What Our Customers and Press Think

NEWS

RYA Chief Executive is the first to try out Willow Wren Training’s new narrowboat.

The Chief Executive of the RYA, Sarah Treseder, was the first delegate to try out Willow Wren Training’s new training boat on the 1^st July 2011 at Rugby when she successfully passed her Inland Waterways Helmsman’s Course.

The purpose built narrowboat, “Peggy”, was completed in June having been fitted out by Rose Narrowboats using a shell made by Dave Thomas at Braunston. This is a bit of history in the making. This narrowboat is the very last shell to be made by Dave Thomas after thirty years in the business. Dave will continue to repair boats but will not make any more full shells after this one.

The course for Sarah Treseder was carried out in a joint operation by Steve Vaughan of WWT and Samantha Clarke of Canalboat Training in response to the RYA Chief Executive’s request to get to know the Inland Waterways more. It was a coincidence that the request lined up nicely with the new training boat being ready for operation.

PRESS

Over the years Willow Wren Training has been written about many times but we only list one that was published in 2009 from Canal Boat magazine

It was written by the Editor, Nick Wall and is a very interesting feature about river cruising which used to be on board a cruiser during the second day of a two day course . Click here to download the article. We now run a separate River Skills Day at the same location but on board a 46ft narrowboat.

CUSTOMERS

Willow Wren Training has introduce many thousands of boaters to better and safer boating.

These are just some of the genuine comments taken from customer feedback forms in 2010....

You ask for comments on your service. All I can say is "keep it up". The administration was impeccable, (thank you Izzie). The tuition was spot on, both in content and manner, (thank you Steve). The boat was a privilege to use (thank you both).

We were welcomed with a smile and made to feel welcome throughout the course. Nigel was very friendly and approachable as was Steve. I would quite happily recommend this training centre to other people.

The course was really good. Steve was very friendly and understanding of our aims and experience and pushed us just far enough that we learned new things and tried stuff that we didn't expect to be able to do. Thank you.

Andy has a really relaxed and unflappable attitude to teaching which made for a great days training and I learned a great deal.

Excellent, will recommend to anyone.

A very good one day course with a lot of hands on instruction. The instructor, (Steve), and his teaching regimen were excellent.

Very worthwhile for me as a newcomer to boating. I was made to feel quite relaxed and have gained a lot of confidence in using my boat. I would certainly recommend Willow Wren to anyone who is lacking proficiency on a narrowboat.

Thoroughly enjoyed the day. Did not expect to be on the boat "doing the job" - it was the best learning experience - above expectation.

Very enjoyable day. The trainer was calm, considerate and patient!

These comments have been reproduced exactly as they were written.