Canal Boat Project Hire

Who We Are & What We Do

The Canal Boat Project provide a fleet of disability access boats for use by disabled people and community groups to hire for day trips, short breaks and canal boat holidays. These can be either "self steer" or we will provide a fully qualified and experienced skipper and crew. Hire can be for day trips, short breaks or holidays as two of our boats provide sleeping accommodation for up to 12 passengers

We were founded in 1989 with the Stort Challenger for Hire

objective of providing a disability access boat on the river Stort. It took a further 10 years before the realisation of the dream, when, after much toil, sweat and fundraising Stort Challenger, our first holiday hire boat, was launched in 1999.

The success of the venture was soon evident. From a very small beginning within a few short years demand for the boat was getting greater and greater, and so we started looking forward to developing further.

Then, in 2003, Harlow Outdoors approached us with a view to taking over the operation of their narrowboat Rose Of Essex. We decided to take on this challenge, and so added youth and community to our spectrum of operations.

In 2004, needing a day trip boat to take pressure off Stort Challenger for residential trips, we purchased Dawn Treader Dawn Treader for Hire

from the Kingfisher Project. She proved an immediate success, and is now a popular part of our fleet, both as a disability access day trip boat and as a crowd puller at river festivals. In the same year a sister project, the Red Watch Canal Boat Trust, found themselves unable to give the time to their Project, so approached us to take over the running of their disability access holiday boat, Red Watch. And so she joined our fleet, too.

New for 2007 is Stort Daybreak. She provides us with a fully accessible day boat with room for up to 6 or 7 wheelchairs. She has a more generous toilet / shower room, with changing bench, hoist and adjustable height washbasin, as well as an accessible galley and a day bed with hoist.