Ash Tree Boat Club

Waterways Activities

Index

Needless to say that as an active boating club Ash Tree Boat Club has a full and varied range of ‘Waterways Activities’ throughout the year.

Our first cruise is usually around mid/end of February and this year it was our Valentine Cruise on 11th of February, to Bishton for a Bar BQ. Great to see some of our newer members. This is a relatively short trip of two to two and a half hours just to get us back into the scheme of things canal wise. The journey is to one of the clubs most favoured sites at Bishton on the Trent & Mersey canal. Nothing too strenuous takes place, we all get back into the habit of Bar.B.Q‘ing and having the odd tipple canal side. We light a bonfire and talk amongst ourselves till whatever hour.

Our next major outing is the annual Easter Bonnet Cruise, obviously this takes place over the extended Easter weekend. We try to change the venue each year, to-date we have visited, Weston, Salt, Branston, Alrewas and other ‘easy’ cruising places that can be reached and returned from over the holiday period, and this year it was to Whittington and Hopwas.

Throughout the year the club organises several competitions, in which the members compete for cups and shields. Our major boating competition in the year is the "Boat Handling" which is held on the canal at Tixall Wide on the Staffs & Worcester Canal.

Our Boat handling for 2009 will be held at Tixall Wides over the weekend 5th and 6th September.

Our Waterways Activities Chairperson lays out the course to be steered with various tests and obstacles on the way. The competition is judged by the organiser, together with the previous years winner (who is not allowed to enter). The winner’s names are kept under wraps until being announced at the ‘Annual Dinner Dance’ in November. Prizes are then awarded for the best Cruiser and Narrowboat handling on the day. I should point out that there is also a ‘Booby ‘ prize awarded to the ‘last’ boater in the competition.

For a great number of years the Club has organised a ‘Spring Bank Holiday Cruise, this entails interested parties cruising together for a week over the May Bank holiday period. In recent years this has been renamed and is now the Commodore’s Cruise’.

In the past years we have cruised up the Ashby Canal to it’s termination, the Staffs & Worcester Canal to Stourport and up the Macclesfield and Peak Forest canals to Whaley Bridge. This year it will be to Nottingham via the Trent & Mersey Canal and the River Trent commencing on May 23rd, 2009.

A quiet day away

One other activity on the water involves the Club visiting other like thinking boat clubs who are holding a ‘Rally’ at their own boat club premises. Members make their own way to the venue and spend mostly enjoyable weekends with members from other clubs, during which time ‘Inter Club’ games are organised by way of bringing the several attending club members closer together. Typical games are ‘Welly Wanging’, ‘Throwing the Rope’, ‘Plank Racing’ and the old favourite ‘ Horseshoes’.

On many occasions there is a main prize for the winning team and this ensures that the competition is not taken to lightly.

Other equally enjoyable events are organised during the year. I should add that there is no obligation on any of the members to support these activities but we do have an enjoyable time together and people who choose not to join in certainly miss out on the good company and atmosphere that is generated between members on these occasions.

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