Bearded and still burly after triple bypass surgery, 60-year old Martin Sanderson walks with a bit of a stoop. His demeanor conveys authority. Government workers in agencies he formerly administered probably got busy when he walked into the room. People still listen when he speaks, from a microphone now, on a stage, delivering spoken word poems, increasingly on the subject of climate change.
A two hour experience including live performance from a canal boat, a boat trip and cemetery tour at Kensal Green Cemetery...
In 1761 Francis Egerton, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, built England’s first modern canal, revolutionising transport, and triggering an investment boom that transformed the nation. Two and a half centuries later his innovation reverberates in the form of 2000 miles of canals and towpaths...
Your Canal Boat CIC was created in the belief that the canals are one of London’s great and still under-utilised resources. We see the canal boat experience as a tool to address chronic educational and environmental challenges.
“Narrowboats,” improbably elongate and appropriately named, are relics of the Industrial Revolution, an event that required coal, and lots of it. If the weather was good and the road not a quagmire, a horse-drawn cart might carry a ton of it.
“Narrowboats,” improbably elongate and appropriately named, are relics of the Industrial Revolution, an event that required coal, and lots of it. If the weather was good and the road not a quagmire, a horse-drawn cart might carry a ton of it.
A quarter-century of environmental hijinks from the U.S.-Mexico border to Yale University — adventures that taught me about community development, got me celebrated on the front page of the New York Times or nearly killed — led me to London, where I’m learning they do things differently.
© Copyright 2024 YOUR CANAL BOAT, CIC | Black and white photography courtesy of Chris Pintegne
Dr. Luke (Eddy) Muscutt leads cutting edge research on fluid mechanics and related topics at Imperial College’s structural dynamics laboratory. His passion, however, is science communication. Eddy appears in the 2024 BBC documentary “David Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster,” where he shows Sir David how to operate the world’s first robotic plesiosaur, built on his Phd research into how “the Tyrannosaurus of the Ocean” propelled itself and the advantages conveyed by its unique 4-finned design.
Outside the lab, Eddy lives on a 60′ widebeam he calls his “airship”. Eddy’s skills as compére of science and technology programs are much in demand and complements his desire to see a new generation of canal boaters employing better technology to maintain his canal home.
Tahera Hanif (TJ) is a fashion designer and community activist who grew up in Alperton next to the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal. She is one of the Founders of a registered charity that helps people with civil litigation. Tahera has long advocated for canal improvements on behalf of people who live on its banks.
Lee Cudmore-Ray, is a practising Marine Surveyor and third generation waterman who has worked in most every aqueous capacity that his forebears didn’t. From Engineer to Boat Safety Examiner to Captain, licensed for vessels up to 250 passengers, he has practiced on UK and Continental waters for 25 years. His recently completed Masters thesis considered how water pollution in the canals impacts corrosion of steel-hulled boats. He owns 5 of them, including a rare Dutch sailing barge which he will sail across the Channel to France some day.
Cal Turnbull grew up next to the Grand Union Canal and spent days photographing it with his Grandfather. His first job was for the London Waterbus Company at age 15. Years later, the same company saved him from a career as a lawyer. In lieu of a proper Legal Department, we usually defer to him. When not managing Your Canal Boat Projects, he often skippers for London Water Bus, where he’s a licensed Boatmaster, qualified to pilot up to 100 souls on canals nationally.
Eric Ellman parlayed a Masters degree in hydrology into a 20-year career as a community organizer around issues involving water. He has generated almost $2MM in grants for innovative environmental and economic demonstration projects from the “colonias” of the U.S.-Mexico Border, to Mexico and Central America. From 2013 until 2016 he was Communications Director at the Yale Climate and Energy Institute when he discovered London’s canals, founded “Bards on Boats,” and traded his U.S. home for life on the 58’ wide beam, Molly Anna.
