Sightseeing canal boat Long Tom takes to the water

CREAM teas on the not-so-high seas will help fund day trips for children – after the Angel Trust and the London Canal Museum launched a new narrowboat this week.

The charities smashed a bottle of bubbly across the bows of Long Tom – a 45ft sightseeing boat – last night (Thursday). The new craft will take visitors up and down the waterway on low-cost adventures.

The Angel Community Canal Boat Trust has been running trips for nearly 50 years from its base near City Road Lock on the Regent’s Canal.

And hundreds of people ranging from school pupils and children with special educational needs, to older people’s groups have enjoyed both day excursions and longer overnight voyages along the inland waterways.

Now the number of journeys can double as the charity, in conjunction with the London Canal Museum, fire up the engine on Long Tom.

Angel Trust chair Giles Eyre said: “Long Tom will enable us to increase the number of people enjoying the experience of a canal trip, and is ideally set up for day trips.”

By taking people on the water, the museum can make this crucial part of London’s past come alive.

Canal Museum chairman Martin Sachs said: “The canal is a living museum, there are reminders of its industrial past all along the route and the Islington Tunnel, around three-quarters of a mile long, is a major heritage asset. Guides can point out some of the things that might otherwise be missed, like ramps to help canal horses climb back out of the canal if they fell in. It is also a corridor for wildlife, a corridor for walkers and cyclists, and a peaceful place to enjoy.”

Long Tom’s new berth at the Islington-based museum is due to increasing interest in the 200-year-old waterway.

Mr Sachs added: “There is a lot of demand for tunnel boat trips – it is a unique experience.”

Joining forces with the Angel Trust made sense for both groups.

Mr Sachs said: “We shared the costs of buying a boat and maintaining it, and the Angel Trust contributed their skills and expertise which complemented our skills and capabilities at the museum.”

The next job was to find a suitable boat – and when a narrow boat designed to take visitors for cream tea cruises along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was put on the market, the idea took shape.

Mr Sachs and Mr Eyre went to Lancashire to give Long Tom the once over and, after checking out its hull, bought the boat.

Complete with galley and other facilities, and with large windows making it ideal for soaking up the industrial heritage and wildlife along the canal, Long Tom is set to become a much-loved sight on the Regent’s and Grand Union canals.

Mr Sachs added: “Being 45 feet long the boat is well suited to short-distance work as it is relatively easy to turn it around.”