In the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust is relaunching trip boat Jubilee in tribute to Her Majesty and as a permanent new attraction for Newbury.
The boat will be painted and decorated to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee and will set out to bring the community in Newbury together both as volunteers running the boat and as groups and visitors enjoying the opportunity to get afloat on the Kennet & Avon Canal.
Public trips will commence at Easter leaving every weekend from Newbury Wharf. Jubilee will also be available for private charter throughout the summer. What better way to celebrate your own birthday or anniversary than a relaxed evening afloat? The Trust is also hoping to run floating street parties to enable groups of friends, neighbours and schools to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee in a unique way.
There will also be longer trips when Jubilee travels to Reading in mid-June for the annual Reading Waterfest. But she’ll be back in Newbury well before the Newbury Waterways Festival on 21/22 July.
It is especially appropriate to celebrate Her Majesty’s Jubilee in this way as the restoration of the canal really got under way 50 years ago after the Queen accepted a petition calling for its restoration. 30 years later Her Majesty returned to reopen the canal aboard another Trust trip boat, the Rose of Hungerford.
2012 is also an important land mark for the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust marking the 50th anniversary of our foundation in 1962.
The Kennet & Avon Canal Trust calls on all who love Newbury and its waterside to join in making the relaunch of Jubilee the centre of Newbury’s Jubilee celebrations.
Our first call is for those who would like to volunteer their services to be trained as boat crew for this exciting new venture. No qualifications are required as we will provide full training but we are looking for enthusiasm, commitment, a sense of teamwork and an ability to provide our passengers with a memorable experience.
We need crew to help handle the boat, operate the locks, run the bar, manage ticketing and keep Jubilee spick and span. Completely unpaid but a wonderful opportunity to have fun getting involved in this new venture that will help secure the future of the canal.
Interested? Come along to our public meeting at Newbury Town Hall Council Chamber on Friday 2nd December, at 7:00 pm to hear more about the type of person and commitment we are seeking. Or contact our Boat Manager, Ken Keegan, on 01264 337783 (evenings) or 07720 076693 (daytime), or email him at:
kenkeegan@talktalk.net .
Well done for Newbury! Will Jubilee be replaced at the western end of the canal and a new boat start operation from Dundas?
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