Boating holidays in the school holidays : price-wise

[Justin Smith]

I remembered I started a topic on hire boat fuel charges back in 2015, it`s here :

In that thread we got charged a whopping £1.45 per litre for the fuel from Alpha Craft (Brundall, on The Broads). Knowing what I know now (and that the tax split would normally be 60% propulsion and 40% heating etc) I`ll go up the wall if we get charged anywhere near £1.45 per litre by ABC Boat Hire.

I`ve learnt from this though, when we next hire a boat I`ll ask how much we`re expected to pay for diesel when we pick up the boat, and if it`s excessive I`ll ask for the key (or the code) to any padlock there and then. To be fair I did ask "the engineer" but he was evasive, along the lines of "it varies". I was too busy trying to get the boat packed and us off onto the cut to take it any further.

 

Edited April 12, 2018 by Justin Smith

[nikvah]

I think that if you regularly hire in school holidays you might want to research buying a share in a boat. You'll find that the price of a 1/12 share in an older boat (usually well maintained by syndicate of owners) compares well to 2 weeks hire in summer holidays.

[cuthound]

12 hours ago, Justin Smith said:

It`s a number lock. I wonder what they would have said had I phoned up and asked for the combination......

If it is a 3 number combination lock, it takes around 10 minutes to go through all of the combination.

(In a previous life I often had to access remote sites protected by a 3 number combination lock and had to phone a central number for the combination. Whilst waiting for them to answer and/or find the right combination, I would soon through the numbers, 000, 001, 002 etc, and often gained entry before they got back to me!)

[system 4-50]

Many 4 digit locks are breakable if handled carefully.  My record is opening three of them in twenty minutes.  The ones with a push button on the bottom for each combination are much harder.

[David Mack]

2 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

Many 4 digit locks are breakable if handled carefully.  My record is opening three of them in twenty minutes.  The ones with a push button on the bottom for each combination are much harder.

I could certainly open my old four digit combination bike lock with my eyes closed. Just apply a bit of tension to the lock and turn one wheel until you feel a slight give, then try the next wheel. If no give, move on to the next wheel and come back later. When the fourth wheel gives, the lock opens.  Easy!

[Justin Smith]

17 hours ago, Justin Smith said:

We were going to do this, there`s cheap diesel for sale at Wheaton Aston, but, after mooring up there to do so, discovered the fuel filler was padlocked shut......

I have to say I`ll be very interested to see what the hire company charge us for the diesel top up. The chap at Wheaton Aston said his zero tax diesel was 63p a litre and full tax £1.09. The hire company will surely be claiming some tax off as heating etc ? I`ll be quite upset if the hire company charge even 90p a litre, certainly £1.

I have copied this answer to the more relevant (specific) thread about hire boat fuel charges :

 

[Cheese]

On ‎26‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 15:18, Peter X said:

It seems to me that it would be helpful if school holidays could be staggered to spread out demand for holidays, e.g. rather than all closing for the same six weeks in summer maybe half the schools in the country could close a bit earlier and the other half later? The biggest snag I can see with this is that exams have to be held simultaneously and in late June to fit in with university admissions, but there are probably ways to get around this. Maybe the primary schools could be the ones to close earlier? It's a radical idea but I think it could work.

They are.  In Scotland the 6 week summer break starts at the end of June and ends mid-August, so is about 3 weeks earlier than in England.  And then the autumn 1-2 week break is also typically earlier than the English one.