We are Sue and John Haresnape, retired owners of the Lady Florence and Allen Gardiner River Cruise Restaurants. Our journey with our boat business started 32 years ago. John was made redundant in 1990 and after spending a year trying to get another job. He was previously Marketing and Sales Director for Control Data, a computer manufacturer based in Minneapolis. He started looking at businesses for sale.

We had just spent a week away in August 1991 in our motor caravan in Suffolk for the first time ever and thoroughly enjoyed it. We visited Orford but did not see Lady Florence, as, of course, she was sailing the river.  John saw an advertisement in the Sunday Times, just a very small ad saying “East Coast river cruise business for sale”.  When we phoned the agent he told us the business was near Woodbridge, which of course we had just visited, so after pressing him a bit more he said it was in a small village, called Orford. Well, the rest is history!  I may add that when we went to look at the boat John was in a three-piece suit and I was in my Burberry raincoat and high heel shoes!

We planned to double the turnover in five years, and then sell the business. We more than doubled turnover and profits by 1998, but, although there was much interest, we failed to find a buyer. Our elder son, Rhys, bailed us out by bringing his family from South Africa for the next two years to earn some British pounds. When he was ready to return home in 2000, his younger brother, Craig, decided he would take over Lady Florence, as long as we moved into his home in Cape Town to look after his cats and find him a business to go back to two years later.

We did just that at the end of 2000 and set about looking for a boat and a base to operate a Lady Florence “lookalike”. We returned to Orford for the June/July/August peak season to help Craig, and by September 2002 we had found a suitable boat on Durban Harbour. She was built in 1942 for the South African Air Force as an air/sea rescue launch. Son Rhys was available to help us rebuild the superstructure and in December 2002, the Allen Gardiner was ready for its maiden cruise.

We had in the meantime found an enthusiastic young man working in a Cape Town bookshop, who was a very keen sailor, and who jumped at the chance to go to England and replace Craig on the Lady Florence.

Craig and his partner, Kris, ran Allen Gardiner successfully on Durban Harbour for ten years, by which time the post-election marketplace had changed. We therefore brought Allen Gardiner to Ipswich during 2013, allowing Craig and Kris to consolidate both businesses in Suffolk.

You can find out more and book one of our fantastic experiences on Suffolk Rivers on our website - https://www.rivercruiserestaurants.co.uk/