On Thursday 20th October 2011 Kingswear Castle ran a thirty minute trip from the Historic Dockyard Chatham at 12 noon for two coach parties who were spending the rest of the day looking around the Dockyard

On the face of it, a half hour cruise doesn’t seem very much but putting KC on specially for these short trips for pre-booked groups could be very profitable with income sometimes exceeding the modest operating costs by a factor of four.

On this day there were 100 passengers aboard, 45 from one probus club and 55 from another. Each paid £5 a head so that was an income of £500. The expenditure on coal and wages for a thirty minute trip was less than £100. So by a simple arithmetical process that put £400 in the hat towards the standing costs. Kerching!

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