Hazel the well-being boat
Chris ‘The Boatman’ Leah explains how the Wooden Canal Boat Society (WCBS) has developed an offer which epitomises what the word ‘well-being’really means and where Learning – one of the key Five Ways to Wellbeing, a set of evidence-based public mental health messages – fits in.
WHEN Peter and Claire Stone donated Hazel to the WCBS in 1988, we weren’t sure what to use her for. In the short term she provided a comfortable floating home for a young family; however, the idea of the WCBS is that, once restored, our historic boats should have a social or environmental function and benefit the community.
One thing that most WCBS members have in common is that getting involved with canal boating helps their mental well-being. How could we magnify these effects by being mindful of the Five Ways: Give, Be Active, Connect, Notice and Keep Learning. Would using a boat to boost well-being work? The Hazel Project was born.
Time passed, funds grew only slowly and Hazel’s elderly hull deteriorated until it became difficult to keep her afloat but, finally, in 2011, Hazel was dragged out of the water in a most undignified manner. A boatbuilder travelled from America to take charge of the restoration and, over the next few years, her rotten timbers were replaced and she was refitted to accommodate 12 people on a day trip or up to eight overnight.
With disabled access to the forward half of the boat, she has two bedrooms with more accommodation in the saloon. The boat is heated by a woodstove and there’s a roomy, accessible bathroom. There’s also a separate traditional back cabin where the crew stay when she goes on longer trips.
Hazel is a 107-yearold wooden narrowboat, originally built to carry salt and converted to a floating home in 1951. She is unpowered (a butty), so she’s towed by a motor boat (perhaps by a horse in the future). Usually the motor boat is Forget-meNot, another wooden boat but, at 94 years, a mere youngster.
She can do short trips of between two to eight hours, overnight stays, weekend breaks or longer holidays. She can also be used as an intimate and unusual meeting space and pre-virus we were holding regular drop-ins for people who wanted to chat. Guests often say that being aboard Hazel has a magical effect on them as they slow down, notice the heritage around them and become immersed in nature.
With opportunities to learn boat handling basics, flora and fauna to notice, passengers and crew to connect with and the chance to get off and walk or work a lock always available – the boats barely match most towing path strollers’ pace – a trip on Hazel is a wonderful way to build your well-being. And it’s so peaceful!
But to achieve these outcomes for our guests Hazel needs a fully trained skipper and crew to take care of navigating the boat and working the locks, while simultaneously (when Covid restrictions allow), interacting with guests and, if they are keen, helping the guests help us with locking and basic ropework and even steering.
Once the work to Hazel was completed our next big task was to recruit and train crew and for that we needed a partner. Hazel is a ‘community boat’. The National Community Boat Association has a full suite of training and qualification options, tailored to that sector’s needs. They are people like us. Why would we look any further?
We estimate that to make the most of Hazel and justify our funders’ investment in the project, we should be on the water for between 200 and 250 days each year. Given that winter boating is not everyone’s cup of tea and the maintenance and repair needs of the other half of the pair, the motorboat, this will see some weeks when we’re out and about most days, a crewing requirement which runs into dozens of bodies, all of whom are volunteers.
Volunteering – giving your time, energy and skills without financial reward – is a sure-fire route to wellbeing. But people have busy lives, families and limited resources and, in common with other VCSE organisations we do see a certain amount of ‘churn.’ With the various effects of Covid we have lost a great many volunteers.
But we have also retained a core of committed souls who are working like Trojans to deliver our National Lottery Community Funded project: Thanks to the NHS. Over a period of six months we aim to take more than 300 NHS workers, either as work teams or with their families, on four-hour well-being trips on the Ashton and Peak Forest Canals.
It’s been a challenge but a very worthwhile one and one unlooked-for benefit has been the opportunity for volunteer crew members to learn and practise new skills. We have started to recruit from the local community and recently we were able to celebrate the achievement of someone who has been learning with us since 2015.
Mick Owen, who himself runs a well-being business out in the wilds of Derbyshire, started doing a bit of crewing to get the ‘regular dose of narrowboating’ he reckons everyone needs. His commitment grew, as did his levels of competence, and when we did a full weekend of assessment for the various levels of NCBA qualification he ticked all the boxes to achieve its CCBM award – a fully fledged skipper.
For more about the NCBA go to www.national-cba. co.uk online