of boater.

 

Personally I learnt a long time ago to 'take as a find' and make my own mind up.

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I took a sign-written hire boat from Rugby down to Reading a few years ago. I was shocked at the difference in attitude displayed to me by a few other boaters compared to when I'm out on my own boat.

 

I too had the charge of 'you're only a hire boat' leveled at me by a bossy woman at a lock telling me what to do, when I told her it was my lock not hers.

 

 

This!

 

As Vidar is still looking like a hire boat down one i get the 'having a nice time' question at locks and on a few occasions when heading towards oncoming boats you can see them not slowing and not moving, and no intention of moving...

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As we are about to cross the divide, 6 times hiring over 10 years and now having bought our own we will see if we are treated any differently. On our last hire, Venetian Hire Boats, which when I asked why they dont have their company name on their fleet, they said that the hirers dont get the grief from "owners". We then thought that we had noticed a different attitude towards us on that trip. Like in everything if you think you know it all something will eventually bight you on the a*#e.

 

On a brighter note 63 days to go until we fly out, cant wait to just lay eyes on Lazy Bee!!

Edited by harleyj
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Some of the best people to share a lock flight with- a family with several active teenage children, on a hireboat, in a hurry!

I agree, or Tawny when she's crewed up!

 

I remember scooping up a single hander when we went to help a friend up Hatton once, He seemed quite happy not to have to tie up at every lock on the way up.

 

The rudest people to our faces do seem to be owners, but then we are a fairly friendly and well behaved bunch.

 

We might be getting the worst / best of both worlds though as it is our own boat and has been for the last12 years, but she's still painted in Alvechurch colours so looks like a hire boat from a distance.

 

Sue

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