Category: News

One of the questions we are often asked by our customers is what do you do in the winter?

Of course, many of the boats are lifted from the water during the winter months, but that doesn’t mean our staff don’t have plenty to do.

Far from a restful time for us, the cooler months signal that it is time for us to pop on our overalls and get started with our winter maintenance and get up to date with our annual trading and vessel inspections.

Trip boat winterisation

Our large trips each have their turn out of the water, and their annual inspections. This year the Vintage Broadsman has enjoyed a fresh lick of paint and some general winter maintenance, so she is looking her best in advance of the many private events we already have booked for 2020.

The Cordon Rouge and the Queen of The Broads have also been craned out of the water and have enjoyed their annual spruce up, carried out within our onsite boat shed, although we do have to take an office window out in order to fit the Queen of the Broads in!

The hulls of the trip boats have been cleaned and painted with antifouling, which will prevent weeds from growing on the as the season progresses and are now back in the water ready for February half term fun! Did you know that “children go free” between Monday 17th February 2019 and Sunday 23rd February 2020 on our river trips? You can read more on our Broads events page.

Day boat winterisation

The day boats have also lifted from the water and given some much needed TLC following a successful season. They have been cleaned, sanded and re-painted and have also been treated with anti-slip deck paint. Limited day boat hire is currently available but from the end of March, all of our day boats will be back in the water ready to welcome in the new season.

*Please be aware due to Storm Dennis we may have to reluctantly decide to not run boat trips on Monday, safety always comes first. If you’re planning a visit, we recommend checking our Facebook page first.

Santa’s Pixies have been working hard baking mince pies and preparing the Vintage Broadsman for our sold out Santa Cruises, which start this Saturday.

The pixies have worked their magic transforming our paddle steamer – the Vintage Broadsman – into Santa’s Grotto as well as wrapping up hundreds presents.

You can join our Facebook Competition to guess exactly how many presents were wrapped by Clicking Here

Even more excitingly we managed to take this picture of Santa  when he found a few minutes in his busy schedule to drop by for a final inspection of the Vintage Broadsman – passing the pixies with flying colours!

With Santa’s approval the ever-popular Santa Cruises, which have delighted children for generations, can now start this Sunday.

The one-hour return cruises to Wroxham Broad depart from the Vintage Broadsman’s special Christmas moorings close to Wroxham Bridge, where there is a lovely view of the boat lit up with Christmas lights at night.

During the cruise the Pixies will serve festive cookie and soft drinks to the children and mince pies and mulled wine to the grown-ups.  We’ll sing Christmas songs and there’ll be a festive quiz plus a Christmas colouring and drawing competition.

The real excitement will start when we reach Wroxham Broad where Santa has told us that he will have just enough room to land his sleigh on the roof of the Vintage Broadsman!  Better still Santa will hand an extra special gift to every child (aged 1-15)!

With a busy schedule of SOLD OUT trips running up to three times per day up to Christmas Eve we are really excited about sharing the festive fun with hundreds of children and their families!

There’s also something for grown-ups to enjoy, with availability remaining on our popular Norfolk Broads festive cruises.

We’re always excited to share previous Santa Cruise experiences, so be sure to post your images and stories with #santacruisememories so that our team get to see them!

For more information call 01603 782207.

Party goers have had the time of their life aboard Broads Tours’ Boogie on the Broads disco cruises this summer.  As a thank you to all who have made the evenings so successful Compact Disco and Broads Tours have made charitable donations to Alzheimer’s Research UK and local hospice Priscilla Bacon Lodge.

Discussing the legendary music cruises, which have been held for many years throughout July and August, Broads Tours’ Barbara Greasley said: “Hundreds of people have had a wonderful time dancing on our disco music cruises this summer with other holiday makers waving and joining in the dancing from the moored cruisers and waterside cottages.”

The events DJ’s Mike and Ben Goulder, from Compact Disco, wanted to share this good vibe by donating money to charity and Broads Tours were delighted to match fund them.  Two hundred pounds have been donated to Alzheimer’s Research UK with a further £200 being donated to local hospice, Priscilla Bacon Lodge.

Barbara added “Donating to these two charities that are both very dear to all of our hearts, seemed like the right thing to do after such a successful and fun filled season of Boogie on the Broads cruises”.

The final word on the Boogie Season must go to trip advisor reviewer, tcauUKVulcan, from Mundesley who, like dozens of other avid Boogiers, left us a lovely review writing:
“Had an amazing evening trip from Wroxham on the boogie night boat. We were a group of mostly 60-80 year old teenagers and all had a great time. The crew were super and the excellent DJ made sure the music was right for us. Couldn’t believe how the people on the boats we passed waved and joined in with the dancing! Weather was just right. Overall a magical evening.”

International bestselling author Erica James has just released her 22^nd book – Swallowtail Summer – and its set right here on the Broads!

The Romantic Novel of the Year award winner, who has sold more than five-million books and had her writing translated into 13 languages chose to set her book on the Broads after a recent holiday to our National Park staying in a riverside cottage.

Swallowtail Summer is set on the Broads in a fictional village called Linston End, which draws more than a little inspiration from the Horning area.  Three families spend every year together in a holiday cottage in the village and it feels as if nothing will ever change. Then widower Alastair threatens to do just that, by telling his friends about decisions he’s made that are bound to shock them and send ripples through the still waters.

Erica isn’t the only author inspired by a love of the Broads.  One of our very own former Broads Tours trip boat skippers, Chris Crowther, has released a series of murder mystery books set on our National Park featuring Broads Ranger Jack Fellows as the sleuth.

Last year Chris, who lives on a riverside house in Hoveton, released his first children’s book – Timecruiser.  This follows the adventures of three 13-year-olds who are transported back in time during a holiday on the Broads and have to voyage through history as they struggle to return to their own time.

You don’t have to be an author to be inspired by the Broads – why not see it for yourself on a boat trip with us!

Just to give you a brief update, our three trainee skippers have been busy during the last couple of weeks with continued training, including fire safety training.

The firefighting course took place in Felixstowe and involved training with a variety of firefighting equipment, in mock set-ups to replicate different fire incidents.

We are very pleased to advise that David, Roy and Andrew successfully completed the course and are now qualified in basic firefighting.  The guys all agreed the fire training was very informative and an important part of the course, in order to ensure passenger safety.

Patrick reported that he is very happy with how the training is progressing and David, Roy and Andrew, under Patrick’s supervision, each took the helm of one of our passenger trip boats, Belle of the Broads, during the school half term week.

We will update you again in another couple of weeks.