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How safe are your passengers from these 6 boating dangers?
NCBA Sail4Cancer trip on The Thames. If you take passengers out on a canal boat trip you won’t want to gamble with safety. The Boaters Handbook is a useful guide which alerts skippers to these six main...
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5 boating rules you don’t even know you’re breaking
I’ve been a narrowboat owner for 13 years and I taught myself how to steer a boat. However, the self-taught method is certainly not without accidents, and in my early days on the Cut my hull suffered...
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The 3 Simple Rules Every Boater Should Know
The English canals and rivers are a fairly relaxed place to be and there aren’t too many rules and regulations to memorise or keep to. On the blog this week we’re going back to basics with 3 simple...
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3 Surprising Navigation Tips for Gongoozlers and Geeks
Hey, if you’re a geek you know you’re a geek; but in case you didn’t know it a gongoozler is someone who enjoys watching boats. Are you one of those? Are you enthralled by the workings of a lock and...
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Talk Like a Skipper: 10 of the Weirdest Waterways Words
Cheesing If you’ve been around the waterways for some time you will have become familiar with the basic canal lingo such as windlass, gongoozlers, bridge hole, gunwale and paddles. Other words and...
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5 Warning Signs That Your Boat is About to Sink in a Lock
Lock 39, Grand Union, Marsworth This week a canal boat suddenly and sadly sank in Cassiobury Park in Watford (reported The Watford Observer). The Grand Union Canal at Iron Bridge Lock was expected to...
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How to Turn a Surly #Youth into a Cheerful #Boater: Just Add Water
Nb. These are lovely children and not surly youths :-) New Year is a great time to think about learning new skills and maybe choosing a training course. I decided I wanted to speak to somebody who’s...
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Narrowboat Skippers: How to Learn Teaching Skills That Make a Difference
Noel Neilan is a community boater based at ‘Open Lock’, which is part of Trafford Council Youth Services. They can be found at Gorse Hill Youth Arts Studios with moorings on the Bridgwater canal in...
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Five Things You’ll Love About Community Boating
Noel Neilan oversees a community boating project in South Manchester. In his previous article he described how decent training can make the whole boating experience even more pleasurable, and in this...
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What These Five Trainers Can Teach Us About #Volunteering
The Open Lock Project (Noel Neilan) We’ve featured a number of guest posts and interviews on this blog which tell you a little bit about the NCBA trainers, how they got into boating and what they get...
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