Love Your Waterway

ON THE SPEY TO LONDON

Writer and musician Tom Kitching is spending six months aboard historic narrowboat Spey on London’s waterways. He tells us about the HVO-fuelled journey om Manchester and his initial thoughts on continuous cruising in the capital

All pictures by Jonathan Mosse.

How did the London project come about?

Before the fi rst lockdown in 2020 I wrote a book and an album called Seasons of Change, which is about my experience of busking around England for a year, and I wanted to carry on om that. The live music scene is still extremely volatile, so I’m focussing on the writing side of things and doing something that can continue throughout any changes in the pandemic.

I’m living on narrowboat Spey for six months, ge ing to know the waterways communi , ge ing to know London. The canals and rivers here are very contested for space – it’s almost separate om the rest of the UK network. By bringing the boat here and becoming part of the communi , I thought it would give me a lot of interesting things to write about.

Spey isn't a typical liveaboard craft, is it?

No, it’s an unconverted traditional working boat – a wooden-hulled oil tanker. People think it’s a restoration project but it has been maintained out of service and kept in good working order. My dad was one of a bunch of students who bought Spey in 1971, and he met my mum at the opening day rally for the Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port in 1976. I owe my life to this boat, in a way.

Fi years later, Spey is still owned by a group, a sort of syndicate. I’ve been lucky enough to take it for six months and I love living in the back cabin – it’s a great life. The accommodation is absolutely as it was when Spey was in service – it’s a traditional boatman’s cabin about 9 long by 6 6in wide.

Tom at the helm.

Tom set off in October with just 11 days to get to London.

Does Spey get a lot of attention on the cut?

On the broader network, the boat is something of a celebri – people line up to take huge numbers of photographs of it. In London, that just doesn’t happen. Spey is a very unusual old-fashioned boat and people haven’t really raised an eyebrow. There isn’t really a standard of what’s ‘normal’ in the capital, and I really like that.

Inset: The Bolinder engine works very well on HVO.

Crown Oil sponsored Tom's trip to London.

How was the journey down from Manchester?

We set off in October and, as we had to beat the winter stoppage at Denham Deep Lock, we had just 11 days to complete the journey. We were running 14-hour days, and it’s about the closest I’ll ever get to experiencing what it was like to work the boat up against tight deadlines.

You travelled on HVO fuel instead of diesel.

We were given 100 litres of HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) as part of IWA’s HVO trials over the summer to see whether it would work with a Bolinder engine. It was very successful. Crown Oil is keen to prove that HVO is the future so it sponsored the trip to London and sent me another 500 litres of fuel.

In my view – and I’m not saying this because of the sponsorship – HVO works considerably better with Spey’s onecylinder Bolinder engine, which predates diesel. It’s a green fuel with about 90% less carbon than diesel and it makes a fraction of the smoke and particulates. It’s also more efficient and runs better when the engine is cold, which is of huge benefit to me over the winter.

Are you able to source HVO in London?

I won’t go back to diesel now if I can avoid it. I’ve still got a bit of HVO left and when I need more I can use the local Crown Oil supplier in London which will bring some out to me at a suitable loading point. At the moment the minimum order is 500 litres, which would be too much for most boaters unless several got together, but Spey has such a huge fuel tank that it could take the lot.

What are your initial thoughts on living aboard in the capital?

The waterways community is so vibrant in London and it’s very supportive – everyone looks out for each other. Whenever a boat turns up in need of a hand, there’s always someone there to help. There’s a great camaraderie here – I’m not saying you don’t get that elsewhere but it’s especially apparent in London. I’ve not heard even a cross word between boaters here yet, which is very impressive.

However, there seems to be a big divide and a lack of mutual trust between the boating community and the Canal & River Trust, which is of great concern to me. A lot of boaters feel like they’re barely tolerated by CRT, or that they’re certainly not encouraged to be here and they’re using the canals wrong in some way. I’m still getting into that but it’s very interesting. Also, in certain areas there’s tension between the people on the waterways and the communities the waterways go through.

What about boater facilities?

It’s very crowded here and there’s enormous pressure on what boater facilities there are. Often they break down and CRT removes them, citing damage as the reason. But really there’s just a massive undersupply that’s getting worse. In London the waterways are now effectively a big floating housing estate, but it’s not being managed as such. It’s got a bit out of control, or out of the control of CRT, which is constantly being forced to act a bit like a housing authority but doesn’t have the powers or experience it needs. Perhaps that comes from above and the Government hasn’t mandated CRT with the power to look after the waterways in a way that’s relevant to how they’re now being used, so I don’t blame CRT.

Plenty of help for the journey.

Does London need a separate navigation authority?

It’s not that simple as we have to think about what the waterways are becoming. I reckon what’s happening in London is going to expand to the rest of the network in the next ten years. All major cities are going to see hundreds, if not thousands, of liveaboards, all shuffling around according to the very archaic continuous cruising rules, putting pressure on facilities and increasing conflict between the different canal and river user groups. It’s already happening on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

It’s a reflection of the broader housing crisis but even if CRT knew how to deal with the additional numbers of boats, it’s powerless to act at the moment and can’t raise enough money to service the waterways communities properly.

Will you be writing a book about your experiences in London?

Yes, there will definitely be a book and there may well be some music as well. At the moment I’m blogging as I go, so if I get anything wrong or people want to draw my attention to something, they can get in touch and I can edit things before it gets set down in the book. I’ll also be writing a report for CRT. I volunteer on its mooring subcommittee, so I do bring all these things up with the organisation and I can see the frustration from its point of view too.