Take a trip in historic Baden Powell boat

King’s Lynn’s historic fishing boat the Baden Powell is now available to take passengers up and down the river and sometimes out to The Wash.

There are also chartering opportunities for up to eight people.

Available is a brochure which will be given to all passengers on the Baden Powell so they can identify what they see of the Lynn waterfront as they sail by on the River Great Ouse.

It includes a short history of how the river influenced the growth of the town from the 12th century, brief histories of buildings close to the river, plus information about the ‘fleets’ that feed the Gaywood River into the Great Ouse.

Fishing has always been an important industry for the town – in The Wash, the North Sea, and even further north to the Arctic in the 18th century when whales were brought back to the River Nar.

Boatbuilding also had a long Lynn tradition until the likes of steel and electricity emerged and dominated.

Baden Powell is a wooden boat built in Lynn – first by Walter Worfolk in 1900 then, after more than a century, rebuilt by volunteers of the King’s Lynn Worfolk Boat Trust.

The original Baden Powell fished in The Wash for about 80 years. Her speciality was fishing for cockles – going out on the tide with a man and boy crew , finding a sandbank, sitting there while the tide fell, digging up the cockles into sacks, then returning to Lynn when there was enough incoming tide. It was done by sail until a diesel engine was installed in the 1930s.

Traditional materials and methods have been used in the rebuild, with modern assistance from electric tools.

Sailing in this traditional boat makes passengers a Friend of the Baden Powell, who will receive newsletters and updates from the website www .floatourboat.co.uk

Times of trips and booking information are detailed on the Worfolk Boat Trust website (www.floatourboat.co.uk/book- trips).

Times are dictated by high tide times, crew availability and weather.