Welcome to Our Boat Club
Our Cheshire based canal boat cruising club is located in an idyllic rural setting on the Shropshire Union Canal, one mile from Nantwich Town Centre.
The club was founded in 1953 and has grown to its current size with almost 150 members and moorings for some 70 boats – steel (maximum length 40 ft) GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) and wood.
The Club is managed by an elected Council of Members who are nominated and re-elected at the AGM held in December each year. The Commodore & Vice Commodore oversee Club matters and each respectively serves a 3 year term. An appointed Harbourmaster deals with the allocation of moorings and movement of boats. The Land & Buildings Officer deals with all relevant site maintenance & operational issues. All members of the council work on a voluntary basis.
Our Club is communal so members are expected to join in with activities when they can. These include working weekends, one in the Spring and the other in Autumn, where the club grounds are tided up and members help with various jobs such as painting sheds and cutting back hedges. There is also an activity that takes place at the weekend called ‘Officer of the Day’. This is where members stay on their boat for one or two days and generally look after the site, check boats are all secured and if someone want to join the club point them in the right direction.
Fun things that the club does include BBQs and a Hog Roast. The year usually starts with a lunch at a nearby pub and through out the year social events take place at a village hall where a meal is served and you can challenge your brain with a quiz. Later in the year we try to have an event where members can sail to a location where we can try our hand at garden bowls and then celebrate with a good dinner.
The Boat Club has a signing-in room & library, social / committee meeting room, a fully fitted club kitchen, two workshops with electricity, workbenches and a few tools members can sign out, plus a sanitary block, with Elsan & water taps. In addition, electricity points are located alongside the moorings for the use of members.
For those owners of GRP and wooden boats who wish to take their boats out of the water during the winter months, there is a craning out service in October and a craning in service just before Easter (alternate years).
A Brief History
The Nantwich and Border Counties Yacht Club (NBCYC) was founded on 30th October 1953 by a Mr. Bickley. He organised a meeting at the Crown Hotel at which it was resolved to form a Club with 22 members. Six owned boats moored at Nantwich, others either moored elsewhere or had not at the time owned boats.. A committee was elected and Officers appointed. Details of the appointees are not known positively but the first treasurer was Mr. W. Thistlewaite who remained in office until the late 1970s never owning a boat!
The owner of the fourth boat to moor at Nantwich was believed to have been Mr. Cyril Bickley and he is credited with being the catalyst for the idea of forming a Club at Nantwich. His boat may have been ‘ldalia’ which he later co-owned with Mr. HT Smith.
What to call the Club? Suggestions included, Nantwich Cruising Club and Nantwich Boat Club but Mr. Bickley, believed to be Commodore, proposed the present name which was adopted.
For more on NBCYC History – click here
