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Hire boater basic training


nicknorman

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11 minutes ago, bastion said:

I took engine keys off 2 boats 1 party at Thrupp last year as they had lots of complaints against them. They were told to vacate the boat and had to make their own way back to Heyford to get their cars.

Very good. You just need to do it a bit more often!

11 minutes ago, Peter Thornton said:

We are in the middle of three weeks on the Llangollen, right in the busy hire season. I must say we’ve been impressed withy the standard of the hire boats. Where they are not skilfull at least they are careful, no complaints at all ......

I agree. 99% of hire boaters are great. But one tends to remember the 1% horrors!

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29 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Obviously it is tricky for them. But an apology and some sympathy would go a long way. If they had Ts and Cs that said corroborated reports of antisocial behaviour will result in the boat being immediately repossessed, their personal belonging just being left wherever on the towpath, it might make the hirers think carefully about their behaviour.

But were they being anti-social? Or just annoying to your taste? There are clear definitions about what constitutes nuisance abd i am unclear whether you have established that threshold. If you have then there are remedies for that.

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1 hour ago, Mike Todd said:

But were they being anti-social? Or just annoying to your taste? There are clear definitions about what constitutes nuisance abd i am unclear whether you have established that threshold. If you have then there are remedies for that.

I think very loud music and rowdy behaviour effectively outside at 3am in close proximity to people trying to sleep counts as anti-social in most people’s book. Including the law’s.

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1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Very good. You just need to do it a bit more often!

That is easier said than done. The weekend boats go out on a Friday afternoon and are due back on a Monday morning, most of the stag and hen parties opt to come back on the Sunday afternoon (always a few in each group need to work on the Monday)

complaints about noise late at night tend to come in the next day. If a boat is being rowdy on a Friday we get the call Saturday and call the hirers to tell them to behave more responsibly. If they then do the same on the Saturday we won't know about it until Sunday. There would be no point in kicking them off the boat on the day they are bringing it back as we would then have to provide staff to bring back a boat that was on its way back anyway.

Complaints are taken seriously, however we can't just kick people off a boat after one noise complaint, let's face it their are people out there who would complain if someone on the next boat farted to loudly at night. 

each complaint is or should be taken on its own merit

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16 minutes ago, Bewildered said:

That is easier said than done. The weekend boats go out on a Friday afternoon and are due back on a Monday morning, most of the stag and hen parties opt to come back on the Sunday afternoon (always a few in each group need to work on the Monday)

complaints about noise late at night tend to come in the next day. If a boat is being rowdy on a Friday we get the call Saturday and call the hirers to tell them to behave more responsibly. If they then do the same on the Saturday we won't know about it until Sunday. There would be no point in kicking them off the boat on the day they are bringing it back as we would then have to provide staff to bring back a boat that was on its way back anyway.

Complaints are taken seriously, however we can't just kick people off a boat after one noise complaint, let's face it their are people out there who would complain if someone on the next boat farted to loudly at night. 

each complaint is or should be taken on its own merit

Yes I understand the problem. However at the very least, a reply could be a little more empathetic. Having a ruined night’s sleep with outrageous incredibly loud and rowdy partying until well after 3am is quite distressing. Humans need sleep, except for drunken students of course. This was the reply I received to my fairly detailed complaint:

 

Dear Mr Norman.
We have received your email.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
We would like you to know your concerns are being addressed.
Regards.
Rosemary.
Oxfordshire Narrowboats

 

A totally bland and disinterested pasted response. It gives the impression that “this happens all the time and we really don’t care”. Which I’m sure is the case. Totally oblivious to the trail of upset caused, and can’t be bothered to give an actual response, just a semi-automated one. As a consequence, I never recommend anyone to use Oxfordshire narrowboats.

 

 

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51 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Yes I understand the problem. However at the very least, a reply could be a little more empathetic. Having a ruined night’s sleep with outrageous incredibly loud and rowdy partying until well after 3am is quite distressing. Humans need sleep, except for drunken students of course. This was the reply I received to my fairly detailed complaint:

 

Dear Mr Norman.
We have received your email.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
We would like you to know your concerns are being addressed.
Regards.
Rosemary.
Oxfordshire Narrowboats

 

A totally bland and disinterested pasted response. It gives the impression that “this happens all the time and we really don’t care”. Which I’m sure is the case. Totally oblivious to the trail of upset caused, and can’t be bothered to give an actual response, just a semi-automated one. As a consequence, I never recommend anyone to use Oxfordshire narrowboats.

 

 

That doesn't surprise me from Rosemary, she has now left the company. She wasn't here that long after I started working here but I found her to be a bit abrupt almost to the point of being rude. The first time I filled up with diesel I told her I wanted it at 0% she told me I couldn't as it went into a boat and the best split they could do was 90-10 I explained that I was now living on site and as it is a self declaration I was declaring that I had no intention of going anywhere. This fell on deaf ears; an argument ensued until she finally agreed to do it at 0% but told me that I was wrong. A few days later after she had obviously complained to the general manager the Genral manager mentioned to me in passing that all boats must pay duty unless they are registered as mooring on site, therefore confirming that I was in fact correct. After that Rosemary only ever spoke to me when she had too, I don't think she liked being proven wrong.

