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This year’s Crick Boat show proved to be the ideal place for The Yacht Harbour Association (TYHA) to present Aqueduct Marina with the first Clean Marina award for an inland marina. Many of the marina’s staff attended the event at which MD Robert Parton and Jon White, TYHA’s General Manager, spoke after the presentation to staff members of a certificate of compliance and Clean Marina flag.

During the presentation, Jon White praised the team at Aqueduct for the amount of work they put in to gain the award, saying, “They have put a tremendous amount of time, effort and hard work, alongside some financial investment into gaining this award. When we first visited, we provided a report with an action plan, and they went away, committed to the plan and have delivered outstanding results.”

Jon White went on to say that gaining a Clean Marina Award is not a box-ticking exercise. “After the initial assessment, the marina is given an action plan, which may require some investment on their part, communications to berth holders or the introduction of new ways of working. They then have to provide evidence that they have committed to and fulfilled the plan and achieve an 80% score in each of the different components that make up the award.”

Robert Parton, Managing Director, Aqueduct Marina, said, “We are naturally delighted to achieve the new Clean Marina standard here at Aqueduct Marina. The inspection was rigorous, so we had to amend a few activities and embed some company policies, making the exercise a useful project. We are, without a doubt, a better and more environmentally aware marina as a result. Aqueduct Marina has, for some time, had an ongoing focus on reducing its environmental impact. We are delighted to win the accreditation and to be the first inland marina. Having already installed electric car charging, introduced greener products in the Chandlery and now offering HVO diesel, we aim to reduce our carbon footprint even more. And we’re pleased to say our customers are fully engaged and supporting the effort.”

The Clean Marina award was launched in 2021 to help marinas get the basics right such as blackwater capture and treatment, correctly managing segregated and hazardous waste, spill prevention and treatment, wash-down capture and filtration, drain interception, using sustainable products and preventing plastic pollution, and of course, influencing tenants, contractors and boaters to be more sustainable too. Initially launched in Australasia, the award has been gained by five coastal marinas, with a number of others currently looking to achieve the award.

April is usually seen as the start of the season for most people, and this year the team at Aqueduct began the 2022 season with an opportunity for people to come along and meet the team. The event gave visitors the chance to talk to a number of staff members and ask questions about moorings, maintenance and sales.

In preparation, marina staff undertook a spring clean to plant up the flower beds, spruce up areas that needed a lick of paint and even renovate the Elsan point! As a result of the spring clean, the marina was ready to welcome visitors with drinks and canapés.

The event saw good numbers of people participate and take the opportunity to discuss the coming season with staff in an informal setting. Phil Langley (Marina and Operations Director) led the event and said, “The Staff site maintenance day was a great success, giving all the team a chance to do something constructive and different around the marina; we also mixed people up, so we were not working with our normal colleagues, leading to some great inter-team bonding.”

Phil went on to say, “The meet the team day also had a positive impact on our customers who enjoyed seeing office staff out in their overalls. A couple of days later, this was followed by our meet the managers afternoon and marina customers social, which also saw a good-sized crowd attend. As a result, we booked in some extra work as well as gaining a couple of new moorers. It also allowed our existing customers to catch up with their fellow Aqueduct boaters while enjoying a glass of wine”.

These are just the first of a number of events planned throughout the 2022 season at the Church Minshull marina. Details of these will be posted on the marina’s website and social media channels.

MAINTENANCE DAY

MEET THE TEAM AFTERNOON

Aqueduct Marina are delighted to be able to publish our Spring 2022 newsletter.

We hope you enjoy reading our latest updates and news of the marina, here’s to a fantastic summer ahead! 

Click on the document below to view your copy of the Spring 2022 Newsletter.

Aqueduct Marina are proud to have been asked by the waterways and wellbeing charity Canal & River Trust to build a new boat in time for the Commonwealth Games in July in Birmingham. The new boat, which will be called Aquarius II, will replace the original craft Aquarius. Despite this being the name of the mythical water carrier, this boat will be used for something somewhat less glamorous but nonetheless important: to collect debris from the waterways in and around the Birmingham area during and after the games.

The engineers at Aqueduct are no strangers to building or refurbishing some of the Trust’s fleet of workboats and it is this experience, coupled with the unique skillset of the workshop team, that helped the Cheshire marina be awarded the contract.

Robert Parton, MD of Aqueduct Marina, said: “We are proud to be supporting the Trust in their program of bringing their workboat fleet up to modern standards, this one is more interesting with its connection to the Commonwealth Games this summer.”

Mick Carrington, Plant & Equipment Manager at Canal & River Trust, said: “Aquarius II is going to be another essential workboat for our fleet. It will be a vast improvement on the old craft, providing improved performance from its battery-powered electric propulsion drive, and the welfare provisions have been updated to provide 240-volt electrics and toilet facilities. The timely arrival of the new craft will ensure, with the help of the Trust’s dedicated volunteers, that Birmingham’s canals are looking their best as the city welcomes thousands of visitors for the Commonwealth Games. We have worked with Aqueduct Marina before and have been impressed by their operational capabilities and skilled engineers, and we are delighted to entrust them with the build.”

