- Our hire boats
Our first experience hiring a boat came in 1989 when I was not long into my teens and we hired a cruisers on The Norfolk Broads, a unique waterway in the east of England. The cruiser, Gracious Girl, belonged to the Summercraft hire fleet, based in Wroxham. She was the only boat left in the entire catalogue of the booking agents so we had little choice - take her or don’t go boating. She was an old wooden boat that had been in Summercraft’s fleet since the 1960’s and was due to be retired at the end of the season. The old girl was lacking in mod cons but beautifully presented - and I was sufficiently excited about the holiday that I didn’t care anyway. To this day she remains on the Broads in private ownership but carrying a new name and colour scheme.
At the end of the holiday we backed her into her moorings at Summercraft and ended up alongside a much younger sibling, Georgia Girl I. After such a good holiday we decided to tour Georgia Girl with a view to hiring the following year. The tour over, the booking was made, and the following year we returned to Summercraft to do it all again. Georgia Girl I & II remain in the highly regarded Summercraft fleet to this day. That was to be my last boating for 9 years as a few years later I left home and moved to Scotland.
But in 1999 myself and my friend Rick, with our girlfriends and my flatmate, as a group hired a large cruiser called Westminster Bridge from Bridgecraft in Acle. The same basic design as Georgia Girl, but extended in the middle to add an additional cabin, Westminster Bridge was a blandish middle of the range cruiser from a grumpy boatyard, but together with the weather she proved clean and reliable and our base for one of the best holidays of my life. She remains in the Bridgecraft fleet to this day and we frequently encounter her on the rivers.
After 1999 the spirit was re-kindled and we booked to go again in 2002. With Rick and Virginia unavailable my parents joined us for the two weeks aboard Diana Bee. Diana Bee was chosen as much because of her Brundall base at Bees Boats as anything. This provided the opportunity to explore the southern rivers of The Norfolk Broads, something we had not done in the past, though the longer holiday afforded us the opportunity to go north as well. The same basic floorplan as Westminster Bridge, Diana Bee had been finished to a superior standard at some point in the past but not looked after and had been considerably run down. A combination of poor reliability, bad weather and strained relations on board resulted in a rather indifferent holiday. Bees Boats pulled out of the hire market the following season when the franchise holder left and the owner decided to concentrate on private moorings and services instead. Diana Bee was sold and moved to the River Medway in Kent. As it turned out, Bees Boats became the first home for our own boat years later.
Our enthusiasms undampened we returned in 2006 aboard the huge San Elena from Richardsons Cruisers at the far northern end of the river system and were once again joined by my friends. The weather was a total contrast and very hot all week long. In fact it was so hot we tended to have the sliding wheelhouse roof closed most of the time but with the forward and aft windscreens and side windows open to allow a good airflow. San Elena was a medium level cruiser with a basic fit out but she was spacious and comfortable, though difficult to handle. With the purchase of our own boat it looked like she would be our last hire cruiser.