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11 hours ago, Bewildered said:

That doesn't surprise me from Rosemary, she has now left the company. She wasn't here that long after I started working here but I found her to be a bit abrupt almost to the point of being rude. The first time I filled up with diesel I told her I wanted it at 0% she told me I couldn't as it went into a boat and the best split they could do was 90-10 I explained that I was now living on site and as it is a self declaration I was declaring that I had no intention of going anywhere. This fell on deaf ears; an argument ensued until she finally agreed to do it at 0% but told me that I was wrong. A few days later after she had obviously complained to the general manager the Genral manager mentioned to me in passing that all boats must pay duty unless they are registered as mooring on site, therefore confirming that I was in fact correct. After that Rosemary only ever spoke to me when she had too, I don't think she liked being proven wrong.

Co-er - things have changed some time ago DD said standard split only. So I Foxtrot Oscared and bought elsewhere. Now Mr. Grumpy at Reading has some competition...

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16 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Hen parties are often the worst. When I ran Daves fleet of four on the Thames before he stopped doing them the worst we had was two boats racing around 3 am one morning below rad cot lock and elsewhere    They or rather one of them rammed a moored plastic fantastic and did it some significant damage. When we tackled them on boats return they coughed and paid a fair whack of money over for repairs no questions asked. It transpired they were all female doctors so they were not skint.

It's a shame not to see OXNBs boats at the mythical place of Rad Cot any more - but with only four boats I wondered why DD started there anyway. Perhaps a new Upper-upper Thames marina is necessary. It's narrowboats that keep the Thames alive.

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2 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

It's a shame not to see OXNBs boats at the mythical place of Rad Cot any more - but with only four boats I wondered why DD started there anyway. Perhaps a new Upper-upper Thames marina is necessary. It's narrowboats that keep the Thames alive.

There were only four boats there as people who hire narrow boats in general feel more secure on ditches, it goes with the territory. Dave operated them for a couple of seasons from Lechlade but the situation there was all wrong. When Alan and nutty Lynda left the Swan was when it all started to go pear shaped, we had a great working relationship with them there.

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4 hours ago, OldGoat said:

It's a shame not to see OXNBs boats at the mythical place of Rad Cot any more - but with only four boats I wondered why DD started there anyway. Perhaps a new Upper-upper Thames marina is necessary. It's narrowboats that keep the Thames alive.

The one at Lechlade has just changed hands

 

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On 24/08/2018 at 18:39, john6767 said:

We had the same thing at that lock when we came up in May. 

 

I think the majority of hire bases don't do anymore then send people a video to watch, or perhaps a link to it online. I am not convinced that they don't do this but people just don't bother watching it.  If there is no lock that they can use then they should make people sit down an dwatch the video, or at lest go through it on a model.   Black Prince are another that seem to do nothing about lock training, they arrive at Calcutt top lock and say they were told to ask someone there how it works, great.

Back in the 60's at SUC  Norbury there was no lock near to instruct on for the hirer's  so they had a model lock made with working paddle gear to instruct on operation of locks but as said there was listening but also a lot of not taking in the info

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21 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Yes I noticed that when we were up there last month. Maybe things will improve?

Should do, they have big plans,  starting with dredging and security fences.

On 26/08/2018 at 23:39, Bewildered said:

That doesn't surprise me from Rosemary, she has now left the company. She wasn't here that long after I started working here but I found her to be a bit abrupt almost to the point of being rude. The first time I filled up with diesel I told her I wanted it at 0% she told me I couldn't as it went into a boat and the best split they could do was 90-10 I explained that I was now living on site and as it is a self declaration I was declaring that I had no intention of going anywhere. This fell on deaf ears; an argument ensued until she finally agreed to do it at 0% but told me that I was wrong. A few days later after she had obviously complained to the general manager the Genral manager mentioned to me in passing that all boats must pay duty unless they are registered as mooring on site, therefore confirming that I was in fact correct. After that Rosemary only ever spoke to me when she had too, I don't think she liked being proven wrong.

Rosemary is lovely, but doesn't stand fools gladly,  perhaps this was your problem.

Luckily I know the other side of the story (there are always at least 2 ) and OldGoat is correct in his memory. 

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On ‎24‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 23:29, bizzard said:

A bit like the hire saling cruiser tacking, going from bank to bank up the river Bure on the Broads with the wind blowig from astern. When asked why, they said, ''We know this stretch, we had to tack up here  last year''

 

Course Sailing by Michael Green...?

 

noted that BruceinSanity beat me to the quote.    Still a great read and makes me chuckle out loud!    I learnt to sail in those reaches many years ago so even more funny as can picture it only too well!

 

Edited by DHARL2
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