Silver Propeller Challenge

There are over 100,000 boats registered on the inland waterways of England, Scotland and Wales, and in 2016 more than 672,000 people enjoyed the pastime of inland boating. IWA’s aim is to see those boats and people spread out across all of our wonderful canals and rivers. Most parts of our waterways are vibrant, busy places enjoyed by millions of people every year but there are still many locations where you would be lucky to see even one boat in a week, let alone in a day. Gongoozling is a favoured pastime of many walkers and cyclists, but if there are no boats, whole sections of waterways will lose their charm and appeal for everyone. This challenge aims to encourage our members and others to visit and use those places that aren’t reached as often as others.

ready, set, cruise

The places to visit fall into three categories:

• Cruise it or lose it – These are places on waterways which see very few visiting boats and are located in many instances at the end of a waterway. We’re looking to encourage visits along the entire length of these canals and rivers.  Some of these waterways can have as few as one boat a month using them!  Let’s change that now.
• Knocking on the door – These locations are where navigable waterways meet restoration works, proposed link projects and currently unnavigable sections. It’s hoped that in the future we will be able to remove these spots from the challenge as they become increasingly used.
• More please – or maybe moor please – These places are on restored sections of canals. We want to support the restorations by encouraging waterway users to get afloat and experience first-hand all that’s being achieved.

While none of the ‘cruise it or lose it’ waterways are under threat at the moment, we would be hard pressed to defend them on usage grounds alone if they were to be threatened by a major development, such as a new motorway, or lack of funding to keep them open.