Good weekend at Pillings

THE sun shined, the people came and the On the Water Weekend at Pilling's Lock Marina on the Soar was nothing short of a resounding success, Paul Lillie writes.

 

Over the three days we carried over 1,000 boat trippers on our free boat rides, out along the canal outside the Marina & a few hundred yards into the Soar. This was a feat that would not have been possible without our fleet of four day-boats and our team of volunteer berth holders who skippered the majority of the boat trips.

Never been before

I know on the handful of trips I skippered there were passengers who had not been to a marina before and some had never been on the rivers or canals before so it is great to engage with these people and show them how wonderful the waterways are, what facilities are available and who can help them experience it all.

Our open boat viewings attracted lots of interest too with a few tentative enquiries coming in each day and lots of positive feedback. Viewings were also helped by our volunteer berth holders who are the perfect example of who to talk to if you want to own a boat.

It was also interesting that a few people selling boats in the local area saw how busy we were and have subsequently brought their boats here for us to broker the vessels.

The bands played

The bands played on Sunday and Monday afternoons and the beer flowed well into the evenings. A Hog was roasted and a barbecue emptied all our fridges!

A huge thank you to all who made the event such a massive success and if you are a marina that didn't take part this year shame on you! Get yourself organised for 2015, this is where our future business is coming from.