Aquarius is 35ft long and has battery-powered propulsion making it very environmentally friendly and quiet in operation.

The COVID pandemic halted many projects over the past two years, and those that did continue did so at a much-reduced pace. Such was the case at Aqueduct Marina when work began on an important project funded by the European Regional Development Fund just before the first lockdown.

Working with partners across the EU, Aqueduct and the Canal and River Trust embarked on constructing a workboat testbed to allow various power systems to be trialled in real-world situations. The projects aims are to reduce or eliminate the pollutants from conventional internal combustion engines. The objective is to achieve this by using Oxy-fuel combustion technology for diesel engines and capturing and storing all CO2 emissions. It is also hoped that as a result, fuel consumption could be reduced by up to 15%. The project’s goal is to design, develop, and integrate dedicated carbon capture and storage systems into inland waterway vessels, both commercial and leisure.

However, despite the test boat’s construction getting underway some time ago, work had to stop when lockdowns were imposed; even after lifting restrictions, progress has been slow due to supply chain issues. However, work on the project, including vessel adaptations, has commenced with a tilt test recently taking place at Aqueduct Marina.

As well as undertaking the practicalities of the preparatory work, progress has also been made on the funding and timeline of the remainder of the RIVERS project. Funding is now all in place to complete this project by December 2022. With that in mind, the team at Aqueduct are on track to complete the work on the boat by April 2022. This will then allow enough time to fit all of the testing equipment. This equipment has arrived at the workshops in Cheshire in preparation for installation onto the testbed boat.

 With the world’s attention focused on the COP26 conference over recent months, it is timely that this important work is underway once again. The hope is that it will help develop new modes of propulsion and the capture and storage of carbon and other damaging gasses. Hopefully, these developments will eventually see their way into mainstream use in the not too distant future.

*Featured in Towpath Talk

As 2021 came to an end, Aqueduct Marina’s MD, Robert Parton, reflected on a recent trip to Birmingham and the possible implications to boat owners if cities decide to take more action to combat air pollution.

 “Late last year, I attended a British Marine, Inland Boating seminar in central Birmingham where the attendees that arrived by car found themselves having to deal with the new central Clean Air Zone. At the moment, if you’ve arrived in Birmingham by boat, the clean air zone charges wouldn’t apply. As you might expect, the zone only applies to older diesel vehicles using city centre roads. The zone was finally introduced on 1st June last year after many delays. These vital changes that need to be put in place to combat climate change and improve air quality in many areas and will impact on us all in one way or another.”

 “With the recent COP26 conference in Glasgow bringing such matters to the forefront of our minds, the green agenda is being widely discussed and, as a result, the regulations stemming from it are making the issue increasingly real. So it was apt that the new zone came into effect this year.”

 “Although I travelled by train to the seminar, I noticed that the Clean Air Zone has Gas Street Basin within it and that, for now, the canal boats are unaffected. But the question is, how long will it be before canal boats also have to pay? Discussions with the city council well before the zone were put in place resulted in the spokesman saying that ‘they had no plans to charge boats on the canal within the zone.’ The feeling would seem to be that it would be too difficult to administer, but with boats using the Bridgewater canal being recorded from the first bridge, in an effort to stop overstayers, it makes you wonder if a similar arrangement could be put in place in the city centre?”

 “The reasoning behind the establishment of the Clean Air Zone in Birmingham is to reduce the pollution levels within the city centre. With this in mind, are boaters to expect restrictions on the use of stoves within the zone? A number of other areas have introduced restrictions on the use of stoves so, could Birmingham will follow suit?”

 “Moorings are another way of reducing pollution and emissions. Will the Canal and River Trust clamp down on the residential moorings, some of which have been blamed for the static running of engines to charge batteries? Local residents, too, have, in some locations, complained about the boaters using their stoves to keep warm. Restrictions on time limits or the implementation of local rules could tackle the problem?”

 “Currently, there is a lot of talk about the use of HVO fuel, derived from used vegetable oil and, if used correctly, can dramatically reduce the emissions from a boat’s engine. The IWA are supporting moves in this direction, and CRT is currently trialling its use in some of their workboats. We, at Aqueduct, are also looking into the possibility of offering it to boaters and using it ourselves on-site. Though if the use of HVO takes off and requires the cutting down of the rain forest to grow Palm oil to meet demand, rather than just using recycled oils, the environmental benefits will be very questionable.”

 “So the coming year looks interesting as more and more work is done to reduce the carbon footprint of the waterways, and we at Aqueduct Marina are keen to play our part so, keep an eye on our social media channels and website for news during 2022.”

Aqueduct Marina are delighted to be able to publish our Winter 2021 newsletter.

