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THE ARRIVAL
 This
year's Canalway Cavalcade was one of the best for many years - unusually we had
excellent weather for all three days. About 150 boats had booked in advance and
a spot of TV publicity on Friday evening helped turn out a good crowd of
visitors. This is my personal account of the weekend. As usual, Wendy and I
were working in the publicity team for the event, and our boat, Felis Catus
II, was in use as the Press Office.
 We brought Felis Catus II down from Uxbridge to
Little Venice the previous Sunday, seing cowslips on the bank near Hayes,
and stopping for lunch at the Waterside Bistro at Willowtree Marina and
a drink with our friends Dave and Chris Chamberlain (boat Sophie no.2)
at the recently-rebuilt Black Horse at Greenford, both of which we found
very pleasant. Arriving at Little Venice about 7pm we had some difficulty
finding space to moor on the visitor moorings, finally breasting up to our
friends' GUCCC boat Shirley.
 We went back home for a week's work, returning to the
boat at tea-time on Thursday for a provisioning trip. Then it was back home
again overnight for Wendy to go to work and me to finish getting ready all the
paperwork for the publicity team during the event. Arrangements for the public
address operating base had fallen through, but a chance conversation on the
towpath produced a welcome invitation from Doug and Molly Beard for us to put
it on their boat Essex Girl. Thanks, Doug & Molly.
 I came back to the boat about 3pm on Friday, just in
time for the Harbourmaster, Allan Scott, to give me the go-ahead to move to our
mooring in the Pool. Fortunately, because of our location, he wanted us in
first. I was impressed with the speed at which boats filled the moorings once
Allan gave the go-ahead - a tribute to his careful planning.
Wendy had been going to join me after work, bringing our
two cats with her, but she 'phoned in the evening to say that she hadn't been
able to put them in their carrying baskets as they were running in and out of
the cat-flap and were never both in at once. So she'd come up in the morning,
which she did, but without the cats who were too busy enjoying the good weather
in their and neighbours' gardens.
SATURDAY 1st MAY
 Nearly all the boats had arrived by Friday, and
the last few by mid-morning Saturday, so the waterspace team were distinctly
less stressed than usual. Allan even had time for a mid-morning coffee. Some
boats had come considerable distances to be there, Gnosall (Staffs) and Sowerby
Bridge (Yorks) being among the starting-points.
The event opened to the public at 10am, but, as always, the
public weren't much in evidence until they'd had lunch. Activity in the pool
began at 11am with the arrival of the Lord Mayor of Westminster on board Martin
Jiggens' 1935 GUCCC boat Denebola. The entertainments programme kicked
off at 11:30 with Keepers Lock performing in the "ents tent", the first
of many performances they were to give over the weekend. The morning also
offered the first of several rounds of children's activities organised for us
by Graham Nunn and his team from the Church Army boat Hartley Harlequin.
At lunchtime, the Grand Union Morris danced on the poolside, and there was the
first of the daily canoe displays by the Tideway Adventurers, a
South-London-based Youth Group who had come, as ever, on their boat
Michael to help us with programme-selling and stewarding. Our on-site
bar service was provided by the Lower Lea Project's broad-beam trip boat
Pride of the Lee.
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The Opening Ceremony took place at 2pm. Richard
Drake, IWA's national Chairman, opened the event, supported by the Lord Mayor
of Westminster and Robin Evans, Commercial Director of BW, who commended IWA
for its years of campaigning that have done much to preserve the canals.
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Then came the Pageant, led by BW's patrol launch
Verulam and tug Olton, followed by the contestants for the two
decorated boat competitions and other interesting boats, accompanied by Steve
Strickland's Noyz Boyz jazz band. |
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When the results were announced on Monday we learnt
that the Marcus Boudier Award for the best privately-entered decorated boat had
gone to the smallest boat taking part, John Ross' Elizabeth Rose
(pictured right), a home-built 18ft Mirror dinghy which John converted to a
miniature narrow-boat )some years after it had been laid up at the end of its
racing career) originally for the re-opening of the Basinsgstoke Canal in 1991.
In addition to festoons of paper roses, John had prepared the boat for the
weeknd by repainting his cabin-side castles as scenes of Little Venice with
traditional castles in place of the real buildings. It was the boat's first
visit to Canalway Cavalcade. |
We were pleased to have a pair of hotel boats in the
Pageant (Mallard & Dabchick) - we think for the first
time at Cavalcade - and also a loaded pair Archimedes &
Australia, of whom more later. In
between the Pageant and the boats' return from it, we enjoyed more dancing from
the Grand Union Morris, more from Keepers Lock and the usual
well-supported puppet performances on the barge May Brent.
After the site closed to the public, the Daystar Theatre
Group gave the boaters the first performance of their new show. Unfortunately
I'm never able to get to the beginning of this because I'm on duty on the
public address system. I eventually got there in the hope of catching the
second half of their show, but was called away almost immediately to see a
journalist, so I can't tell you how splendid the show probably was!
Later in the evening, after I'd been hijacked to the
Warwick Castle for a few pints (Gosh, they had to twist my arm!), I came
back on site for the later part of the Boaters' Ceilidh. This went really well
as, unlike the previous year, the weather was warm enough for people to enjoy
an outdoor activity. |
