Taurus Diving, out of Dover?

Getafix · Jan 30, 2004

Why's that?

Most boats on the south coast charge £400 + for a weekend charter (£35 a head) and you usually get just a drift as the 2nd dive and back in 6hrs. At Dover it's 2 wrecks and back to port awaiting slack for the next one so it can be a 9-10 hr day. I think it's quite reasonable,especially the £15 for the 1 dive this weekend.......others may charge £30 for 1 dive.

Alan

440634 · Jan 30, 2004

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I'm Diving Sat with Taurus and think it's reasonable.

Sunday I'm on a Hardboat out of Littlehampton (WITH A LIFT THO) at £17.50 per dive - £35 for the day and the 2nd dive is always a shallow drift.

Been on ribs out of wittering at £15 per dive too.

Sorry Peter, but I think that in the SE, Andy has set the price correctly.

Juz

ANDY 64 · Jan 30, 2004

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PETER,

My dear man, PART of me purchasing this vessel & company, was that i had a contract with the pervious owner was to honor all his bookings that were made to him last year for 2004 and that also meant sticking with his price structure.
If you look at my bookings for this season in the website, your find that all the days that are FULL are the ones
1) That have been regular customers for the past 7 years.
2) Have always paid that price, and to my knowledge , there was only a small price increase to cover fuel
price increase PLUS to make it easier for divers to divide the day rate by 12 .
3) Having e:mailed and spoked to the customer database i got when taking over the company, everyone
was happy with the deal, really all they are doing is meeting a different skipper & are please that their
old skipper has sold a his company to someone that is local and KNOWS what he is doing.
4) Deposit has been paid or trip paid in FULL already.
5) Some have booked dates as far as 2007.

A days diving with me is cheap, as i offer a ONE dive in the day for £ 15 a wreck/dive for divers to get wet during the winter months, NOT many skippers have their boats in the water at this time of year, do they ?

NOW, how much is it for me to do a days diving at Scapa ?

Over thae past few weeks , i have enquires from Divers in Holland,France,Belguim and even Austria, thats not bad from someone that has only been trading for 2 months ,,, is it ? and YES , I do have to wait a couple of weeks for the money to be paid into my bank, as i have already had some cheques for deposits from these divers, Even got a dutch chap sailing his 49' foot yacht here with some divers, after i have sold him some Navigational software and shown him how to use it , we aregoing diving.

I have taken out some divers from this site, and personally it has been great fun, FUCK ME, I even let one of them stay/live on the boat on a saturday night , FREE of CHARGE and got his diving weekend paid for by getting him a little dive job to find a boat owners GOLD RING .........If you care to look at my trips over the next few weekends, ya see some names from here have got places booked, and when i place a dive, there are normally 6 names wanting to dive within 4 hours of posting the thread.Some YD'ers will even meet a Taurus Diver this Saturday , that drove down from London , took me for a beer and pleaded with me to run the boat all year round. FFS ( all he had to do was e:mail me instead , asking if i could take him diving on such & such a day ).

STUDY the facts about me and my operation before gobbing off , please.

I'm sure that Dave ( Skipper ) will add to this, and his daily rate is over twice mine & he is a great skipper, NOT only has he phone me on my mobile for 50 minutes , letting me know changes in the MCA coding laws , but financial matters as well, that i didn't know about , what a charter skipper can claim for and what he can't.

If you think that £ 348 for a full boats diving is expensive , Shall i give you a break down on where that money goes , IT certainly doesn't go much into feeding my wife & kids a steak dinner that night.

If you read what YD'ers say about my operations, i'll think that you may retract your statement. I think i provide a good service . Ask digger about skippers taking off divers fins, ask Howard DD how an 6 year old boy carried his dive bag down a steep flight of steps to the boat,( and he got £ 2 for his efforts ), how the wife had greeted all divers with a hot drink as they arrived.
The best one is yet to come , but i will let that diver say himself on here, ( Clue is that it will be AndyP ).he knows something is going on , but i won't tell him .

By the Way, I'm the only FULL time dive charter vessel in Dover, yes there are club ribs and fishing that will take divers out at the same rate as me , BUT with hand on heart, i'm the ONLY diver / skipper here,,, and after your remark , i don't really want to say , " If ya don't like it, F$$$ off somewhere else ", coz thats not in my nature , i want divers here in Dover, not turn them away, AND thats not for personal gain , anyway.

rant over

Andy

FUCK, council tax advise for me in the post...........what an increase

Finless · Jan 30, 2004

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Perhaps Peter was being humerous in that, were the prices quoted per diver, they would be pricey indeed.

