Welcome to the Narrowboat Skills Centre
The home of every narrowboating course you’ll ever need
Since our formation, we’ve been offering the widest range of narrowboat courses you’ll find anywhere in the UK. Whether you want to learn boat handling skills, boat fitting, electrical knowledge or engine maintenance, we have courses that will suit you – whatever your skill or experience level.
We’ve built a reputation for having a friendly, approachable and experienced team of instructors. We have trained over 2,200 students, issuing over 650 RYA Helmsman Certificates and have had over 600 students on our ever popular Diesel Engine and Boat Maintenance course. Many of our students have returned to take multiple courses – so hopefully we’re doing something right!
Why train with us?
We feel we’re lucky enough to have the most ideal training location in the country. Our cruising ground is a beautiful stretch of the Grand Union canal. Our on-the-water courses typically take in swing-bridges, road-bridges, an aqueduct, wide locks, a tunnel, winding holes and occasionally the renowned Foxton staircase of narrow locks. All these ideal training features are within 30 minutes of our home mooring. We’re unique as a training centre in having all these features on our doorstep! But that’s not all . . .
Our own dedicated training boat
All our courses afloat are on our fully fitted training boat, ‘Gwendoline May’. Onboard she has everything our students need by way of teaching aids, training props, and equipment. We never have to use a hire boat, or any other general boat. Gwendoline May is a lovely boat to helm and gives our students fantastic hands-on experience. She also doesn’t mind the occasional bump!
Our dedicated classroom and workshops
For our shore based courses we have our own purpose built dedicated classroom and workshop. Just like our training boat, this facility is kitted-out with all the equipment, tools and props needed to let our students get ‘hands-on’ experience. For the more theoretical parts of the course, the classroom is fully equipped with the teaching and visual aids required for easy learning.
And did we mention our instructors?
Our instructors are all appropriately qualified, very experienced and come from a wide range of backgrounds. But more importantly, they know that for most people narrowboating is leisure pursuit or a lifestyle choice. Therefore their training style is very relaxed and low-pressure. Making sure our students have fun is just as important to our instructors as passing on the knowledge they have. You’ll get no stern teaching styles and you’re guaranteed a few laughs along the way.
Can we help you?
We’ve made it as easy as possible to book all our courses directly from our web site and in almost all cases this would be the preferred route. However, if you are unable to find the course you are looking for, or a day to suit your needs, please do ring us on 0116 442 2326 and we will do all we can to accommodate your requirements. Please be patient when ringing though as we don’t have a manned switchboard. If you leave a message we will always call you back as soon as we can.
The Narrowboat Skills Centre is a recognised RYA Training Centre
