Nice to see the Billy Bunter fleet doing well. I must say I have long held the view that Broads holidays were going to struggle until someone reinvented a camping holiday on a boat. The relentless march upmarket witnessed by ever larger and more expensive motor boats where a number of hirers wouldhave found equipment on board that they didn't even have at home, was trying to drag the market somewhere it just didn't want to go. More specifically where the riverside infrastructure hadn't got a snowballs chance of visiting. Interested in other views.

OF. (Even today available as CEO)

As The Bear ages (disgracefully), I turn towards some of the more cosseting creature comforts I once eschewed when taking to the water.

But one tenet surely holds true? A good cruiser, whether sailed or powered, needs must be independent of the surrounding infrastructure, and not feature the sort of growing dependency we're witnessing of late, where BA installed charging points designed to further the utilisation of electric motive means are merely shore stations to operate HDTV giant plasma windows into the worst of popular culture which the holidaymaker would do better to leave at home. Or enable creation of a Full English on a mains electric range which belongs more suitably in a small hotel.

Its an additional bit of Norfolk 'ronic' that once cruiser-independent, a cruising party is more likely to value the services which the infrastructure may offer, and value them for what they may genuinely provide - like a few hours of socialising in a friendly pub, or the sort of meal less easily cooked afloat when you can't resort to the national grid.

I'm not saying there's much wrong in principal with attempts to make the next generation of hire cruisers an improved experience over their predecessors. After all - the heritage experience is only one market - and the hire industry is going to need multi-appeal to prosper. And technology can also contribute as well as debase. Anyone who's used the latest GPS mobile phones for walking or cycling will know that whilst near-useless at car speeds (they don't update fast enough), they're fine and dandy at 6 mph, which means that a decent Hamilton's style downloadable electronic broads map, would not only enhance the cruising experience, but might just help to cut down the speed abuse which is so prevalent on Broadland rivers.

Readers of Patrick O'Brian will be aware of the Spanish proverb - Let no new thing happen - predicated on the traditional Catalan view that all new things are likely to be bad.

That's not always the case. Either in Broadland or Catalonia

I've always found that enjoyment is directly proportional to effort.

There is a clear need for boats well suited to people who endure less than full physical capacity. The trouble is that they are all being used by people too lazy to find out whether they have any physical capacity.

There. I managed to say it without mentioning clinical obesity once.

GF

It really does make you wonder though. Why have the holiday companies not adopted the Billy Bunter model?
It must be that it does not hold much appeal and that they could not make any money from it.
Which begs the question, how much of our money, in the form of tolls and council tax has been poured into this organisation over the years in order to make it viable just to fulfil a minority demand.

codpiece wrote:

how much of our money, in the form of tolls and council tax has been poured into this organisation over the years in order to make it viable just to fulfil a minority demand.

If, sir, you mean the Hunter Fleet, to the best of my knowledge none since it was established as the Norfolk Heritage Fleet Trust.

As for 'over inflated egos', the only ones that I have ever seen whilst in the yard have been in the technology filled plastic monstrosities speeding past the entrance.

A recommendation for further research for the uninitiated is to vist here:
http://www.huntersyard.co.uk/index.html
or, better still, drop in for a look see and a chat with the team.

Just for the record I have no commercial connection with the yard other than having paid their eminently competitive rates in the past and helping out as an occasional skipper for their 'skippered sails' when in the area.

Whilst I wholly applaud the Hunter Fleet I do feel a smidgen of sympathy for commercial interests that are attempting to offer something similar. Martham Boats, for example, hire out not only heritage style yachts but also venerable motor cruisers. It must gall them that parts of their tolls and rates are used to subsidise a nearby competitor. That hardly seems fair to me.

The Billy Bunter Fleet, an allusion to caning their boats before a spanking wind? I know that a certain man of the cloth tried it and came to grief!!

Old Frank wrote:

In passing, purely looking after an old boat or boats would no longer be an acceptable sole objective for a Registered Charity.

Well no, of course not.

That makes perfect sense because in reality the Hunter Fleet doesn't sport any boats older or historically more notable than dozens of others. Certainly the yard and the overall operation is a little special, but the boats are neither exclusive nor exceptional. Given the efforts of a few yards and many private owners, I hope that will remain true for many years because the true 'Heritage Fleet' is much larger and more diverse than just Hunters.

The heritage is ours to share, it isn't the captive right of one group, charitable or not. If the Hunter yard considers it has exclusive rights to the 'heritage' I shall expect a charitable contribution to the maintenance of my old boat. But I don't believe the Hunters crew really do assume any arrogant exclusivity, it's just the impression left by the presence of the old boy whose personal mass weighs heavily on soft ground.

Anyway, it's never been the same since Mr Percy's observation tower came down.

GF

Cripes! Have my misdeeds reached these pages too?!

Exercise book down the seat...

I am very much in sympathy with the general thrust of this thread, and greatly appreciate the simple qualities of the Hunter fleet - like stability... Joking apart, I cannot blame the boat - and will do my utmost not to sink another one!