President, ably supported by Hazel Valley, had arrived at Middlewich on Friday 16th June. We arrived early on Saturday morning to join the ‘delivery crew’ – great to meet up with old ‘shipmates’ we hadn’t seen for a while. Dave Powell, Nick Haynes and Richard Burke set off for pastures south, comfortable beds and clean clothes leaving the pristine new ‘boys’ in place.

The Middlewich Festival is always a very friendly event to visit with the boats and 2006 was no exception. The mooring was at Kings Lock, opposite the Pub and across the road from the Fish & Chip shop – what more could you ask for?

We spent the weekend, in sunshine and extreme heat, chatting to passers by about the history of President and Kildare, selling raffle tickets and horse brasses, recruiting members and receiving donations. We certainly had a lot of visitors aboard President. One 91 year old was particularly delighted to be allowed in the engine ‘ole. Ron was interviewed by Granada TV for 'Locks and Quays' - to be broadcast early in 2007. David Moore and Corinne developed a wonderful technique for selling raffle tickets. By the end of the weekend we had almost £155 in the tin as a result!

Spotted in the Festival Programme…..a ‘Tidiest Engine Room Competition’. Babs and Dave Speer were determined to have a go at that and President was duly entered and much effort put into achieving a sparkling engine ‘ole. I’m not sure how many actual entries there were for the competition, but President was unquestionably the winner! Now there’s a first. I can’t tell you what the prize was either! We left on Sunday evening, when I handed the Captaincy over to Dave Speer for the trip to Ellesmere Boat Museum, and at that point their prize hadn’t been presented. If they drank it on the way to Ellesmere Port I hope it wasn’t engine oil!!

It was great to be part of the team again – if briefly. Many thanks to Dave Speer for the use of Hazel Valley as a crew boat - and many thanks to the crew for such a superb weekend.

Ron Spencer – Captain