I normally pay £35 for a two dive charter trip - depending on how far we travel.

Getafix · Jan 30, 2004

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It does'nt read that way.

Surely anyone with any common sense knows that charter = whole boat.

But then again they do say common sense is'nt very common.

Alan

ANDY 64 · Jan 30, 2004

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Some figures for you Peter , just based on the day

Saturday 24th Jan

INCOME Divers 7 @ £ 15 = £ 105

OUTGOING Diesel £ 13.00
Refreshments £ 5.57
Insurance £ 1.39
MCA Coding £ 1.73
Moorings £ 7.14
Safety Kit £ 9.12
Total £ 37.95

£ 105 - £ 37.95 = £ 67.05

Now i put that in the bank, just in case i get a day blown out and may have to cover costs,

What i haven't taken out is the

Hours getting the boat ready .
Wages for being a PROFESSION skipper for 4 hours.
Other expenses that might inccur on the day . ( Heavy diver breaking a ladder , etc etc )

What i think you fail to see is , that SKIPPERS havce to charge prices like this to cover the increasing costs of running a charter boat.

Did you know that as from the 31-12-03 , that charter skippers can't have HALON fire extinguisers on their boats, THAT cost me £ 345 for my 2 in the engine bay, just that i can be legal and coded to take people like you to sea SAFELY & LEGALLY. That was £ 345 that wasn't in my budget when i took out a loan to buy the company , just to take people like you out to persue your favorite hobby.

very pissed off Andy

ANDY 64 · Jan 30, 2004

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Just checked the wording on the web site

It does say DAILY CHARTER RATES not PERSONAL DIVERS WILL PAY EACH

Dave L · Jan 30, 2004

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Peter

Dont know where you go diving, but I'd say, having organised several weekends diving on the south coast for summer 2004, that Andy's prices are the norm.

Dave

DanE · Jan 30, 2004

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It is, after all, a free market and Andy is entitled to charge as much as he wants for new bookings.

But if we, the paying customers were unhappy with his prices, we'd go elsewhere.

Andy's getting customers, so I'd say we're happy with the prices. I don't have a problem with £15 for a winter dive.

dan.

Finless · Jan 30, 2004

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[b said:
Quote[/b] (Andy the Commie 2 @ Jan. 30 2004,11:05)]Just checked the wording on the web site

It does say DAILY CHARTER RATES not PERSONAL DIVERS WILL PAY EACH

Andy,

The price quoted on your site is obviously for the boat charter.

What I meant to say was that Peter might have been deliberately ignoring the obvious in order to be humerous.

This is why Smilies were invented.

Hope to get down your way and get a dive in the near future.

Rgds
Bryan

Driftwood · Jan 30, 2004

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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Posted: Jan. 30 2004,00:06

Nah, Peter was probably just pished......

Getafix · Jan 30, 2004

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Is that an excuse?

A re-worded post with a smiley would have been better,after all he has edited it once so he was'nt completely comatosed !

If i was in Andy's shoes i would be F*****G livid.

Explain you're actions Peter K.

Alan

David Wallace · Jan 30, 2004

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[b said:
Quote[/b] (Andy the Commie 2 @ Jan. 30 2004,10:27)]I'm sure that Dave ( Skipper ) will add to this, and his daily rate is over twice mine & he is a great skipper, NOT only has he phone me on my mobile for 50 minutes , letting me know changes in the MCA coding laws , but financial matters as well, that i didn't know about , what a charter skipper can claim for and what he can't.

Andy,
Thanks for the plug

Our operations are different in so far as I run a shuttle with up to 5 dives in a day. Divers can book for any number of the dives in a day so pick and chose which sites to visit. So yes if you were to book me for the whole day its likely to be the 12 times the cost of an individual dive times 4 or mayby 5 trips.

Most divers come and do a couple of dives on a day and that works out to be (depending on site) about £35 in total for the 2 dives. This seems to be about the going rate along the south coast with the exception of the offshore trips where just about everyone will charge much more (due to running costs) for long trips.

I dont think Andys expensive! From what I know of his operation its far from it. Many hard boat operators would take the boat out with a group for the first slack - do a drfift on the way back then take another group out for the second slack and drift. thus doubling the income per day. Very efficient utilisation of the boat!

It is a interesting and fine line we walk as Charter Skippers. The customers expectations are always increasing. It's unusual to see a boat without hot drinks, toilets, benches, ladders, lifts, faster cruising speeds etc etc Basically unless we keep up with the expectations then we lose business. Our underlying cost are increasing all the time yet there is always a publically acceptable rate that we can charge which has othing whatsoever to do with what it costs to provide the service which the customers demand.

