Charity project takes boats’ names
MEGAN and Tinks is the new name for the Nottingham Narrowboat Project, which has been providing day and residential trips for local children and disabled people for more than 40 years.
These are the names of the charity’s two 70ft boats, Megan and Tinkers Leen, which I took the opportunity to step aboard during the Canal & River Trust’s East Midlands Boaters Conference late last year beside their base on the Nottingham Canal at Canal House Wharf.
Chairman of the trustees Gerry Mulvaney showed me inside the boats, which can each sleep up to 10 people on bunk beds provided in a dormitory style and also have skippers’ accommodation.
Megan and Tinkers Leen are each available with NCBA qualified skippers and crew for day hire and overnight residential stays. Wheelchair accessible Tinkers Leen, named after a small river running into the Nottingham Canal, was purpose built for the project with a wheelchair accessible toilet and wet room and can accommodate up to two wheelchairs on board.
All the skippers hold first aid qualifications and the staff are certified by the Disclosure Barring Service (DBS). The volunteer-led charity has also adopted the Nottingham City Council Child Safeguarding Policy.
The Nottingham Narrow Boat Project Ltd is also a National Community Boats Association-approved training centre and aims to provide a waterways experience including boat steering, working the canal’s locks, water safety and a general taste of waterways life.
As well as offering half and full day trips for groups of up to 12/24 people, residential cruises range from two to six days. Evening trips are possible in the summer months.
Gerry added: “Our season is all year round; as we are based on the canal we can do day trips even if the River Trent is closed.” At the time of going to press there had already been two trips in January and another planned.
Started by Nottingham City Council in 1975 and taken over as a charity in 2018, it is one of the most respected community boat projects in the country. All of its trips with young people offer new experiences and learning outcomes for them, including exploration of the natural environment and conservation work exploration of the heritage environment, local history and geography, art and photography, adventure activities, teamwork and skills in crewing a boat and team building for groups and businesses.
Gerry told me that he was inspired to get involved with the charity following a fact-finding visit for a feature he wrote for a boating magazine. “Eight years later I find myself as chair of trustees!”
In the article titled Passionate Women, he described how two local women worked at the project to give children access to the waterways and which had spread to less able members of the community.
During the return cruise to Cranfleet Lock, Gerry had seen a group of youngsters have their first experience of boating and working a lock, all having also taken their turn at steering by the end of the day.
He wrote that he had returned home exhausted and full of admiration for the crew.