7 minute read
Love Your Waterways
WOMEN'S WRITES
London liveaboard Tilly Bungard tells IWA why she felt compelled to launch a magazine championing female and nonbinary boat folk
We hear you have boating in your blood...
Yes, my dad set up the Bristol Ferry Boats company in the 1970s, and he met my mum when she was living on a narrowboat in the city. They brought a Dutch barge over from Amsterdam together and I was born on that. When I started crawling they worried about me potentially falling overboard, so we moved to a house in Gloucestershire. We emigrated to Spain when I was seven years old and stayed there until I was 15. In that time my parents were still part-shareholders in the ferry company, until it folded in 2016. At that point we moved back to Bristol and, with lots of friends of the Bristol Ferry Boats company, we managed to resurrect it as a community benefit project. My parents bought another barge from Amsterdam and I lived on that during sixth form and worked on the ferries in my holidays. It was quite an idyllic time. Everyone who works on those boats feels like family.
Tilly’s mum was a single female liveaboard herself in the 1970s.
Tilly’s dad set up Bristol Ferry Boats in the 1970s. At the helm of her narrowboat en route to London.
When did you decide to buy your own boat?
When I graduated from uni in London I met a few female boaters through Sisters Uncut, which campaigns against cuts to domestic violence services. After chatting to them, moving onto a boat felt like the natural thing to do. It was always something I’d wanted to do, but for some reason I thought I’d need a man to move in with. Talking to these women, most of whom lived aboard alone, and hearing how many opted to move around the city together in groups, gave me the confidence to buy my own boat at last.
That happened 2½ years ago. I bought a 45ft narrowboat in Oxford and took it to Bristol on the back of a lorry to do some work on the hull. We repainted it at the same time – yellow and bright pink. In total I spent about £6,000 tarting it up, before cruising to London.
What gave you the idea for a magazine for female boaters?
I was mainly inspired by all the creative people I’ve met on a Facebook group specifically for London boatwomen. I asked if anyone on there fancied making a magazine with me and the reaction was great. We had our first meeting in the Waterstones café in Piccadilly. About 15 people turned up, all with such a breadth of experience including editors of really glossy magazines, graphic designers etc. It was amazing.
What then happened was that the subsequent meeting only attracted two people... I suppose it’s normal to get really excited about a new project without quite realising what a commitment it might be. I’m guilty of that too. In fact, this magazine feels like one of the first projects I’ve been able to see through to the end. I think that’s only because I’ve involved other people, and don’t want to let anyone down.
The core group was myself, an interior designer called Asha Mehr (who has since moved off her boat and now lives in Folkestone), and Estelle Morris, who runs a printing studio in Hackney Wick called Duplikat Press. It turned out so much more manageable with just the three of us than the initial 15. And from start to finish it has been boatwomen-led, which feels right.
We had a GoFundMe campaign in March 2019, which was really successful, and launched our first issue a year later.
Who came up with the title, Fear Naut?
Why did you feel the waterways needed a publication aimed solely at women?
There’s so much creativi on the canals that maybe isn’t ge ing the a ention or nurture it deserves, o en because living on a boat is a part-time job in itself. I’m always talking to iends who live in houses who have creative side projects on the go, or who have managed to make it a full-time concern. But it feels so di cult to fi nd the time to do that while living on a boat. So much of your ee time is taken up with chores and moving.
Another motivation was because people seem so interested in boat life at the moment. Something we really didn’t want to do was to sell boat life as an idyll, which we feel happens a lot right now in mainstream media. They present a very rose-tinted version of canal life. What we wanted to do with the magazine was make clear that there are certain aspects that are actually quite hard. We carried an article in the fi rst issue, for example, on juggling the complexities of the school run as a continuous cruiser. But at the same time this was balanced by a feature on how living aboard had positively a ected one woman’s mental health. We want to give the whole picture so readers can make up their own minds before leaping into a boat purchase. So many people I’ve met have only lasted about six months afl oat before moving o , because they’re weren’t necessarily prepared for the challenges.
Who is the magazine aimed at? People on boats already, or those looking to make the leap?
To date, readers who have got the most om the magazine have been other boatwomen, because they see a refl ection of their own experiences and feel more connected with the boating communi .
Before we made it, we had an idea about the di erent sorts of people who would be interested in Fear Naut – environmentalists, people exploring alternative ways of living – and there are defi nitely readers who aren’t boaters, but the core audience is really liveaboards. It’s driven by the submissions we have om the people who are part of that communi , rather than being made for an outside eye.
How can we attract more women to the waterways? Is there a perception that it's too unsafe, for instance, or too difficult?
Yes, crime is something that comes up a lot on social media posts about boating as a lone female. Although it’s a concern wherever you live in the ci , I suppose because towpaths are generally darker and less busy they can feel more dangerous. But the thing I always tell people is that if you’re walking down a towpath you can count on 90% of boaters moored on that stretch to help you if needed. You could knock on their boat and will likely be let in, in a way I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing on a residential street.
I think women just need to fi nd out more about the lifes le. And if they’re not confi dent about the maintenance side of boat-ownership, I would reassure them that it’s usually easy to fi nd someone close by who can help or, failing that, pay someone to do it for you. You only need to learn as much as you feel happy learning. And if you do want to do it yourself, there are so many people willing to show you. On the London Facebook group there are currently a series of winter workshops, for instance, including on how to keep your boat warm and your ba eries healthy. I haven’t yet met a boatwoman who wasn’t surprised by the amount she could do, in terms of maintenance, when she put her hand to it.
What are your plans for the magazine for the year ahead?
Issue Two is now published and we’ve increased the print run as we’re really hoping to fi nd more stockists this year. And then in late spring or early summer we’ll be releasing our third issue, on the theme of ‘growth’. We’re hoping to make the magazine biannual. The fi rst issue took us a year. Issue Two took us about six months, so that feels very doable to me.
Tilly and her parents celebrate a new beginning for Bristol Ferry Boats in 2016.
Tilly, dressed to match her boat, on her way to work in 2019.
Tilly bought her 45ft narrowboat 2½ years ago.
Find out more
Fear Naut is an artisanal, limited-run, risograph-printed magazine. No two copies are 100% alike. It includes essays, artwork, photography, creative writing, cra s Issue One of Fear Naut launched in spring 2020. and more, all produced and more, all produced by women and non-binary boat folk. by women and non-binary boat folk.
Buy a copy online at duplikat.co.uk/shop for £10, or download a digital issue for £3. Find out more on Instagram: @fear_naut_magazine.
