LOUGHBOROUGH BOAT GATHERING 2002
There are a good number of boating events within a day or so’s cruise of Rumpus’s home mooring and in due time I hope we’ll visit all of them. Last autumn, we went to the Goose Fair rally at Nottingham: now we were off to the Loughborough Boat Gathering. This particular event is unusual in a number of ways: it’s not organised by a boating club as such and started off as a campaigning rally. The local paper, the Loughborough Echo, was concerned at the poor state of the wharf in the town and started the rally in an effort to secure its future. This is now secure, with new pontoon moorings (used by the Sunday morning GIG cruise last year) but the surroundings are still not of the best and a development to replace the builder’s supplier’s yard would make it much more inviting to visitors. However, the gathering has continued, though it has moved from Easter (when it got stopped one year by severe floods) to May Day Bank Holiday (where last year it fell victim to foot-and-mouth restrictions).
We were originally going to go down to the boat on Friday night with the aim of making an early start on the Saturday, but a longer time spent packing and a forecast of a 5º minimum temperature overnight (not ideal on a boat where the heating hasn’t kicked in) delayed the start until Saturday morning. Nevertheless, we were away before other people from Redhill who were heading in the same direction and headed upstream on a most pleasant morning. The first feature of note was The Foam at Kegworth Deep Lock. I am well aware that at one time this phenomenon was common all over the waterways, but tighter controls on pollution had (I thought) made this a thing of the past. Not so!!
The next possible problem was The Rowers. The pound between Kegworth and Zouch is used by rowers from the Loughborough Rowing Club: no doubt an offshoot of Loughborough University, which in my youth was known as Loughborough Colleges and which supplied many PE teachers (with their pink tracksuits worn as a badge of honour) and a good number of top-class athletes. The problem with rowers is that by definition they do not look where they are going and can wander across one’s path, even on the widest section of river. The first one to do this got a squark from Rumpus’s klaxon, returned by a black look and “you should have got out of my way”. If you can’t look where you’re going, mate.............. The next boat was a double scull crewed by a pair of young ladies: I gave them room to turn and they returned the favour by scorching past me as if I was standing still! Still, at least they smiled!
Lunch was taken at The Rose & Crown at Zouch, following which we succeeded in passing Bishop Meadow Lock without me falling in and locked up through Loughborough Lock to find the Gathering. Boats were moored solidly more-or less from here, round the corner at Chain Bridge and up to the Bridge pub, but we managed to find 24' 6" of towpath to tuck Rumpus’s 24' in and moored up. Saturday was a kiddies Fun Day so the entertainment was pitched at them, but there were a fair number of stalls to look at and a plaque and teeshirt to pick up. The former got fitted to the side doors and the latter got worn.
It was interesting to look at the boats that were going to take part in the Parade of Illuminated Boats later that evening and see what they were using for lights and how they were rigged up. Some people use mains powered lights (run off the inverter or a generator) but the way I’m likely to use involves the more modern Christmas tree lights which use low voltage - often 24 volts. Using two sealed intruder alarm 12 volt lead acid batteries (easily charged up on board) seems to provide enough amps for a fairly impressive display, so the evening was awaited with interest.
As dusk fell, the people in the houses opposite our moorings came out and lit the bottom of their gardens with barbeque lights, candles and oil lamps and readied themselves to watch the Parade. I was pleased to see the locals taking an interest in the event and even more pleased when the owner of the yacht moored at the bottom of his garden lit his red and green oil lamps, connected his electric outboard up and headed off the join the parade. There were a good number of themes: the Golden Jubilee was one, as was the World Cup (complete with a junior “Posh & Becks”, the latter with a foot in plaster) and as well as those which were “just illuminated” we did have Snow White and the 7 Dwarves! All in all, this was in our mind the highlight of the weekend.
The morning of Sunday (being the day of the event proper) was spent looking at all of the stalls, the vintage vehicles, the stationary engines, the radio-controlled model boats and the fair organs as we made our way off site to Sainsburys to buy Sunday lunch. We just happened to arrive at Chain Bridge, to witness the Mayor of Loughborough (complete with Town Crier) declare the gathering open, witnessed by none other than Timothy West and Prunella Scales who were the late Guests of Honour. After all this excitement, Susan spent the afternoon studying and I sat in the hatches being admired. (It was the boat actually, but I can hope........) The day was enlivened by the regular passages of Jumble, another ex-Kingfisher Line boat now in the good hands of Sileby Mill Boatyard and providing waterbus rides for the visitors, and a trip out ourselves to get rid of the rubbish. Eventually, even this palled and we decided to start back in the hope of missing some of the mayhem which was likely to ensue when everybody decided to leave at the same time.
Loughborough Lock was a little busy but once again Rumpus’s small size enabled us to fit where others couldn’t, so we got straight in the lock and away. Bishop’s Meadow Lock was once again passed without incident and we ended up mooring for the night at the Soar Boating Club at Normanton on Soar where a most convivial evening was spent in the Club House with the few members that were there, the vast majority being away on the Club’s Shakedown Cruise to the Space Centre in Leicester. That night we didn’t make the mistake we’d made the night before. “Turn the heating off, we’ll get too hot........” Come 0530 ...... “I’m cold - are you?” “Yes" "Light the stove, Brian......”
Monday morning dawned grey, misty and mizzly. After a fairly early breakfast and ablutions in the Club House, we set off in the damp and headed down river to Zouch Lock, where a BBQ set up in a field on the offside by the crew of an ex-working boat the night before had received the attention of a herd of young cows: the owner reported it was now absolutely spotless, having been licked clean by very large, very slobbery tongues! The National Grid line overhead was sizzling as all the thousands of voles trapped therein tried madly (and failed) to escape but there was little else to see. The weather was brightening a little by the time we arrived at Redhill to perform with the porta-potti: having taken Susan home and lunched, I nipped back to the boat, fitted a brass pull to the toilet door, moved the mobile phone holder “round the corner” so it doesn’t get wet again and went over to Trent Lock, as by now it was much warmer and not raining!