So how bad has your boating summer been.?

Thankfully we got Seabird in the water early this year and we had some lovely weekends in April, very warm and cloudless skys. But then we have been a bit frustrated with the high winds this year, so many weekends we had to change plans... But had a 2 week break away at the beginning August and we had the last week of August away and have some lovely times as always on the boat....:)

If you really want to concentrate on the rubbish times they will overshadow the good...
 
Nothing "wrong" about this summer,just over 170 hours so far and a good few weekends to go yet. Done more this year than ever before.
West India a couple of times
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Thames Rally last weekend
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Ramsgate
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Up the Medway as far as we can go
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A barge race or two
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Trip into the the muddy delights of Conyer creek
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A trip up Olde Father Thames
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Then there was a few fishing days out and picking up the boat from Burnham :)

Course there was always trips out on other peoples boats
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A river festival
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A day out on a sailing barge
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Visit to a submarine
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The club Admirals cruise
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Winter..... yup no problem either
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What Summer?

I've managed to get to the boat either just after the weather turned sour or else just before it picked up.
Seriously thinking of selling it.













OK, perhaps that's a bit hasty - We'll keep it for another year and see what happens.
 
Rubbish year for me, might be time to get the engine winterized and have my winter hobbies on the go and save up for some nice electrical goodies for the boat next year.:confused:

working on shift now for the next 7 weekends, my young boy just started school so getting down in the week is ni impossible. so for me realy dissapointed this year..:(:(
 
Pretty rubbish year in some ways. We've been out maybe three times in total (which is terrible) but OTOH she's logged well over 100 hours on charter since March, so that's not been too bad. A few problems as a result (like that water tank) and some additional maintenance and servicing bills, but profitable and it keeps her in good condition.
 
Easter was good. We had four nights away on the boat and it was warm enough for shorts. I think that was the summer actually.

Summer picked up when we had three weeks sailing in Turkey.
 
The weather hasnt been that bad, I think its more to do with the cost of diesel , cutting down on mileage , picking and choosing the best weekends and becoming weather intolerant.
Not helped as some boat builders are now designing floating caravans, with engines only designed to be reliable for very occasional use.

Some of the weekends/weeks we have been away and I have noticed the cruising boats have been much older this year.............

1990 - 1995 Fairline/princess FB
1988-2000 sealine FB
even older Turbo 36s

The newer hard tops are GF4 'storm bound'.
Even the targas appear to be postponing trips.

Ive said it before and I know it goes down like a ton of bricks but the choice of boat on the British coast will depend weather you spend the weekend away or tied up in your own marina.

A force 5 gusting 6 wind against tide
in a flybridge the bow will cut into a wave, the wind will then pick the spray up and dump it on your lower helm window, you will remain reasonably dry on the flybridge.

A force 4 gusting 5 wind against tide in a sports boat /hard top(up to 42ft) , the bow will cut into the wave just the same, the wind will then dump it on you, your crew and your windscreen. Even if the salt doesnt blind you with a burning sensation you will still not be able to see through your windscreen, you may get a brief glimpse as the wipers sweep a second time but the next wave is due to dump on you.
Even if the skipper is enjoying himself he will find his crew are not going to be so keen to go away next weekend !

I realize some have tried flybridges and gone down to sports boats but dont get too confused with a downgrade from a 36ft flybridge to a 45ft sports , sports boats are great fun when the weather is perfect but there just arent enough perfect weekends in British waters and putting a lid on the top doesnt get over the visibility issue.
 
powerskipper said:
I know we have had a lousy summer, and the season is ending for some soon, for some it just keeps pottering on. ps I like winter boating.
So has it been as bad as some say for you or just a different summer to normal.
Click to expand...

Bad? It's been outstanding. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.
 