We hope you are still all well and keeping safe and have a brilliant Christmas with your family, friends, and boat of course!

Click on the document below to view your copy of the Winter 2021 Newsletter.

Aqueduct Marina are delighted to be able to publish our Autumn 2021 newsletter.

We hope you are still all well and keeping safe and have had a fantastic summer with your family, friends, and boat of course!

Even though the end of the season is looming, it is still extremely busy here and we are making lots of plans for next year. Watch this space!

Click on the document below to view your copy of the Autumn 2021 Newsletter.

A sunny late September Wednesday saw a hive of activity in Cheshire for The Yacht Harbour Association (TYHA) Marina event.

Overwater Marina and Aqueduct Marina came together to co-host the Midlands-based event that celebrated the TYHA Gold Anchor award scheme.

Attendees of the event spent the morning at the heart of the Shropshire Union Canal at Overwater Marina near Audlem. Guests enjoyed a tour of the Marina led by the marina owners Angus and Janet Maughan, with an exclusive viewing of their new touring caravan site and luxury glamping wagons, with a presentation from TB Electrics on their newly installed electric car charging points. This stimulated a group discussion on diversifying marina income and attracting new leisure customers.

The Aqueduct Marina team greeted over twenty guests including TYHA’s Jon White, Gold Anchor Assessor Tony Dwyer, and attendees from Wave International, Havenstar, Swanley, Walcon, Barrus, Savills and more.

A buffet networking lunch was followed by brief talks from Jon White on the newly launched Clean Marina programme and Tony Dye on the Certified Marina Managers course and training for staff.

A discussion on electric boats, alternative fuels and the future of sustainable boating was initiated by Phil James of Barrus while Darren North from Rolec highlighted his experience in electric car charging and the impact of boating on the marina infrastructure.

Aqueduct Marina MD and owner, Robert Parton commented on the day “We were delighted to be able to give the group a tour of our facilities including the service jetty, new chandlery and showcase what goes on in our busy workshops.

“I was especially pleased to be able to show everyone the steps we have made to be more environmentally aware and sustainable with our wash-bay feature that catches excess water and any debris coming from the boats.

“The day was a terrific opportunity to meet fellow gold anchor winning marinas and the supply chain businesses associated with our sector of the industry. Being onsite at both Overwater and our Marina gave us all the opportunity to showcase our USPs, raise more awareness for the Clean Marina scheme and nurture discussions on the future of clean, green propulsion.”

For all of your narrowboat needs, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by calling 01270 525040 or emailing info@aqueductmarina.co.uk.

We are delighted to be able to publish our Summer 2021 newsletter.

A lot has happened since our last newsletter, we hope you are all well and keeping safe through these strange times we have been living in for the last 18 months.

There are lots of exciting things happening at Aqueduct Marina and plenty of plans in the pipeline, so keep your eyes peeled!

Click on the document below to view your copy of the Summer 2021 Newsletter.

Just over a month ago, our MD Robert Parton visited Emsworth Marina. Robert is part of the British Marine board and often assesses some apprentices work at different marinas which was his reason for visiting.

During his visit, Robert got chatting to Jessie Wooden. Jessie is a member of the front-of-house office staff and can be found behind the desk, on the phone, or out on the yard lifting boats out of the water (there isn’t much that Jessie doesn’t get involved in!). Whilst Robert was there, Jessie expressed an interest in understanding how an inland marina works as opposed to a coastal marina, so what better way for her to learn than have her come and visit for a week?!

After a discussion with Jessie’s manager, a date was set for Jessie to travel from Emsworth to Nantwich (over 200 miles away and 3.5 hours!). Jessie arrived at Aqueduct on Sunday 20^th June and stayed over in a local hotel. It’s fair to say come Monday morning and once all of the Aqueduct staff had arrived, it was as if Jessie had been here forever.

Jessie started her week in the office with the Aqueduct team, learning our systems, CRM and seeing how our processes work. Then throughout the rest of the week, Jessie well and truly got stuck into all aspects of the role, especially on the yard! Jessie came armed with her steel-capped toe boots and her high vis vest ready to help with the gantry lift and all yard maintenance.  Although we didn’t manage to get her on the tractor moving any boats! A few of our team took Jessie out for a meal one evening and showed her the sights of Nantwich town, we think she fully enjoyed being a tourist in Cheshire!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Jessie for coming up and thank you for all your hard work. We will miss you and we hope to see you soon!

There are talks for a member of staff or 2 from Aqueduct to also go on a job swap down at Emsworth Marina, so watch this space!

For all of your narrowboat requirements and needs, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by calling 01270 525040 or filling in our online quote form.

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Church Minshull Aqueduct Marina
Church Minshull
Nantwich
Cheshire
CW5 6DX

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Opening Hours

The Marina is open:

Mon - Sat: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Cafe is open:

Mon - Fri: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
Sat - Sun: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm

The Chandlery is open:

Mon - Sat: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sun: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

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Tel: 01270 525040

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