NCBA training helps crews return to the water
This month our regular feature on the work of the National Community Boats Association looks back over the last 18 months of lockdowns and restrictions.
THE National Community Boats Association is a charity that provides support to community boating organisations.
It does this primarily through training support but also by representing the interests of the member projects with the Canal & River Trust as well as other organisations. The NCBA administers systems and delivers that training to promote the safe use of the inland waterways. Its qualifications are recognised by the Canal & River Trust, which allows community boating organisations to operate boats carrying up to 12 passengers.
Since March 2020 and the rise of Covid-19, the terms ‘locking up’ and ‘locking down’ took on a totally different meaning for the members of the NCBA. Lockdown proved to be a very bitter pill to swallow for our projects, leading to most, if not all trips and training coming to an abrupt stop.
The board of trustees at the NCBA had to act quickly and made the decision to remove all membership charges forthwith, something which we have now done for the second year in succession, fully understanding that these fees could be difficult for our members to meet when some – if not all – of their operations had effectively ceased overnight.
Any advice and training the NCBA had to provide now had to be done online; surprisingly, this method worked reasonably well.
As lockdown eased, our senior trainers took to the canals once again, this time heading to Stoke Bruerne to complete a trainers’ course for one of our new projects: the Milton Keynes Community Boat.
This was followed by two further training courses which were run at SCAD (Skipton & Craven Action for Disability) using their widebeam boat Endeavour and a third course in the south of England at the Hillingdon Narrowboats Project in West London.
While all this was taking place, we received a request from one of our projects in the West Midlands for guidance and advice on single-handed boating due to HS2 utilising the canal system in Birmingham for cable laying. Once again members of our training team got to work and have now produced a training package which will be rolled out shortly.
The NCBA was approached by the Waterways Chaplaincy with a view to providing its members with lock training, so if required they could safely assist boaters with lock wheeling activities.
At the end of August and with the help of the Wirral Community Narrowboat Trust with one of their boats Over the Rainbow a trial course was run at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port.
Due to its success further training courses have now been requested and will be taking place soon.
If you are a volunteer with a boating organisation and you require advice and assistance to futureproof your project, please contact the NCBA at national-cba.co.uk