So it’s goodbye from me and …..

After 12 years Peter Fellows hands on the baton of editorship.

Another varied set of articles to end the year, with Helen Hutt describing her trip to the Medway on the 75-year old paddle steamer, Waverley, and my article on the unbelievable attitude of a local council towards restoration of the historic stable block at Pelsall in the West Midlands. I’ve also included details of NABO Council, including new members, Alan Douglas and John Sadler – welcome to both – together with Fly on the Wall’s view of Council meetings in October and November. Mike Rodd addressed the AGM to give a summary of the highs and lows of 2022: the highs being the active work by council members in many different ways to improve the lives and welfare of boaters; the lows being the lack of consultation by navigation authorities, especially the EA over changes to the Thames’ management, which he details in correspondence with the Agency. Ken Hylins also reports on work he is doing with boaters who are disadvantaged by age, infirmity or ill-health, to help them in the face of navigation authority obduracy. Paul Monahan struggles with the figures in CRT’s Annual Report and, as an accomplished poet, he has also written a timely Christmas ‘Carol for the Trust’ and a paean to NABO – ‘For those in Peril on the Cut’ – both are most welcome!

This will be my last issue as Editor as we are heading off to a smallholding in Ireland within the next few months. Fortunately, John Sadler has offered to take over as Editor, starting with the first issue of 2023. It is with huge sadness that I’ll be leaving NABO Council and editing the newsletter – I have enjoyed both immensely over the last 12 years (and learned an awful lot in the process about the waterways, the folk who cruise them, inhabit them, work on them, and ‘manage’ them). I started boating 40 years ago on a borrowed Trentcraft and cruised the Soar and Grand Union, later progressing to a 40-foot narrowboat for many years, before helping to set up a shared-boat group 20 years ago – which is still going strong. My first communication to NABO, after joining the Association in the early 1990s, was a letter to the then editor complaining about a BSS inspection (which I’ve included in the ‘Letters’ section).  Now, 25 years later, this will be my last communication from NABO.
I offer my sincere thanks to NABO Councillors, past and current, for their unceasing support for both me and NABO News. Also to the band of eight trusty proof-readers who, despite my best efforts, always find something to correct in each issue. I would especially like to thank Chris Pink for his excellent design skills that, in my opinion, put the newsletter in a different league to those of other boating and waterway organisations – as recognised by the National Libraries, which keep a copy of every issue. But my real debt is to you, the association members, for your encouragement and contributions – please keep them coming.
Best wishes and happy boating.

Peter