There’s a place in West London where three ages of transportation converge. An ancient road, Scrubs Lane, crosses the 200-year old Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal. One hundred meters further is a railroad bridge, built to carry Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway.
© 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.
