That’s it for another year, or at least for Lancelot and Guinevere for a few months as we put our boats into winter hibernation last weekend.

 
Our annual Winterising Weekend brought together our project skippers and other Executive Committee members and officials to baton down the hatches on our two boats for the winter months ahead.
 

They came from afar

The weekend effectively got underway on the Friday as several members arrived early to meet and catch up; invariably it has to be said over some of the local brew. Having bunked down for the night on the boats, it was up bright and early ready for the Skipper’s Meeting at Braunston Scout Hut.
 
Once again there was a healthy attendance with personnel coming up from as far as Hampshire, Kent and Surrey to the south, and from Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire to the north, as well as those based more locally.
 

Food after thought

 
A very constructive and thought-provoking meeting was held between 10.00am and 12.30 with some very interesting points and ideas raised. Chairman Peter Page gave his address to the room to start proceedings – read his account here: Chairman’s Address to Skippers’ Workshop 2018.
 
It was also during this meeting that we were pleased to welcome three new members to the project (more on them in due course).
 
On completion of the meeting, a fine lunch – prepared by Denise and Mrs Fletcher (thank you) – was taken ahead of the main tasks of the weekend: putting Lancelot and Guinevere into their winter slumber.
 
Peter Page reports:
 

We got involved sorting out the electrics and producing a list of stuff to do. All the external equipment was stored within the boat, pillow cases removed for cleaning as were the curtains and visible items stored in cupboards away from prying eyes as lack of curtains!
 
Water was drained from the fresh water tanks to prevent pipes from freezing and the ‘Cratch’ covers were installed on the front of the boats – this helps with ingress of water/snow; the rear ends not quite so necessary as no ‘wells’ involved.
 
All this followed by a general ‘clean-up’ although the major part of this will occur at dewinterising [come February/early March].
 
Gas and electrics were turned off and boats secured.
 
I will be visiting the boats over the winter to run the engines for a while as the batteries benefit from ‘cycling’ their charge. Leaving them and for them to be left flat doesn’t do them any good although they shouldn’t discharge too much with there being no load on them.

 

A great success

Overall another very successful and productive weekend of activity from the LNBP team, and a huge thank you to everyone who offered their time, energy and assistance to help.  A huge thank you also to our friends at Braunston Scouts for their support with allowing us to use their Scout Hut facilities.
 

LNBP are reliant on the sterling efforts of volunteers who give their time to ensure the smooth running of the organisation and the canal boat experiences we provide.
 
We are always keen to welcome new volunteers to our organisation, so if you are 16 years old and over why not consider getting involved with us in 2019?
 
To find out more, click here, or contact any one of our team – our details can be found here