~ ABOUT US ~

We (Pam, Chris, Eileen and Dianne) are friends who first met on the Internet, on a Guiding Yahoo group, some six or seven years ago. We are all active Guide leaders and this common interest led to our 'virtual friendship' which developed into an 'actual' friendship when we met up for real, and our association with narrowboats soon followed. Thanks entirely to the GuidingUK yahoo group, we found out about, and hired, a boat belonging to the Guide Association and based at Sowerby Bridge, and set off down the Rochdale Canal, the first trip on Spirit of Guiding being in 2002 under the guidance of Lucy, a fellow-Guider with a lot of narrowboat experience.

Girlguiding UK is extremely particular - and rightly so - when it comes to matters of safety and qualifications when one is taking responsibility for other people's children; they have their own Power Cruising qualification which anyone in charge of a narrowboat or power cruiser under the auspices of the Association must have and so we knew we needed to study for this qualification. Dianne was the first of the group to undertake this - the syllabus for the scheme and notes she made over the period 2002 - 2004 can be seen by clicking this link (which opens in a new window.) Several more trips on Spirit of Guiding followed, exploring the Rochdale Canal, the Calder-Hebble and the Aire and Calder navigations and our love of narrowboating grew whilst the group expanded, and more Guiders gained their permits.

For 2007 we decided to move to the Grand Union Canal and this time hired Tuptonia, a 70-foot 12-berth narrowboat owned by the Midlands Region Guides, based at Swallow Cruisers at Hockley Heath, and with a crew of nine set off southwards to explore. Our trip was eventful to say the least, but we learned a lot about improvisation and problem-solving and only had to call the boatyard out once, and had an enjoyable week in spite of it all. In idle moments we day-dreamed about having our own boat and looked longingly at "For Sale" signs in many a mooring.

Once back on dry land we went back to our 'real lives' and most of us consigned it to the mental drawer marked 'pipe-dreams' and thought no more about it, apart from beginning to talk about our trip for 2008. Pam, however, had other ideas......

Within a week of us going our separate ways, she had researched in earnest the possibilities for shared ownerships and asked the nine Tuptonia crew if anyone was interested - Chris, Eileen and Dianne said they were. OwnerShips seemed to be the best of the many management companies out there and so that is where we decided to look. Sylph had a share available and was the only suitable cruiser stern boat available at the time : we did look at semi-trad stern boats too but came to the unanimous decision that we preferred a cruiser stern and so Sylph is was to be - a decision we are glad we made. The previous owners of our share had already booked a week in October so we were able to look forward to our "maiden voyage" in the near(ish) future. (Right : the crew of Tuptonia, with the four Sylph owners indicated.)