Ready for a rut - the role of stag and hen parties on the Norfolk Broads

Why Stag and Hen Parties are important to the hireboat industry.

Each year you will see people moaning on social media about a group of men on a boat having fun. Sometimes that fun is at the cost of someone else’s enjoyment, probably by bad behaviour and occasionally through being drunk in charge of a vessel.

You rarely read the stories about the 20 or more groups of people that go out most spring and summer weekends from the likes of Herbert Woods, Richardsons, Barnes and ourselves at Freedom who cause no problems whatsoever and who are thoroughly nice, normal people. The fact is that nobody wants to hear about normal; abnormal is what makes us get on our soap-boxes 

In fact, reading some facebook groups, forums and such might have you believe that the Broads is awash with badly behaved people hiring boats and getting up the hooters of others. This isn’t the case at all and, in the grand scheme of things, it’s fair to say that Stag and Hen groups cause relatively few problems on the waterways and in the pubs.

I would argue that rather than malign these groups, we need to embrace them. My experience of hiring boats to these groups for over a decade is that they are generally courteous, decent people looking to create a memorable celebration for a friend. They are rarely yobs but more commonly respectable people and the Broads needs them just as much as it needs family groups.

The boat yards need parties of people to hire their larger boats and these groups are typically away with friends for a weekend away; rarely are they particularly large family groups. Stags and Hens generally keep our larger boats in regular use and are responsible for a not insignificant amount of revenue.

The pubs and restaurants need them too. A round of drinks for 10 people will come to at least £40 and a sit-down meal will produce vital revenue that a seasonal business needs to survive and be there for seasons to come.

The Broads needs them too. A huge number of people visiting the Broads in a group have been before – as children. Their memories of childhood holidays on a boat are brought to the fore and the likelihood of them coming back with their families increases.

We are all guilty

It is easy to sit back and have a moan about a rowdy crowd; we have all done it. But how many times have you done the same about a couple of children who are running around without any parental guidance? What’s the difference?

You might say that the children don’t know any better and are just being children; you might be right. However, the parents should know a lot better and for whatever reason aren’t properly looking after their offspring. But here’s the crux of the argument; you don’t see people making a point on Facebook about this or local newspaper headlines like “twins, aged 11 and 13, run amok at the Saddlers Arms” (that’s the kind of journalism we have come to know in these parts, by the way). 

I think people choose to malign Stag and Hen parties because they are easy targets. Some of us have forgotten how to have fun (and I think some of us never really learned). Some of us are always looking for peace and quiet and don’t want to be disturbed. Some of us want to have a good time and are vocal about doing so. In this world, we can’t please everybody all of the time and as much as many of us try, letting our hair down occasionally is always likely to have a negative effect on someone. That is a fact of life and just because you are on holiday, it doesn’t give you a right as such. Life is about a bit of give and take, surely.  

There are, of course, lines that shouldn’t be crossed and when they are, steps need to be taken to curb bad behaviour and they are. Did you know that Broads Beat asks all boatyards to inform them of stag, hen and single-sex parties arriving for boats? Or that most boatyards take a significant deposit from such groups? These measures are mostly precautionary but give the law enforcers a head’s up should anything go wrong.

What’s more, as a company, we want to know about bad behaviour. There have been many cases where we have intervened and re-read the rule book to people that have strayed into areas of unacceptable behaviour and do you know what? Most of these cases involve family groups or others that you would not necessarily expect, rather than Stags and Hens.

If you are organising a Hen or Stag party, we have some Hen and Stag Party guidelines on our web site that you should take a look at.

Your views and comments are welcome as ever. 

Stag image credit:  Tj Holowaychuk