Clive Richardson
Broads Holidays
Broads holidays is headed up by Clive Richardson, whose family have been involved with boating for at least 5 generations.
It can be traced back to Robert Kemp wherry builder of Oulton Broad, who was also landlord of The Lady of the Lake public house.
It’s not unusual to see Clive out on the river sailing, or cruising with his family and friends.
Robert Richardson
A Brief History In Time
Robert (Bobby) Richardson
Clive's father Robert (Bobby) Richardson was responsible for building the Richardsons fleet and eventually moving it to Stalham in 1958, continuing to build the fleet then selling to The Rank organisation in 1974. Robert carried on building boats in Catfield on a site he developed from a motor garage, here he built a number of boats including gun boats for Kuwait, fisheries protection vessels, pilot boats, private offshore craft and inshore craft private and hire for France, as well as for his new yard Horizon Craft in Acle.
Clive Richardson
It was during the 1980’s that Clive first developed an interest in boats and boat building.
Obviously too young to get involved, it wasn’t until 1984 when the Stalham was brought back, he spent just about every school holiday on the yard and most weekends, gaining experience in boat building, laminating, yard services, towing and slinging, eventually leaving education and taking a position in the engineering department until the age of 21, when a move into the office to work alongside his dad was the natural progression.
Other Ventures
During his time in the office, Clive looked at pubs and restaurants in East Anglia, as well as holiday parks across the country, with his father and successive General Managers. During this time, he learnt good practices from RJR, whilst also fulfilling a procurement role in the company, and keeping his hand in on the boating side. Later on he assisted the area managers in overseeing the pubs and restaurants, although this was not his passion.
Back to the love of Boat Building
Despite this time being interesting and informative, he realised his true passion lay within boating and with the backing of his father took the decision to design and build boats after a break of about 30 years. Clive also took over the helm at the Stalham yard for the next 7 years, while overseeing the boat building team for 10 years.
Broads Holidays and Horning Pleasurecraft commenced Trading
Based in Horning Marina, starting with a hire fleet of three boats, a skilled friendly team of engineers and boat builders ready to develop and build the newly designed by Clive CJR F46, the first of the Fleetline Broads Cruiser.
Horning Pleasurecraft starts to grow
The hire fleet increases from 3 to 6 boats. Broads Holidays extends to Brundall, purchasing Cove Marina, a friendly marina based in Brundall, with a variety of moorings for different sized craft.
Fleet is now 9 boats
The first CJR F46 ‘Innovation’ has been launched, for a private customer and the first Fleetline hire boat enters the fleet.