I think it's because we have our boat that we find summers fantastic regardless of what the weathers doing (except if its cold of course). We haven't been able to get out much coz its been so breezy but either way, we've been down to her every weekend and enjoyed every second. The only blot was the 3 weeks out due to bent prop. Still a month to go as far as we're concerned then it'll be too cold for me.
Lisa
 
powerskipper said:
I know we have had a lousy summer, and the season is ending for some soon, for some it just keeps pottering on. ps I like winter boating.
So has it been as bad as some say for you or just a different summer to normal.
Click to expand...

That's why people keep their boats in the Algarve and many can get here as quickly as they can get to the boat in the UK
 
Been out twice this year in my boat and three times overall. However, this was my first season with my first boat. We got mid may and had a fair bit of work to do before her first outing, which was in late July/early August. A leak was found, so that needed fixing, but we floated her again on August's bank holiday Monday and she was perfect, just a minor thing to sort out on the trailer now. I would be out in her today but my car doesn't have a tow hitch yet. Hopefully I'll get out in her a couple more times before putting her away for the winter. I'd love 1 warm/calm weekend when I could get her in the Solent and open her up properly for the first time.

Must say that overall I think the summer has been pretty bad.
 
It's been brilliant...............

North Wales to Scotland and back 1100+ miles, met some formorites on the way, saw some really nice places and now looking forward to the winter projects on Little Ship :)

Weather who cares......... a bad day on the boat is better than a good day in the office.

Tom
 
Not that great in that the MBM CI cruise in May we'd be so looking forward to was completely canned due to weather, and so was the replacement they set up in August. Neither did we get to Dartmouth which was a target for this year. All due to the weather. OTOH we have had two full weeks on the boat bimbling round the Solent and as far as Weymouth, all very enjoyable, as well as a number of weekends away, but several cancelled due to wind.

Partly as a result of the growing family and spending longer on board, we finally decided what boat to buy next (viewing boats during over those windy weekends) and have taken advantage of the market to negotiate a great deal.... I just hope I can sell the Seawings in a reasonable length of time. (All sensible offers considered!) I don't want to be "AdeOlly two boats" for too long!!
 
Dont think the season has been bad for us. We have done things we have never done before, been new places,met new people.
OK, it hasnt been that sunny and warm, I agree.
 
bad weather ?

get to the med, downprice your boat, buy a cheaper one over there, not at expensive as you think, every day is lovely, best thing i have done.
 
As it has been our first year with a motorboat coming from a sailing boat we have used the boat a lot more than we have done in previous years. Been to places we haven't before and generally just had more fun. Ok, we may not have spent time staying onboard but we have had some fantastic days and even though we haven't been long distances we have just enjoyed the local area.

A good day out on the boat used to be a day of sailing over on the side, heading nowhere in particular & negotiating tides, wind etc. It was rare to inflate the dinghy & anchoring would normally only be done to wait for the tide or weather.

This year a good day out involves 20+ knots power to not have to worry about tides or wind direction, hop from one area to another to find the most sheltered (definitely been more wind this year), anchor down, inflate dinghy, bbq going on the beach, swimming from the boat to the beach and back again etc. Out to Skomer island in quarter of an hour, lunch in South haven watching the puffins and then when the weather turned it's quarter of an hour before we are back to shelter!

Spent New Years day on the boat, slowly motored up haven, picked up a buoy and watched the New Years day dinghy sailing, not something I would have done in previous years due to engine being winterised etc.

Yes, it certainly has been a good year for us :)

Ian
 
I want to say bad as the weather seems to have been rubbish but when we sold the rib we had done more hours this season that any other in the past! Now we have heating it will make winter boating easier!!


Just need to get some handling practice in! It's a long light bow with no thruster currently!! Guess what father Christmas is bringing me!!
 
We've had a really good year but we've also been pretty lucky in timing holiday with some good weather - done 800+NM out of Poole including making the West Country twice and the Channel Isles for the first time. Also nowadays the best of the weather always seems to come really early in the year so if you miss the start of the season that can be half the opportunities gone.
Helps that we live near the boat too so we've had a few dashes out at 6pm on a Friday to make a long weekend of it.
 
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