I'm not complaining, I didnt get into this without understanding all of this first, but bear in mind that we have a short season of decent diving and on average 25 - 30% of that gets blown out. On top of that we have to cram the bookings into weekends and posibly a couple of days each week mid week. But... ... if we could guarentee the weather and viz and had full boats 7 days a week ........ the prices would drop

Enough.... I love the job which is why I do it Andy is not expensive if anythig he is doing himself an injustice

Regards

Rob Evans · Jan 30, 2004

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Agree with all the above - Andy's charging about the going rate for the service provided. As a matter of fact, he's a good bit cheaper than some of the boats I go out on. Just booked a charter for a gas dive in July & that's £520 between 10 of us. We are going a long way though.

Come to think of it, £15 for one dive off a hardboat round here is ferkin unheard of!

Ian B · Jan 30, 2004

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Just finished reading all this. All I can add is -

I know the boat. The Taurus is a vessel to be proud of, crammed with safety features and all necessary equipment and facilities to give you a great days diving.

The skipper Andy is a man to trust, who will make sure you get a good days diving in.

I believe his prices to be fair in comparison to the average channel coast day prices.

I'll definately be diving with Andy on the Taurus this year.

In fact....think I'll ring him just now. Hope to see you there.

Gavin Yates · Jan 30, 2004

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Either Peter was talking the mickey or he'd been on the Laughing Frog again.

Even up here in sunny Scotland the average boat charter works out around the £30 a day per diver.

For a decent boat and a quality skipper I feel that's fair.

Col.Maniac · Jan 30, 2004

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Peter have you dived off this boat yet???

How many boats can you get on and get free unlimited cups of tea,coffee? Nice large wheel house where all divers can fit on a very cold day

, large gearing up deck where you aint going to trip over every one else.
And probably the largest area around Dover for wrecks compaired to other areas, I think Andy has his prices about right, as Andy says new Laws comming out next year, where some of his safty gear will have to come out and upgraded, even after this you are still getting a good charter deal.
If I were you try the boat out before passing sentence.

Tony

ANDY 64 · Jan 30, 2004

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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Either Peter was talking the mickey or he'd been on the Laughing Frog again.

May be so, BUT i do get other divers to join this site , which many have done, PLUS with the YD added on my links page aswell, and i know that some of the TAURUS DIVERS do come here and have a read.

Peter's choice of words , has really got my back up...... not a good advert for my company or YD.

ANDY 64 · Jan 30, 2004

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Tony,

The Dover Straits has more wrecks per square 1/2 mile than anywhere else in the world.

4000 wrecks are reported to be ON or IN that little sand bank off my front garden .

If you draw 2 lines from both entrances of Dover Harbour to France,,, thats 22 sqaure miles of seabed , there are 987 wrecks there, although most are not diveable because of the shipping lanes.

A lot of our wrecks are in good nick, as coz of our shit viz, we only get a certain breed of diver here.
( thats why the last lot of YD'ers were impressed when they dropped on to a beam with 3 portholes in ).

PLUS 5 historic wreck sites, ONE very much complete.

Ho Hummmmmmmmmm, diving tomorrow, have picked a wreck which can be done in ZERO VIZ and everyone will enjoy.

ANdy

Col.Maniac · Jan 30, 2004

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[b said:
Quote[/b] (Andy the Commie 2 @ Jan. 30 2004,17:17)]Tony,

The Dover Straits has more wrecks per square 1/2 mile than anywhere else in the world.

4000 wrecks are reported to be ON or IN that little sand bank off my front garden .

If you draw 2 lines from both entrances of Dover Harbour to France,,, thats 22 sqaure miles of seabed , there are 987 wrecks there, although most are not diveable because of the shipping lanes.

A lot of our wrecks are in good nick, as coz of our shit viz, we only get a certain breed of diver here.
( thats why the last lot of YD'ers were impressed when they dropped on to a beam with 3 portholes in ).

PLUS 5 historic wreck sites, ONE very much complete.

Ho Hummmmmmmmmm, diving tomorrow, have picked a wreck which can be done in ZERO VIZ and everyone will enjoy.

ANdy

987 wrecks to choose from minus wrecks in shipping lanes,
your able to do different wrecks too like never dive the same wreck twice in a year

and he dont like the prices ? where do I sign up?

Tony

Taurus Diving, out of Dover?

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