Essex Waterways
Try the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Walk
Things To Do
Please consider supporting the Navigation by volunteering your time. Essex Waterways Ltd is a non-profit making organisation, and any surplus funds are reinvested in the Navigation. It would not be possible to maintain the Navigation without our loyal band of volunteers who support the small staff team. We need help with skippering and crewing our trip boats, maintenance at each of our lock sites, towpath maintenance and litter clearance, and help manning the office during busy summer periods. We would also be grateful for help with maintenance of our work boats and trip boats and a wide range of other machinery, with painting waterway structures, vegetation control and a wide range of other jobs. Please contact the office, and we would be pleased to discuss what tasks on the Navigation you might enjoy.
Here is some information about some of the volunteer opportunities we have available:-
Towpath Task Force
We have volunteers work at our mooring locations and along the whole length of the navigation helping to restore and maintain the navigation with tasks varying from lawn cutting, removing invasive plant species, painting landscaping and building projects.
Skippers/Crew
We are currently especially looking for volunteers to skipper and crew our trip boats as described below. The money raised from passengers will go back to Essex Waterways Ltd to help maintain the Navigation.
Blackwater Dawn and Albert can each carry up to 12 passengers. We need a volunteer skipper and one crew member to operate each boat. We aim to run Blackwater Dawn as regularly as possible out of Heybridge Basin for hour long trips and Albert from Paper Mill Lock (no lock on these short journeys).
Customers can just turn up and pay on the day for these one-hour trips. Both are also available for longer private charter hire booked in advance but again only with our volunteer skipper and crew. For longer trips the boats may pass through locks.
What we offer you
In return or your time, we hope volunteers will have a rewarding day on the navigation, make new friends and have a sense of achievement in helping to support the long-term preservation of Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. We don’t pay volunteer travel or other expenses, however we will provide training, if required, and support volunteers in other ways.
Skills
All Skippers need to hold a recognised external qualification to be in charge of a boat – but we can arrange the necessary training if you are willing to commit to volunteering as a skipper for us.
Skippers must also have good customer skills, be confident to provide safety information to the customers, as well as information to make the trip enjoyable for all. If you have no boating experience, you can start as crew and train to be a skipper.
Crew need to be physically fit, and confident to support the skipper if required in the unlikely event of an emergency. They are required to ensure the safety of the passengers when the skipper is busy navigating and be able to provide information and support to the customers so they have an enjoyable and safe time. They assist the skipper with mooring and locks, if required. Full training is provided.
If you would like to become a volunteer please contact [email protected]
